Sir

Oxford January 23 1778

I am very sorry that I have not been able to write to you sooner about the Inscription near Valle Crucis.¹ Being unavoidably detained in the Country till within a few Days, and those employed in University Business that would admit of no Delay, I have not been able to make any Enquiries relative to the Inscription until this Day. I tumbled over several Irish MSS seemingly of great Antiquity, I have also examined Casley's 150 specimens in the King's Library, but I have ^not met with any thing satisfactory in the MSS; or a specimen that exactly corresponds with the Letters of the Inscription. M^r Price has favoured me with a Copy of the whole of it, by which means I have been enabled to compare most of the Letters of the Alphabet. The specimens of the years 6^th, 7^th, & 8^th Centuries come nearest to it but none of them agree with ig in the Letters U & N. Indeed none of the MSS. or specimens as far as I have observed, contain any Letters that bear any Resemblance to them. The S. corresponds exactly with those in the Irish MSS. and in the specimens abovementioned. The Date I apprehend may be pretty exactly ascertained from the three first Lines of the Inscription. I am inclined to think that in a Welsh Antiquary's Book of Pedigrees they would run thus. "Cyngen ab Cadell ab Brochwal ab Elis ab Cneullyn." If I was possess'd of an Account of the Princes of Powis, I am inclined to believe I could support my Conjecture, which for the present I rest upon the following authorities.

In Enderbie's History of Wales pag. 207. Griffri son Cyngen [sic] is said to have been slain by the Treason of his Brother Elico whichom Wynne in his History calls Elis. In Enderbie pag: 206 mention is made of the Death of Cadell Prince of Powys, which Cadell is said to be the son of Brochwel called by Latin Authors Brochmaelus In Wynne's History of Wales Nest is said to be the Daughter of Cadell ab Brochwel ab Elis Prince of Powys. Cneullyn or cnewyllin is a name that occurs in a MS in my Possession, containing a short Account of the 15 Tribes of Northwales.² I am inclined to think that if you have an Account of the Princes of Powys that you will be able to ascertain the date of the Inscription pretty exactly, as there is no Room to doubt but hæreditatem Povos³ or as it is spelt at the Bottom of the Inscription Povois must mean that Principality. I beg pardon for troubling you with these conjectures when possibly you may be possessed of better Information. If any further Searches should produce any thing more satisfactory and decisive you may depend upon their being communicated to you by the first Opportunity. I am with M^r Price's best Compliments

Sir
your much obliged humble Servant

Jno Jones.

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Editorial notes

1. The following discussion relates to the inscription found on the Pillar of Eliseg. Pennant wrote of the cross in A tour in Wales (2nd edn., 1784), pp. 373–4. For further manuscript material relating to the cross found within Pennant's papers, see the copy of a letter from Edward Lloyd [Lhuyd] to Humfrey Wanley, dated 14 September 1686, which includes the text of the inscription on the pillar, at WCRO, CR 2017/TP22/6., situated near Valle Crucis abbey.
2. Several manuscript recensions of genealogical material relating to north Wales tribes are extant. Pennant published Robert Vaughan's account of the fifteen tribes of Gwynedd in HPWaH, pp. 290–317, but it is unclear which manuscript was in the possession of John Jones as he wrote this letter, and the figure of 'Cneullyn or cnewyllin' is unidentified. On the tribes of north Wales and the Marches, see P. C. Bartrum, 'Hen Lwythau Gwynedd a'r Mars', in NLWJ, vol. XII, no. 3 (1962), 201–35.
3. 'the inheritance of Powys'.