Paul Methuen (clothier)

Paul Methuen (1613-1667) was a wealthy clothier of Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire

Paul Methuen was born on 13 October 1613 at Frome, Somerset, where his father Anthony (d. 1640) was the vicar of St John’s church. Nothing is known of his early years, but in 1641 he married Sarah Davison of Freshford, Somerset, and thus became brother-in-law to the clothier-politician John Ashe (of Freshford) (1597-1659). By 1646 he had settled nearby at Bradford-on-Avon, where he acquired a large house with a tithe barn suitable for cloth-making and storage. After Methuen’s first wife died, he married John Ashe’s daughter Grace (d. 1700), and and thus became his son-in-law.

Over the next twenty years Methuen became an important supplier of an an expensive fabric known as ‘Spanish cloth’ to Ashe’s younger brothers Edward Ashe (died 1656) and Jonathan, merchants in London. These cloths, made from fine yarn dyed in the wool and also known as medley broadcloths, were mostly exported to Paris. Methuen also sold to other London merchants, and by the end of his career was a very wealthy man. He died in 1667 and was buried in the parish church of Holy Trinity on 18 July. In his will he left his dye-houses, workshops and fulling mills to his second son, Anthony Methuen ( 1652-1717), the ancestor of the Methuens of Corsham Court.