18, 226–7, xiii. 132–5; see also Philosophical Transactions, No. 208, p. 48). Camden acknowledges Owen's assistance, and speaks of him as ‘venerandæ antiquitatis cultor eximius,’ and Dineley, in the ‘Beaufort Progress,’ ed. 1888 (p. 256), where a drawing of Owen's arms is exhibited, refers to him as ‘a singular lover and industrious collector of antiquities.’
Owen was twice married: first, about 1573, to Elizabeth, daughter and coheiress of William Philipps of Picton, in Pembrokeshire, by whom he had ten children, the eldest son being Alban Owen, who succeeded his father as lord of Kemes in 1608, and took a prominent part in county affairs during the civil wars (Laws, Little England beyond Wales, pp. 321–3; Philipps, Civil Wars in Wales and the Marches, ii. 4, 85). A collection of the arms of the London City companies, by Alban Owen, with his signature attached, is preserved in the Phillipps Library at Cheltenham (MS. 13140, No. 106).
Owen's second wife, according to a manuscript alleged to be by himself, and printed by Fenton (Pembrokeshire, p. 563), was Ann, daughter of John Gwillim, ‘a French gentleman of antient descent in Normandy.’ But, according to a pedigree signed by Owen himself (see a facsimile of this signature, No. 5 on frontispiece to Dwnn, Heraldic Visitations, vol. ii.; cf. i. 151), she was ‘Ankred [i.e. Angharad], daughter of William Obiled of Caermarthen, gent.’ Obiled is, however, described as ‘a tinker’ in a pedigree of the Henllys family by David Edwardes of Rhyd y Gors, near Carmarthen (1677), preserved at the College of Arms (Prothero MSS. v. 86). According to Edwardes's pedigree, Owen had by his second wife seven children (according to Dwnn twelve). Among the sons were George Owen (d. 1665) [q. v.], York herald, and Evan (1599–1662). The latter matriculated from Jesus College, Oxford, 9 Nov. 1622, and proceeded B.A. same day, M.A. 21 June 1625, B.D. 31 Aug. 1636, and D.D. 12 April 1643; he was appointed rector of Newport 1622, of Llanychllwydog 1626, and of Walwyn's Castle (all in Pembrokeshire) 1638, and was chancellor of St. David's from 1644 until his death, 30 Dec. 1662 (Foster, Alumni Oxon.); a mural tablet was placed to his memory in the chancel of Llawhaden Church (see copy of inscription in Fenton, op. cit. p. 318).
[The chief authority is the Introduction to Owen's Pembrokeshire (referred to above), where practically everything known about Owen's life is collected, and the numerous errors of former biographies set right.]
OWEN, GEORGE (d. 1665), York herald, son of George Owen (1552–1613) [q. v.], by his second wife, was ‘gott before marriage,’ and was born at Henllys in Pembrokeshire. He was appointed rouge croix in the place of John Bradshaw on 28 Feb. 1626 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser. His patent as rouge croix is given in Rymer's Fœdera, ed. Hayne, vol. viii. pt. i. p. 214), and was promoted to the post of York herald by signet in December 1633, and by patent 3 Jan. following. He is probably to be identified with the George Owen who was admitted at Gray's Inn 4 Aug. 1633 (Gray's Inn Register). He attended the Earl of Arundel in his expedition against the Scottish covenanters in 1639, and, according to Wood (Fasti Oxon. ii. 61 n.), was despatched on a mission in the king's service to Wales in the following year. He was with the retinue of Charles I at Oxford in 1643, where, on 12 April, he was created D.C.L., and he subsequently accompanied the king when he proceeded to invest Gloucester on 10 Aug. in the same year (Phillips, Civil Wars in Wales and the Marches, i. 168), but afterwards, according to Wood (l. c.), ‘he miserably swerved from his loyalty (and attended at the funeral of the Earl of Essex, solemnised 22 Oct. 1646), and, by a scandalous agreement, got himself to be made Norroy king of arms by the usurper Cromwell’ in 1658, on which account ‘late writers on heraldic matters call him “the usurping Norroy”’ (Fenton, Pembrokeshire, p. 563). In 1660 he was reappointed York herald, and held the office until he resigned it in 1663, when he was succeeded by his son-in-law, John Wingfield (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser. 12 April 1663; cf. also 25 July). With Elias Ashmole [q. v.], he directed the funeral in London of Bryan Walton, bishop of Chester, on 5 Dec. 1661 (Wood, Fasti, ii. 84 n.) He married Rebecca, daughter of Sir Thomas Dayrell of Lillingstone, Buckinghamshire, by whom he had two sons, who both died without issue, and a daughter, who was married to his successor, Wingfield. He died in Pembrokeshire 13 May 1665 (Peck, Desiderata Curiosa, ed. 1732, xiv. 37).
He has been very generally confounded with his father, especially by heraldic writers (Fenton, l.c.), while both have also been confounded with George ap Owen ap Harry (Rowlands, Llyfryddiaeth y Cymry, p. 78), commonly called George Owen Harry [q. v.], who was a contemporary and near neighbour. In the Lambeth Library (MS. No. 263) there is an English translation of Giraldus's ‘Itinerarium Cambriæ’ and the first book of the ‘Cambriæ Descriptio’ (with the two prefaces
