Sir Richard Molyneux, MP, 1st Baronet

DO NOT CONFUSE RICHARD MOLYNEUX, 1ST BARONET MOLYNEUX WITH RICHARD MOLYNEUX, 1ST BARONET SEFTON. See Sefton info @ http://www.thepeerage.com/p3066.htm#i30658

Sir Richard Molyneux, 1st Baronet

Sir Richard Molyneux, 1st Baronet (1560–1622) was a Member of Parliament for Lancashire,[1] Mayor of Liverpool[2] and Receiver-General of the Duchy of Lancaster.

Molyneux was the son of William Molyneux and his wife Bridget Caryll. His grandfather, Sir Richard Molyneux (1528–1568)[3] was MP for Liverpoole from 1562 to 1571. He was educated at University College, Oxford.

In 1581, Molyneux was appointed by substitution MP of Wigan, replacing Sir Edward Fitton[4] and knighted in 1586. In 1588–1589 he was Mayor of Liverpool and in 1588 and 1596 High Sheriff of Lancashire. He was knight of the shire (MP) for Lancashire in 1584, 1593 and 1604. He held the office of Receiver-General of the Duchy of Lancaster from 1607.[5] He was created Baronet Molyneux in 1611.

On his death he was buried in Sefton parish church. His seats were Sefton Hall, Sefton and Lytham Hall, Fylde. He left his estates to his son Richard.

Molyneux married firstly a daughter of Lord Strange and secondly, around 1590, Frances Gerard, the daughter of Sir Gilbert Gerard and Anne Ratcliffe [6] with whom he had six sons and seven daughters including Sir Richard Molyneux, 1st Viscount Molyneux and Sir Vivian Molyneux. Alice Molyneux, their elder daughter, married Sir William Dormer and their son, Robert, was created Earl of Carnarvon in 1628.[7]

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Richard_Molyneux,_1st_Baronet

