His Petition
On King Charles II's return, he petitioned for redress for his wrongs, and was given the vice-admiralty of North Wales, while as deputy Lieutent he joined William Griffiths of Cefnamwlch in rounding up the fallen faction in Caernarvonshire, turning the tables on some who had been busy with his sequestration but fourteen months earlier.
His Epitaph
He died at Clenennau in 1666: his tomb is in Penmortha church. His best epitaphs were written by two bards when he first became sheriff:-
"Gwr a nerthai'r Goron," and, "mae rhinwedd ar eich cledd clau"; For he was fundamentally a soldier, adapt in tactics (the only branch of knowledge in which he enriched the family library) than in speculative politics or theology or the sort of diplomacy needed in public affairs (in Archbishop Williams's phrase) "Valour will not do the business".
His brother William Owen (1607-1670), who inherited Porkington (now Brogyntyn), Salop, also received a colonel's commission from the King (15th June 1643), helped to organise supplies as sheriff of Merioneth, 1645-6 and was governor of Harlech from 16th May 1644 to its surrender on honourable terms on 13th March 1647, the last Royalist garrison to surrender.
In 1648 he went to Scotland with Langdale to join in Hamilton's invasion, was imprisoned in Nottingham castle on its defeat, and having compounded at £400 for his estates (which were freed by 1651) was allowed to go abroad. He was back at Porkington by the end of 1655, when he successfully pleaded exemption from the decimation tax.
Translation from Latin on the Memorial To Colonel Sir John Owen, Buried in this Church ob. 1666:
"TO THE SACRED MEMORY of JOHN OWEN, of CLENNENAU, Caernarvonshire, Soldier, a man possessed of a burning love to his Country, and having an undoubted and evident loyalty to his King (The Blessed Martyr, Charles I); a Man who gladly faced the greatest possible dangers in order to rescue His Most Sacred Majesty from the fury of Traitors. This outstanding Man routed and broke up several times the forces of the enemy and defended Religion, until by an unhappy mischance, he fell into the hands, now steeped in Royal blood, of desperate men. From which predicament surrounded by his foes ‚he could, by a craven petition, have secured his Freedom, but for the fact that, being, by the most perfect heroism, more concerned for his reputation than for his life, he found such a double ‚roll repellent. Therefore, undaunted, he offered his neck to his Captors, but the Power of God turned back the sharp edge of the executioners axe, and impeded the flight of swift Fate, until, as an old man, he had seen with much joy, Charles II restored both to himself and to his Own. He died peacefully in the Year of Our Lord 1666, and in the Sixty-Sixth year of his life, and here he rests in peace with his most dear wife, Janet, the daughter of GRIFFITH VAUGHAN, Knight, of Gors-y-Gedol. ELENA [HELEN] OWEN, prompted by gratitude and filial affection, has placed [this monument] to her Grandfather and Grandmother of Blessed Memory"
The Restoration
After the Restoration he petitioned frequently for preferment in compensation for his losses, but little came of it beyond a colonelcy in the Denbighshire militia. He was the patron of the Royalist poet Huw Morys. His marriage with Mary, widow of bishop John Hanmer producing no heir, his estate was reunited on his death with Clenennau, inherited by Sir John's son William Owen, who had been with his father at the siege of Bristol.
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