John Gwynneth (or Guinete) (fl. 1511–1557), was a clergyman of Welsh nationality originating from Gwynedd, and was a composer of religious and liturgical vocal music for which he was awarded a doctorate in the University of Oxford.J.P.D. Cooper, 'Gwynneth [Gwynedd], John (d. 1560x63), composer and polemicist', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004). He held benefices in England in Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire and London, and in North Wales at Clynnog Fawr.C.F. Mayer and T.B. Walters, The Correspondence of Reginald Pole. 4: A Biographical Companion: the British Isles, St Andrews Studies in Medieval History (Ashgate, Aldershot 2008), pp. 235, 236 (Google). Although he was a polemicist for the Catholic faith, he maintained his ministry through the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary I, and was brother-in-law and executor of Stephen Vaughan (a supporter of the English Reformation). He is principally remembered, from the age of Thomas Tallis, as one of the other exponents of early Tudor period polyphony.
Young life Origins and education John Gwynneth was the son of Dafydd ap Llewelyn ap Ithel of Castellmarch, Llanengan, Llŷn, Caernarfonshire:According to Arthur Bulkeley, Dafydd was brother to Robert ap Llewelyn ap Ithel of Castellmarch, ancestor of Sir William Jones, knight (1566–1640). The relationship is explained by Professor A.H. Dodd, 'Jones, Sir William (1566–1640), judge',Y Bywgraffiadur Cymreig (1959), online. it was claimed that he was of the Welsh royal blood.Dom A. Hamilton, O.S.B. (ed.), The Chronicle of the English Augustinian Canonesses Regular of the Lateran, at St. Monica's in Louvain, 1548–1625, 2 vols (Sands & Co., Edinburgh/London 1904), I, p. 81 (Internet Archive). Anthony à Wood remarks that he had great natural abilities but little or nothing to support him in his studies at Oxford University. He was therefore sponsored by a churchman ("an ecclesiastical Mecænas") who hoped that he would become a useful writer against the opponents of Roman Catholicism. Wood adds that in his youth he was well versed in polite literature, and later familiarized himself with the writings and arguments for and against the doctrines of Luther and Zwingli.A. à Wood, ed. P. Bliss, Athenae Oxonienses, with the Fasti, 3rd Edition with additions, 3 vols (F.C. & J. Rivington, etc., London/Oxford 1813–1817), I, pp. 246-48 (Internet Archive).
However there is no record that he completed a bachelor's degree. From his declaration to the university made in 1531 (below), it appears that from around 1510 he was active in the composition and theory of polyphonic music. Since he became a secular priest, this experience was perhaps gained in Oxford and then or thereafter as a secular chaplain attached to a religious house possessing a choir, though he did not enter a formal order. In 1522, a clerk, he was owed £18 (an old debt) by the Abbey of St Albans.29 September 1522, item 2583, 'St Albans', in J.S. Brewer (ed.), Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Vol. 3: 1519–1523 (HMSO London, 1867), pp. 1084–1101, at p. 1098 (British History Online). When still an acolyte he was collated, apparently by the Cluniac priory of St Andrew, Northampton,For which see 'Houses of Cluniac monks: The priory of St Andrew, Northampton', in R.M. Serjeantson and W.R.D. Adkins (eds), A History of the County of Northampton, Vol. 2 (VCH/HMSO London, 1906), pp. 102-09 (British History Online). to the benefice of Stuchbury or Stotesbury (near Sulgrave), Northamptonshire in December 1528, which he held until his death.G. Baker, The History and Antiquities of the County of Northampton (John Bowyer Nichols, London 1822–1830), I, p. 691 (Internet Archive). Stuchbury was attached to the College of All Hallows, Northampton,J. Caley (ed.), Valor Ecclesiasticus Temp. Henry VIII, IV (Commissioners, 1821), p. 320 (Google). which had an important medieval choir.
Musical composer John Gwynneth is particularly noteworthy as an early Tudor composer of music.W.H. Grattan Flood, Early Tudor Composers (Oxford University Press/Humphrey Milford, London 1925), pp. 108-10. By December 1531 he had achieved a remarkable output, at which time he made a formal approach to the University of Oxford: "John Gwynneth a secular priest, who had spent twelve years in the praxis and theory of music, and had composed all the responses of the whole year in division-song,I.e. polyphony, "in cantis chrispis aut fractis, ut aiunt", S. Harper, Music in Welsh Culture before 1650: a Study of the Principal Sources (Ashgate 2007/Routledge, London and New York 2016), pp. 283-84 (Google). and had published many masses in the said song, supplicated that these his labours might enable him to be admitted to the praxis of music. This being granted conditionally that he compose one mass against the act following, he supplicated again that whereas he had spent 20 years in the praxis and theory of music, and had published three masses of five parts, and five masses of four, as also certain symphonas, antiphonas, and divers songs for the use of the church, he might be admitted to proceed in the faculty of music; which desire of his being granted, conditionally that he pay to the university, on the day of his admission, 20 pence, he was forthwith licensed to proceed."A. à Wood, ed. P. Bliss, Fasti Oxonienses, or Annals of the University of Oxford, New Edition, Part I: 1500–1640, (F.C. & J. Rivington etc, London 1815), p. 86 (Google)
Thus he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Music.C.W. Boase, Register of the University of Oxford Vol. I: 1449–63; 1505–71 (Oxford Historical Society/Clarendon Press, Oxford 1885), p. 167 (Internet Archive) He was one of the composers whose work was included in the collection printed in 1530, called the "Book of XX Songes",See an introduction in J. Milsom, 'Songs and Society in Early Tudor London', in I. Fenlon (ed.), Early Music History, Vol. 17, Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Music (Cambridge University Press 1997), pp. 282-85. of which only the volume of bass lines (Bassus) survives.'My Love mourneth' (commencing 'And I mankynd') in Book of XX Songes (1530), "Bassus", fols 30v to 34v (Royal Holloway digital). Text in E. Rickert, Ancient English Christmas Carols, 1400 to 1700 (Chatto & Windus, London 1910), pp. 140-42, 156 (Internet Archive). Thomas Morley, in his Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke (1597), lists "Io. Guinneth" among the English practitioners whose works he has diligently perused, for finding the true use of the Moods.T. Morley, A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke set downe in forme of a Dialogue (Peter Short, London 1597), List of Authorities (Umich/eebo – Open).