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• Sir Richard Molyneux, 1st Bt.1
• M, #30658, b. circa 1560, d. 8 February 1622/23
• Last Edited=16 Jan 2011
• Sir Richard Molyneux, 1st Bt. was born circa 1560.2 He was the son of William Molyneux and Bridget Caryll.3 He married Frances Gerard, daughter of Sir Gilbert Gerard and Anne Ratcliffe, circa 1590. He died on 8 February 1622/23.4
• He gained the title of 1st Baronet Molyneux, of Sefton, Lancashire.1
• Children of Sir Richard Molyneux, 1st Bt. and Frances Gerard
  • Alice Molyneux+1
  • Johana Molyneux+5
  • Anne Molyneux+6
  • Frances Molyneux+6
  • Richard Molyneux, 1st Viscount Molyneux+4 d. 8 May 1636
• Citations
• [S6] G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume XII/2, page 862. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.
• [S15] George Edward Cokayne, editor, The Complete Baronetage, 5 volumes (no date (c. 1900); reprint, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 1983), volume I, page 4. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Baronetage.
• [S15] George Edward Cokayne, The Complete Baronetage, volume I, page 3.
• [S34] BP1970 page 2397. See link for full details for this source. Hereinafter cited as. [S34]
• [S15] George Edward Cokayne, The Complete Baronetage, volume II, page 211.
• [S37] BP2003 See link for full details for this source. Hereinafter cited as. [S37]
• From: http://www.thepeerage.com/p3066.htm#i30658 _______________________
• MOLYNEUX, Richard II (c.1559-1623), of Croxteth and Sefton, Lancs.
• b. c.1559, 1st s. of William Molyneux by Brigitta, da. of John Caryll† of Warnham, Suss. educ. Univ. Coll. Oxf. 1577. m. (1) by 1567, a da. of Lord Strange; (2) Frances (d.1621), da. of Sir Gilbert Gerard, 6s. 7da. suc. fa. 1567, gd.-fa. 1569. Kntd. 1586; cr. Bt. 1611.2
• Offices Held
  • Hereditary constable, Liverpool castle; steward of Blackburn hundred, duchy of Lancaster 1581; j.p. from c.1583; mayor, Liverpool 1588-9; sheriff, Lancs. 1588-9, 1596-7; collector royal loans 1590, 1597; commr. subsidy 1594, 1599, musters 1596, 1599; receiver-gen. duchy of Lancaster 1607; butler in Lancashire bef. 1611.3
• Molyneux inherited from his grandfather the lordship of Liverpool and other hereditary offices which opened up the prospect of a distinguished local career as soon as he attained his majority. In the meantime he was a ward of his future father-in-law, Sir Gilbert Gerard, who returned him to Parliament for Wigan in place of Edward Fitton, who pleaded employment on the Queen’s business. But, on 18 Mar. 1581, the last day of the session, the House changed its mind about allowing replacements for living Members, and ordered Fitton to ‘stand and continue’. In 1584 and 1593 Molyneux obtained election for the county. It was probably he, rather than John Molyneux II, who was named to the subsidy committee, 24 Feb. 1585, and he was named to a committee on 4 Apr. 1593 concerned with measures against recusants. As knight for Lancashire he was entitled to attend the subsidy committee (26 Feb. 1593) and a legal committee (9 Mar. 1593).4
• Like his grandfather before him, Molyneux had disagreements with the corporation of Liverpool. In 1592 he also contrived to quarrel with the 4th Earl of Derby, lord lieutenant of the county, canvassed successfully for one of the county seats at the forthcoming election in the face of Derby’s opposition, and, presumably after the 1593 session of Parliament, which ended on 10 Apr., was committed to the Fleet, making his submission to the Privy Council in May. By the time of the next election he was sheriff, and seized the opportunity of taking a small revenge by sending back to London the election writ on a technicality.5
• No doubt because of his Catholic relations, the question of Molyneux’s religion was closely watched. An anonymous letter to Walsingham dated 29 Dec. 1586 accused him of Catholic sympathies, but in 1587 ‘he hath lately showed himself very well affected and there is great hope of him, being courteously used’. Three years later he was said to make ‘show of good conformity, but many of his company are in evil note’. Perhaps this was the reason why he received the sinister cross against his name on Lord Burghley’s map of Lancashire that same year, 1590, indicating that he required careful watching. It was alleged that Mass was regularly said in the private chapels at Croxteth and Sefton, but there does not seem to have been any evidence against Molyneux himself. In 1592 he was described as being ‘of the better sort’. The preamble to his will suggests that he ended his life by conforming, but this does not necessarily indicate his religious opinions during the Elizabethan period. Still, as justice of the peace and sheriff of the county, he appears to have displayed sufficient zeal in the persecution of priests and recusants to win him the favour of Sir Robert Cecil. In August 1598 he claimed of late to have brought in many ‘to be comers to the church and to hear divine service, which were before recusant’. He played the normal part of a leading gentleman in the military affairs of the county. In 1600 and again in 1601 he was required to furnish one light horse for Ireland.6
