Thomas (Middleton) Myddelton MP (abt. 1550 - 1631)

Born about 1550 in Wales

Ancestors

Husband of Anna (van Acker) Myddleton — married 18 Dec 1623 in London, England

Descendants

Died 12 Aug 1631 at about age 81 in Stanstead, Mountfitchet, Essex, England

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Biography

Sir Thomas Middleton was a member of the aristocracy in British Isles.

This profile is part of the Middleton Name Study.

Thomas Myddelton was the 4th s. of Richard Myddelton† by Jane, da. of Hugh Dryhurst, alderman of Denbigh. He m. (1) bef. Oct.1585, Hester, da. of (Sir) Richard Saltonstall, 2s. inc. Thomas; (2) c.1587, Elizabeth, wid. of John Olmstead of Ingatestone, Essex, 2s. 2da.; (3) Elizabeth, wid. of Miles Hobart, clothworker, of London; (4) Anne, wid. of Jacob Wittewronge, brewer, of London. Kntd. 1603.^[1]

Research Notes

Myddelton was a widower three times. His first wife, the 'beloved' Hester, died in 1587, less than five years after their marriage, and he was left to bring up his son Thomas Myddelton; another son, Richard, died shortly after his mother. Myddelton remarried the following year; his new wife was Elizabeth Olmstead, herself a widow and the stepdaughter of an alderman and business associate, Richard Tailor. The couple had four children—Henry, who died young, Timothy, Hester, who married Henry Salisbury, later a baronet, and Mary, who married Sir John Maynard. Of Elizabeth's death, Sir Thomas's subsequent marriage, to the twice-widowed Elizabeth Hobart, and the latter's death, nothing is known. But when, towards the end of his life, Myddelton married for the fourth time, this time the young Flemish widow of a London brewer, Anne Wittewronge (d. 1646), her supposed infidelity was the source of a popular song, 'Room for cuckolds, here comes my lord mayor'.

Old Notes

Sir THOMAS MYDDELTON ( 1550 - 1631 ) entrepreneur , was the fourth son of the above Richard Myddelton . Apprenticed to a London grocer , he became a freeman of the Grocers' Company ( 1582 ), surveyor of the outports ( c. 1580 ), and from c. 1595 was constantly employed on such public business as the valuation of prize cargoes , the raising of emergency military and naval supplies by means of his extensive credit, and expert advice on currency problems . The scope of his private transactions, and his deep underlying piety, come out clearly in his ledger for 1583-1603 ( N.L.W. , Chirk castle MSS. ). He was an original shareholder in the East India Company , a partner in the chief buccaneering expeditions of the reign , and under James I in the New River enterprise of his brother Hugh (below) and in the Virginia Company , and a universal banker and moneylender , often in association with James I 's Welsh goldsmith John Williams (q.v.) . He remained in close touch with Wales , interceding on behalf of his fellow-burgesses of Denbigh against the ‘encroachments' of the Salusbury s of Lleweni (q.v.) in 1593 , arbitrating in other local disputes in 1595 , serving Merionethshire (where he had property) in parliament in 1597 and as lord lieutenant in 1599 , and advising the government on the choice of sheriffs there in 1602 ( Hist. MSS. Comm. , Cecil , iv, 375-6, v. 379, xii, 482-3). He farmed his Denbighshire lands in association with Lincolnshire properties, and drew on them for supplies for Ireland during a crisis of Bagnall's campaign ( 1595 ); he advanced money (on mortgage or unsecured) to many of his neighbours in North Wales and to Welshmen of the South and in London , thereby often playing a decisive part in the evolution of the county families ( N.L.W., Journal , i, 85-6; N.L.W., Plymouth deeds 822, 913-14, 916 ; U.C.N.W., Nannau-Hengwrt MSS. 189, 207, 229, 240, 273, 287, 339-40, 357 ; Cal. Wynn Papers , 1017; Cal. Clenennau Letters and Papers , letter 293, 453). He bought in 1595 (from lord St. John of Bletsloe ) Chirk Castle [for about £5,000], and in 1628-9 the Crown lordship of Arwystli and Cyfeiliog , which he later resold. [He was accused of extensive felling of timber and other depredations and extortions in the lordship of Chirk and encountered much local opposition as a ‘usurer' stepping into a former Crown lordship.] After 1603 , when (after long evading civic office ) he was made alderman and sheriff of London ( 21 June ) and a knight ( 26 July ), his interests became more exclusively centred in the metropolitan area; he became lord mayor in 1613 , acquired in 1615 an Essex manor as a country seat nearer than Chirk to his place of business in Tower Street , and other properties in the home counties in 1623 , and represented the city in the three parliaments of 1624-6 . Yet at the very end of his life he co-operated with Rowland Heylyn (q.v.) in financing the publication of the first portable Welsh Bible and other Welsh devotional works ( 1630 ). He d. on 12 Aug. 1631 , leaving his Welsh estates to his eldest surviving son Thomas Myddelton (below) and those in Essex to a younger son, TIMOTHY MYDDELTON, founder of another wealthy stock which played a considerable part in the public life of Essex . His strong Puritanism did not prevent him from sheltering and befriending his Roman Catholic brother WILLIAM MYDDELTON (sometimes confused with his cousin and namesake the bard (q.v.) ), who had settled in Flanders , with a Flemish wife, and become an associate of Hugh Owen (see under Owen of Plas-du ), the Catholic conspirator . Another brother, ROBERT MYDDELTON , a city glover , was as Member of Parliament for Weymouth , an outspoken critic of commerical policy in James I 's parliaments, but beyond the freemanship of Denbigh ( 1615 ) took no part in Welsh affairs, nor did his nephew RICHARD MYDDELTON , a fellow- freeman of the Grocers' Company and adventurer in the New River Company , who traded in skins in the Levant , served as consul under the Levant Company (c. 1651-3 ) [and traded in Welsh cloth in Portugal , Leghorn , and the Canaries c. 1622 ( T. Mendenhall , Shrewsbury, Drapers and the Welsh Wool Trade , 1953 , 64)]. Another nephew (possibly the one who endowed a ‘lectureship' at Haverfordwest — see under Dolben ) fell into the hands of the Spaniards on Drake 's last voyage ( 1595-6 ).

Sources

1. ↑ MYDDELTON, Thomas (c.1556-1631), of Galch Hill, Denb., Tower Street, London Stansted Mountfichet, Essex. The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981, citing A. H. Dodd ‘Mr. Myddelton, the Merchant of Tower Street’, Eliz. Govt. and Soc. 249-81.

• wikipedia:Thomas Myddelton (Lord Mayor of London)
• Find A Grave: Memorial #47420430
• Wikidata: Item Q7792647, en:Wikipedia
• Source: S714490133 Ancestry Family Trees Publication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.Ancestry Family Tree Ancestry Family Tree 115598654