Family and Education

3rd s. of Sir Richard Molyneux of Sefton by his 1st w. Eleanor, da. of Sir Alexander Ratcliffe* of Ordsall; bro. of Richard Molyneux I. m. Anne, da. of Richard Ratcliffe of Langley, at least 1s.

Offices Held

?J.p. Lancs.; burgess, Liverpool 1589.

Biography

Curiously little is known about Molyneux, returned to Parliament in 1584 by the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. He has been confused with three namesakes, one of Melling Wood, another his nephew, and a third the distant relation who sat for Nottinghamshire in 1563. The Liverpool Member was a Catholic alleged to have taken an oath in 1568, together with his father and three sisters, declaring the Pope supreme head of the church. He was therefore presumably the John Molyneux, justice of the peace, of whom it was said in 1591 that his wife and family were ‘very evilly disposed’, and that he retained ‘the most notorious papists’ in his service. However, this could have referred to the nephew, younger son of his elder brother William.

Vis. Lancs. (Chetham Soc. lxxxi), 104; Foster, Lancs. Peds.; J. A. Twemlow, Liverpool Town Bks. ii. 119, 839; CSP Dom. 1547-80, p. 321; J. S. Leatherbarrow, Lancs. Eliz. Recusants (Chetham Soc. n.s. cx), 109.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: N.M.S.

Notes