Richard Mostyn 1658-1735

Richard MOSTYN 1658-1735

Biographical Note

Son of Sir Richard Mostyn, 1st bart of Mostyn, Flintshire and his second wife Mary (Bulkeley). Matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford 1674; BA 1677; MA 1680. Married Charlotta Theophila Digby. Their main residence was one of the Mostyn family’s many houses, Penbedw in Nannerch, Flintshire.

Books

Given to ‘country amusements’, Mostyn told Thomas Hearne in 1717 that he had ‘diverted myself more Somno & inertibus horis than Veterum libris’, but he was certainly knowledgeable about the important books and manuscripts which had passed from his late older brother Sir Thomas Mostyn 2nd bart, to his nephew Sir Roger Mostyn, 3rd bart (and thereafter to the greatest of the family’s bibliophiles Sir Thomas, 4th bart).

Mostyn used an armorial bookplate (Franks: 21256, 21257 (reprint)). Nesta Lloyd (see Sources) lists seven books containing one, and mentions some further books most likely owned by him. In some cases these were covered by the bookplate of Watkin Williams, who inherited them (along with other books from Penbedw) from his father whose first wife was Mostyn’s daughter and heir Charlotta. Further examples of this covering-over are in Cambridge University Library: F166.e.4.14, Leigh.d.6.37-38.

The Peniarth Estate records contain a list made by Mostyn of 17th and early 18th-century religious and political pamphlets, along with other material to cast further light on the composition and history of the library at Penbedw. Mostyn’s wife was the granddaughter of Sir Kenelm Digby, and several of the latter’s books found their way there.

Sources

• Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru/ National Library of Wales, Peniarth Estate Records (GB 0210)
• Gambier Howe, E. R. J. Franks bequest: catalogue of British and American book plates bequeathed to the ... British Museum. London, 1903-4.
• Lloyd, N., ‘The correspondence of Edward Lhuyd and Richard Mostyn’, Journal of the Flintshire Historical Society, 25 (1971-2), 31-61.
• Sheppard, L.A., ‘A vellum copy of the ‘Great Bible,’ 1539’, Cylchgrawn Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / National Library of Wales Journal, 1 (1939), 9-22.