Sir William Thomas of Raglan

The following data is extracted from Herbert Family Papers.

Sir William Thomas of Raglan. Some carry the line bask to Henry I, and another, just bursting with enthusiasm and imagination, has stretched the line thinner and thinner until it reaches Charlemagne. Why he stopped there do not know, when he might have carried back to Adam, like some of the Irish end Scotch pedigrees. In support of either pedigree, a well-informed and most reliable authority states that, “no authentic documentary proof known to exist”.*
Sir William ap Thomas of Raglan (fifth son of Thomas ap Gwilim ap Jenkin) was the real founder of the family, and a very, satisfactory from all accounts. As a fifth son he could not have inherited much more than blessing. He must have been what we would call a self-made man. However, the Welsh called him Margoah Gles or Ghumri, whatever that may mean, and he cut quite a figure in the traditions of south Wales. He was knighted by King Henry VI in 1426 and acquired a considerable estate in the lovely shire of Monmouth. His wife was Gladys, daughter of Sir David Gam, Kt., and they had several sons, two of whom were even more renowned than their father. He lies buried in the old Priory church at Abergavenny (pronounced Ab’er-gen’i) in Monmouthshire.
Sir William, known to the Welsh as Gwilim Dhu meaning “Black Will,” was made Baron Herbert of Chepstow and Gower, given large estates in Glamorganshire, and made Earl Of Pembroke in 1468. The next year, however, he was beheaded after a Laneastrian victory, by order of the Duke of Clarence and Warwick the Kingmaker, who, it is said, had a private grudge against Pembroke. His brother Sir Richard Herbert of Coldbrook, who was executed at the some time was quite renowned. They were two of the boldest and most powerful supporters of the House of York (the White Rose.)
  Sir Richard, according to his great great grandson Edward Lord Herbert of Cherbury, was a head taller than any ether man in the army; also, “he was that incomparable here who twice passed through a great army of northern men alone, with his pole-ax in his hand and returned

Source: Herbert Family Papers

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