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Sir Richard Clough – ‘The Most Complete Man’ |
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Clough’s Last Years
After their marriage, Richard and Katheryn moved to Antwerp, where they arrived to find a growing religious and political upheaval underway. In January 1569, the English merchants in Antwerp were arrested, but Clough managed to escape, only to be arrested in possession of letters for the English government at Dieppe. The intervention of Sir William Cecil ensured his release to London, where he joined a large group of merchant-adventurers bound for Hamburg, where they were transferring the seat of commerce from Antwerp to that city.
Hamburg was to be Clough’s resting place, as in 1570 he contracted a mysterious disease there, and died aged barely 40. Clough was buried in Hamburg, but, in complying with his last wishes, his heart, and some say, his right hand, were sent in a sealed silver urn to be buried within St Marcella’s Parish Church, Denbigh. Whether his heart ever made it back to Wales is under some dispute, as the silver urn could not be found when the vault was opened 200 years ago, even though the lead casing and lid remained intact.
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Clough, who was connected with London, Hamburg, Antwerp and Flanders for most of his life, was also devoted to his birthplace. His untimely death prevented him from fulfilling his plans closer to home. For some years he had planned to dredge the River Clwyd to make it navigable as far as Rhuddlan; thereby improving Denbigh’s potential for prosperity, and developing the surrounding valley. In his will, Clough left £100 towards the founding of a free grammar school in Denbigh, which was lost ‘through the iniquity of those times’. The school was eventually founded 150 years later.
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