Hugh Myddelton

Hugh Myddelton was an English goldsmith and merchant-venturer of London whose legacy was the development of a new water supply from Hertfordshire to north London for which he was created a baronet.

Myddelton travelled from Wales to seek his fortune in London and, after being apprenticed to a goldsmith became so successful in that vocation that he was appointed Royal Jeweller by King James I. Hugh was also a mine owner with mining interests in Denbigshire, and investor in the Virginia and the New River Company. He is best remembered as the major promoter of the New River project, a progressive engineering project to bring clean water from the River Lea, Hertfordshire to New River Head, London constructed between 1608 and 1613.