Red (Gules) represents warrior courage and princely authority — the colour of sovereignty in early Welsh heraldic tradition. It evokes the martial leadership of the Silurian and Caerwent dynasties, whose rulers defended their lands against Saxon and Norman encroachment.

The gold lion rampant signifies noble strength, vigilance, and hereditary rule. In Welsh heraldry, the lion became the emblem of ancient kingship, used to mark descent from the legendary Caradog (Caractacus) and the rulers of Gwent and Glywysing. Its upright, striking posture expresses readiness for battle and the dignity of command.

Together, the gold lion on red embodies the royal house of Caerwent, later echoed in the arms attributed to the kings of Gwent and Morgannwg. It symbolises a lineage of sovereign defenders — a visual shorthand for courage, continuity, and rightful dominion in the Welsh Marches.

Name translation - Belinus‑Hardd - 

Belinus essentially means “the shining one / the brilliant one” 

Hardd = handsome, fair, noble, beautiful, distinguished 

“Beli the Fair / Beli the Handsome / Beli the Noble”  -  “Belin the Shining and Fair”.

Belin-Hardd ap Brochfael

 (c. 1010 – after 1075)

The Last Welsh Prince of Caerwent.

Heir of the Caratacus Lineage, and Descendant of a one of the Historical Arthur's.

Earliest Attested Root of the Ballard Surname.

Beli-Hardd ap Brochfael occupies a pivotal place in the history of southeast Wales and the Welsh Marches. Born around 1010, he was the son of Brochfael ap Arthfael, grandson of Arthfael ap Ithel, and great‑grandson of Ithel ap Owain — a four‑generation princely line preserved in the Book of Llandaff under Latinised forms such as Ithelus, Arthal, Brochmail, and Belinus. These entries place the family firmly in the Caerwent–Mathern–Ergyng corridor, a region that retained both Roman prestige and ecclesiastical importance long after the fall of the Roman civitas of Venta Silurum.

“The district of Cearwent formed part of Glamorgan under the government of the chieftains who claimed to be, the direct descendants of the Silurian Prince, Caratacus, Gwent appears to have been under the rule of a junior branch of the same family....One of them Caradoc ap Ynyr, King of Gwent in the early part of the sixth century gave certain lands at Caerwent to his wife's nephew. St Tahtay....”

[Reliability of Source. Second.. extract - Excavations by the Caerleon Archaeological Association. page 421].

“At The time of Domesday Survey, Beli Hardd ap Brochvael was lord of Caerwent. He is mentioned in the document as Beluard de Carven and held half a carucate of land of the King, but paid nothing, there is no mention of a town and the small quantity of land leads to the inference that Beli was much reduced in state and influence and the erection of Chepstow Castle and lordship at this period would prevent Caerwent ever again rising into importance.”

[Reliability of Source. Second.. extract - Excavations by the Caerleon Archaeological Association. page 422].

“One Beluard of Caruen [Caerwent] has half a carucate of land and renders nothing. [Identified by Mr Octavius Morgan with Beli Hardd ap Brochvael]”. [Reliability of Source. Second.. Annals of Chepstow Castle. page 16].

Beluard of Caerwent

[Reliability of Source. Primary.. 1086 - 162r Great Domesday Book. PRO E 31/2/1/6229].

“His Son Owen ap Beluard, seems to have been the last Welsh lord of  Caerwent : he was living in the reign of Henry I. In the same reign Walter fitz Richard de Clare is styled in Dugdale, Lord of Caerwent, no doubt on some good authority....under the title de Carwent and later  Carent, He removed into Somerset. held land under the, de Clares. “

[Reliability of Source. Second. .extract - Excavations by the Caerleon Archaeological Association. page 422].

A Branch of the "De Carents" Resided at Shiplade (Shiplate), Bleadon, North Somerset, 

[Somersetshire archaeological and natural history proceedings - volume 44, page-24. 1893].

During the first half of the eleventh century, Beli Hardd ap Brochfeal appears in the Llandaff material under the forms Belin and Belinus, functioning as a witness, boundary figure, and local territorial prince. His name is attached to charters involving Caerwent, Mathern, Llandogo, and the Wye valley, demonstrating his authority over estates, woodland boundaries, and ecclesiastical patronage. These appearances confirm that Caerwent remained a semi‑autonomous Welsh princely centre well into the eleventh century, even as the political landscape of Gwent fractured under internal dynastic pressures.

