Thomas Mytton, MP

Family and Education b. c.1530, prob. 8th but 2nd surv. s. of Richard Mytton of Shrewsbury and Halston, Salop and Dinas Mawddwy by 1st w. Anne, da. of Sir Edward Grey of Enville, Staffs. m. Margaret, da. of Sir Edward Greville of Milcote, Warws., at least 4s. 1da.1

Offices Held

Escheator, Merion. 1560-1; j.p.q. 1561-2; bailiff, manor of Wroxeter, Salop by 1563.2

Biography The second surviving son of Richard Mytton, Thomas Mytton does not seem to have followed his father to the Inner Temple. His election, at an early age and without municipal experience, as senior Member for Shrewsbury he must have owed to his father, who had had the seat in the previous Parliament and on this occasion was a knight of the shire. In the circumstances Mytton might have been expected to forgo his wages, but in June 1557 the borough appointed assessors to levy £8 16s. owing to him on this account, a sum considerably in excess of what would have been due for the 66 days of the Parliament, with normal travelling time, at the standard rate of 2s. a day. Like his father, but unlike his fellow-Member George Leigh, Mytton was not one of those informed against in the King’s bench during Easter term 1555 for leaving the Parliament without licence before its dissolution. His attitude towards his arrears may have been influenced by his father’s difficulties about that time, and these may in turn help to explain why he was not to sit in Parliament again. In 1560 Mytton was made escheator for Merioneth and a year later appointed to the county bench, on which his father had previously served. As he was renamed to the bench in 1562 but not in 1564 he probably died in the interval. The last reference found to him is as bailiff of Wroxeter in 1563.3

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558 Author: P. S. Edwards Notes 1. Date of birth estimated from parents’ marriage and his Membership. Vis. Salop (Harl. Soc. xxix), 362; Mont. Colls. xxiv. 286. 2. CPR, 1560-3, pp. 447, 498. 3. Shrewsbury Guildhall 76, f. 22v; 486, f. 71.