John Owen (Royalist)

Sir
John Owen
Portrait of Sir John Owen, c.1660
Vice-admiral of North Wales
In office
1660–1666
Sheriff of Merionethshire
In office
April 1632 – March 1633
Sheriff of Caernarvonshire
In office
April 1631 – March 1632
Royalist Governor of Conwy
In office
December 1644 – November 1645
Personal details
Born1600
Clenennau, Dolbenmaen, Caernarfonshire
Died1666
Clenennau
Resting placeSt Beuno's Church, Penmorfa
NationalityWelsh
SpouseJanet Vaughan
ChildrenOne son, two daughters
Military service
AllegianceRoyalist
RankColonel
Battles/wars

Sir John Owen of Clenennau (1600–1666), was a Welsh landowner from Anglesey, who served with the Royalist army in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, during which he held various commands in North Wales.

The Earl of Clarendon, in his history of the war, noted that Owen described himself as "a plain gentleman of Wales, who had been always taught to obey the King";[1] by contrast Cromwell referred to Owen in passing as "a violent man, now got into trouble enough".[2] Following the Second English Civil War he was sentenced to death in 1649 for treason and the murder of a Parliamentarian official, William Lloyd, but was later reprieved. After the Stuart Restoration in 1660, he was made Vice-Admiral of North Wales, dying in 1666.

  1. ^ Hyde 1826, p. 255.
  2. ^ Carlyle 1845, p. 394.