Beli’s lifetime overlapped with the Norman conquest of England in 1066 and the subsequent Norman advance into Gwent. By 1067–1075, the Striguil (Chepstow) lordship was established under the FitzOsbern and later the de Clare families. Crucially, Beli was still alive during this transition, because he appears in Norman‑era administrative material as Beluard de Caruen, the Domesday tenant of Caerwent in 1086. This is not a different individual: Beluard is the Norman scribal rendering of Beli Hardd, and de Caruen simply means “of Caerwent.” Norman clerks routinely replaced Welsh patronymics with locatives, and Beli’s appearance in this form shows that he was recognised by the new regime as a local landholder of significance. This evidence corrects earlier assumptions that he died around 1050; instead, he lived into the 1070s or early 1080s, long enough for Norman scribes to record him.

Beli’s son, Hugh ap Beli, appears in the later twelfth century as Forester of the Forest of Dene & Wrington, Somerset, marking the movement of a Caerwent cadet branch into the Wye–Dean–Somerset corridor. His son, Ralph Ballard of Wrington, Som (fl. 1196), is the earliest securely attested Ballard in Somerset records. This relocation corresponds with long‑standing recollection and documentary hints that the de Carent / de Carwent (Ballard‑connected) line was removed into Somerset under the authority of the de Clare lords, who reorganised tenurial structures in the Cheddar–Wrington–Winterstoke region. In this context, the tradition that the Ballard / de Carent line was first settled in the area of Shiplate (Shiplade), near Bleadon and very close to Wrington, fits the known pattern of de Clare relocations and the broader movement of Gwent‑origin families into North Somerset.

Parallel to this Caerwent–Somerset line runs the Ewyas–Archenfield princely line descending from Gwriad ap Brochfeal (Gwirfeath), a cadet of the same early medieval dynasty. His descendants — Nowy ap Gwriad, Einion ap Nowy (fl. 1159), Ralph ap Einion, and ultimately John Baynham (c.1300–1350) — appear in the Pipe Rolls, Herefordshire circuits, and Gloucestershire records. The Baynham surname stabilises in the fourteenth century in the Forest of Dean, where the family held the Ruardean bailiwick. AJB.c.

Thus, from the ancesters of Beli Hardd ap Brochfeal descend two distinct but related cadet cousin streams:

• the Caerwent → Dene → Wrington (Ballard / de Carent) line

• the Ewyas → Archenfield → Ruardean (Baynham) line

These lines run side by side, not in sequence, and converge geographically in the Forest of Dean, where the Carents held the Bicknor bailiwick and the Baynhams the Ruardean bailiwick. Their shared origins in the house of Arthfael ap Ithel, their parallel territorial trajectories, and their convergence in the Dean region together form the basis for the possible relationship between the Baynham and Ballard families, grounded in factual evidence yet open to revision as new material emerges.

Name Legacy and the Ballard Surname

Beli Hardd’s significance extends beyond Welsh genealogy. His Norman‑era form, Beluard, is one of the earliest documentary ancestors of the later surname Ballard. 

Norman scribes routinely transformed Welsh personal names into French‑looking forms. In Beli’s case, Beli (Belin /Belinus) Hardd became Beluard, a rendering that sits directly on the linguistic pathway to later medieval forms such as Belard, Bellard, Belart, Belardus, Babellard (Ba/ "ap Bellard", as in "ap Eynion" becoming Baynham) and ultimately Ballard. These forms appear in precisely the same Caerwent–Striguil–Forest of Dean corridor occupied by Beli’s descendants.

Early examples that match his phonetic footprint with carwent chronologically inserted in this primary source finding aid. include:  

Main Master - Beluard / Caerwent / Wrington - source finding aid.

note; There exists to this day a massive Ballard cluster of families in the Wrington, Somerset, areas just a couple of miles south of Bristol and very close to Shiplate.

