No genealogical information is given about Dafydd Bromffild (or David Bromfield) in the poem to request a sallet which Guto composed on his behalf (poem 73). He is described as nai Owain ‘Owain’s nephew’, yet this is likely to be a reference to the hero of romance literature, Owain ab Urien (73.49n). In GGl 329 he is identified as Dafydd Bromffild ap Martin Bromffild ap Sieffrai Bromffild, yet A.C. Lake (GMBr 2) showed that this is not possible, for that Dafydd was the son of a man whom Wiliam Llŷn praised c.1550. Lake suggested that Guto’s patron was Sieffrai Bromffild’s great-grandfather, namely Dafydd ap Gruffudd ap Madog, but according to Bartrum’s dating system, this Dafydd was born c.1330 (WG1 ‘Idnerth Benfras’ 6). It is highly unlikely, therefore, that the genealogy of the Dafydd Bromffild whom Guto praised has survived, although it is possible that he was related to those who used Bromffild (the English name for the commote of Maelor Gymraeg) as a surname and who lived in Bryn-y-wiwer (HPF ii: 86).

Lineage
According to line 40 in the poem that Guto composed on Dafydd’s behalf, his patron was a câr ‘relation’ to Wiliam Rodn, and it is indeed possible that both families were related (see below). The genealogical table below is based on information (not all of which is wholly convincing) found in WG1 ‘Idnerth Benfras’ 6, ‘Tudur Trefor’ 2, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16; WG2 ‘Idnerth Benfras’ 6C, ‘Roydon’ (see further, HPF ii: 326–8).

The families of Bromffild and Rodn

References
One David Bromfeld is named with five other gentlemen in Bromfield in a legal document written in Holt on the first Monday following the Feast of St Luke during the seventh year of the reign of Edward IV, namely 19 October 1467 (Unnamed 1846: 335, where the date is incorrect; HPF ii: 83). Although the exact nature of the document remains unclear, it seems that this Dafydd is named with Wiliam Hanmer, Siôn Eutun, Edward ap Madog, Hywel ab Ieuan ap Gruffudd and Morgan ap Dafydd ap Madog, in connection with maintaining armed men in Bromfield. It seems that a number of other men are named who stood surety for them, including Wiliam Rodn in connection with his brother, Tomas Rodn (Unnamed 1846: 337; HPF ii: 84). Dafydd is named again in a different context in the same document (Unnamed 1848: 66; HPF ii: 86). It is likely that this Dafydd Bromffild was Guto’s patron, who was therefore alive in 1467 (cf. also Pratt 1988: 48, where both David Bromfield and John Eyton are named as witnesses in the presentments of the Wrexham bailiwick jury in 1467).

One David Bromfield was a warden in the Franciscan priory in Chester in 1434, yet it is unlikely that he was Guto’s patron (Elrington and Harris 1980: 173).

Bibliography
Unnamed (1846), ‘Proceedings’, Arch Camb 2: 147–52, 210–15, 335–8
Unnamed (1848), ‘Proceedings’, Arch Camb 3: 66–8, 107–9
Elrington, C.R. and Harris, B.E. (1980) (eds.), A History of the County of Chester, Vol. 3 (Oxford)
Pratt, D. (1988), ‘Bromfield and Yale: Presentments from the Court Roll of 1467’, TCHSDd 37: 43–53