The site was owned for ten generations of a family which by tradition could trace its origins to
Elystan Glodrydd "Prince between Wye and Severn," and
Gwenllian, granddaughter of
Hywel Dda. After the triumphant return of
Henry Tudor at the
Battle of Bosworth, then owner
William ap Thomas who was knighted by the king for his service, gained formal responsibilities in both North and South Wales, and decided to move permanently north to
Coed Helen on the North Wales coast. He sold what was then known as
Llys Wen to members of the Rudd family sometime around 1600. Funded by the recently appointed
Anthony Rudd (c. 1548–1614), Bishop of
St David's Cathedral from 1594, the house was reconstructed in 1603, a time when it also probably gained its still standing Elizabethan promenade garden, the best preserved of its type in all of Great Britain. The house stayed in the family's hands for a few generations, but allegiance to the crown during the
English Civil War and high
hearth tax (with 13
chimneys, the highest paid in all of Carmarthenshire), the house was eventually bought by Robert Dyer, a successful Carmarthen lawyer, in 1710. Dyer who was thought to have been living in the property at this time, had the house "rebuilt," although later investigation suggests he improved it greatly including the additional of a
Queen Anne style facade. Dyer died before the works were completed in 1720, succeeded by his eldest son Robert, who married Frances Croft of
Croft Castle, descended from
Owain Glyndŵr. Pictures of the couple within the house are thought to have been painted by his brother, then painter and poet
John Dyer. In 1726, John published two poems referencing Aberglasney: "The Country Walk" about Aberglasney, and "
Grongar Hill" describing the Tywi valley. After ownership under mounting debts, the estate was put up for sale in 1798. In 1803, the house was bought by John Philips, a lawyer from Llandeilo, on behalf of his brother Thomas, a surgeon returning home after a 30-year career as a surgeon with the
East India Company. He and his married mistress lived in the house, and dying childless in 1824 left the property to his sister's son John Walters, who added Philipps to his surname and a
portico to the Queen Anne façade. He had a son who died in childhood and three daughters, two of whom died leaving the property to be inherited by the middle daughter. Her daughter Mary Anne (also known as Marianne), inherited the property, while her father John Pugh Pryse of
Bwlchbychan remarried Decima Dorothea Rice of Llwynybrain, after the death of Mary Anne's mother. The Yew tree promenade was the subject of a ''
Gardeners' Chronicle'' article in 1860. Marianne Pryse married soldier Charles Mayhew, and moving with him to
Derbyshire, Aberglasney was let out. After his retirement in 1902, they moved to Aberglasney, where Colonel Mayhew planted the rare specimen trees that remain in the grounds. The couple were the local co-ordinators for the
teetotalism movement, holding Temperance rallies, giving Llangathen its
Temperance Hall, and turning out tenants who declined to sign the Pledge. Colonel Mayhew died in 1907, and in 1908 Marianne moved to London, where she spent the rest of her life, refusing to let out Aberglasney. Aberglasney was commandeered at the outbreak of World War II, becoming a mobile laundry for the
RAOC. As the build-up to
D Day occurred, the house was used as a holding-station for troops of the
US Army, which included the sparring partner of
Joe Louis, Top Sergeant Dawson. A stray
Luftwaffe bomb fell on the property, after a raid on
Swansea docks, in a field towards
Lanlash. After the end of WW2 and the death of Marianne in 1939, a descendant of Decima Dorothea Rice, Eric Evans and his young family took up residence. But on his death in 1950 aged 30, the family trustees decided that the property was not economic, and hence decided to sell it. ==Present day==