Medieval record‑keepers did not use fixed surnames, and clerks wrote names according to sound, dialect, and language rather than any standard spelling. As a result, the same family appears under many forms — Belin, Belard, Babelard, Babellard, Ballard, and descriptive forms such as ap Belard /Babellard (“son of Belard”), filius Belin, or Walensis (“the Welshman”). Locative identifiers like de Carwent (from Caerwent), de Wente/Wenta (from Went, Caerwent), and de Dene (from the Forest of Dean) reflect the family’s movement through the Caerwent → Went/Wenta → Forest of Dean → Gloucester → Somerset corridor rather than separate lineages. When these shifting spellings occur in the same places, in the same decades, and among people holding the same social roles (foresters, free tenants, litigants, clerical witnesses), the variations represent normal medieval naming practice, not different families. The documentary continuity shows one evolving surname stream, not unrelated individuals. 

These names cluster in the exact same geographical corridor as Beli Hardd and his cadets, and they follow the same phonetic evolution: Beluard → Belard → Bellard → Ballard. While the Ballard surname later develops multiple independent origins, the Marcher Belard/Bellard sequence is the earliest securely attested, and Beli Hardd’s Norman‑era form stands at the head of that evolution in Briton. AJB.c.

Ancestry Back to Caratacus and the Belgae “Catuvellauni / Cattaulavani”

The Caerwent princely line preserved a deep ancestral memory linking their lineage to the pre‑Roman British nobility, particularly the Catuvellauni (sometimes rendered in medieval Welsh tradition as Cattaulavani). 

This tribe, part of the wider Belgae cultural sphere, produced the famous resistance leader Caratacus (Caradog). Medieval Welsh genealogical tradition consistently traced the rulers of Gwent and Ergyng, including the ancestors of Beli Hardd, back to this heroic lineage. Caerwent itself, founded as Venta Silurum, lay within the cultural orbit of these early British dynasties. Thus, Beli Hardd stands as a late inheritor of the Caratacan tradition, representing a line that claimed descent from the ancient Belgae‑British nobility that resisted Rome. AJB.c.

The Beli Mawr Tradition, Joseph of Arimathea, and the Early British Church

Welsh genealogical lore also connects the Caerwent princely line to the legendary Beli Mawr, a patriarch who appears in medieval Welsh pedigrees as an ancestor of several royal houses. In these traditions, Beli Mawr’s descendants intermarry with early Christian figures, most notably through the royal union of Anna, sometimes described in medieval genealogies as a kinswoman of the “Ishua / Iesu” family, a symbolic way medieval writers expressed a spiritual or honorary link to the Holy Family.

These traditions intersect with the Joseph of Arimathea cycle, which places Joseph’s arrival in Britain, specifically Glastonbury, in the 1st century. Medieval ecclesiastical writers claimed that Joseph founded the first Christian church in Britain, long before Rome’s formal mission under Augustine in 597. In some genealogical manuscripts, the early British royal families, including the ancestors of the Gwent princes, are woven into this sacred narrative, presenting them as custodians of the earliest Christian tradition in Britain.

Beli the Great stands as one of the oldest ancestral names preserved in the Brittonic record, a figure remembered not for a surviving biography but for the depth and persistence of his name across early Welsh genealogies and the cultural memory of Britain. His name belongs to the same ancient linguistic family as Belinos, Belenos, and Belgius, a cluster of names found across Gaul, Britain, and the wider Belgic world. This strongly ties him to the Belgic migrations into southern Britain between roughly 200 and 50 BC, a movement that is archaeologically attested through pottery, coinage, settlement patterns, and burial customs. In this sense, Beli represents the remembered founder‑ancestor of the Belgic elite who established themselves in Britain before the Roman conquest.

The Welsh genealogical tradition preserves Beli as the progenitor of several important Brittonic houses. His name appears in the Harleian Genealogies, Bonedd y Saint, and the narrative traditions surrounding figures such as Lludd, Llefelys, Afallach, and the dynasties that later ruled Gwynedd and other early medieval kingdoms. The later historical king Cunobelinus—whose name means “Hound of Belinos”—shows that the Belgic royal houses still revered the ancestral name centuries later, preserving it in their own naming traditions. In this way, Beli the Great is best understood as the ancestral figurehead of the Belgic‑Brittonic dynasties, a distant but persistent memory of the people who reshaped southern Britain in the last centuries before Rome.  

