Thomas Mytton | |
---|---|
Member of Parliament for Shropshire | |
In office September 1654 –January 1655 | |
Vice-admiral,North Wales | |
In office 1647–1649 | |
High Sheriff of Shropshire | |
In office 1644–1645 | |
Personal details | |
Born | 1597 Halston,Shropshire |
Died | 29 November 1656 59) London | (aged
Resting place | Old St Chad's Church,Shrewsbury [a] |
Political party | Parliamentarian |
Spouse(s) | (1) Magdalen Napier (1629-1648) (2) Barbara Leonard (1649-his death) |
Children | Margaret (1626-1647),Richard (1637-1670),Mary (?) and Sarah (1638-1698) |
Alma mater | Balliol College,Oxford |
Occupation | Lawyer,soldier and administrator |
Military service | |
Allegiance | England |
Years of service | 1642 to 1648 |
Rank | Major General |
Battles/wars | Wars of the Three Kingdoms Oswestry;Montgomery Castle;Denbigh Green;North Wales campaign 1646;Battle of Red Hill 1648 |
Major General Thomas Mytton,also spelt Mitton,(1597-November 1656),was a lawyer from Oswestry who served in the Parliamentarian army during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and as MP for Shropshire in the First Protectorate Parliament.
Part of a long-established local family,Mytton was one of the few members of the mostly Royalist Shropshire gentry to support Parliament. Despite his lack of military experience,he proved a determined and competent officer,eventually rising to command operations in North Wales. In December 1647 he was also appointed Vice-admiral,North Wales.
After helping to suppress a rising in North Wales during the 1648 Second English Civil War,he resigned his military posts and was appointed MP in 1654. He died in London and was buried in the churchyard of Old St Chad's Church,Shrewsbury on 29 November 1656.
Thomas Mytton was born in 1597,only surviving son of Richard Mytton of Halston in Shropshire,and Margaret Owen,daughter of Thomas Owen (ca 1542–1598),a judge who owned Condover Hall. His uncle Roger (1573-1617),was MP for Shrewsbury from 1601 to 1614 and High Sheriff of Shropshire in 1604. [2] His sister Sarah (1598-1677) married Sir Edward Acton (1610-1659),who was MP for Bridgnorth. [3]
In 1629,Mytton married Magdalen Napier (1610-1648),daughter of Sir Robert Napier (1560–1637),and sister-in-law of Sir Thomas Myddelton. They had at least seven children who survived into adulthood,including Margaret (1626-1647),Mary (1626-?),Edward (1633-1660),Magdalen (1636-?),Richard (1637-1670),Sarah (1638-1698) and Christian (1638-?). In 1649 he married again,this time to Barbara Lennard,daughter of the current Baron Dacre;they had no children. [4]
After attending Shrewsbury School,Mytton graduated from Balliol College,Oxford in 1615,then joined Lincoln's Inn in 1616 where he completed his legal training. There are few details available on his pre-war career but he supported Parliament during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms,despite most of the Shropshire gentry being Royalist,including his sister's husband. Both his mother and wife's families were Puritan sympathisers who opposed the policies of Charles I,although Mytton himself seemed less committed to 'Godly reforms". [5]
When the First English Civil War began in August 1642, the regional centre of Shrewsbury was used to assemble recruits and supplies from Royalist areas in Wales and the North West, making the area important to both sides in June 1643, Parliament appointed the Earl of Denbigh military commander of Shropshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Staffordshire, Sir Thomas Myddelton filling the same role in North Wales. [6]
Mytton raised an infantry regiment in Cheshire and joined Myddelton to take Wem in September 1643, becoming Governor of the first Parliamentarian garrison in Shropshire (see Map). [7] For the next twelve months, he used the town as a base for operations in support of Sir William Brereton's campaign against Chester and other Royalist positions in the region. Tensions developed with local Parliamentarians whom he accused of refusing to follow orders, a dispute that influenced subsequent events. [5]
In June 1644, he and Denbigh took Oswestry, isolating Shrewsbury from Chester and providing a route for Parliamentarian offensives into Wales. [8] A joint offensive with Myddleton led to the capture of Montgomery Castle in early September, while a Royalist attempt to retake it was repulsed on 18th in the biggest battle of the war in Wales and a major victory for Parliament. [9] The new Parliamentarian governor was Sir John Pryce, a Royalist defector who switched sides again in May 1645. [10]
His capture of Shrewsbury on 22 February 1645 forced the evacuation of remaining Royalist garrisons in central Shropshire, but local opposition to the appointment meant he did not become Governor. [11] The war had become increasingly bitter on both sides, illustrated when Mytton hung twelve Irish Catholic prisoners taken at Shrewsbury, in accordance with the October 1644 Parliamentarian "Ordinance of no quarter to the Irish". Prince Rupert of the Rhine promptly responded by hanging the same number of English Protestants, which did little to improve his reputation for brutality but effectively ended the practice. [12]
When Myddelton and Denbigh resigned their military offices in April 1645 under the self-denying ordinance, Mytton was promoted to Major General, made commander in North Wales and appointed High Sheriff of Shropshire. By late 1645, the Royalists were close to collapse and at Denbigh Green on 1 November, he defeated an attempt to relieve Chester, which capitulated in February 1646. Next he was ordered to reduce Royalist strongpoints in North Wales, which provided a potential bridgehead for supporters in Ireland; on 10 June, Charles instructed his remaining garrisons in England and Wales to yield, although most ignored this. [13] By the end of August, Mytton had taken Ruthin, Caernarfon and Beaumaris on Anglesey. Denbigh Castle surrendered in October only after Charles sent its commander a personal note, Conwy held out until November, with Harlech the last to fall in March 1647. [14]
Arguments over the settlement with Charles led to conflict between moderate MPs, who held a majority in Parliament, and a radical minority, who were supported by the New Model Army. The economic cost of the war, a poor 1646 harvest, and recurrence of the plague meant by March 1647 the troops in Wales had not been paid for eighteen months, while the New Model was owed over £3 million, an enormous sum at the time. Parliament ordered it to Ireland, stating only those who agreed would be paid; when their representatives demanded full payment for all in advance, the army was disbanded on 8 April 1647. [15]
Since his troops were not part of the New Model, Mytton retained his position. In December, he was appointed Vice-admiral of North Wales in place of Thomas Glynn and granted £5,000 of confiscated Royalist estates. [5] The Second English Civil War began in April 1648 when unpaid Parliamentarian garrisons in South Wales defected but Mytton remained loyal. The revolt in the south was quickly suppressed, that in the north collapsed after he and Myddelton defeated a Royalist force at Red Hill on 1 October and recaptured Beaumaris Castle. [16]
This ended his military career and he played a relatively minor role under the Interregnum. He was part of the court-martial which sentenced the Earl of Derby to death for his part in the 1651 Third English Civil War and represented Shropshire in the First Protectorate Parliament. He died in London in November 1656 and was buried on 29 November in the original St Chad's Church, Shrewsbury. [5]
John "Mad Jack" Mytton was a British eccentric and rake of the Regency period who was briefly a Tory Member of Parliament.