Family connections John Gwynneth's sister Margaret was firstly the wife of Edward Awpart (AlporteNo doubt a representative of the Alport family of Cannock, Staffordshire.), citizen and Girdler of London in the parish of St Mary le Bow, who originated from Penkridge in Staffordshire. In 1524 Awpart took the lease on premises called "The Three Leggs" in St Mary le Bow from St Bartholomew's Priory.D.J. Keene and V. Harding, 'St. Mary le Bow 104/32', in Historical Gazetteer of London Before the Great Fire, Cheapside; Parishes of All Hallows Honey Lane, St Martin Pomary, St Mary Le Bow, St Mary Colechurch and St Pancras Soper Lane (Centre for Metropolitan History, London 1987), pp. 346-50, after note 6 (British History Online). The Awparts had five children, Elizabeth, Anne, Joan, Edward and Susan, who were all unmarried at the time of their father's death in 1532. By his will dated 24 June 1532 Awpart, who mentions a debt to his hostess at the "Viniarde in Andwarpe", appointed his widow and "Sir" John Gwynneth"Sir" is a usual title for a secular priest at this date, not denoting knighthood. his executors, making a gift of £6.13s.4d to John, and both were sworn to probate (John in person, Margaret by attorney) on 6 July 1532. In this will Awpart refers to his wife's mother by the name Joan White.Will of Edward Awpart, "Girdler" (mis-written "Gardener" in Discovery Catalogue of TNA (UK)) of London (P.C.C. 1532, Thower quire, m/film imgs 237-38): PROB 11/24/211 and PROB 11/24/220."White" is the English counterpart of the Welsh name "Gwyn". He appointed Thomas Marbury, Haberdasher, as Overseer, who in the same year, as executor to John Maltby, ran into difficulties with the Mercers' Company.A.F. Sutton, The Mercery of London: Trade, Goods and People, 1130–1578 (Ashgate, 2005/Routledge, Abingdon 2016), pt. 495 (Google).
Margaret Gwynneth then (by 1533) re-married to Stephen Vaughan, Governor of the Merchant Adventurers (1534) and royal agent and secretary in Antwerp. Vaughan in 1536 assumed the lease on "The Three Leggs", and, following the priory's dissolution, in 1540 it was granted by the Crown to him and Margaret for life, and in remainder to their male issue.Keene and Harding, Historical Gazetteer, pp. 346-50 at notes 6-10 (British History Online).'379. Grants in December 1540, no. 44', in J. Gairdner and R.H. Brodie (eds), Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Vol. 16: 1540–1541 (HMSO, London 1898), pp. 175-76 (British History Online). Vaughan's sister Mawdlyn was the wife of the London Grocer William Pratt, after whose death in 1539Will of William Pratt, Grocer of London (P.C.C. 1539, Dyngeley quire). Not to be confused with the Draper of the same name and similar date. she married Pratt's well-travelled apprentice Thomas Lodge. Vaughan, who could call upon the help of Thomas Cromwell, found a place at Court for his wife Margaret as silkwoman in service to Anne Boleyn.R.M. Warnicke, The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family Politics at the Court of Henry VIII (Cambridge University Press 1991), p. 136 (Google).S.M. Felch (ed.), The Collected Works of Anne Vaughan Lock, Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies in conjunction with Renaissance English Text Society (Tempe, AZ, 1999), pp. xxv–xxvi. With him she had further children (Anne, Stephen and Jane), dying in 1544.M.K. Dale, 'Vaughan, Stephen (by 1502–49), of St. Mary-le-Bow, London', in S.T. Bindoff (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509–1558 (from Boydell and Brewer, 1982), History of Parliament online. Marbury died in 1545,Will of Thomas Merbury, haberdasher (P.C.C. 1545, Pynnyng quire). leaving John Gwynneth with sole responsibility to administer the Awpart estate.
Opportunity and controversy Stoke sub Hamdon, and Luton – writing against Frith