Matthew Arundell

[1] He was a descendant of the 11th century landowner Roger de Arundell, who possessed a substantial estate of twenty-eight manors in Wiltshire and Dorset at the Domesday Book survey,[2] and his ancestors on his mother's side included the Varangian chieftain Rurik (ca.

As a young lady Margaret had previously served in the household of Princess Elizabeth at Hatfield House.

In 1570 Arundell was able to buy it back to live in, together with the manor of Sutton Mandeville, and the next year Lord Pembroke granted him the site of Shaftesbury Abbey.

[1] Arundell served in several official capacities, including as Sheriff, custos rotulorum, and Deputy Lieutenant of Dorset.

[11] His brother Charles Arundell (died 1587) was openly a recusant and fled the country after the Babington Plot.

[11] Sir John Harington (1561–1612), a courtier often claimed as the inventor of the water closet, reported an occasion at Wardour in the early 1590s at which a conversation about sanitation first prompted his interest in the subject.

In his Will, proved on 6 February 1598/99, he gave £2,000 – at the time an enormous sum, equal to almost twice the annual income of his more powerful connection the Earl of Southampton[14] – to the poor.

Arundell's son Thomas distinguished himself in battle against the Turks in the service of the Emperor Rudolf II, who created him a Count of the Holy Roman Empire.