Richard Herbert, Lord of Cherbury

Richard Herbert (1557-buried 15 October 1596), Lord of Cherbury (or Chirbury) in Shropshire, and of Montgomery Castle, was an English Justice of the Peace and Parliamentarian.

Monument of Richard Herbert in Montgomery Church, 1796

Richard was the eldest son of Edward Herbert through whom he was a member of a collateral branch of the family of the Earls of Pembroke. He was a law student at the Middle Temple in 1576.[1]

He married Magdalene, daughter of Sir Richard Newport (died 1570) of High Ercall, Shropshire. His eldest son, Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury was born on 3 March 1583 at Eyton on Severn near Wroxeter, Shropshire. Subsequent children were Anne, Elizabeth, Margaret, Richard, William, the poet George Herbert (born 3 April 1593), Henry (born 1595), Frances, and Thomas (born posthumously 1597). By 1593 the family had moved to Black Hall, a large, low house in a valley overlooked by Montgomery Castle.

He was High Sheriff of Montgomeryshire in 1576 and 1584 and Custos Rotulorum of Montgomeryshire in 1594–1596. He was a member (MP) of the Parliament of England for Montgomery Boroughs in 1572 and for Montgomeryshire in 1584.[1]

After his death in 1596 while his wife was pregnant with their tenth child, Richard Herbert was buried on 15 October under a canopied tomb in the parish church of Saint Nicholas, Montgomery. His family moved to Oxford and then to London.