Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Merrick, Rice
MERRICK, RICE (d. 1587), historian of Glamorgan, son of Meiric ap Howell of Cottrell in Glamorganshire, resided at that place, being part owner of the manor of St. Nicholas. He was appointed clerk of the peace for the county of Glamorgan by William Herbert, first earl of Pembroke (and subsequently by Henry, the second earl), and held the office until his death on 1 March 1586–7. He was buried in the south aisle of Cowbridge Church, where an inscribed stone was placed over his grave, and a mural tablet bearing his shield was set up close by (these were transcribed by Dineley; see Beaufort, Progress, ed. 1888, p. 346, and cf. Arch. Cambr. 5th ser. vii. 321–322).
Merrick was the author of a small history of Glamorgan (in English), called ‘Morganiæ Archaiographia,’ of which the only known copy, transcribed between 1660 and 1680, is preserved at Queen's College, Oxford. It was privately printed by Sir Thomas Phillipps at Middlehill in 1825 (fol.), and reproduced, with notes by J. A. Corbett of Cardiff, in 1887 (London, 4to). It contains valuable information about the different methods of administration in the Welsh and English portions of the county, as well as accounts of the ownership and tenure of land. A letter addressed by Merrick to Sir Edward Stradling, and dated from St. Nicholas, 18 Dec. 1574, is printed in the ‘Stradling Correspondence,’ ed. Traherne, pp. 167–8.
[Merrick's pedigree is given in Arch. Cambr. 3rd ser. viii. 111, 112; cf. also Clark's Genealogies of Glamorgan; Morganiæ Archaiographia, ed. 1887, Introduction, and pp. 43 and 115.]