Sir Thomas Myddelton (1586–1666) of
Chirk Castle
Chirk Castle ( cy, Castell y Waun) is a Grade I listed castle located in Chirk, Wrexham County Borough, Wales.
History
The castle was built in 1295 by Roger Mortimer de Chirk, uncle of Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March as part of King Edward ...
,
Denbighshire
Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...
, was an English-born Welsh landowner, politician, and military officer. He became a Member of Parliament in 1624; during the
First English Civil War
The First English Civil War took place in England and Wales from 1642 to 1646, and forms part of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. They include the Bishops' Wars, the Irish Confederate Wars, the Second English Civil War, the Anglo ...
he was a prominent
Parliamentarian general, despite having no previous military experience.
A member of the moderate Parliamentary opposition to the Stuart monarchy, following the
execution of Charles I
The execution of Charles I by beheading occurred on Tuesday, 30 January 1649 outside the Banqueting House on Whitehall. The execution was the culmination of political and military conflicts between the royalists and the parliamentarians in Eng ...
Myddelton gradually drew closer to the Royalists. In 1659 he took part in
Booth's Uprising
Booth's Uprising, also known as Booth's Rebellion or the Cheshire Rising of 1659, was an unsuccessful attempt in August 1659 to restore Charles II of England. Centred on North West England and led by George Booth, it took place during the politi ...
, an unsuccessful attempt to restore
Charles II to the throne, but escaped punishment; following the
Restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
he remained an active figure in local politics until his death.
Origins and family
![ChirkCastle1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/ChirkCastle1.JPG)
Myddelton was a member of a minor gentry family from Gwaenynog,
Denbighshire
Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...
, who claimed descent from a 12th-century Welsh noble,
Rhirid Flaidd
Rhirid Flaidd (sometimes called Rhirid ap Gwrgenau) ( fl. 1160), according to Welsh tradition, was the son of Gwrgenau, who is supported by an obscure pedigree going back to Cunedda Wledig, the progenitor of the House of Cunedda which had provided ...
. His father, Sir
Thomas Myddelton, was a younger son who built up a substantial fortune after being apprenticed to a London grocer, and was an early investor in the
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...
; he later became
Lord Mayor of London
The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional powe ...
and purchased the lordship and estate of
Chirk Castle
Chirk Castle ( cy, Castell y Waun) is a Grade I listed castle located in Chirk, Wrexham County Borough, Wales.
History
The castle was built in 1295 by Roger Mortimer de Chirk, uncle of Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March as part of King Edward ...
. Myddelton's mother Hester Saltonstall was the daughter of another Lord Mayor,
Sir Richard Saltonstall.
Myddelton was born in
Mincing Lane
Mincing Lane is a short one-way street in the City of London linking Fenchurch Street to Great Tower Street. In the late 19th century it was the world's leading centre for tea and spice trading.
Etymology
Its name is a corruption of Mynchen La ...
, London, but spent much of his adult life at Chirk, which his father gave him as a wedding present; he appears to have regarded himself as Welsh despite probably being unable to speak the language. He married twice: first to Margaret Savile, daughter of George Savile of
Wakefield
Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...
in
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...
, and secondly to Mary Napier, a daughter of
Sir Robert Napier, 1st Baronet (1560-1637), of
Luton Hoo
Luton Hoo is an English country house and Estate (land), estate near Luton in Bedfordshire and Harpenden in Hertfordshire. Most of the estate lies within the civil parish of Hyde, Bedfordshire. The Old English language, Saxon word wikt:hoo#Etym ...
,
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council wa ...
, by whom he had seven sons and six daughters, including:
*
Sir Thomas Myddelton, 1st Baronet
Sir Thomas Myddelton, 1st Baronet (2 November 1624 – 13 July 1663) was a Welsh politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1646 and 1663. He supported the Parliamentary cause in the English Civil War but later took part in the ...
(1624–1663), eldest son and heir, created a baronet in 1660
*Ann Myddelton, wife of
Edward Herbert, 3rd Baron Herbert of Chirbury
Edward Herbert, 3rd Baron Herbert of Chirbury (died 1678) was an English aristocrat and soldier.
Life
He was the elder son of Richard Herbert, 2nd Baron Herbert of Chirbury. He joined the royalist uprising under Sir George Booth, when he declared ...
Life
Myddelton matriculated at
Queen's College, Oxford
The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassical architecture, ...
, on 22 February 1605, and became a student at
Gray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...
in 1607. Shortly afterwards he returned to the family estates in Wales, where he took responsibility for handling his father's legal and other business. A legal dispute with a neighbouring landowner at Chirk may have been what prompted him in 1624 to seek election to the
4th Parliament of King James I
The 4th Parliament of King James I was the fourth and last Parliament of England of the reign of James I of England, summoned on 30 December 1623, sitting from 19 February 1624 to 29 May 1624, and thereafter kept out of session with repeated pror ...