Beli the Great is remembered across the Brittonic world as a deep ancestral figure whose name stands at the head of multiple royal and ecclesiastical lineages. His memory is carried by the early houses that later ruled Gwynedd and Powys, by the saintly families of the Welsh church, and by the northern kingdoms of the Old North including Rheged, Strathclyde, Gododdin, and Elmet. Traditions in the southeast also echo his name through the Belgic‑Brittonic elites whose descendants include the Catuvellaunian and Trinovantian royal lines. Taken together, these strands show Beli as a shared forefather of Brittonic nobility from the southeast to the far north and into Wales, a unifying ancestral figure rather than the patriarch of any single tribe. AJB.c.

Arthur in the Pedigree: A Possible Historical Source for the Arthurian Tradition

Within Beli Hardd’s ancestry appears Athrwys ap Meurig, a 7th‑century prince of Gwent and Glywysing whose name and position in Welsh tradition place him among the historical figures later woven into the Arthurian legend. Medieval Welsh genealogists frequently conflated princely figures whose names or reputations resonated with the arth tradition, and Athrwys — active in the Usk–Wye–Severn heartland, associated with Caerleon and Caerwent, and remembered in the Book of Llandaff charters, stands at the centre of this conflation. His chronology, territorial footprint, and scribal name‑variants (Atroys, Athruis, Andres) made him one of the most compelling candidates for the historical strands that fed into the Arthurian composite. His presence in Beli Hardd’s pedigree therefore situates Beli within one of the authentic dynastic lineages behind the formation of a later Arthurian tradition, not to be confused with earlier Arthurs who have there own place in history, this Arthur is just one Arthur in the mass confligration of Arthurian legand.  AJB.c.

ABBREVIATED SOURCE NOTES (FULL LIST)

Primary Welsh Sources

• Book of Llandaff (Liber Landavensis) — charters, witness lists, boundary clauses

• Welsh genealogical tracts — Harleian MS 3859; Jesus College MS 20

• Early Welsh Genealogical Tracts, ed. P.C. Bartrum (Cardiff, 1966)

• The Genealogies from Jesus College MS 20, ed. P.C. Bartrum (University of Wales Press, 1960)

• The Baglan Genealogies, ed. P.C. Bartrum (transcriptions published in Welsh Genealogies AD 300–1400, 1974)

• Jesus College, Oxford, MS 111 (Red Book of Hergest)

Norman & Marcher Sources

• Domesday Book — Caerwent region (Beluard de Caruen)

• Striguil/Chepstow Charters — Monmouthshire & Gwent Archives

• Pipe Rolls — Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire

• Forest Eyre Rolls — Forest of Dean

• Book of Fees (Liber Feodorum)

• Red Book of the Exchequer

• Cartae Baronum

• Patent Rolls

• Plea Rolls (Gloucestershire & Herefordshire)

• Inquisitions Post Mortem (Gloucestershire)

Ecclesiastical Traditions

• Historia Brittonum

• Glastonbury traditions (William of Malmesbury, later monastic expansions)

• Welsh Triads (Triads of the Island of Britain)

                             CARADOG (CARATACUS)

(fl. c.30–50 AD, King/War‑leader of the Catuvellauni,                            (Ballard - Pre Roman Ancient DNA Cambridgshire)

ruling SE Britain: Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Thames Valley, Fled into South Wales and defeated by Ostorius Scapula and taken in chains to Rome, AD51)               

   |                                                                                                                                            

   |

   └── PADARN BEISRUDD (“Red Coat”) (trad. c.300–350, N. Britain)

         |

         └── CUNEDDA WLEDIG (c.400–460, Manau Gododdin → Gwynedd)

               |

               ├── ERBIN ap CUSTENNIN (c.430–480, Gwynedd)

               |      |

               |      └── ERB ap Erbin (c.460–500, Gwent)

               |            |

               |            └── NYNNIAW ap Erb (c.490–530, Gwent)

               |                  |

               |                  └── TEITHFALLT ap Nynniaw (c.520–560, Gwent)

               |                        |

               |                        └── TEWDRIG (St Tewdrig) (c.540–580, Mathern)

               |                              |                                                      (Iocco R-S1211 (Italian) - Ballard early medival DNA match - BIGY needed )

               |                              └── MEURIG ap Tewdrig (c.570–610, Gwent)

               |                                    |

               |                                    └── ATHRWYS ap Meurig (c.600–640, Gwent) (King Arthur)

               |                                          |

               |                                          └── ITHEL ap Athrwys (c.630–680, Gwent)

               |                                                |

               |                                                └── **ARTHFAEL ap Ithel (c.770–810, Gwent/Ergyng)

               |                                                                                                                             (see line of Ballard & Bayham Pedigree below)

               └── CEREDIG ap Cunedda (c.420–460, Founder of Ceredigion)

                      |

                      └── lineage of early Ceredigion rulers (5th–8th c.)

