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Chelys 7 (1977), article 2
members to gravitate to London 9 —a familiar enough pattern for its period, if
less usual as background to a musician. The most notable member of the family
besides the composer himself was his cousin Sir Samuel Mico (1610-65), son
of Richard of Weymouth, who settled in London by the 1630s, grew rich
trading overseas, supported Parliament during the Civil War, rose under
Cromwell to be an alderman of London and Master of the Mercers’ Company,
and was knighted after the Restoration. 10
The composer, according to the pedigree, was the eldest of three
sons of Walter Mico of Taunton in Somerset. 11 His younger brother
Walter can be traced through the records of the English College in
Rome as having become a Jesuit, 12 and these also provide useful side-lights on
Richard. The youngest brother Emanuel appears during the Commonwealth as a
substantial citizen of Taunton. 13 Richard’s father has not been traced in any of
the surviving Taunton parish registers. But Richard’s mother Margery (d. 1616)
and his unmarried sister
Margaret (d. 1620) were buried in the parish of Taunton St. James, where too
his brother Emanuel christened five children (1628-39) and was buried
(1663). 14 There is thus a strong presumption that Richard himself was born in
the same parish. We cannot be precise about the date of his birth since the St.
James registers of baptisms are missing before 1606. However, his brother
Walter’s birth can be dated to 1594/5, by inference from statements which
Walter made on admission to the English College in 1616, 15 which also show
that there were five sisters (nothing is known of the other four). Richard, who
as will be seen started work in 1608 at an adult wage, must
therefore have been born about 1590.
9
Somerset Record Office (SRO), D/P Cros. 2/1/2; Somerset Record Society (SRS),
COmmonwealth Quarter Sessions Records, p. 61-3; Registers of St. Botolph’s, Aldgate, London
ed. Harl. Soc.), s.v. Mico; Public Record Office (PRO), wills, PCC 203 Pell; Calendar of State
Papers Domestic (CSPD), 1661/62, p. 2; Historical Manuscripts Commission (HMC), Finch, I,
p. 230, 254, 308, 399; Calendar of Clarendon State Papers, v, p. 477; Registers of the Parish of
Branscombe, Devon (Devon and Cornwall Record Society, 1913), s.v. Mecho.
10 Registers of St. Michael Bassishaw and St. Stephen’s Walbrook, London (Harl. Soc); Misc.
GH, ii (1888), p. 116 and iv (1920), p. 33; PRO SP. 19/63, f. 150; PRO, PCC 75 Mico; CSPD,
1649/50, p. 587; ib. 1653/54, p. 33, 542; ib. 1655, p. 25; Acts and Ordinances of the
Interregnum, I, p. 733, and ii, p. 668; A Beavan: The Aldermen of the City fo London (London,
1908), p. 160; Le Neve’s Knights (Harl. Soc.), p. 190.
11 Pedigree in note 6.
12 H. Foley, SJ: Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus (London, 1878 et seq.),
v, p. 251.
13 SRS, Commonwealth Quarter Sessions Records, p. 101, 185.
14 SRO, D/P/tau. ja. 2/1/1, 2/1/2, and Bishops’ Transcripts 408 (Registers of Taunton St.
James).
15 English College, Rome (ECR); Responsa Scholarum, printed from original MS. in Catholic
Record Society (CRS), liv (1962), p. 294; and ECR Nomina Alumnorum, in CRS xxxvii (1940),
p. 179.