In this sparsely populated parish, the man managed to father 43 children (Image: Chris Andrews/Wiki) He savoured life’s modest joys and discovered satisfaction in angling and cultivating his vegetable garden. Dairy products formed the backbone of his meals, whilst his leisure hours were spent enjoying a spot of fowling. Church records show he reached the extraordinary age of 105, maintaining keen mental faculties and recollection throughout an existence that was, by conventional standards, rather unremarkable. He could easily have slipped into historical anonymity but for one astounding accomplishment: across 81 years, he fathered 43 children. This achievement, if it can be described as such, brought considerable fame to the tiny parish of Tregaian on Anglesey. The memory of William Ap Howel lives on in the churchyard of the village’s 14th-century church, devoted to a saint considerably less recorded than its most famous parishioner. When travel author Thomas Pennant traversed Anglesey during the late 18th century, carefully chronicling the copper workings of Parys Mountain, he deemed it necessary to reference the island’s most productive father in his …