In a village of just 80 people there were 300 descendants at his funeral.
He was a man who relished life’s modest joys, finding satisfaction in angling and cultivating his vegetable garden. His meals comprised largely of dairy produce and during his leisure hours he enjoyed a spot of fowling.
Church records show he reached the extraordinary age of 105, his mental sharpness and recall staying intact throughout an existence that was, by all accounts, fairly unremarkable. He could have slipped into anonymity if not for one astonishing claim to fame: across 81 years he fathered 43 children. This achievement, if it can be termed such, brought considerable fame to the tiny parish of Tregaian on Anglesey, where the memory of William Ap Howel lives on in the churchyard of the local 14th-century church, which honours a saint far less recorded than its most renowned parishioner.
When travel author Thomas Pennant traversed Anglesey in the late 18th century, carefully chronicling the copper workings of Parys Mountain, he felt obliged to reference the island’s most fertile father in his 1778 publication A Tour in Wales, reports WalesOnline.
He noted that, against expectations, the “great patriarch of Tregaian” was not an imposing character with a massive appetite, but instead “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 were typical when he died in March 1581. Yet William’s family size was remarkable even by those standards: the average household size in Wales and England during the 16th century was a modest 4.75 – a figure that stayed relatively consistent until the First World War.
From the age of 21, William began a pattern of fathering a child every two years, a rhythm he sustained well into his later years. When he passed away at 105, his youngest child was a son, Griffith, aged just two and a half years. To support such a substantial brood, he relied on five women. His first wife, Elen Williams, gave him 22 children; his second wife, Katherine Richards, contributed another 10 to the count.
His third wife, Ellen Williams, apparently more conscious of his ways, produced a mere four. His three marriages yielded a total of 36 children. But William hadn’t finished yet. He also kept two ‘concubines’: Jonet ferch William delivered two more, whilst Lecky Lloyd provided another five.
Their combined contributions resulted in an extraordinary population boom in this rural corner of Anglesey. To place it in context, during William’s lifetime, the larger parish of Llanfairpwll had a population of roughly 80.
At the time of his passing, 80 of William’s descendants were still living in Tregaian parish. Moreover, some appeared determined to continue the family tradition: his eldest daughter Alice, then aged 72, had been married twice and, according to parish records, she “hath numerous offspring” of her own.
The record went on: “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.”
Caring for such a large brood may have presented challenges, although many of his children would likely have moved out before the arrival of the next Ap Howel baby. Despite this, local chatter suggested he utilised his hunting skills as a poacher to supplement the family’s food supply.
Baptisms at the humble medieval St Caian’s church might have posed their own issues. In 1847, clergyman Harry Longueville Jones noted the font was “hardly large enough for immersion”.
Parish records suggest William enjoyed robust health throughout his life. “The old man was of a midle 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.”
William’s impressive tally of 43 children was extraordinary by any standard. However, in the history of human reproduction, he remains merely a minor entry. Moulay Ismail Ibn Sharif, an 18th century Moroccan ruler, would have laughed at such figures. With a harem containing 500 women, he allegedly sired 525 sons and 342 daughters. In fact, Guinness World Records calculated a total of 1,042 offspring.
Academics at Vienna University went still further, suggesting 1,171. Putting aside sperm donors (Viennese physiologist Bertold Paul Wiesner is thought to have fathered as many as 1,000 children through artificial insemination), royals have historically been the most fertile.
Notable cases include 18th century Polish King Augustus II the Strong (around 370 offspring), and 20th century Swazi King Sobhuza II, who is said to have had 70 wives and 210 children.
Further cases featured Sultan Ibrahim Njoya, Cameroon’s King of Bamum (around 600 wives, 177 children), Emperor Minh Mạng (142) and Saudi Arabia’s King Saud (around 110).
Mohammed Bello Abubakar, who died in 2017, was another contender, having married 86 women in Nigeria and fathered 170 children. In 2008, he was arrested for polygamy after surpassing the four-wife limit.
Even within Wales, William ap Gruffydd might not claim the record. That honour supposedly goes to Augustus John, whose artistic renown was matched by his infamous promiscuity.
He’s believed to have fathered “up to 100 children”, mostly outside wedlock – though some argue this figure is hugely exaggerated. At present, William’s accomplishments are marked by a simple plaque and an inscribed slate at the Grade II*-listed St Caian’s Church.
These verify his death on March 11, 1581, having “begat 43 children”.