                             |

                             └── RHODRI MOLWYNOG (c.690–754, King of Gwynedd)

                                   |

                                   └── MERFYN FRYCH (c.770–844, Manaw → Gwynedd)

                                         |

                                         └── RHODRI MAWR “the Great” (c.820–878, King of Gwynedd)

                                               |

                                               └── CADELL ap Rhodri (c.860–909, King of Seisyllwg)

                                                     |

                                                     └── HYWEL DDA (c.880–950, King of Deheubarth & Wales)

                                                                                                                        ((Le Belward of Malpas (fictional)  / Ponton of Pembrokshire)

                                                                                                                                                      (Ponton R-S1211 - Ballard medival DNA match - BigY needed)

The figure of Gwriad ap Brochfeal (Gwirfeath) belongs to the princely genealogical tradition of Ergyng and Ewyas, descending from the early medieval royal house of Arthfael ap Ithel, kings of Gwent and Ergyng. His name and position are preserved within the internal Welsh dynastic cycles recorded in Harleian MS 3859 [H3859], Jesus College MS 20 [JC20], and the Book of Llandaff genealogical material [LL]. The sequence Brochfeal → Gwriad (Gwirfeath) → Nowy → Einion reflects a stable naming rhythm characteristic of this dynasty, and the territorial associations of Ergyng, Archenfield, and the western March correspond to the region historically occupied by cadet branches of the Ergyng royal house. This convergence of name‑form, genealogical position, and territorial continuity places Gwriad (Gwirfeath) securely within the Ergyng princely lineage.

The Ballard line enters the English documentary record through Beli Hardd ap Brochfeal de Caruen, recorded in Domesday Book (1086) as Beluard de Caruen [Domesday]. His son, Hugh ap Beli, appears as Forester of the Forest of Dene & Wrington, Som in late twelfth‑century material [Forest Eyre; Som. Recs.]. Hugh’s son, Ralph Ballard of Wrington, Som (fl. 1196), represents the earliest securely attested Ballard in Somerset fiscal and manorial documentation [Som. Pipe; Wrington Recs.].

This Somerset placement corresponds with both documentary hints and long‑standing recollection that the de Carent / de Carwent (Ballard‑connected) line was removed into Somerset under the authority of the de Clare lords, who reorganised tenurial structures in the Cheddar–Wrington–Winterstoke region during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In this context, the tradition that the Ballard / de Carent line was first settled in the area of Shiplate (Shiplade), near Bleadon and only a short distance from Wrington, fits the known pattern of de Clare relocations and the broader movement of Gwent‑origin families into North Somerset. The Ballard descent therefore aligns geographically with the same Ergyng–Dean–Somerset corridor associated with the earlier Welsh princely material.

The Baynham line emerges in parallel within the same regional framework. Einion ap Nowy appears in the Pipe Roll of 1159 [PR 1159], followed by Ralph ap Einion in late twelfth‑century Herefordshire and Gloucestershire circuits [Heref./Gloucs Circs.]. Subsequent generations — including John Baynham (c.1300–1350) — appear in the Herefordshire Lay Subsidy Rolls [LSR Heref.] and later in Gloucestershire Feet of Fines and Patent Rolls [FF Gloucs.; Pat. Rolls]. The Baynham surname stabilises in the fourteenth century in precisely the region where the earlier patronymic sequence terminates.

Taken together, the Ballard and Baynham lines form two branches descending from the same early medieval Ergyng princely spine: one through Beli Hardd de Caruen → Hugh ap Beli → Ralph Ballard, the other through Gwriad (Gwirfeath) → Nowy → Einion → Ralph ap Einion → John Baynham. The alignment of names, geography, chronology, the de Clare‑driven Somerset relocation of the de Carent/Ballard line, the Shiplate settlement tradition, and the continuity of documentary evidence supports the interpretation that these represent related but distinct survivals of the same dynastic tradition. While the evidence is strong, the reconstruction remains open to revision as new material emerges. AJB.c.

