Walter Mildmay

Sir Walter Mildmay (bef. 1523 – 31 May 1589) was a statesman who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer to Queen Elizabeth I, and founded Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Origins He was born at Moulsham in Essex, the fourth and youngest son of Thomas Mildmay, later Auditor of the Court of Augmentations under Henry VIII, by his wife Agnes Read. As the Commissioner for receiving the surrender of the monasteries at the Dissolution, his father Thomas made a large fortune and in 1540 acquired the manor of Moulsham, near Chelmsford in Essex, where he built a fine mansion. Collateral line Walter's elder brother Sir Thomas Mildmay (d. 1566) of Moulsham, was Auditor of the Court of Augmentations, established in 1537 for allocating the property taken by the Crown from the monasteries. He was buried in Chelmsford Church, where his monument survived in 1878. Sir Thomas Mildmay was the grandfather of Sir Thomas Mildmay, 1st Baronet (d. 1626), created a baronet in 1611, and of Sir Henry Mildmay (d. 1654), a knight. Henry claimed, in right of his mother Frances Radcliffe, a daughter of Henry Radclyffe, 2nd Earl of Sussex, 3rd Baron FitzWalter (1507–1557), the barony of FitzWalter, and on 10 February 1670 his grandson Benjamin Mildmay, 17th Baron FitzWalter (c. 1646–1679), was summoned to the House of Lords by that title. Benjamin's two sons were Charles Mildmay, 18th Baron FitzWalter (1670–1728) and Benjamin Mildmay, 1st Earl FitzWalter, 1st Viscount Harwich, 19th Baron FitzWalter (1672–1756), the latter being further created Viscount Harwich and Earl FitzWalter in 1730. On Earl FitzWalter's death in 1756, the earldom became extinct and the barony fell into abeyance. Career