LEWIS or BLEWIS ?

[Eden66]

Hello ,
I wonder if anyone can help or  have any knowledge of  the surname  BLEWIS  aka LEWIS - particularly  in the era 1600 - 1750  ?
I'm aware of the book "Welsh Surnames"  by TJ & P Morgan which comments -
"...the surname Lewis  was in use before the patronymic system was discontinued - it is difficult to understand why "ab-Lewis" did not result in a surname - "Blewis" ."

I find this observation  intriguing as i'm researching my LEWIS family  back to  Lydbury North in Shropshire - where a Richard Lewis md Anne Ambler in  1712 .
I have found 4 children bn to this couple  -
Brian 1713 
Frances 1715
Littleton 1717
Mary 1719
But the odd thing is that the surname recorded  for the 2nd & 3rd  baptisms was written as "BLEWIS " and not Lewis.
I  had assumed this was  perhaps  done in error  as never hearing of this name before but  further research  has shown a  small cluster of "Blewis's"  in this era ,  mainly in close proximity in New Radnor   near the border with Herefordshire where there  appears  to be a  few  baptisms of the same Radnor  family of a Hugh & Martha BLEWIS   in Kington  Hereford -  likewise this is  close to Lydbury in Shropshire .

In the Morgan's book they noted only a very few examples of the name Blewis further to the above quote and it seems to me that there actually were ( though not many ) more instances of  this surname  in this era and  more in later years .

Would anybody have any thoughts on this  naming issue - it seems very logical that the name would  have evolved from "ab Lewis"  but suffice to say  i have yet to work out whether my Richard  was  actually  a  Lewis or  a Blewis .
Although  i understand that the name Lewis  evolved from Llewelyn & variants.
Incidentally ,  the name Littleton /Lyttleton  is  significant  and repe ats  in the family line  , so  it seems highly likely there is a connection somewhere to a branch of the family of that name .
Richard 's wife Anne Ambler  was the daughter of Rev Brian Ambler  the vicar of Lydbury North who has connections to sites in  Mongomeryshire  , but i've found no  Littleton link to the Ambler family .

I wonder if this kind of confusion  between BLEWIS  & LEWIS  has been found by any other researchers  at any time ?
Sorry for the length of this post , but if you can help have any  thoughts  or  advice on this i would greatly appreciate it .

Kind regards

[mrs.family]

This is interesting. But the prefix would be 'ap' not 'ab'. 'Ab' would be used before a vowel - so 'ab Evan' becomes Bevan and 'ab Owen' becomes Bowen.  Before a consonant, one would use 'ap' - so 'ap Richard' becomes Pritchard and 'ap Howell' becomes Powell. But maybe in this one instance....? Do post here if you get to the bottom of this?

[Eden66]

Thank you for your reply and information  - i'm still fairly new to welsh research  and was wondering why "ab" & "ap" prefix were both being used (instead of just the one ).
Knowing this i can see your point - i'm afraid i can only go on the few records to be found and the segment in the Morgan book .
My theory - for what it's worth is that the early instances that appear , possibly relate to family elements connected to the  Lewis'  of Harpton  & Gladestry , primarily as i have found ref to a Hugh & John Blewis  involved in the   the Lewis' - Harley  feud in the 1690's in Radnor .
If  indications are correct and it is a name that evolved from "Lewis" - i cannot conprehend  why it  should  not have been Plewis rather than Blewis?
All very  strange but i should like to contact Prys Morgan to see if he has any further thoughts .

[Llwyd]

Just a thought, but could the name Ap Lewis, through a combination of mispronunciation and or misspelling, become Plews?.

[mrs.family]

Um...that would rather depend on when and where you researched your Plews to....

You have to remember that patronymics were replaced by surnames at different times in different parts of Wales - rule of thumb is, the more isolated the community, the longer they hung onto patronymics - sometimes into the C19. But this isn't always the case eg the population in little, far-flung St Davids in Pembrokeshire generally had moved over to surnames well before 1700.

So where and when have you found your earliest Plews, is the question?