Brogyntyn takes its name from the fortress that had belonged to Madoc ap Meredith, the last Prince of Lower Powys, whose son Owen Brogyntyn ap Madoc, gave his name to the place – it becoming Castell Brogyntyn. The Brogyntyn name, borne by Owen’s son Bleddyn, became corrupted by Anglicisation, as demonstrated in Henry III’s 1218 address to Llewelyn, Prince of Wales, which informed him that amongst others ‘Bleddyn Filius Oeni de Porkington’ had performed to his majesty the service he owed. The name Porkington eventually became applied to the property – and at one point in the seventeenth century it was also known as Constable’s Hall – but in 1871 the then owner, J.R. Ormsby Gore MP, later 1st Lord Harlech, resumed the ancient name of Brogyntyn.

From the medieval Welsh princes, the estate passed into the hands of the Lacon family. The heiress, Margaret Wyn Lacon, or Laken, married Sir William Maurice (1542–1622) of Clenennau, Caernarfonshire, and so carried Brogyntyn into that family. Sir William and Lady Maurice’s son, William Wyn Maurice (1559-c. 1598) had two daughters and the elder of these, Ellin Maurice (1578–1626), whose first husband was John Owen, conveyed the property to the Owen family. Ellin, after John Owen’s death married Sir Francis Eure (d. 1621) and a chimneypiece and overmantel that now stands in the entrance hall of the present house commemorates their marriage and ancestry.

Ellin’s son by John Owen, Colonel William Owen (d. 1670), served as Constable of Harlech Castle and inherited the Shropshire estate. He was a Royalist in the Civil Wars and in 1655 was compounded for £414 6s 8d. His brother was the distinguished Royalist

Sir John Owen (c. 1600–1666), who served as Vice Admiral of North Wales and Governor of Conwy Castle which he vigorously defended as a garrison against the Parliamentarians. Even after the fall of Conwy, Owen mounted an attack on Caernarfon but was eventually captured and accused of High Treason. He narrowly escaped beheading but was reprieved and received a basket-hilted sword from co-conspirator Lord Capel of Hadham at the time of Capel’s execution. This was a noted heirloom at Brogyntyn and remained with the Harlech family until its sale in 2017.