, initially as
MP for
Weymouth and Melcombe Regis, probably through the sponsorship of London merchant
Robert Bateman. The following year he again won the Weymouth election but chose to sit for Denbighshire, his home constituency.
First Civil War
![Sir Thomas Middleton](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Sir_Thomas_Middleton.jpg)
Elected to the
Long Parliament
The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...
, Myddelton was a member of the large
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
faction that dominated it, but other than involvement on a few committees was not particularly active. His main concern appears to have been to find common ground with his fellow
Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...
MPs, a term encompassing those who wanted to reform or "purify" the Anglican church, in order to present a united front against Catholic influence on the country.
The outbreak of the
First English Civil War
The First English Civil War took place in England and Wales from 1642 to 1646, and forms part of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. They include the Bishops' Wars, the Irish Confederate Wars, the Second English Civil War, the Anglo ...
in 1642 saw him sent to enforce the
Militia Ordinance
The Militia Ordinance was passed by the Parliament of England on 15 March 1642. By claiming the right to appoint military commanders without the king's approval, it was a significant step in events leading to the outbreak of the First English Civ ...
in Denbighshire, where many of the local gentry were Royalist. In August the county presented a petition to the King for "protection against the orders and ordinances of Parliament" along with a regiment of volunteers and £1000; on Charles's orders Chirk was attacked in Myddelton's absence, the following January, by local Royalist commander
Robert Ellice
General Robert Ellice (13 October 1784 – 18 June 1856) was a British Army officer.
Military career
Born the son of Scottish merchant and fur trader Alexander Ellice and brother of Edward Ellice and Alexander Ellice, Ellice was commissioned ...
, who installed a garrison and requisitioned Myddelton's money and plate to fund a foot regiment. The loss of his property is supposed to have antagonised Myddelton enough to turn "a moderate politician into an active fighting man".
He was appointed Sergeant-Major General for North Wales in June 1643; despite lacking any previous military experience, he proved a reasonably competent field commander and was respected for "fair treatment" by his men. Parliament gave him authority to raise troops and levy the expenses on the estates of Royalists, though later claimed the arrangement left him £35,000 out of pocket.
From August 1643 he joined his brother-in-law
Thomas Mytton
Major General Thomas Mytton, also spelt Mitton, 1597 to November 1656, was a lawyer from Oswestry who served in the Parliamentarian army during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and as MP for Shropshire in the First Protectorate Parliament.
Pa ...
and
Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...
commander
Sir William Brereton in a campaign against Royalist garrisons through the Borders, though resistance by
William Salesbury
William Salesbury also Salusbury (c. 1520 – c. 1584) was the leading Welsh language, Welsh scholar of the Renaissance and the principal translator of the 1567 Welsh New Testament.
Early life
Salesbury was born some time before 1520 (possib ...
at
Denbigh
Denbigh (; cy, Dinbych; ) is a market town and a community in Denbighshire, Wales. Formerly, the county town, the Welsh name translates to "Little Fortress"; a reference to its historic castle. Denbigh lies near the Clwydian Hills.
History
...
and the landing of an experienced Royalist force from
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
in November meant they failed to retake North Wales.
Myddelton's command in North Wales was confirmed by a fresh commission in 1644. His forces captured
Newtown on 4 September, and secured the surrender of
Montgomery Castle
Montgomery Castle ( cy, Castell Trefaldwyn) is a stone-built castle looking over the town of Montgomery in Powys, Mid Wales. It is one of many Norman castles on the border between Wales and England.
Its strategic importance in the Welsh March ...
the following day. Myddelton, Mytton and Brereton defeated a
Royalist attempt to retake Montgomery on 17 September in a major victory which destroyed much of the Royalist field army in North Wales. However, Myddelton still failed to gain control of Denbighshire or retake his own castles of
Ruthin
Ruthin ( ; cy, Rhuthun) is a market town and community in Denbighshire, Wales, in the south of the Vale of Clwyd. It is Denbighshire's county town. The town, castle and St Peter's Square lie on a hill, skirted by villages such as Pwllglas and ...
or Chirk, which he besieged in late December.
Interregnum
The
self-denying ordinance
The Self-denying Ordinance was passed by the English Parliament on 3 April 1645. All members of the House of Commons or Lords who were also officers in the Parliamentary army or navy were required to resign one or the other, within 40 days fro ...
of May 1645, which stipulated MPs could not hold military command, led to Myddelton being recalled to Westminster and his command transferred to Mytton. He regained control of his estates at the war's end in 1646. During the
Second English Civil War
The Second English Civil War took place between February to August 1648 in Kingdom of England, England and Wales. It forms part of the series of conflicts known collectively as the 1639-1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, which include the 1641†...
he was again given overall responsibility for North Wales, where a short-lived rebellion under
Sir John Owen was suppressed at
Y Dalar Hir in June 1648, but left command in the field to Mytton.
