Richard Herbert, 2nd Baron Herbert of Chirbury

Richard Herbert, 2nd Baron Herbert of Chirbury (c. 1604 – 13 May 1655) was an Anglo-Welsh Member of Parliament, a Royalist who fought with the rank of colonel in the English Civil War, and a peer whose membership of the House of Lords was curtailed by its abolition in 1649.

Life

Herbert, born about 1604, was the elder son of the poet Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury, of Montgomery Castle, and of Mary, the daughter and heiress of Sir William Herbert (d. 1593), both members of a collateral branch of the family of the Earls of Pembroke. He was born while his father was under the age of twenty-one.

On 19 November 1627 at Bridgwater House, Barbican, City of London, Herbert married Lady Mary Egerton (c. 1604–1659), one of the five daughters of John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgwater. Their children were two sons, Edward and Henry, and two daughters, Frances and Florence.

As the result of his marriage, Herbert was the brother-in-law of David Cecil, 3rd Earl of Exeter (c. 1600–1643), Sir John Hobart (1593–1647), Richard Vaughan, 2nd Earl of Carbery (c. 1600–1686), Oliver St John, 5th Baron St John of Bletso (d. 1642), and John Egerton, 2nd Earl of Bridgewater (1623–1686).

In July 1643, Colonel Richard Herbert, in command of his regiment, was with Prince Rupert of the Rhine at the capture of Bristol.

On 5 September 1644 Herbert's father Lord Herbert surrendered the family seat of Montgomery Castle, by negotiation, to parliamentary forces led by Sir Thomas Myddelton. The older Herbert returned to London, submitted to parliament, and received a pension of £20 a week, while the Castle was subsequently slighted.

Herbert was Governor of Aberystwyth in 1644 and of Newport in 1645, but he took the Negative Oath and on 6 March 1647 "petitioned to compound", with the result that he was fined £1,000 as the price of making his peace with parliament.

Herbert succeeded his father as Chief Forester of Snowdon.