Chester till the death of Ranulf de Blundeville, the last earl, in 1231, when, with Castle Rising and the ‘Earl’s Half’ in Coventry, it passed, through his sister Mabel, to her descendants, the Montalts.

The Barons de Monte Alto, sometimes styled de Moaldis or Mohaut (now Mold, 6 miles from Hawarden, where the mound of the castle remains), were hereditary seneschals of Chester and lords of Mold.  Roger de Montalt inherited Hawarden, Coventry, and Castle Rising, and married Julian, daughter of Roger de Clifford, Justiciary of Chester and North Wales, who was captured at the storming of the Castle by Llewelyn, in 1281.  Robert de Montalt the last lord, died childless [8] in 1329, when the barony became extinct.  He it was who signed the celebrated letter to the Pope in 1300 as Dominus de Hawardyn.

Robert de Montalt bequeathed his estates to Isabella, Queen of Edward II., and Hawarden afterwards passed by exchange, in 1337, to Sir William de Montacute, Earl of Salisbury.  From that family it reverted in 1406, by attainder, to the Crown, and in 1411 was granted by Henry IV. to his second son, Thomas, Duke of Clarence.  Clarence dying without issue in 1420, it reverted once more to the Crown, but finally, in 1454, passed to Sir Thomas Stanley, Comptroller of the Household and afterwards Lord Stanley, whose son became the first Earl of Derby.  In 1495, Henry VII. honoured Hawarden with a visit, and made

some residence here for the amusement of stag-hunting, but his primary motive was to soothe the Earl (husband to Margaret, the King’s mother) after the ungrateful execution of his brother, Sir William Stanley. [9a]

Hawarden remained in the possession of the Stanleys for nearly 200 years.  William, the sixth Earl, when advanced in years, surrendered the property to his son James, reserving to himself £1000 a year, and retiring to a convenient house [9b] near the Dee, spent there the remainder of his life, and died in 1642.  James, distinguished for his learning and gallantry, warmly espoused the cause first of Charles I. and afterwards that of his son.  Under his roof Charles, when a fugitive, halted on his way from Chester to Denbigh, on Sept. 25, 1645.  After the battle of Worcester, in 1657, James was taken prisoner, tried by Court Martial, and executed at Bolton in the same year.

In 1653, the Lordship of Hawarden was purchased from the agents of sequestration by Serjeant (afterwards Chief Justice) Glynne; and in 1661 the sale was confirmed by Charles, Earl of Derby.

The Glynnes are first heard of at Glyn Llivon, in Carnarvonshire, in 1567.  They trace their descent, however, much further back, to Cilmin Droed Dhu (Cilmin of the Black Foot), who came into Wales from the North of Britain with his uncle Mervyn, King of the Isle of Man, who married Esyllt, heiress of Conan, King of North Wales, about A.D. 830.  The territory allotted to him extended from Carnarvon

to beyond Clynnog.  Edward Llwyd was the first to assume the name of Glynne, which his descendants continued till the male succession ended in John Glynne, whose daughter and heiress, Frances, married Thomas Wynne of Bodnau, created a baronet in 1742.  His son, Sir John, is said to have pulled down the old strong mansion of Cilmin, and erected the present one.  His son again, Sir Thomas, was created a Peer of Ireland for his services in the American war, whose descendant is the present Lord Newborough.  The father of the Serjeant was Sir William Glynne, Knight, 21st in descent from Cilmin Droed Dhu.  The Serjeant early espoused the cause of the popular party, perhaps rather from ambition than from principle.  His abilities were soon recognized, and while still young he became High Steward of Westminster and Recorder of London.  In 1640 he was elected Member for Westminster as a strong Presbyterian.  He was actively concerned in conducting the charge against Lord Strafford.  In 1646 he opposed in Parliament Cromwell’s Self-denying Ordinance, and was thrown into prison.  He found means, however, to get reconciled to Cromwell in 1648, and became one of his Council and Serjeant-at-law.  In 1654 he became Chamberlain of Chester, and in the following year succeeded Rolle as Lord Chief Justice—which office he discharged with credit. [10]  In 1656 he was returned for Carnarvonshire, and in the Rump Parliament he sat again for Westminster.  Meanwhile he contrived to ingratiate himself with the opposite side, and in 1660 we find him assisting on horseback at the coronation of Charles II.  He now resigned the Chief Justiceship, made himself very useful in settling legal difficulties consequent upon the usurpation, and became as

loyal as any cavalier: the King, as a mark of his favour, [11a] bestowing a baronetcy upon his son in 1661.  He possessed Henley Park, [11b] in Surrey, and an estate at Bicester, in Oxfordshire, (of which church, as well as Ambrosden, he was patron) where the family resided.  He died at his house in Westminster in 1666, and was buried in a vault beneath the altar of S. Margaret’s Church.

His son, Sir William Glynne, the first baronet, sat in Parliament for Woodstock, and died in 1721.  It was not till 1723 that the Glynnes moved to Hawarden, from Bicester.  An old stone records the building of a house in Broadlane in 1727.  In 1732 Sir John Glynne, nephew of Sir William, married Honora Conway, co-heiress with her sister Catherine of the Ravenscrofts of Bretton and Broadlane, an old family connected with Hawarden for many generations. [11c]  This lady was the great great grand-daughter of Sir Kenelm Digby, and with her one-half of the Ravenscroft lands came into possession of the Glynnes; the other half in Bretton passing eventually to the Grosvenors.  She died in 1769.  In 1752 Sir John built a new house at Broadlane, which has since been the residence of the family.

Though not the founder of the family, Sir John Glynne may fairly be considered the founder of the place, and of the estate in its modern sense.  Though he sat for five Parliaments for the Borough of Flint, he devoted himself largely to domestic concerns and to the improvement of his property by inclosure, drainage, and otherwise.  The present beauty of the Park is in a great measure due to his energy and foresight.  Upon the acquisition of Broadlane Hall, he at once took in hand the re-planting of the demesne,