• He made his will 1 Apr. 1618, hoping to be buried without pomp or unnecessary charge, in ‘my chancel’ in the parish church of Sefton. He wanted a ‘fair tomb made over us [himself and his wife] with two alabaster pictures laid thereupon’. With the exception of one manor in Leicestershire, which was to be sold to pay his debts, he left all his property to his eldest son Richard, his sole executor, who was to pay an annuity of £100 to three younger brothers, and to receive a large jewel set with diamonds, 18 diamond buttons and a necklace of pearls at a total value of £1,400. The rest of the jewels, plate, goods and chattels were divided between Richard and his mother. Molyneux was buried on 8 Feb. 1623 in Sefton church.7
• From: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/mo... ______________________
• MOLYNEUX, Sir Richard I (c.1559-1623), of Sefton and Croxteth, Lancs.
• b. c.1559, 1st s. of William Molyneux of Sefton, and Brigitta, da. of John Caryll† of Warnham, Suss.1 educ. Univ. Coll. Oxf. 1577, aged 18.2 m. ?(1) by 1567, da. of Henry Stanley, Lord Strange, s.p.;3 (2) c.1580, Frances (bur. 9 Feb. 1621),4 da. of Sir Gilbert Gerard† of Ince, Lancs., 6s. (1 d.v.p.) 7da.5 suc. fa. 1567; grandfa. Sir Richard Molyneux† 1569.6 kntd. 14 June 1586;7 cr. bt. 22 May 1611.8 d. 24 Feb. 1623.9 sig. Ry(chard) Mol[i/y]neux.
• Offices Held
  • Freeman, Liverpool, Lancs. by c.1580, mayor, 1588-9, 1618-19, Preston, Lancs. by 1602;10 steward, Blackburn hundred, Lancs. 1581-d.;11 j.p. Lancs. c.1583-d., custos rot. by 1598-d.;12 master forester and steward, West Derby hundred, Lancs. 1585-d.; constable, Liverpool Castle 1585-d.;13 sheriff, Lancs. 1588-9, 1596-7;14 commr. subsidy, Lancs. 1594, 1599, 1608, 1621;15 muster-master, Lancs. by 1595;16 collector, Privy Seal loans, Lancs. 1590, 1597, 1612,17 aid 1609,18 aid 1613,19 houses of correction 1618;20 commr. musters, Lancs. 1596, 1599,21 eccles. causes 1602;22 dep. lt., Lancs. by 1608;23 duchy commr. for copyholders, Lancs. and Cheshire 1611;24 duchy butler in Lancs. 1611-d.25
• Recvr. gen. duchy of Lancaster 1603-d.26
• Molyneux’s family were major Lancashire landowners from the twelfth century, and ranked second only to the Stanley earls of Derby in terms of local power and prestige.27 At the age of ten Molyneux inherited his paternal grandfather’s estates, his father having died two years earlier.28 His wardship was purchased by (Sir) Gilbert Gerard, then attorney-general and later master of the rolls.29 Before 1567 Molyneux was betrothed to a daughter of Henry Stanley, Lord Strange, the future 4th earl of Derby, but there is no evidence that the marriage ever took place.30 Upon reaching his majority, Molyneux married his guardian’s daughter, Frances.31 Like Gerard, who was reputedly ‘a Protestant in London and a papist in Lancashire’, Molyneux’s religion was suspect; certainly Frances and her mother were known Catholics. Burghley’s survey of the county in 1590 noted that Molyneux ‘maketh shew of good conformity, but many of his company are in evil note’.32 He worked hard to combat any doubts, boasting in 1598 that ‘I have of late brought in many to be comers to the church and to hear divine service, which were before recusants’. From the early 1580s onwards he gradually assumed the local offices and duties that were expected of the head of the house of Molyneux.33 His efficiency as a magistrate and muster-master confirmed his county status, and eventually helped him to higher office in the duchy of Lancaster.
• Molyneux and his wife frequently exchanged hospitality with Henry, 4th earl of Derby, though there was a history of rivalry between the two families that resurfaced in the 1590s.34 In May 1593 Molyneux was forced by the Privy Council to apologize in Star Chamber for various slights, including his failure to deliver letters from Elizabeth to the earl, for keeping an ‘extraordinary Christmas’ at his house, and for ‘labour[ing] to be one of the knights of the shire ... without seeking his lordship’s goodwill and favour or making him privy thereunto’.35 This episode was a setback to Molyneux’s hopes of advancement, but his fortunes were rescued by Sir Thomas Gerard† (later Lord Gerard of Gerard’s Bromley), the son of his former guardian, who wrote in the mid-1590s to Sir Robert Cecil† begging favour towards Molyneux, ‘who lieth so much covered with disgrace ... as he hath continued long since without comfort’.36 Thereafter Molyneux became Cecil’s regular correspondent on a wide range of administrative matters, such as the organization of troops for Ireland, and the suppression of recusancy and witchcraft in Lancashire. He made himself so useful that in 1598 he could claim that ‘there have not been two nights in the last six months wherein I have not ridden abroad the most part of the night’.37 Despite lingering doubts about his religious persuasions, revived in 1601 when a dismissed servant implicated him as both a Catholic and a supporter of the Essex rebellion, after James’s accession Cecil secured for Molyneux the post of receiver general of the duchy of Lancaster, and in 1604 helped him purchase the lucrative wardship of a local heiress, Fleetwood Barton.38
