The Wynns are of Irish extraction, deriving from one Osborn Wyddel (the Irishman), who came over in the thirteenth century, and obtained by marriage an estate in Merioneth. He is supposed to have been a junior of the House of the Geraldines, but the evidence is not satisfactory. The family soon became thoroughly Welsh, as far as names go, bearing those of Llewelyn, Gruffydd, Einion, Iorwerth, and quartering the arms of Owen Gwynedd. Peniarth came to them through marriage with an heiress of the Williams family, whose arms, two foxes counter-salient, form a sign and give a name to many an inn in the Williams-Wynn country, which extends over a large portion of North Wales. [Illustration: LLANEGRYN] The name of Wynn was not adopted till the sixteenth century. Before that the sons were all _aps_. The adoption of surnames in Wales that became fixed and hereditary began in single instances with Welshmen who had become familiar with English customs, but it was not general until Rowland Lee, Bishop of Lichfield and President of Wales and the Marches, when calling over the panel of a jury one day, became weary of the repetition of the _ap_, and directed that “the ancient and worshipful gentleman “Thomas ap William ap Thomas ap Richard ap Howel ap Iefan Fychan, etc., of Mostyn, and the rest of the jury, should thenceforth severally assume as a surname either their last genealogical name or that of their residence. Lee died in 1543. Many of the names one meets with in Wales are thus derived: Bowen is ab Owen, Price is ap Rhys, Pritchard is ap Richard, Bevan is ab Evan, etc.; and John Jones is John son of Jones, and Thomas Evans is Thomas the son of Evan. When the Welshmen took to giving themselves surnames, very few adopted place-names; but there are some--as Glynne, Trevor, Mostyn. Fewer still assumed such as were descriptive--as Gwyn (White), Llwyd, or Lloyd (Gray). The majority took patronymic names, and thus we have such swarms of Joneses, Williamses, Davieses, Evanses, Robertses, and Thomases. It has become a real nuisance. “It is impossible,” says a recent writer, “to estimate the inconveniences, the annoyance, and even the suffering, occasioned by this unnecessary dearth of Welsh surnames, and the continued multiplication of the comparatively few in popular use. Indeed, our surnames are so few in number that they almost swamp the population of England in the statistics compiled to show which are the most numerous family names in use among us.”[9] To obviate the inconvenience, in Wales it is usual to distinguish one Jones or Williams from another by appending the name of his home or his profession, or a descriptive epithet; but this serves its purpose only when he is in his native country. Four of the Welsh members of Parliament bear the name of Thomas; and while all share a common initial, two have no other.