The extraordinary story of William Ap Howel who had 43 children over 81 years | History | News

He enjoyed life’s humble pleasures and discovered the satisfaction of angling and cultivating his vegetable garden. While dairy products formed the backbone of his meals, he also spent his free time eating poultry.

Church records show that he reached the remarkable age of 105, retaining sharp mental faculties and memory throughout a life that was unremarkable by traditional standards. He could easily have faded into historical anonymity, but he was an astonishing achievement: he fathered 43 children for 81 years.

This success, if it can be so described, brought considerable fame to the little parish of Tregaian on Anglesey. The memory of William Ap Howel lives on in the churchyard of the village’s 14th-century church; Dedicated to a much lesser-known saint than the church’s most famous congregation.

When the travel writer Thomas Pennant traveled around Anglesey in the late 18th century and carefully recorded the copper workings at Mount Parys, he thought it necessary to reference the island’s most prolific father in his 1778 publication A Tour in Wales: WalesOnline reports.

He noted that, contrary to expectations, the “great patriarch of the Tregaian” was not an imposing character with a voracious appetite, but rather “of small stature, cheerful, cheerful disposition; but economical in his diet, living chiefly on milk.” Pennant added: “He spent his time working in the countryside and his spare time fishing and poultry farming.”

When he died in March 1581, large families were typical. But William’s family size was remarkable even by the standards of the time: the average household size in England and Wales in the 16th century was just 4.75; this figure remained relatively consistent until the First World War.

From the age of 21, William established a routine of having a child every two years and continued this pattern into his later years. When he died at the age of 105, his youngest child was his son Griffith, who was only two and a half years old.

Five women were needed to support such a large family. His first wife, Elen Williams, gave birth to 22 children; His second wife, Katherine Richards, gave birth to 10 more.

His third wife, Ellen Williams, apparently more conscious of her inclinations, contributed only four. A total of 36 children were born from his three marriages.

But William’s family didn’t stop there. He also had two ‘concubines’: Jonet ferch William gave birth to two more children, while Lecky Lloyd gave birth to five more children.

Their combined reproductive output triggered an extraordinary demographic explosion in this remote corner of Anglesey. For context, during William’s lifetime the population of the wider parish of Llanfairpwll was around 80.

At the time of his death, 80 of William’s descendants lived in the parish of Tregaian. Moreover, some seemed determined to continue the family tradition: Eldest daughter Alice, then 72, had been married twice and had “many children,” according to church records.

The record continued: “It has been calculated that there were about 300 descendants at his funeral. He has many children of the fourth generation.”

Caring for such a large family may have presented challenges, but many of their children will likely have left home before the next Ap Howel baby arrives. However, local rumors suggested that he used his hunting skills as a poacher to provide food for the family.

Baptisms in the modest medieval church of St Caian could bring their own problems. In 1847, vicar Harry Longueville Jones remarked that the font was “not large enough for immersion.”

Parish records show that William maintained excellent health throughout his life. “The old man was of medium height, had a good complexion, never suffered from colic, gout or stones, and rarely got sick,” they noted.

“He had a moderate diet, lived by tillage, did much in fishing and poultry, and his senses were excellent to the end.”

William’s staggering tally of 43 children was remarkable in every respect. But he is only a minor footnote in the history of human reproduction.

The 18th-century Moroccan ruler Moulay Ismail Ibn Sharif would have ignored such figures. He is said to have fathered 525 boys and 342 girls, with a harem of 500 women. In fact, according to Guinness World Records, there are a total of 1,042 children.

Researchers at the University of Vienna suggested an even higher figure, 1,171. Excluding sperm donors (Viennese physiologist Bertold Paul Wiesner is thought to have fathered as many as 1,000 children through artificial insemination), the royal family has historically been the most prolific.

Notable examples include the 18th-century Polish King II the Strong. Augustus (c. 370 children) and the 20th-century Swazi King Philip II, who reportedly had 70 wives and 210 children. Sobhuza is located.

Other examples include Cameroon’s Bamum King Sultan Ibrahim Njoya (ca. 600 wives, 177 children), Emperor Minh Mạng (142), and King Saud of Saudi Arabia (ca. 110).

Mohammed Bello Abubakar, who died in 2017, was another contestant in Nigeria who married 86 women and fathered 170 children. In 2008, he was in danger of being arrested for polygamy because he exceeded the four-wife limit.

Even in Wales William ap Gruffydd may not hold the record. This alleged distinction belongs to Augustus John, whose artistic fame was matched by his notorious immorality.

He is reported to have fathered “up to 100 children”, mostly outside of marriage, although some argue that this number is greatly exaggerated.

At this time, William’s achievements continued until the end of World War II. It is marked by a simple plaque and an inscribed blackboard in the Grade* listed St Caian’s Church. These record that she died on 11 March 1581, “having 43 children”.