Caryll Molyneux, 3rd Viscount Molyneux (1623/24 – 1700) was an English
peer.
Life
He was the younger son of
Richard Molyneux, 1st Viscount Molyneux and Mary Caryll, daughter of Sir Thomas Caryll of Bentone in Sussex. He inherited the title from his elder brother,
Richard Molyneux, 2nd Viscount Molyneux, in 1654. He married Mary Barlow, daughter of Sir Alexander Barlow of Barlow (elder brother of the Catholic
martyr
A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In ...
Ambrose Barlow) and his wife Dorothy Gresley, by whom he had one surviving son, William, and five daughters, Mary, Frances, Margaret, Elizabeth and Anne.
Molyneux joined the Royalist army at the outbreak of the
English Civil War
The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...
, and served with his brother in the Lancashire Regiment, which was mostly Catholic, through almost all the fighting from
Manchester
Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
(1642) to
Worcester (1651). After the death of his brother in 1654, he succeeded to the viscounty and the constableship of
Liverpool Castle. As a well-known Catholic Cavalier, he experienced harsh treatment from the victors; and the family estates suffered.
It was not until the reign of
James II that Molyneux's fortunes improved. He was then appointed
Custos Rotulorum of Lancashire (1685–89),
Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire (1687–1688) and
Admiral of the Narrow Seas, and was one of the few who fought with any success on James's side against the
Prince of Orange, seizing and holding
Chester
Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...
, until all further resistance was in vain. After using the castle to store arms, he was arrested on a fabricated charge of
treason
Treason is the crime of attacking a state (polity), state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to Coup d'état, overthrow its government, spy ...
for a suspected Jacobite rebellion called "The Lancashire plot". Along with other Catholics, he was imprisoned in the
Tower of London, but was acquitted in 1694. He did not however recover the hereditary constableship, and the castle was leased to the burgesses, who in 1704 were authorised by the Crown to destroy it.
After Viscount Molyneux's death at Croxteth in 1700, his title passed to his only surviving son,
William Molyneux, 4th Viscount Molyneux.
References
*
Victoria County History, Lancashire III (London, 1907), 67–73
*
Henry Foley, ''Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus'', VII (London, 1882), 513–516
*
Catholic Record Society, V (London, 1909), 109, 131, 218, etc.
*
Thomas Phillipps, ''The family of Sir Thomas Molyneux'' (Middlehill. 1820)
*Gisborne Molineux, ''Memoir of the Molineux Family'' (London, 188
Molyneux family history
{{DEFAULTSORT:Molyneux, Caryll Molyneux, 4th Viscount
1620s births
1700 deaths
English army officers
Lord-lieutenants of Lancashire
Cavaliers
Viscounts in the Peerage of Ireland
People acquitted of treason