John Mytton - Family

Family

John "Mad Jack" Mytton was born to a family of Shropshire squires with a lineage that stretched back some 500 years before his day. (The surname may have originated as "Mutton" or be associated with the village of Mytton, near Forton Heath, just a few miles west of Shrewsbury). As with many of his ancestors and privileged peers, Jack was privately educated but was subsequently expelled from both Westminster and Harrow. Mytton would later attempt to serve in both parliament and the 7th Hussars, a cavalry regiment. His father, also named John, died young, at the age of 30, when Jack was but two years of age. As heir, "Mad Jack" subsequently inherited the family seat at Halston Hall, Whittington (near Oswestry in Shropshire), which was worth £60,000 (£4.3 million today ), and also received an annual income of £10,000 (over £716,000 today ) from rental and agricultural assets generated by an estate of over 132,000 acres in North Wales and Shropshire.