In the Saxon era the Lordship of Halston belonged to Edric, at which time there were on the property two Welshmen and one Frenchman. After the Conquest Halston became the property of an Earl of Arundel, or of Robert, Earl of Shrewsbury, and was afterwards bestowed on the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. In the 26th Henry VIII. the commandry was valued at £160 14s. 10d. a year. On the abolition of many of the military-religious orders and monasteries, Henry empowered John Sewster, Esq., Scutifer, and afterwards allowed him to dispose of this manor to Alan Horde, who made an exchange with, or sold it to Edward Mytton, Esq., of Habberly, ancestor to the present John Mytton, Esq. This alienation was subsequently confirmed by Queen Elizabeth.
In a manuscript account of Halston, written in 1821 by the late Rev. C. A. A. Lloyd, we find the following description:—
“The Manor of Halston is extra-parochial. The Mansion-house of Halston was formerly situated near the chapel, but in the year 1690 it was removed to its present situation, which is on an elevated spot of ground rising out of an extensive flat, and formerly subject to frequent floods. The grandfather of the present owner (the late John Mytton, Esq.,) was a gentleman of great spirit and enterprise, and at considerable trouble and expense drained vast tracts of the low ground, which rendered the neighbourhood more healthy. The river Perry here forms several islands, and its shores are shaded by oaks, perhaps the finest in the country.”
After describing the pictures and books at Halston at the time he was writing, he adds,
“Mr. W. Mytton was engaged for many years in collecting materials for a History of the County, but unfortunately died before he arranged them. Among the collection is a manuscript copy of the History of the County, by Mr. E. Lloyd, of Trenewydd, which Mr. Pennant, by some blunder, mistook for Mr. Mytton’s.”
The Chapel of Halston is a donative, without any other revenue than what the chaplain is allowed by the owner, and is of exempt jurisdiction.
The Mytton family are of great antiquity, and their connection with Shrewsbury is of remote date. The late John Mytton, Esq., sold, among other property belonging to him in that town, a field called the “Chapel Yard,” on Coton Hill. When Leland visited Shrewsbury the Myttons lived on Coton Hill. In the bailiff’s accounts for a year from Michaelmas, 2nd Richard III., among rents in decasu (in decay) is one “Procapella de Coten Thome Mytton,” the sum defaced; and his descendant Thomas Mytton, Esq., was rated for it to the poor as late as 1686. Major-General Thomas Mytton, the great parliamentary commander in the Civil Wars, was a descendant of the Myttons of Shrewsbury. Halston was his birth-place, and he resided there for many years. He was a zealous and untiring leader of the parliament forces under the Commonwealth, and gave his days and nights to the Protector’s cause; but he lived long enough to realize the truth of the poet’s exclamation,