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Chelys 7 (1977), article 2
Catholic Record Society’s published series of early documents, and other
sources of recusant history, have also proved of value. Acknowledgement is
due to two articles on other topics published during the 1960s, one historical
and one musicological, containing important sidelights on Mico which seem
hitherto to have escaped general notice. By piecing together material from
many different sources (documented in the footnotes) it is now possible to
reconstruct the outline of Richard Mico’s life and to bring out some of the
background to his music, although there are still dark corners which await
further research.
Family background and education
The starting point is a pedigree and coat of arms in the 1634 Visitation of
London registered by ‘Richard Mico of London’, tracing descent from a Gilbert
Micault who came from the Isle de France to Axmouth in East Devonshire
around 1500. 6 The pedigree gives a few locations, mostly west country, but no
other dates nor any occupations. It includes no less than five Richard Micos,
and the frequent combination of that Christian name with a very unusual
surname makes it reasonable to look for the composer among them. Of the two
Richards of the right generation to fit Roger North’s rough dating, one can be
identified from other sources as a Weymouth merchant. 7 The London one
proves to be our man.
It had sometimes been conjectured that the surname was of Italian origin like
Ferrabosco or an Italianisation like Coperario. The document from Paris
reproduced in the Visitation is not conclusive proof of French origin, since
while it certifies the nobility of the French Micaults (whose arms Richard Mico
of London adopted) it does not lineally connect them with the English Micos.
The composer’s circumstances in the 1630s, as will be seen, might have made
him anxious to claim noble French ancestors. Nevertheless there is nothing
improbable in a French origin. In the sixteenth century English west country
cloth had one of its main markets in Normandy and Brittany, and French
merchants were to be found in Lyme Regis, another small Channel port only a
few miles from Axmouth. 8
Parts of the 1634 pedigree can be confirmed and amplified from parish
registers, wills and other local records (which also reveal several more Richard
Micos, but none of the right generation). The general picture that emerges is a
family mainly of prosperous merchants, [26] rooted in the west country
(Somerset, Dorset and East Devon), with a tendency for the more enterprising
6 The Visitation of London, 1633-35 (ed. Harleian Society, London, 1880), ii, p. 99-100.
7 Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica (Misc.GH), iv (1920), p. 33.
8 Somerset and Dorset Notes and Queries (SDNQ), xxix (1974), p. 240.