One pedigree states that David’s lineage is from Cradoch y fraech fras, Knight at the Round Table of King Arthur. David was also the ancestor of Thomas of Llanbradach.

The first of Rhiwperra and may have built the first house. He had 15 children, and several illegitimate children

Llewellyn ap Gwilym = Catherine, daughter of Thomas ap Gwilym Jenkin of Glyn Nedd

He was an illegitimate son of Gwilym of Ruperra. GT Clark in ‘Limbus Patrum’ says ‘Cadwgan built and died in the tower long called after him at Rhiwperra.’

An article in Country Life 1986 Oct. 23 pp 1277-9 quotes a letter of one Rev. W Watkins ca. 1762, recording the bizarre discovery of an erect skeleton in a room 2.5m square during the digging of the foundations of a summerhouse at Ruperra. (Catalogue of MSS Relating to Wales in the British Museum, ed. Edward Owen(1922), IV p.847. Was this Cadwgan’s skeleton?

Thomas ap Llewellyn = Margaret daughter of Sir John Morgan of Pencoed.

Lewis ap Thomas = Jane Bowles daughter of Sir Thomas Bowles of Penhow

Thomas ap Lewis = Elizabeth daughter of Sir Edward Stradling of St. Donats. She was the widow of John Morgan of Pen Cerrig, by whom she had a daughter Mary who married Henry Morgan of Penllwyn. By Thomas of Rhiwperrau she had six children. Thomas ap Lewis took the surname Lewis. After the death of Thomas, she took a third husband, Edward Morgan of Penllwyn, by whom she had Sir Rowland Morgan

Rowland Lewis = Catherine Mathew daughter of William Mathew of Radyr. Some pedigrees state that Rowland was the younger brother of Thomas.

Thomas Lewis (son of Thomas and Elizabeth) = Martha, daughter of Rowland Morgan of Machen. He was sheriff in 1599.

Margaret Mary or Catherine ?) Lewis = Thomas Morgan in 1596, the third but only son of Edmond Morgan of Penllwyn Sarth by his third wife, Elizabeth Carne of Nash. Thomas Morgan was baptised at Machen in 1564. His father, Edmond Morgan was the fourth son of Sir John Morgan of Machen. He was steward to Henry, second earl of Pembroke and sheriff of Monmouthshire in 1617. Knighted at Wilton by James 1st in 1623, he finished building Ruperra in 1626 on the site of the mediaeval house. He also built the Red House in Cardiff which became the Cardiff Arms. He died in 1642. Some pedigrees state that Captain John Morgan was one of his younger sons.

Lewis Morgan was knighted by Charles 1 in 1629. Sir Lewis died before his father in 1629. He was a protégé of the Puritan earl of Pembroke. His wife Anna was the daughter of Sir Charles Morgan of Pencarn and his wife Elizabeth the daughter of Marnix de Sainte Aldegonde, a prominent Dutch nobleman. Sir Charles was a soldier who had joined the Dutch Service to defend international Protestantism against the Catholics, a mercenary!

Her second husband was Walter Strickland, one of Oliver Cromwell's inner cabinet. Anna died in 1687 and was buried with her mother at Delft. Lewis Morgan had 6 brothers and 5 sisters, of whom Sir Phillip Morgan of Usk and the Inner Temple, the eldest, leased the Rhiwperra estate after his death. It was Sir Philip Morgan who entertained Charles I at Rhiwperra between 25th and 29th July 1645

Thomas Morgan Sister Elizabeth Morgan = Edmund Thomas
Thomas Morgan had died unmarried abroad in 1654. His sister and heir married Edmund Thomas of Wenvoe in 1652. Edmund, born 1633, was the son of William Thomas of Wenvoe by Jane, the eldest daughter of Sir John Stradling of St Donats. Jane’s sister married Michael Oldisworth, secretary to the puritan Earl of Pembroke. His elder sister Elizabeth, born 1631, was the eventual heir of Wenvoe and Rhiwperra. He was the Cromwellian “lord” Edmund, and died in 1677. His sister Elizabeth married General Edmund Ludlow, a firm republican who signed the death warrant of King Charles I and spent the last 30 years of his life in exile after the Restoration. Edmund Ludlow died in 1692. Edmund Thomas had one son, William, by his wife Elizabeth.

William Thomas was born 1655 and married Mary Wharton, a daughter of Philip, fourth Lord Wharton, in 1673. Lord Wharton was staunchly Parliamentarian and a close friend of Oliver Cromwell. His friendship with Edmund Thomas survived the Restoration and politically correct marriages were arranged for his daughters. William Thomas died in 1677, as did his father, leaving two children, Edmund and Anna. His wife Mary at the age of 28 inherited the Wenvoe and Rhiwperra estates. In 1678 she married Sir Charles Kemeys (1650-1702) of Cefn Mabli, the neighbouring estate. His family were staunch Royalists and supporters of the Stuart cause. The marriage made economic sense, even if Lord Wharton and the Thomas family were not pleased. By Sir Charles she had four children. Her children by William Thomas both died in 1693 and 1694 before the age of 21, first Edmund and then Anna. After the death of Mary Wharton in 1699, the estates were inherited by Elizabeth Ludlow, who had married Sir John Thomas of the Wenvoe family, 35 years her junior, to ensure their descent.

Anna Thomas left a will in which she made various bequests to her Kemeys siblings. The estate had been inherited by Elizabeth Thomas, formerly Ludlow, and mortgaged with John Morgan the Merchant, son of Thomas Morgan of Machen and Tredegar. Sir Charles Kemeys began a protracted legal action, which was decided in his favour, and the bequests plus interest were ordered to be paid out of the Rhiwperra estate. As the sum total of the mortgage, bequests and charges were more than the value of the Rhiwperra estate, the estate was sold to John Morgan. He died unmarried and without issue in 1715, leaving the whole of his estate to his nephew. His fortune had been made in trade, in shipping and the iron industry.