Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/197

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Mostyn
191
Mostyn


send out of towne,' owing to their undisciplined conduct (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser. 1645). Towards the end of the year Mostyn went over to Ireland to try and muster recruits for the relief of Chester, and returned in January 1645–6 with a 'piece of a regiment,' some hundred and sixty men, and was expected 'to make it up two hundred upon his own credit,' in his own county, where he was a commissioner of array and peace (Letter from Archbishop Williams to Lord Astley, dated Conway, 25 Jan. 1645-6, printed in Phillips's Civil War, ii. 290-1). These troops, and other royalist forces collected in North Wales under Lord St. Paul, were, however, prevented from marching to Chester by Colonel Mytton, who was despatched by Brereton to intercept them, and caused them to retreat to Denbigh and Conway. Mostyn himself succeeded in evading his enemies at the time and for many years after, but in May 1658 was captured by Colonel Carter at Conway. Whitelocke, however, who had married a member of the Mostyn family, procured his immediate release, 'upon his parole to be at his own house at Mostyn' (Memorials, p. 673). At the Restoration he was created a baronet, 3 Aug. 1660.

Mostyn is described by Whitelocke (ib. p. 78) as 'a gentleman of good address, and mettle, of a very ancient family, large possessions, and great interest in the county, so that in twelve hours he raised fifteen hundred men for the king.' He is said to have spent some 60,000l. in the service of the king, and his house at Mostyn stripped of all its valuables, so that after his release on parole he was so impoverished that he had to lie for many years in strict seclusion at a farmhouse called Plasucha; but by 1684 his fortunes were so improved, probably by profits derived from lead and coal mines which he worked by means of large engines (a drawing is given by Dineley in his Beaufort Progress, 1888 ed. p. 95), that he provided on 23 July 1684 at Mostyn a 'very great and noble entertainment' for the Duke of Beaufort and his suite on their official progress through Wales. He was then in command of the Flintshire militia, one company of which was composed of his servants, miners, and other adherents, clothed and paid at his own expense, and he was complimented on their smart manoeuvres (ib. pp. 91-2).

He died in 1690, having been thrice married; his second wife, of whom there is a portrait at Mostyn, being Mary, the eldest daughter of Thomas, Lord Bulkeley of Baron Hill, Beaumaris (Pennant, Hist. of Whiteford and Holywell, pp. 60-3). Sir Roger Mostyn, third baronet (1675-1739) [q. v.], was a grandson.

A portrait of Sir Roger Mostyn, which, according to a recently deciphered inscription, was painted by Sir Peter Lely in 1652, when the sitter is said to have been 28 years of age, is preserved at Mostyn Hall, and a copy of it by Leonard Hughes was presented at Christmas 1887 by Lord Mostyn to the corporation of Flint (Archæologia Cambrensis, 5th ser. viii. 110-13). In this Sir Roger is represented at kit-cat length, in a strange flaxen wig, a breast plate, buff skirts, and antique Roman sleeves a negro holding his helmet (Taylor, Historic Notices of Flint, p. 139).

[For the pedigree of the Mostyn family see Dwnn's Heraldic Visitations, ii. 307-9; Phillips's Civil War in Wales and Marches; Historic Notices of Flint, passim.]

D. Ll. T.


MOSTYN, Sir ROGER (1675–1739), third baronet, politician, born in 1675, was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Mostyn of Mostyn, Flintshire, second baronet, by Bridget, daughter and heiress of Darcy Savage, esq., of Leighton, Cheshire. Sir Roger Mostyn (d. 1690) [q. v.] was his grandfather. On 10 Feb. 1689–90 he matriculated from Jesus College, Oxford, aged 15. He was returned as M.P. for Flintshire in December 1701, and in the following August both for Cheshire and for the borough of Flint; he elected to sit for the former. In the next parliament (1705–8) he represented Flintshire, and sat for the same constituency till 1734 (except in 1713, when he served for Flint borough). He was a tory and a supporter of Daniel Finch, second earl of Nottingham [q. v.], whose daughter he married. In 1711 he was appointed paymaster of the marines (Treasury Papers, xci. 70), and was one of the four tellers of the exchequer from 30 Dec. 1714 till 22 June 1716. He voted for tacking on the Occasional Conformity Bill to the Land-tax Bill in 1705, and against the articles of commerce in 1713. He voted against the Peerage Bill in 1719, and Walpole's excise scheme in 1733, and having opposed the Septennial Bill, supported the motion for its repeal in 1734. In consideration of his services and the expenses he incurred as paymaster of the marines he was allowed a sum of 300l. for eight years (ib. ccxlvi. 68). There is also among the 'Treasury Papers' a dormant warrant in favour of Mostyn as controller of the fines for the counties of Chester, Flint, and Carnarvon, dated 31 July 1704. He died on 5 May 1739, at his seat in Carnarvonshire.

Mostyn married, on 20 July 1703, Lady Essex, daughter of Daniel Finch, second earl