HUGH MYDDELTON, GOLDSMITH AND PART II. 



he was knighted; and he was elected Lord Mayor in 

 1613. He was the founder of the. Chirk Castle family, 

 now represented by Mr. Myddelton Biddulph. 1 Charles, 

 the fifth son, succeeded his father as governor of Den- 

 bigh Castle, and when he died bequeathed numerous 

 legacies for charitable uses connected with his native 

 town. The sixth son was Hugh Myddelton, the illus- 

 trious goldsmith and engineer. Robert, the seventh, 

 by trade a skinner, was, like two of his brothers, a 

 London citizen, and afterwards a member of parliament. 

 Foulk, the eighth son, served as high sheriff of the 

 county of Denbigh. This was certainly a large measure 

 of worldly prosperity and fame to fall to the lot of one 

 man's offspring. 



The precise date of Hugh Myddelton's birth is un- 

 known ; but it was probably about the year 1555. 2 We 

 have no record of his early life, and have no desire to 

 invent anything to supply the defect. All that we know 

 is, that he was bred to business in London, under the 

 eye of his elder brother Thomas, the grocer and merchant 



1 Sir Thomas realised considerable 

 wealth by trade, and occasionally 

 helped King Jarnes with loans of 

 money during that monarch's pecu- 

 niary difficulties. Thus we find his 

 name appearing in the ' Pell Records ' 

 (24 June, 1609) as the recipient of 

 3000Z., together with 290Z. 15s., being 

 the interest thereon, which he had ad- 

 vanced as a loan to King James for 

 one year. The interest was at the 

 then current rate of between nine and 

 ten per cent. Sir Thomas contributed 

 5002. towards the Free Schools of the 

 Grocers' Company, of which he was a 

 member ; and he also left 11. a year to 

 the poor of the same Company, as 

 well as the rent of two tenements in 

 Baynard's Castle, which they enjoy to 

 this day. Nor did he forget his 

 Welsh countrymen, for he provided 

 the Welsh " nation " with a new edi- 

 tion of the Scriptures at his own ex- 

 pense. He is the same Sir Thomas 



Myddelton of whom it is related that, 

 having married a young wife in his 

 old age, the famous song, " Room for 

 cuckolds, here comes my Lord Mayor," 

 was composed in his honour on the 

 occasion. 



2 His mother died in 1565, after 

 having given birth, as we have seen, 

 to sixteen children; Hugh being the 

 sixth of nine sons. He was thus, pro- 

 bably, at least ten years old at his 

 mother's death. This surmise as to 

 the probable period of his birth is con- 

 firmed by a passage which occurs in a 

 letter written by Myddelton to his 

 cousin, Sir John Wynne, in 1625, in 

 which he declined entering upon any 

 new undertakings because of the in- 

 firmities of age. His words were, " I 

 am grownc into years." At that time 

 he would probably be about seventy, 

 though we find him alive in 1631, 

 six years later. 



