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From: <>
Subject: Re: David Gam details
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1998 09:37:15 -0400

-----Original Message-----
From: Pamela Troester <>
To: <>
Date: Saturday, September 26, 1998 5:52 PM
Subject: David Gam details

>I have found that I really have little info on David Gam and would
like
>details such as his birthdate, deathdate, spouses name, etc. I know
that my
>husband descends of the line and am interested to know if anyone has
info
>previously to David Gam?
>

Born ABT 1365, Bredwardine, Herefordshire, England.

Died Agincourt Field, 10/25/1415

Married Gwenlian Howel

Gam, David d. 1415, Welsh warrior, is more properly styled Davydd ab
Llewelyn. Gam is a nickname meaning squinting, which, like other
Welsh nicknames, became equivalent to a surname. David's father was
Llewelyn, the son of Hywel, the son of Eineon Sais. Llewelyn possessed
fair estates in the parishes of Garthbrengy and Llanddew, which lay
within the honour
or lordship of Brecon, a dependency of the earldom of Hereford, and
after 1399 lapsed to the crown by the accession of Henry IV, who had
long enjoyed that earldom. Peytyn was the name of Llewelyn's chief
residence. David is described in a verse attributed to Owain Glyndwr
as a short red-haired man with a squint. He was faithful to his lord,
Henry IV, even during the revolt of Owain [see Glendower, Owen]. He
was rewarded for his services by a large share in the South Welsh
lands confiscated from rebels in 1401 (Wylie, Hist. of Henry IV, p.
245). There is a story that David plotted against the life of Owain
when attending the Welsh parliament at Machynlleth. But it rests on no
early authority, misdates the year of the Machynlleth parliament, and
wrongly makes David a brother-in-law of Owain. There seems nothing to
show that David ever wavered in his allegiance.
David was taken prisoner by Owain, probably at a time when Owain's
successes were very few. On 14 June 1412 David's father, Llewelyn ab
Hywel, and the seneschal and receiver of Brecon were empowered to
treat with Owain, and by ransom or by capturing rebel prisoners to
extricate David from his rigorous imprisonment (Federa, viii. 753).
It is said that David soon after got into trouble by killing a kinsman
in an affray in Brecon town. In 1415 David, accompanied by three foot
archers only, followed Henry V on his invasion of France (Nicolas,
Battle of Agincourt, p. 379). It is reported that when, on the eve of
the battle of Agincourt, he was questioned by the king as to the
number of the enemy, he replied that there were enough to be slain,
enough to be taken prisoners, and enough to run away. The story,
however, first appears in Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World
(p. 451). David was slain at the battle of Agincourt, which was fought
on 25 Oct. 1415. The contemporary chroniclers who notice his death
simply describe him as an esquire (Walsingham, ii. 313; cf.
Chronicles
of London, quoted in Nicolas, pp. 279-80). There is a tradition that
he was knighted for his valour when dying on the field of battle, and
the fact that one chronicler says that two recently dubbed knights
were slain (Gesta Henrici Quinti, p. 58, Engl. Hist. Soc.) is thought
to bear out the story. But one writer at least mentions both the two
knights and David Gam (Nicolas, p. 280). Lewis Glyn Cothi, a Welsh
poet of the next generation, who celebrated the praises of David's
children and grandchildren, regularly speaks of him, however, as Syr
Davydd Gam (Gwaith, pp. 1, 8). It has been suggested that David is
the original of Shakespeare's Fluellen. This is not at all an
improbable conjecture, as Fluellen is plainly a corruption of
Llewelyn, and David was generally called David Llewelyn, or ab
Llewelyn. The reference to him in Raleigh shows also that his name was
familiar to the age of Elizabeth.

David is said to have married Gwenllian, daughter of Gwilym, son of
Hywel Grach. He left a family. His son Morgan became the ancestor of
the Games of Breconshire. His daughter Gwladus was by her second
husband, Sir William ab Thomas of Raglan, the mother of William, the
first Herbert Earl of Pembroke.

Sources Besides authorities quoted in the text the biography of Gam in
Theophilus Jones's Hist. of Breconshire, i. 160-1, ii. 156-69, with
pedigrees; the pedigrees in Lewys Dwnn's Heraldic Visitation of Wales
(Welsh MSS. Society); Gwaith Lewis Glyn Cothi; Sir Harris Nicolas's
Battle of Agincourt; Tyler's Hist. of Henry V. published 1889

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