LLANILSTYN (LLAN-IESTYN), a parish, in the union of BANGOR-AND-BEAUMARIS, partly in the hundred of TYNDAETHWY, and partly
within the liberties of the borough of BEAUMARIS, county of ANGLESEY, NORTH WALES, 3 miles (N. W. by N.) from Beaumaris;
containing 275 inhabitants, of which number 129 are in the former, and 146 in the latter, portion. This parish, which
derives its name from the dedication of its church to St. Iestyn, by whom it was founded towards the close of the sixth
century, is situated nearly in the centre of the promontcry that separates Beaumaris Roads from the Irish Sea, and
comprises a small tract of land, the greater part of which is inclosed and cultivated. The surrounding scenery is
distinguished by features rather of a bold than pleasing character; and the country adjacent is studded with eminences of
considerable elevation. The distant views are interesting and extensive, reaching over the Menai strait on the south, and
the Irish Sea to the north. The living is a perpetual curacy, annexed to that of Llangoed. The church, originally founded
by St. Iestyn, at the close of the sixth century, was granted in 1243, by Prince Llewelyn, to the priory that he had
recently founded at Llanvaes, to which establishment it belonged at the dissolution. Of the ancient church there are no
other remains than the tomb of the founder, which has been carefully preserved, and is now deposited in the present
church, a neat edifice of modern erection. This monument is of curious workmanship, and is decorated with a figure of the
saint in sacerdotal vestments, having a pastoral staff in the right hand and an open scroll in the left; round the waist
is a broad girdle, from which hangs a cord and tassel similar to that worn by the monastic order of St. Francis. On the
scroll is a mutilated inscription in old characters, which has been variously read by different antiquaries, and of which
the following is the tenour, as given by the Hon. Dailies Barrington, and adopted by Mr. Pennant: " Hicjacet Santtus
Yestinus, cui Gwenllian, Filia Madoc et Greyt ap Gwilym, optulit in *Mato= istam imaginem p. salute animarum s." The
inscription, however, is at present so much defaced, and so many of the characters obliterated, as to render it very
difficult, if not impossible, to decypher it with any degree of accuracy. The monument is noticed by Rowlands, in his
"Mona Antique Restaurata," and an account of it was read before the Society of Antiquaries, in 1776, and published in the
fifth volume of the Archmologia. There is a Sunday school, conducted gratuitously, in which 30 males and females are
taught to read the Bible in their native tongue. The income arising from a few small charitable donations and bequests,
amounting to £24, which have been vested in the purchase of land, and produce a rental of £2. 2., is annually distributed
among the poor; and the parish has erected three cottages upon another portion of the land so bought, which with one
before existing on it, are given to poor families to reside in rent-free.