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 wife was a Whittingham of Chester, and his second wife the daughter of Humphrey Holland. He survived to so great an age that he obtained the epithet of Hen, or The Old, having lived, it is said, during the reigns of Henry VII and VIII, of Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth. Of his five sons Richard was the youngest. In his boyhood 'he went,' says Fuller, 'to be a chorister in the city of Chester. Some were so affected with his singing therein, that they were loath he should lose himself in empty air (church musick beginning then to be discountenanced), and persuaded, yea, procured his removal to London' (Worthies, Flintshire, ed. 1662, p. 39). In the fervour of youthful zeal he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where he was created a knight of the Holy Sepulchre, 'though not,' observes Fuller, ' owning it after his return under Queen Elizabeth, who disdained her subjects should accept of such foraign honour.' The badge of the order, the five crosses, was afterwards borne by him in his arms. Pennant and other popular writers have in consequence styled him 'Sir' Richard Clough, by which designation he is still known among his descendants. It is uncertain whether it was before or after this pilgrimage that he entered the service of Sir Thomas Gresham, under whose auspices he was admitted a member of the Mercers' Company. In 1552 he went to reside permanently at Antwerp, where he both carried on business as a merchant on his own account and acted in various matters as factor for Gresham. His more important duties were in connection with Gresham's offices of queen's merchant and financial agent, and the adroitness which he manifested both in negotiating loans and in smuggling money, arms, and foreign goods secured him the entire confidence and friendship of his employer. His voluminous correspondence with Gresham, the greater bulk of which may be found in the Record Office, is by no means confined to dry commercial details. Although he had perhaps only two or three days before sent Gresham an account of his proceedings ' at large,' it was nothing unusual for him to cover ten or twenty sides more of foolscap with the description of a pageant, a state funeral, or some other subject involving long details, in which he delighted. To Clough Sir William Cecil was indebted for a considerable portion of his information respecting the Low Countries. His letters were regularly forwarded to the minister by Gresham, who never fails to speak most handsomely of his factor's abilities, although obliged to confess now and then that 'he is very long and tedious in his writing.'

At the beginning of 1560 Gresham availed himself of an offer made by Count Mansfeld to advance a large sum of money for the use of the English government. He accordingly sent Clough, about 24 April, to attend the council at London in company with the count's negotiator, one Hans Keck. Clough got back to Antwerp on 9 May, and a few days later was despatched by Cecil's recommendation to the count at his estate of Mansfeld in Saxony in order to bring matters to a final issue. Here he was given 'marvellous interteynment,' and on his departure in June was presented by the count with 'a silver standing-cup of the vallew of xx. lib.,' while the countess sent him by one of her gentlewomen 'a littel feather of gold and silver of the vallew of x. lib.' The negotiation, however, ultimately failed.

In December 1561 Clough, writing to Gresham, suggested the erection of an exchange for merchants in London after the model of the burse at Antwerp, and he became a zealous promoter of the work. By his advice a Flemish architect, by name Hendrix, was engaged, and most of the materials and workmanship were imported from Antwerp under his supervision. At length, after twelve years of such service abroad, Clough felt anxious to return to Wales for a brief retirement. He therefore, in February 1563-4, petitioned Cecil, through Gresham, 'to helpe hym to a lease for xxj yeres of serteyn landes of the Quenes Majesties lying in Wales of the yerely vallew of xxvij li. by yere.' Leaseholds in the counties of Carnarvon, Flint, Nottingham, and Buckingham were granted to him in the following year (, Index to Records, vol. i., Originalia temp. Eliz.), but there is no evidence to show that he went home just then. Probably the commencement of the disturbances in the Low Countries rendered his presence at Antwerp more necessary than ever. Meanwhile he corresponded with his accustomed regularity, giving the particulars of every 'marvellous stir' with all the minuteness of a Dutch painter. It was not until the middle of April 1567 that he was able to make a hasty excursion into Wales, there to marry, after a brief courtship, the fair Katharine Tudor, better known as Katharine of Berain, the widow of John Salusbury, son and heir of Sir John Salusbury, knt., of Lleweni, near Denbigh, and daughter and heiress of Tudor ap Robert Fychan of Berain in the same county. In this same year he began building, in a retired valley near Denbigh, the house of Bachegraig, and two miles further, on a beautiful elevated bank, another house, to which he gave the name of Plâs Clough. Both houses were