• Molyneux bought various estates, including Toxteth Park near Liverpool, from the 6th earl of Derby, and after 1608 assumed many of the duties of the lord lieutenancy, though he was only a deputy.39 As a landlord, Molyneux carefully consolidated and managed his estates, which comprised around 40,000 acres.40 He kept a house at Chiswick and two in Lancashire, one at Sefton and the other at Croxteth, maintaining over 60 men in livery.41 His profits regularly exceeded £2,000 a year, including the income he derived from the ferry, mills and wine prisage at Liverpool, coal mines at Croxteth, and the lands of his numerous wards.42 Molyneux’s relationship with Liverpool, where he was hereditary constable of the castle and lord of the manor, was often strained, though he served as mayor in 1588-9 and 1618-19.43 In 1608-10 he made many improvements to Sefton, which had been described as ‘decayed’ during his minority, including the laying out of a new park. At the same time he surrounded his park at Croxteth with a high brick wall, and stocked both estates with deer.44 His great wealth was remarked upon by Sir Francis Bacon*, who noted in 1608 that Molyneux could be trusted as a lender ‘upon any great disbursement’.45 He was second on the list of those persuaded to purchase the title of baronet in 1611, a sign not just of his wealth but of his endeavours to overcome his reputation as a suspected Catholic, like his kinsmen Sir Richard Houghton* and Sir Thomas Gerrard*, both notable members of Lancashire’s crypto-papist gentry who bought titles at the same time.46 A month later Molyneux was rewarded with a grant for life of the duchy office of butler in the county palatine.
• Molyneux was a natural choice as Lancashire’s senior knight of the shire in 1604. He did not bother to attend the election in person. Indeed, his accounts show that he travelled to London in January 1604, ahead of the county election, which took place on 13 February.47 At the opening of the session on 19 Mar. he was appointed to help administer the Oath of Supremacy to all Members as they arrived.48 He was named to a large number of committees though, as in his previous parliaments, he made no recorded speeches. His interests and experience as a landlord and local law enforcer are reflected in his appointments to consider bills for rating labourers’ wages (28 Apr. 1604), witchcraft (26 May 1604), church attendance (19 Mar. 1606), and the preservation of game (22 Mar. 1610).49 He was also named to a large number of private bill committees, among them one to consider the possessions of Ferdinando, late earl of Derby (3 June 1607); and he served as teller in favour of Sir Roger Aston’s* bill for the Cambridgeshire manor of Soham (25 Feb. 1607).50 As a duchy tenant, Molyneux was fined heavily in November 1610 for falsely claiming that he held the copyhold of certain estates in Clitheroe and West Derby hundred. Consequently, during the final session of the Parliament the duchy rapidly obtained a private Act confirming its decrees in relation to these estates.51
• Molyneux did not stand for Parliament again. He died on 24 Feb. 1623, and was buried in the chancel of Sefton church. His will, dated 1 Apr. 1618, requested that he be interred alongside his late wife ‘without any great pomp or unnecessary charges’, under a ‘fair tomb ... with two alabaster pictures ... to the end we may both joyfully rise together at the last day’.52 An inventory made after his death valued his possessions at £3,802 13s. 4d.53 Molyneux was succeeded by his second son, Sir Richard Molyneux II*.
• From: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-1629/member/mo... _______________
• Sir Gilbert Gerard (died 4 February 1593) was a prominent lawyer, politician, and landowner of the Tudor period. .... etc.
• Gerard married Ann Radcliffe or Ratcliffe. She was the daughter of Thomas Ratcliffe of Winmarleigh and of Isabel Boteler. As her father died before she reached the age of majority, she became a ward of Sir Thomas Holcroft, Gerard's uncle. She inherited Damhouse in Astley, which was later sold by her son, Thomas. She remained a Catholic throughout her life.[11]
• They had two sons:
  • .... etc.
• They also had at least four daughters who survived infancy:
  • Frances married Richard Molyneux of Croxteth and Sefton, an important Lancashire landowner, who became first of the Molyneux baronets. One of their sons was
    • Richard Molyneux, 1st Viscount Molyneux
  • .... etc.
• From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_Gerard_(judge) __________________
• Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 38
• Molyneux, Richard (1593-1636) by Robert Dunlop
• MOLYNEUX, Sir RICHARD, Viscount Maryborough (1593–1636), born in 1593, was eldest surviving son of Sir Richard Molyneux of Sefton in Lancashire, and Frances, eldest daughter of Sir Gilbert Gerard [q. v.], master of the rolls. Sir Richard Molyneux (d. 1459) [q. v.] was his ancestor. He succeeded his father as receiver-general of the duchy of Lancaster, and on 22 Dec. 1628 he was advanced to the peerage of Ireland as Viscount Molyneux of Maryborough, in consideration of his distinguished merit and ancient extraction. He died on 8 May 1636, and was buried at Sefton. He married Mary, daughter and coheiress of Sir Thomas Caryll of Bentons in Shipley, Sussex, by whom he had issue: Richard, second viscount Maryborough (see below); Caryll, third viscount; Frances, who died young; Charlotte, who married Sir William Stanley of Hooton in Cheshire; and Mary, who married Sir George Selby of Whitehouse in the diocese of Durham. Shortly after his death his widow married Raphael Tarterean, carver to the queen, and died in 1639, at her house in St. Martin's Lane in the Fields.
• .... etc.
• From: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Molyneux,_Richard_(1593-1636)_(DNB00)

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