MYTTON, Richard (1660-1718), of Halston, nr. Oswestry, Salop.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715, ed. D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks, S. Handley, 2002
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1690 - 1695
1698 - 20 Dec. 1709
1710 - 1713

Family and Education

bap. 27 Dec. 1660, 1st s. of Richard Mytton of Halston by Rebecca, da. of Roger Kynaston of Hordley, Salop; gds. of Thomas Mytton†.  educ. Shrewsbury sch.; Magdalen, Oxf. 1677; I. Temple 1679.  m. lic. 2 June 1685, Sarah, da. of Sir John Houblon, of St. Christopher’s, London, ld. mayor 1695, 8s. 7da.  suc. fa. 1669.1

Offices Held

Freeman, Much Wenlock 1684; sheriff, Salop 1685–6.2

Biography

Mytton’s family had resided in or near Shrewsbury since the 15th century, acquiring Halston in 1549, and had provided the borough with several of its parliamentary representatives. Although his grandfather, Thomas Mytton, had been an active Parliamentarian during the Civil War, commanding forces in Shropshire and north Wales, and had sat for Shrewsbury in the first Protectorate Parliament, and although he himself had married into a family of rich Whig merchants, Mytton was returned in 1690 as a Tory and was classed as such in a list by Lord Carmarthen (Sir Thomas Osborne†). At the end of the year the lord president listed Mytton as a probable supporter in anticipation of a parliamentary attack on his own ministerial position, while the following April Robert Harley* listed Mytton as doubtful but as a possible Country supporter. Grascome followed the more usual course in 1693 in identifying him as a supporter of the Court. An inactive Member, Mytton was frequently absent. On 16 Jan. 1692 a motion that he be granted leave of absence was rejected by the House, but two days later he was given leave for a month. Further absences were allowed him on 6 Feb. 1693, for a fortnight, to recover his health; on 15 Dec. 1693, for three weeks; and on 22 Feb. 1695, again for three weeks. At the next election he made way for his cousin John Kynaston, but was returned again in 1698 when the other outgoing Member for Shrewsbury, Hon. Andrew Newport, also a Tory, declined to stand. Forecast as likely to oppose a standing army, Mytton was listed as a member of the Country party in about September 1698. On 25 Mar. 1699 he was once more granted leave of absence, for three weeks. An analysis of the House of early 1700 listed him as doubtful, or possibly as opposition. He supported the motion of 26 Feb. 1702 vindicating the proceedings of the Commons over the impeachment of the Whig ministers.3

In the 1702 election Mytton and John Kynaston were for once faced with a contest at Shrewsbury, and easily defeated two Whigs. Mytton voted on 13 Feb. 1703 against agreeing with the Lords’ amendments to the bill for enlarging the time for taking the oath of abjuration, and in March 1704 was included in Lord Nottingham’s (Daniel Finch†) forecast of supporters of the government’s actions over the Scotch Plot. He was marked as ‘doubtful’ in a forecast for the Tack; was included on Harley’s lobbying list as to be approached by Sir William Forester*; and eventually voted against the Tack, or was absent, on 28 Nov. 1704, being afterwards classed as ‘Low Church’ in a parliamentary list of 1705. None the less, he voted against the Court candidate in the election of a Speaker on 25 Oct. 1705. In this session, Mytton managed a private estate bill through the House, and was given leave of absence for three weeks on 22 Nov.

Mytton twice figured as a Tory in lists from 1708, and in the election of that year he and Kynaston again repulsed a Whig challenge at Shrewsbury, only to be unseated on petition on 20 Dec. 1709, the Commons endorsing a decision of the committee of elections which even Whig observers admitted had been grounded in little more than party prejudice. In July 1710 he was one of a number of Tory gentlemen and prospective parliamentary candidates who welcomed Dr Sacheverell to Shrewsbury at the head of a cavalcade of some 5,000 supporters. At the following general election, in which Mytton stood as a Tory, he topped the poll. Classed as a Tory in the ‘Hanover list’ of the new Parliament, he was subsequently ranked among the ‘worthy patriots’ who in the first session laid bare the mismanagements of the old ministry, although on 3 Feb. 1711 he had been given leave of absence for a month. He was also a member of the October Club. Another period of absence, six weeks, was granted him on 9 Feb. 1712. In 1713 Mytton declined to stand for re-election. He died in London on 22 Oct. 1718 and was buried at Shrewsbury.4

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: D. W. Hayton

Notes

  • 1. Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. ser. 4, xii. 221–2; xlvii. 81; info. from J. B. Lawson; Mar. Lic. Vicar-Gen. (Harl. Soc. xxx), 202; PCC 31 Barnes, 25 Penn.
  • 2. Salop RO, Forester mss, copy of Much Wenlock corp. bk.
  • 3. Salop N. and Q. n.s. iv. 60; DNB (Mytton, Thomas).
  • 4. Boyer, Anne Annals, ix. 203; Huntington Lib. Stowe mss 58(6), pp. 183–4; Chirk Castle Accts. 1666–1753 ed. Myddelton, 224; Hearne Colls. vi. 247.