By the end of the Second Civil War many in Parliament felt Charles could not be trusted to keep to any peace settlement, and he was tried for treason. Along with many other political moderates, Myddelton strongly opposed the trial and Charles's subsequent execution. He was one of the MPs excluded during
Pride's Purge
Pride's Purge is the name commonly given to an event that took place on 6 December 1648, when soldiers prevented members of Parliament considered hostile to the New Model Army from entering the House of Commons of England.
Despite defeat in the ...
, and his increasing disillusionment with the direction taken by Parliament led to him being linked with the Royalist exiles. In 1651 the government placed a garrison in Chirk, after Myddelton was suspected of being in contact with Charles II; it was not withdrawn until he had entered into a bond of £20,000 for "good behaviour". Although Royalist conspirators unsuccessfully attempted to draw him into a
1655 plot, he spent much of the 1650s at Chirk developing his commercial interests in coalmining, limiting his public life to attending the occasional horse race or cockfight.
Booth's Uprising and the Restoration
![Colonel Sir John Owen of Clenenney, Knt](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Colonel_Sir_John_Owen_of_Clenenney%2C_Knt.jpg)
In the summer of 1659, Myddelton joined an attempt by a group of conspirators, led by
John Mordaunt John Mordaunt may refer to:
*John Mordaunt (speaker) (d. 1504), Tudor politician and Speaker of the House of Commons
*John Mordaunt, 1st Baron Mordaunt (d. 1562)
*John Mordaunt, 2nd Baron Mordaunt (1508–1571)
*John Mordaunt, 1st Earl of Peterborou ...
, to instigate a Royalist rising across several regions of the country. Only the
Cheshire insurgency, led by
George Booth, had initial success; Myddelton nevertheless joined the rebels, who included previous opponents such as Sir John Owen and
Edward Broughton, with an enthusiasm he had failed to show during previous conspiracies in 1651 and 1655. Welcoming a detachment of rebel cavalry to Chirk, he sent a trumpeter to invite the
Oswestry
Oswestry ( ; ) is a market town, civil parish and historic railway town in Shropshire, England, close to the Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5, A483 and A495 roads.
The town was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of ...
militia to join them: they refused, but Myddelton instead led a group to
Wrexham
Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...
where on 7 August he drew his sword in the marketplace and declared Charles II as king.
The gesture was not appreciated by Booth, who had been hoping to attract political moderates by avoiding mention of Charles entirely in his proclamations.
The government ordered a force under
John Lambert John Lambert may refer to:
*John Lambert (martyr) (died 1538), English Protestant martyred during the reign of Henry VIII
*John Lambert (general) (1619–1684), Parliamentary general in the English Civil War
*John Lambert of Creg Clare (''fl.'' c. ...
to suppress the rebels, and after Booth's defeat at
Winnington Bridge on 19 August, where Myddelton was probably present, the insurgency collapsed. Lambert besieged Chirk, where Myddelton's eldest son Thomas and a number of other Welsh rebels held out, until 24 August; Myddelton himself went into hiding and was suspected to have left the country. He was ordered to have his estates confiscated but before this could be carried out, was recalled to Parliament in February 1660 along with the other expelled members, ultimately leading to the restoration of the monarchy.
After the Restoration
While Myddelton avoided losing his estates, the dismantling of Chirk after the siege had progressed far enough that it remained uninhabitable until the 1670s. Though it was noted that his health "was much impaired by age and the winter", he sat in the
Convention Parliament of 1660, standing down in favour of his eldest son in 1661. When the latter died in 1663, Myddelton sponsored his successor as Denbighshire MP,
John Wynne of Melai, and remained an influential figure locally until his death in 1666.
Although Myddelton was said to have lost up to £80,000 over the course of the wars, land investments and coalmining interests meant he was probably one of the richest men in the kingdom at the time of his death. His will contained an elaborate statement of his religious beliefs that nevertheless remained "politically evasive": "I am a Protestant, maintaining and believing the three Creeds established and professed by the Church of England in the time of Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory".
References
Sources
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External links
Welsh Biography Online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Myddelton, Thomas
1586 births
1666 deaths
Myddelton family
New Model Army generals
Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for constituencies in Wales
Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford
Members of Gray's Inn
English MPs 1624–1625
English MPs 1625
English MPs 1640–1648
Parliamentarian military personnel of the English Civil War