Y DNA

“Although absolute proof is still forthcoming while other early Ballard lines are still pursued, the weight of evidence makes it entirely reasonable — indeed compelling — to pursue the hypothesis that this lineage may pertains to the family male line of Adrian Ballard. The convergence of pre‑Roman ancient burial Y‑DNA signatures from the Catuvellaunian heartlands with the genetic profile of the proposed Ballard descendant line, combined with the historically attested migration of Caratacus and his followers from those regions into south Wales, then into Italy, forms a coherent and persuasive framework that demands further investigation, later Y DNA convergent lines being found in Italy could attest to Roman withdrawal of Briton.

Alternately a line from Carratacus, migrated into mainland Europe acting as a Lombard confederate and subsequently back migrating through the name Bellardi of Lucca, into London, England, Paris, France or the Netherlands were Ballard families (from Bellardi) have evolved.”  The possibilities exist numerously in history and circumstancial evidence exists, but ultimately these circumstances will only be proved or disproved/confirmed, through high resolution Y DNA testing and the time convergence of samples laid upon an historical context. AJB.c.

Life and Times of a Forest Family: The Ap Einon Alias Baynham Family

by A.C. Baynham (Author)  Format: Paperback

5.0 

5.0 out of 5 stars

   (6)

This is a story of a family that is first encountered amongst the kings of Wales but in the space of some thirty generations was reduced to relative poverty. It’s a journey from riches almost to rags, but followed by a measure of recovery. Yet it is a story with many adventures on the way. Famous historical characters are encountered and familiar historical events seen afresh through the eyes of those present at the time. It’s the story of a rich and titled family, the Baynham family, who though basically a Gloucestershire family had contacts and interests in many parts of Britain, France, America, Ireland and through their shipping interests, in many other parts of the world. It’s a story of duels, martyrdom, religious conviction, shipping, and the embracing of new technology. These are the ingredients in this account of the life of a Forest of Dean family during many more than thirty generations!

Amazon Book

Y-DNA testing

To confirm a match to my personal Y DNA "male" line there are two possible steps forward;

1. Low Budget - Low Return - Very Likely match Test;

This tests for one specific Y gene that occurs in my rare Y male line "R-S1211" its a little way back in my historical line approximately dated 2000 years before present, but my Y line is "rare" so if we believe we have a male line matched ancestry this is likely all we need to prove that genetically. It will not test for anything else and takes about 4 months to process but its very affordable at 19 euros. YSEQ - R-S1211  link to order.

2.  Greater Budget - Big Return - will match to everything Test;

This tests for every Y gene including, "my genes" and those that match anybody else who has tested, it will test dated genes right up to the day you were created, the greater benefit of this test is that genes have average mathematical dates assigned to them so with your matches you can determin an approximate time that your match lines separated, this is very useful in genealogical research. this test is called BIGY 700 avaliable at Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) current price is 449 Dollars - about £340 gb and the results returned, are much quicker than test one (1).

Recommendations. 

Test One (1) may be adequate if multiple Ballard named lines, want to prove that they both relate or converge in the recent or distant past, particulary good for brickwalls and surname origin research, but they do not offer oportunities for timescale analysis.

Test Two (2) Is all singing and all dancing, timescale analysis, project memberships and research tools and the added benefit, if you do not match, you can explore who you do match. BIGY 700 may seem like a big investment but when compared to the time spent with uncertainty in genealogical research, continually trying to confirm / prove your line, in my opinion is very cost effective and can soon guide you in the right direction.

Y DNA gene lines - R1b.

R-M269

  │

  └── R-L151

        │

        ├── R-P312 (Prolific European - Celt Generalisation)

        │

        ├── R-U106 (Prolific European - Germanic Generalisation)

        │

        └── R-S1194 (Ballard ancester Y Gene found below this "Rare" Gene line)

              │

              └── R-CTS4528  (Several Anicient burials have been found in this Gene line Cambridgshire Areas)

                    │

                    └── R-S14328

                          │

                          └── R-S1196

                                │

                                └── R-S1211

                                      │

                                      └── + other downstream branches.