Sir Richard Clough

Notes:

Among the many upstanding personalities produced by Tudor and Stuart Denbighshire - "the powerhouse of Renaissance Wales" - few were more remarkable than that Richard Clough. The 5th son of a Denbigh glover, he was educated as a chorister at Chester Cathedral (where his fine voice and quick intelligence soon attracted influential patrons), moved on to London, and made a useful pilgrimage to Jerusalem - where he became an honorary "Knight of the Holy Sepulchre", whence the "Sir" sometimes attached to his name. In his early twenties, Clough moved to Antwerp, - the commercial capital of Northern Europe - as a "factor" (or manager) for Sir Thomas Gresham, 'the Queen's Merchant Royal' and it originator of the adage that 'Bad money drives at good'. Thus he became one of the leading loan - negotiator, supplier of European goods (including smuggled armament us) , and gather of political intelligence for Queen Elizabeth's government. Though he had a passion for detailed reports, Clough was also a man of wide ranging ideas: he was instrumental in founding the the London Stock Exchange, and enthusiastically aided the Denbigh geographer Humphrey Llwyd, who called him 'the most complete man'.

Having grown (in the words of a Denbigh saying) "as rich as a Clough", Richard briefly returned home in 1566-7, to marry the equally remarkable Katheryn of Berain and begin his 'prodigy' mansions of Bachygraig near Tremeirchion and Plas Clough, near Denbigh: built-in Antwerp style by Flemish craftsmen, these where the first brick houses in Wales. Then he returned to an increasingly war-torn Europe for further adventures - including arrest as a spy - only to die at Hamburg in 1570, aged scarcely 40.

Clough's scheme for making the River Clwyd navigable thus remained unrealised, but he clearly never forgot his origins. His heart (and some say is right hand) were sent home in a silver casket, to be buried at a now unmarked spot within St Marcella's parish Church near Denbigh.

Family/Spouse: Catherine of Berain. Catherine (daughter of Tudor ap Robert fychan and Jane de Velville) was born in 1541; died on 27 Aug 1591. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Roger Salusbury. Roger (son of Sir John Salusbury and Jane Myddleton) died in 1623. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Elizabeth Thomas. Elizabeth and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]