Richard Ottley

Background, early life and education

Richard Ottley was the eldest son of

Sir Francis Ottley of Pitchford, Shropshire, who was military governor of Shrewsbury for part of the English Civil War

Lucy Edwards, daughter of Thomas Edwards of the College, Shrewsbury. She was the widow of Thomas Pope, another Shrewsbury resident.

The Ottley family were part of the landed gentry of Shropshire and claimed descent from the more ancient Ottleys of Oteley, near Ellesmere, Shropshire. However, Thomas Ottley, the ancestor who bought Pitchford Hall in 1473, was a Merchant of the Staple with a house in Calais as well as in Shrewsbury. The Ottleys of Pitchford owed their status to wealth made as merchants of the thriving county town, with its monopoly in the finishing of Welsh cloth.

Richard Ottley was born on 5 August 1626 and christened on 15 September. He had a brother, Adam, who was born in 1628 and a sister, Mary, who was born in 1630. He was admitted to Shrewsbury School on 9 April 1638, the same day as his brother Adam. but his education beyond that stage was interrupted by the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642.

The Civil War and Commonwealth

Francis Ottley was quick to act to disrupt Parliamentary mobilization in Shropshire as Civil War threatened in the summer of 1642 and was instrumental in preparing the king's move from Nottingham to Shrewsbury in September, when the king knighted him. Richard Ottley, who was commissioned a captain in the royalist army, served under his father in the Shrewsbury garrison. Sir Francis held the town after the king's departure and was formally appointed as military governor in January 1643. He was removed by Prince Rupert in the summer of 1644. Sir Francis was captured by Parliamentarian forces in February 1645 on the eve of the fall of Shrewsbury, although later released.

Richard was present at the siege of Bridgnorth in 1646 and was covered by the surrender agreement negotiated by his father, which allowed the Royalist garrison to choose between peace and exile. The agreement explicitly granted permission to Lady Ottley and her children to live at Pitchford. The estates of both Sir Francis and Lady Ottley had been sequestrated by Parliament. Lady Ottley used the good offices of a friend and relative, Elinor Davenport, in contacting the sequestrators over furnishings and clothing. and employed Thomas Lee, a relative of Sir Francis and a Lincoln's Inn lawyer, to negotiate recovery of her own estates. On 16 June 1646 Richard was given a pass to travel to Shrewsbury to speak to Parliament's County Committee, probably in connection with his father's request to compound for delinquency, which was made on that date. A decision on the allowance for Lady Ottley and the children was soon made: a fifth of Sir Francis's estates was handed over to them for their maintenance by an order of 5 September 1646. However, the outstanding issues took three years to resolve.

Richard Ottley spent a considerable part of this time in London with his father, often having to attend Goldsmiths' Hall, where the Committee for Compounding with Delinquents was housed. On 12 January he wrote to his mother from Gray's Inn to report that his father had obtained permission to live at home and that his personal property had been secured while he compounded. He thanked her for a pie. Richard was admitted to Gray's Inn for legal training on 1 March 1647. In April Lady Ottley wrote to him to report that Sir Francis had not actually gone home as there was a possibility he would be prosecuted by Humphrey Mackworth, who, although reckoned a cousin, was the Parliamentarian governor of Shrewsbury. Later in the year, on 2 August, Richard's younger brother Adam was also admitted to Gray's Inn.

Restoration and repression

After General Monck's intervention against the remaining Commonwealth forces, at the beginning of 1660, Richard Ottley came back into public life and began to take part in local government. He was appointed a Justice of the Peace for Shropshire in March 1660. There are no records for 1660 but he and Adam, his brother, are recorded as sitting on the bench at the January quarter sessions of 1660/61. Thereafter he does not appear in the record again until July 1662 and his attendance thereafter seems to have been sporadic.

Ottley contacted Charles II and on 5 March Charles issued a commission from Brussels, appointing Ottley, his friend Richard Scriven and others as commissioners for Shropshire. They were authorised to raise a large militia force for the king's cause, to set up a command structure and to levy contributions for its support. Shrewsbury was still held by the stalwart Parliamentarian Colonel Thomas Hunt, who carried out a review of military resources and preparedness during April and arranged a muster of his forces for 1 May. However events were moving too quickly for Hunt's measures to take effect. The Convention Parliament accepted Charles II as king on 8 May. Ottley set off for Dover to welcome Charles to England in May. Charles entered London on 29 May and Ottley wrote from there to his mother:

"My most deare and evere honored Mother,

"I prayse God we are safe come to towne, and his Matie with his two brotheres, the duke of Yorke and duke of Glouster, are now at Whitehall. I met them at Canterbury, and had the happinesse to be of the life guard since Fryday last; wherein my content over ballanced the paynes I underwent. I most, humbly thanke your Lap for your py which I shiall enquire after. I beg pardon that I am soe short in wrighting, being weary at p'sent: I humbly crave your blessing: with my duty and thanks for your goodnesse to mine, for whom my hearty prayers to God are : I rest

"Your Laps most dutiful sonne and servant,

"May 29, Ric. Ottley."

