page_title: Richard Ottley
section_title: Background, early life and education
hierarchical_section_title: Richard Ottley / Background, early life and education
caption_attribution_description: English: Sir Francis Ottley and his family. Wife: Lucy. Children: Richard and Mary. Sir Francis was the royalist military governor of Shrewsbury at the beginning of the English Civil War. Photographic reproduction of an engraving made c.1825 from a 1636 oil painting by Petrus Troueil, from a work published pre-1923. The original oil painting, previously in private hands, was purchased by Shrewsbury Museums Service in 1993/94 with assistance from The National Art Collections Fund, the V&amp;A Purchase Grant Fund and the Friends of Shrewsbury's Borough Museums.
context_page_description: Sir Richard Ottley was an English Royalist politician and soldier who served as a youth in the English Civil War in Shropshire. After the Restoration he played a prominent part in the repression of Parliamentarians and Nonconformists and was MP for Shropshire in the Cavalier Parliament.
context_section_description: Richard Ottley was the eldest son of
  Sir Francis Ottley of Pitchford, Shropshire, who was military governor of Shrewsbury for part of the English Civil War
  Lucy Edwards, daughter of Thomas Edwards of the College, Shrewsbury. She was the widow of Thomas Pope, another Shrewsbury resident.
  The Ottley family were part of the landed gentry of Shropshire and claimed descent from the more ancient Ottleys of Oteley, near Ellesmere, Shropshire. However, Thomas Ottley, the ancestor who bought Pitchford Hall in 1473, was a Merchant of the Staple with a house in Calais as well as in Shrewsbury. The Ottleys of Pitchford owed their status to wealth made as merchants of the thriving county town, with its monopoly in the finishing of Welsh cloth.
  Richard Ottley was born on 5 August 1626 and christened on 15 September. He had a brother, Adam, who was born in 1628 and a sister, Mary, who was born in 1630. He was admitted to Shrewsbury School on 9 April 1638, the same day as his brother Adam. but his education beyond that stage was interrupted by the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642.
caption: Richard Otley pictured, aged ten, with his parents, Sir Francis and Lucy Ottley, and his sister, Mary. An engraving made c.1825 after an oil painting of 1636 by Petrus Troueil, now owned by the Shrewsbury Museums Service.
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