Youngblood-Armstrong & Allied Families

CHAPTER 15

The Johnes family is an ancient one. According to Burkes Landed Gentry, "the name came from the Cumbro-British hero, Orien Reged, who is stated to have been fifth in descent from Coel Godebog, monarch of Briton and whose valorous exploits and those of his sons, have been celebrated by the bards, Taliessin and Llywarch Hen. Orien or Urien was Prince of Reged, now county Dumbarton; Godeu, now Cadzow, or the middle ward of county Lanark; Catreath, or county Linlithgow; and the district of the Lennox, now in county Dumbarton, in the life time of Arthur, who was slain in the battle of Camlan, 537, where also his opponent, Urien's nephew, Medrod ap Llew, perished. Urien eventually, with his sons and followers, migrated to South Wales, where he became Lord of Kidwelly, Carnwyllion, Iscennin etc. By his wife, Margaret la Fayemdau, of Gwrleis Prince of Cornwall, and sister of King Arthur, was ancestor of Sir. Elydyr Ddu, Knight of the Holy Sepulchre, temp, Richard I. whose great grandson, Gryffydd ap Nicholas ap Philip ap Sir Elydyr Ddu was a great patron of the bardic literature of his day and country, as have been his successors; and by his first wife, Mably, daughter of Maredudd ap Henry Dwn, or Donn, of Kidwelly, had with other children, Thomas ap Gryffydd, who by his 1st wife, Elinor (or Elizabeth, according to the Dale Castle MS) daughter and heir of Sir John Griffith, of Llansadwrn and Abermarlais, had with others, Sir Rhys ap Thomas K. G.

John ap Thomas of Abermarlais, m. Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Vaughn, of Bredwardine and had a son, Sir Thomas Johnes, Knt of Abermarlais and Haroldson, in county Pembroke; 1st Knight of the Shire for that county and Sheriff of counties Carmarthen and Cardigan in 1541 and 1544. He married Mary, daughter and heir of Hon. Sir James Berkley, 2nd son of Maurice, 8th Lord Berkeley, and widow of Sir Thomas Perrott, of Harold ston, and by her had four sons and three daughters."

Very early in the seventeenth century, men by the name of Johns came to this country.

Richard Johns settled in Maryland and according to history became a man of great influence in his Society of Friends, as well as a member of the state legislature.

In Virginia was found John Johns, of London, and his brother Jack Robert Johns, in 1640, while in Charleston, S. C. was John Johns, formerly of London, who on Oct. 8, 1699, wrote a codicil to his will which he had previously written in England.

Many records are found of members of the Johns family, from

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