Shortly after the king's return, Ottley was knighted. On 19 June Ottley and Scriven issued a document at Shrewsbury that effectively annexed the resources promised to Hunt's militia to their own force, ending the dual military authority that had existed formally to that point. On 16 July a letter was issued by command of Charles II urging the Mayor of Shrewsbury to appoint Adam Ottley as town clerk. However, then position then was not, as the king had been informed, vacant: the post had been filled during the Commonwealth by Thomas Jones, who was to prove a resourceful opponent to the new dispensation.

Cavalier Parliament

Ottley was elected to the Parliament of 1661–79, the longest-lasting English parliament, and did not survive to the end of it, dying in 1670. The parliament was known as the Cavalier Parliament because it was largely royalist in sympathy, although important divisions appeared long before it ended. Ottley's election was almost certainly the result of Newport's influence. Newport, later first Earl of Bradford, was to dominate elections until his death in 1708, gradually evolving into a Whig and suffering for it when he opposed the succession of James II.

After being a very active lieutenant of Newport in the county, Ottley became a very active member of Parliament, which probably accounts for his decreasing participation in local and regional affairs. He was a member of no less than 230 committees. Initially much of his work reflected his work at local level, with a focus on legislation that repressed religious dissent. He was on the committee that steered the Act of Uniformity 1662. He was also a member of the committees for the Conventicle Act 1664 and a second Corporations Act, both elaborating the Clarendon Code which bore down on both Catholics and Protestant Nonconformists. His political loyalty and zeal brought appointment as a Gentleman of the Privy chamber on 18 December 1663. After the fall of Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon in 1667, Ottley served on the committee to investigate his Sale of Dunkirk to France and another which looked into the running of the fund for loyal and indigent officers, which had been set up by the king to compensate royalist officers ruined by the Civil War. He had been one of the commissioners implementing the scheme in Shropshire. It had proved a disappointment and protests in 1666 led to a review.

Ottley's own compensation took the form of commissions to collect taxes in Shropshire, which he undertook with his close friend and business partner, Richard Scriven, later MP for Bishop's Castle First they were made receivers of the county's hearth tax, the key tax on property. In 1663 they made a successful bid of £2,800 for the farm of the county's excise. However, the hearth tax concession was revoked in 1667 and Ottley and Scriven were ordered to pay arrears of £700. They sought to collect the amounts owing but this led to public disorder, with distrained goods and papers being stolen. To help his efforts at repayment, he was given any prize-money concealed during the Commonwealth that he could discover. He and Scriven were also granted all treasure trove found since the Restoration, as well as part of a Cheshire outlaw's estate. However, they were still unsuccessful. Ottley's arrears were remitted shortly before he died in 1670, although Scriven did not settle his debt until 1682.

Marriage and family

Richard Ottley was married to Lady Lettice Ridgeway, daughter of Robert Ridgeway, 2nd Earl of Londonderry. The Ridgeway family fortune was based on the first earl's exploitation of land assigned to him as an "undertaker," or government contactor, during the Plantation of Ulster. Richard and Lady Lettice Ottley had six sons and one daughter, five of whose baptisms are recorded in the Pitchford parish register.

Francis, born 11 October 1649. Died May 1652.

Thomas (baptised 18 February 1651), Sir Richard's heir, married one Elizabeth and died in 1695.

Richard (baptised 6 July 1652), died in infancy and was buried 30 March 1654.

Adam (baptised 5 January 1655), Bishop of St David's 1713–23, died in 1723.

Robert (baptised 26 July 1655)

Lucy (baptised 28 February 1657) died in 1687

Francis (baptised 2 June 1660)

Dame Lettice Ottley was buried at Pitchford on 8 March 1669. Sir Richard Ottley died aged 44 on 10 August 1670 and was buried at Pitchford.