Walter Mildmay
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,[citation needed] 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.
[1] 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.
On her accession he was at once made treasurer of her household, and was appointed a member of a small committee of ways and means to supply the empty exchequer.
[5] On 21 April 1566, Sir Richard Sackville, the chancellor of the exchequer, died, and Mildmay was appointed as his replacement; he was also made auditor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
As the brother-in-law of Francis Walsingham and the friend of Lord Burghley, he was, however, always heard with attention in the Privy Council, the Star Chamber, and in Parliament.
He used what influence he possessed to shield the Puritans from the attacks of the bishops, and often urged the Queen to intervene on behalf of the Protestants in the Low Countries.
[7] In his speeches in Parliament he argued that a liberal grant of subsidies placed the government under an obligation to redress grievances, and thus identified himself with the popular party in the commons.
Although four times nominated an ambassador to Scotland, in 1565, 1580, 1582, and 1583, he was on each occasion detained at home, but when his name was suggested for the office in 1589, James VI expressed great readiness to receive him.
[8] Mildmay died at Hackney on 31 May 1589, and is buried beside his wife in the church of St Bartholomew-the-Great in London, where an elaborate monument exists to his memory.
He installed in the college a master, Laurence Chaderton, three fellows, and four scholars; but subsequent benefactions soon increased the fellowships to fourteen and the scholarships to fifty.
[8] His statutes for the government of Emmanuel College are dated 1 October 1585 and are attested by his sons, Anthony and Humphrey, John Hammond, LL.D., William Lewyn, LL.D., Thomas Byng, LL.D., Timothy Bright, M.D., and Edward Downing.
He also contributed stone for completing the tower of Great St Mary's Church, Cambridge, and he helped to found the free-school at Middleton, Lancashire.
Henry Caesar, dean of Ely, was directed by the Star Chamber to retract a report that he had circulated to the effect that Mildmay had endeavoured to see by conjuration the person of Cardinal Pole after his death.
