Some 300 of his descendants turned out for his funeral at their tiny rural church
The medieval church of St Caian’s in Tregaian(Image: Chris Andrews/Wiki)
William Ap Howel was a man of simple tastes. He loved fishing and pottering in his veg garden. Largely, he followed a dairy diet and for fun he indulged in a spot of fowling.
Church records show he survived until 105, his memory and senses still intact, having lived a largely unremarkable life. He might have disappeared completely from the annals of history but for one astonishing proclivity: in the space of 81 years, he fathered 43 children.
His achievement, if that is the right word, brought a degree of infamy to the tiny parish of Tregaian, Anglesey. He’s remembered in the churchyard at the local 14th century church, dedicated to a saint of whom much less is known than its more famous occupant.
When travel writer Thomas Pennant toured Anglesey in the late 18th century, studiously reporting the copper mines of Parys mountain, he couldn’t help but include a reference to the island’s most fecund man in his 1778 book A Tour in Wales
He noted that, far from being a giant of a man, with a voracious appetite, the “great patriarch of Tregaian” was “small of stature, of a cheerful, convivial temper; but spare in his diet, living mostly on milk”. Pennant added: “He passed his time in rural employments, and at his leisure in fishing and fowling.”
Large families weren’t unusual when he died in March 1581. But by any standards, William’s output was astonishing: mean household size in England and Wales in the 16th century was a mere 4·75 – a rate that remained relatively constant until the First World War.
Yet, from the age of 21, he began fathering a child every two years – and kept at it well into his dotage. When he died at the age of 105, his youngest child was a son, Griffith, aged 2.5 years. Join the North Wales Live Whatsapp community now
Memorial plaque at St Caian’s Church(Image: Stephen Elwyn Roddick/Wiki)
To maintain productivity, he relied on five mothers. His first wife, Elen Williams, gave him 22 children; with his second wife, Katherine Richards, he had another 10. When he married for a third time, to Ellen Williams, she was wiser to his ways, producing just four.
His three marriages yielded 36 children. But old William wasn’t finished yet. He also had two “concubines”: Jonet ferch William delivered two more, while Lecky Lloyd produced another five.
Thanks to their combined efforts this rural part of Anglesey experienced an unprecedented population boom. In context, during William’s lifetime the larger parish of Llanfairpwll had a population of around 80.
When he died, 80 of William’s offspring were still living in Tregaian parish. Moreover, some were set on continuing the family tradition: his eldest daughter Alice, then aged 72, had herself married twice and, according to the parish records, she “hath numerous offspring” of her own.
The continued: “At his funeral there was computed to be about 300 persons descended from him. He has children’s children to the fourth generation in abundance.”
Feeding them all may have been a challenge, though many of his children would have left home by the time the next baby arrived on the Ap Howel conveyor belt. Nevertheless, it was rumoured he put his fowling skills to use as a poacher to supplement family’s diet.
Baptisms, in the small medieval church of St Caian’s, may have been tricky too. Writing in 1847, the clergyman Harry Longueville Jones remarked the font was “hardly large enough for immersion”.
The parish records note that William was a model of good health. “The old man was of a midle (sic) stature, of good complexion, never troubled with cholick, gout or stones, seldom sick,” they recorded. “Of moderate diet, lived by tillage, exercised himself much in fishing and fowling and had his senses perfect to the end.”
Morocco monarch Moulay Ismail Ibn Sharif is said to have fathered between 1,042 and 1,171 children
William’s final tally of 43 children was impressive by any standards. Yet in the history of human procreation, he’s just a footnote. Moulay Ismail Ibn Sharif, an 18th century monarch of Morocco, would have sneered.
With a harem of 500 women, he is known to have fathered 525 boys and 342 girls. In fact, Guinness World Records calculated a total of 1,042 children. A research team at Vienna University went further, suggesting 1,171.
Discounting sperm donors (Vienna physiologist Bertold Paul Wiesner fathered up to 1,000 children by artificial insemination), monarchs were traditionally the most active. Among them were King Augustus II the Strong, 18th century King of Poland (c.370 offspring), and 20th century King Sobhuza II of Swaziland who is thought to have had 70 wives and 210 children.
Others included Sultan Ibrahim Njoya, King of Bamum in Cameroon (c. 600 wives, 177 children), Emperor Minh Mạng (142) and King Saud of Saudi Arabia (c. 110).
Another contender was Mohammed Bello Abubakar, who died in 2017, having married 86 women in Nigeria and having 170 children with them. In 2008 he was arrested for polygamy for having more than four wives.
Even in Wales, William ap Gruffydd may not have been the most prolific. That title is supposedly held by Augustus John, whose standing as a painter was matched by his reputation for promiscuity. He is reported to have fathered “up to 100 children”, mostly outside marriage – though some claim this figure is greatly exaggerated.
Today, William’s feats are remembered on a simple plaque and an engraved slate at Grade II*-listed St Caian’s Church. These confirm he died on March 11, 1581, having “begat 43 children”. Get the best island stories from our Anglesey newsletter – sent every Friday