The First English Civil War took place in England and Wales from 1642 to 1646, and forms part of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. An estimated 15% to 20% of adult males in England and Wales served in the military at some point between 1639 and 1653, while around 4% of the total population died from war-related causes. These figures illustrate the widespread impact of the conflict on society, and the bitterness it engendered as a result.
Colonel Thomas Horton, January 1603 to October 1649, was a member of the minor gentry from Leicestershire who served in the Parliamentarian army during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Like many other of those who approved the Execution of Charles I in January 1649, Horton was a religious Independent. His family was closely connected to Sir Arthur Haselrig, one of the Five Members whose attempted arrest by Charles I in January 1642 was a major step on the road to the First English Civil War.
Michael Jones was an Irish-born Protestant soldier of Welsh descent who fought in the War of the Three Kingdoms, primarily in Ireland. Third son of Lewis Jones, Bishop of Killaloe, his brothers Henry and Ambrose were also bishops in the Church of Ireland.
Sir Thomas Myddelton (1586–1666) of Chirk Castle, Denbighshire, was an English-born Welsh landowner, politician, and military officer. He became a Member of Parliament in 1624; during the First English Civil War he was a prominent Parliamentarian general, despite having no previous military experience.
Montgomery Castle is a stone castle looking over the town of Montgomery in Powys, Mid Wales. It is one of many Norman castles on the border between Wales and England.
Sir William Vaughan was a cavalry officer in the armies of Charles I of England. Initially serving in Ireland during the Confederate Wars, the outbreak of the First English Civil War led to him being sent to England in 1644, at the head of an Anglo-Irish cavalry regiment, to reinforce the Royalist army.
James Berry, died 9 May 1691, was a Clerk from the West Midlands who served with the Parliamentarian army in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Characterised by a contemporary and friend as "one of Cromwell's favourites", during the 1655 to 1657 Rule of the Major-Generals, he was administrator for Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire and Wales.
George Twisleton, 1618 to 12 May 1667, was a member of the landed gentry from Yorkshire and colonel in the Parliamentarian army during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Under the Commonwealth of England, he sat as MP for Anglesey from 1654 to 1659.
This is a timeline for the English Civil War in Shropshire.
The siege of Chester occurred over a 16-month period between September 1644 and February 1646 during the First English Civil War. In the engagement, Sir William Brereton and the Parliamentarians were ultimately successful in taking possession of the city and Royalist garrison commanded by Lord Byron.
Humphrey Mackworth was an English lawyer, judge, and politician of Shropshire landed gentry origins who rose to prominence in the Midlands, the Welsh Marches and Wales during the English Civil War. He was the Parliamentarian military governor of Shrewsbury in the later phases of the war and under The Protectorate. He occupied several important legal and judicial posts in Chester and North Wales, presiding over the major trials that followed the Charles Stuart's invasion in 1651. In the last year of his life, he attained national prominence as a member of Oliver Cromwell's Council and as a Member of the House of Commons for Shropshire in the First Protectorate Parliament.
The Battle of Montgomery took place during the First English Civil War of 1642–1646. On 17 September 1644, a Parliamentarian force commanded by Sir John Meldrum advanced to engage a Royalist army led by Lord Byron which was besieging Montgomery Castle in mid Wales. The battle was fought the next day. After the Royalists gained an initial advantage, the Parliamentarians counter-attacked and destroyed Byron's army.
Sir John Owen of Clenennau, was a Welsh landowner from Anglesey, who served with the Royalist army in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, during which he held various commands in North Wales.
Robert Corbet was an English politician who supported Parliament in the English Civil War. He was a member of the Shropshire county committee, responsible for pursuing the war against the royalists and represented Shropshire in the First Protectorate Parliament. He is particularly known as the employer and mentor of Richard Gough, author of the Antiquities and Memoirs of the Parish of Myddle, a pioneering work of ethnographic literature, in which he is mentioned repeatedly.
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The Battle of Denbigh Green took place during the closing stages of the First English Civil War. Fought just outside the Royalist garrison of Denbigh, it has been described as probably the only action in the North Wales theatre of the war "meriting the description of battle".
The Battle of Y Dalar Hir took place on 5 June 1648 in Caernarfonshire, North Wales, during the Second English Civil War. While little more than a skirmish, it had a significant effect on the local progress of the conflict.
Colonel Robert Ellice of Gwasnewydd was a Welsh professional soldier who served in the Royalist army in the English Civil War.