lf,2 



SIR HUGH MYDDELTON. 



PART II. 



River undertaking from its commencement. Nor were 

 his men and women servants neglected, for he bequeathed 

 to each of them a gift of money, not forgetting " the 

 boy in the kitchen," to whom he left forty shillings. He 

 remembered also the poor of Henllaii, near Denbigh, 

 " the parish in which he was born," leaving to them 20/. ; 

 a similar sum to the poor of Denbigh, which he had 

 represented in several successive parliaments ; and 5/. to 

 the parish of Amwell, in Hertfordshire. To the Gold- 

 smiths' Company, of which he had so long been a 

 member, he bequeathed a share in the New River 

 Company, for the benefit of the more necessitous brethren 

 of that guild, " especially to such as shall be of his name, 

 kindred, and county." l 



Such was the life and such the end of Sir Hugh Myd- 

 delton, a man full of enterprise and resources, an ener- 

 getic and untiring worker, a great conqueror of obstacles 

 and difficulties, an honest and truly noble man, and one 

 of the most distinguished benefactors the city of London 

 has ever known. 



1 Several of the descendants of Sir 

 Hugh Myddelton, when reduced in 

 circumstances, obtained assistance from 

 this fund. It has been stated, and often 

 repeated, that Lady Myddelton, after 

 her husband's death, became a pen- 

 sioner of the Goldsmiths' Company, 

 receiving from them 201. a year. But 

 this annuity was paid, not to the widow 

 of the first Sir Hugh, but to the mother 

 of the last Sir Hugh, more than a cen- 

 tury later. The last who bore the title 

 was an unworthy scion of this dis- 

 tinguished family. He could raise his 

 mind no higher than the enjoyment 

 of a rummer of ale ; and towards 



the end of his life existed upon a pen- 

 sion granted him by the New River 

 Company. The statements so often 

 published (and which, on more than 

 one occasion, have brought poor per- 

 sons up to town from Wales to make 

 inquiries) as to an annuity of IOOL 

 said to have been left by Sir Hugh 

 and unclaimed for a century, and of 

 an advertisement calling upon his de- 

 scendants to apply for the sum of 

 10,OOOZ. alleged' to b<> lying for them 

 at the Bank of England, are altogether 

 unfounded. No such annuity has been 

 left, no such sum has accrued, and no 

 such advertisement has appeared. 



