| Notes |
- The fifth 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, suppliers of European goods (including smuggled armament), and gathering 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 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 never forgot his origins. His heart (and some say his 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. [2]
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Thrale history
1530 - 1570 (40 years)