John Mytton - Back To Shropshire

Back To Shropshire

In 1819 he entertained ambitions of standing for Parliament, as a Tory, a tradition in his family with Myttons having been returned as MPs previously. He secured his seat through the expediency of encouraging his constituents to vote for him by offering them £10 notes and through spending £10,000 (£750,000+ would be a modern equivalent) he became MP for Shrewsbury. He found political debate boring and attended parliament only once and apparently for just 30 minutes. When Parliament was dissolved in 1820 he issued an address declining to stand at the next election.

He attempted to enter Parliament again in 1831, for the then two-member Shropshire County seat, as a Whig candidate. He withdrew on the fifth day of the poll in which, when votes were counted, he came bottom with 376 votes, having issued an address stating he would contest at the next Parliamentary election. By the time of that election, in 1832, he had already gone into exile for debt, of which he was in constant fear of being arrested for by the time of his contest.

Meanwhile he indulged his enjoyment for horse racing and gambling and enjoyed some success at both, mainly by first buying already successful race horses such as the horse Euphrates which was already a consistent winner and entering it in The Gold Cup at Lichfield in 1825, which Euphrates duly won. Jack had the horse's portrait painted by William Webb and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1825.

In 1826, as a result of a bet, he is said to have ridden his horse into the Bedford Hotel (later Midland Bank), opposite the Town Hall in Leamington Spa, up the grand staircase and onto the balcony, from which he jumped, still seated on his horse, over the diners in the restaurant below, and out through the window onto the Parade.

He also held contests for local children at Dinas Mawddwy to roll down Moel Dinas, giving as prizes sums ranging from half a crown to half a guinea to those who made it to the bottom of the hill.