Eubule Thelwall

Eubule Thelwall with brothers on their father's memorial at Llanrhudd Church, Ruthin – known locally as the "Thelwall's Church"

Eubule Thelwall (1622 – 4 February 1694)

Sir Eubule Thelwall (c. 1557 – 8 October 1630), Principal of Jesus College, Oxford was his great-uncle.

Career Thelwall entered Gray's Inn in 1635 and appears to have worked in the law and lived mainly in London; much of his property was destroyed by the Great Fire of London of 1666 and by 1662 he was back in the Vale of Clwyd. Deeds of the Nantclwyd Estate shows that he bought land to add to this estate in the 1660s.

He was stewart to the lordship of Ruthin until 1677 and in 1670 became chief steward of the manors and land of the Bishop of St Asaph in Flintshire and Denbighshire, and Vice-Chamberlain of the Palatinate of Chester.

His will mentions that he gave up his legal practice because of deafness.

Nantclwyd Estate Thelwall built the earliest surviving parts of Nantclwyd Hall and extended the estate. He also added greatly to Nantclwyd y Dre giving the front of the house much of its present appearance including the projecting North-East range and the rear parlour range. He lived at this house from around 1688 when his son (also named Eubule) took over the main Nantclwyd estate. When the son died in 1713 the male line of the Thelwalls of Nantclwyd ended and the main estate at Llanelidan passed on to his daughter Martha and Nantclwyd y Dre to his youngest daughter Mary.

Memorial A monument was erected in his memory by his devoted widow which lists his eleven children, of whom six died before him. Eubule junior succeeded him in 1695 and became High Sheriff of Denbighshire in 1702; like his father, he was a sober and devout man.

The family The family had come to Ruthin from the Thelwall area of Cheshire. Most were lawyers and spoke Welsh; indeed it is known that many employed a family poet as was traditionally for wealthy families in Wales. For example, the poet Simwnt Fychan was employed by Simon Thelwall the judge at Plas y Ward.