MYDDELTON, Peter (1603-61), of St Catherine Colman, London.

Peter Myddelton was an obscure member of an otherwise well-documented and successful mercantile family. The Myddelton family held land in Denbighshire, but had become involved in London trade under Elizabeth I. Peter’s numerous uncles included Sir Thomas Myddelton† and the entrepreneur Sir Hugh Myddelton.11J. W. Gough, Sir Hugh Myddelton, Entrepreneur and Engineer (Oxford, 1964), 3. His father, Robert Myddelton, was one of the original adventurers of the Virginia, East India, and North-West Passage Companies.12Misc. Gen. et Her. 3rd ser. i. 175; iii. 222. Robert Myddelton’s marriage to Margaret Mansell in 1591 brought the family into contact with Weymouth, the commercial port on the Dorset coast; and Robert Myddelton went on to represented the borough in Parliament in 1604, to be followed as MP by his brother, Sir Thomas, in 1624.13Procs. Dorset Nat. Hist. and Arch. Soc. xvi. 66. By the mid-seventeenth century, the Myddeltons become close associates of a number of prominent Dorset families, including the Whiteways of Dorchester (who were related to the Mansells) and the Bonds of Lutton in Purbeck: both of which had trading interests in Weymouth.

With the death of his mother in 1610 and his father in 1616, Peter Myddelton was left an orphan at the age of 13, and the death of his elder brother in 1617 gave him an equal share in the family’s wealth.14Reg. of St Dunstan in the East, London, 1558-1654 (Harl. Soc. lxix), 167, 175; PROB11/129/77. In 1624 Myddelton was apprenticed to his cousin, the clothier and member of the Dorchester Company, William Whiteway II†, who was more of a friend than a master: when John Whiteway, William’s son, was born in December 1625, Myddelton was chosen as his ‘surety’, or godparent.15F. Rose-Troup, John White, the Patriarch of Dorchester (1930), 451; Whiteway Diary, 67, 77. On 2 August 1627 Myddelton left the Whiteway household, ‘having lived here three years’ to become a ‘Turkey merchant’ in the Levant Company.16Eg. 784, f. 65v. On 22 August he was admitted, and sworn as a free brother, of the East India Company, the influence of his father’s patrimony exempting him from paying the normal fee.17CSP Col. (E.I.) 1625-9, p. 436.

Despite this promising start, the next stage of Myddelton’s trading career is something of a mystery. There is no evidence that he continued his father’s interests in America or the Middle East, and his absence from the port-books of London and Weymouth throughout the 1630s and 1640s suggests that he was resident abroad during this time. He had returned to London by 1650, when he drew up his will, describing himself as ‘Peter Myddelton of London, merchant’.18PROB11/307/64. In April 1651 he was among a group of merchants who submitted to the council of trade a proposal for encouraging the re-export market by removing or reducing customs charges on goods held in transit.19Add. 5138, ff. 146-7. That Myddelton was active as a merchant in the capital in the 1650s is confirmed by a request (made in March 1659) by one Charles Myddelton, who asked to be admitted to the Levant Company, after serving as Peter Myddelton’s apprentice since July 1654.20SP105/151, f. 179. From the late 1650s, Myddelton became more prominent in the East India Company. He was elected to the general court for the new general stock in July 1659 and to the general court of the adventurers in July 1660.21Cal. Ct. Mins E.I Co. 1655-9, p. 333; 1660-3, p. 23.

Myddelton’s election as MP for Weymouth in 1659 probably rested on his family’s long-standing links with the borough. Although Myddelton had been absent for many years after he left Dorset for London in 1627, he remained in touch with his Dorset relatives, staying with the Whiteways for a week in June 1633.22Whiteway Diary, 131. The family’s name was kept alive in the borough by former acts of charity: Myddelton’s father had bequeathed £100 to Weymouth for loans to young merchants, and this was still being administered throughout the 1630s and 1640s.23PROB11/127/778; Weymouth Min. Bks. 14, 49; Weymouth Charters ed. Moule, 141-2. The immediate reasons for choosing Myddelton as MP in 1659 are more obscure. The writ of election was sent to the constituency on 6 January 1659, and seven candidates were nominated to the double-borough. The four chosen men were Myddelton, the veteran MP John Trenchard, and two New Model colonels, John Clarke and Waldive Lagoe.24Weymouth Charters ed. Moule, 105. Myddelton’s role in Richard Cromwell's Parliament was minor: on 17 February he was named to a committee to receive the accounts of the whole revenue (including the army and navy), and on 1 April he was named to a committee to consider the petition of the London merchant, Samuel Vassall*, for the settlement of his debts.25CJ vii. 605a, 623a; Clarke Pprs. v. 279. These appointments perhaps reflect Myddelton’s reputation for business acumen, rather than any political alignment, although he may have had a personal connection with Vassall, who was a member of the Levant and East India Companies. In March 1660 Myddelton was again returned for Weymouth, being elected with the navy men, Edward Montagu I (later 1st earl of Sandwich) and Sir William Penn, and the local burgess Henry Waltham.26Weymouth Min. Bks. 107.

After the Restoration, Myddelton’s position appeared secure, and he remained a member of the ruling committee of the East India Company when its letters patent were renewed in April 1661.27Cal. Ct. Mins. E.I. Co. 1660-3, p. 105. Yet his finances may have been more fragile than this might suggest. He had been involved in disputes for the previous few years. For example, in April 1657 his cousin Sir John Salisbury wrote to Lady Grace Wynn at Gwydir, respecting her desire that Peter Myddelton should assign over his deed of mortgage.28Cal. Wynn of Gwydir Pprs. 347. In November 1660 Myddelton and his wife were engaged in a chancery battle with the heirs of her first husband, Fulke Parry, over lands in Barking, Essex, which had been leased illegally.29C5/620/175. At the time of his death at the end of 1661, Myddelton seems to have been in financial trouble. His sole beneficiary, his brother John Myddelton, was described in the probate document as his ‘principal creditor’, and the administration of the estate was refused.30PROB11/307/64. When Myddelton’s brother, as executor, sold his remaining stock in the East India Company to one William Hooker in August 1663, it was worth the relatively modest sum of £1,000.31Cal. Ct. Mins. E. I. Co. 1660-3 ed. Sainsbury, 374.