102 



G.-1RLENS OLD AM) A7-/7. 



THE IRON GATtS TO THE PARK 



tlie King's natural son, Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond nnJ 

 Somerset. Later on the estate was in the possession of Robert 

 Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and Lord St. John of Bletsoe, whose 

 son sold tlie castle in 1595 to Sir Thomas Myddelton, who was 

 fourth son of Richard Myddelton of Galch Hill, near Denbigh, 

 and was governor of Denbigh Castle during the reign of 

 Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth. In 1592 he received a 

 patent from Queen Elizabeth as a merchant adventurer, and 

 traded largely with Antwerp and other places, making a large 

 fortune. He became Sheriff in 1603, and eventually Lord 

 Mayor of London, 1614. Sir Thomas bought Chirk Castle, 

 1595, which he presented to his son Thomas, he himself living 



and dying at Stanstead-Mount- 



fitchet, hssex, where lie is 

 burie i. The knight was de- 

 scended fr m Ririd, the son 

 of Ririd Rhudd, or the " Bloody 

 Wolf." It was after the 

 marriage of another Ririd with 

 Cicely, daughter and heiress 

 of Sir Alexander Myddelton 

 of Myddeltmi in Shropshire, 

 that the Welsh family assumed 

 the English patronymic. They 

 were a very notable family, 

 and several Myddeltons came 

 to prominence, among them 

 Sir Hugh Myddelton, the 

 famous citizen of London, who 

 brought to completion the great 

 work of conveying the New 

 River to the Metropolis, and 

 who was a younger brother of 

 the Sir Thomas who purchased 

 Chirk. 



Sir Thomas Myddelton, 

 the son of the first knight 

 of Chirk, was also a man of 

 mark. In the Civil War he 

 sided with the Commons, and 



his castle was seized for the King by Colonel Ellis. Mean- 

 while, Sir Thomas himself was fighting much in North Wales. 

 One of his achievements was the capture of Powis Castle, 

 and in December, 1641, he was under the unfortunate necessity 

 of besieging his own castle of Chirk, when he was repulsed 

 in an attempt to storm it, losing his chief engineer, together 

 with 31 slain and 43 others hurt. 



The knight's castle was delivered by Colonel Watts to his 

 daughter for her father's use in February, 1646. Charles 1. 

 lay two nights at Chirk Castle, and appears to have been 

 there with Prince Maurice when he heard of the defeat of 

 Monlrose. The enthusiasm of Sir Thomas Myddelton for the 



THE LONG TERRACE. 



