Edmund Colthurst


Edmund Colthurst was a wealthy English landowner who inherited the former monastic estates of Hinton Priory and Bath Abbey, Somerset, following the death of his father in 1559. He was the son of Matthew Colthurst and Anne Grimston. He married Elinor de la Rivere, daughter of Thomas de la Rivere, with whom he had eight children.
In 1572 he donated Bath Abbey church to the city authorities, but retained the rest of the former priory precinct for his own use. In 1602, Colthurst proposed creating an artificial watercourse, known as the New River, to supply drinking water to London and obtained a charter from King James I to construct it in 1604. After surveying the route and digging the first two-mile long stretch, Colthurst encountered financial difficulties and it fell to his partner, Sir Hugh Myddelton, to complete the work between 1609 and its official opening on 29 September 1613. Colthurst eventually sold Hinton Priory and most of his other estates and died sometime after 1611.