Sir John GRESHAM, Knight

(Lord Mayor of London)

Born: 1492, Holt, Norfolk, England

Died: 23 Oct 1556, London, Middlesex, England

Buried: 30 Oct 1556, Church of St. Michael's Bassishaw, London, England

Father: John GRESHAM

Mother: Alice BLYTH

Married 1: Mary IPSWELL

Children:

1. William GRESHAM (Esq.) (b. 22 Apr 1522) (m. Beatrice Guybone)

2. Mary GRESHAM (b. 17 Aug 1523)

3. Catherine GRESHAM (b. May 1524 - d. young)

4. James GRESHAM (b. 18 Jul 1526 - d. BEF 1552)

5. John GRESHAM (b. 14 Mar 1528) (m. Elizabeth Dormer)

6. Edmund GRESHAM (b. 12 Aug 1530) (m.1 Joan Hynde - m.2 Judith Sheppard)

7. Anthony GRESHAM (b. 27 Jan 1531)

8. Ellen GRESHAM (b. 24 May 1533 - 14 Dec 1567) (m. William Uvedale)

9. Ursula GRESHAM (b. 21 Oct 1534 - Jan 1574) (m. Thomas Levenson)

10. Cecily GRESHAM (b. 12 Feb 1535 - 10 Jan 1608/9) (m. Jarman Sewel)

11. Elizabeth GRESHAM (b. 19 Nov 1537 - 21 May 1579) (m. James Elliott)

12. Richard GRESHAM (b. 1538)

Married 2: Catherine SAMPSON (w. of Edward Dormer, Esq.) 15 Jul 1553, St. Michael's Bassiahaw, London, England

Apprenticed to John Middleton, a London mercer, about the year 1510, and was admitted a member of the Worshipful Company of Mercers in 1517. In Dec 1519 he was elected to the livery of the company with his elder brother, William. In his early years, he was closely associated with his brother, Richard, in the textile trade in the Low Countries, principally with Antwerp, and in 1527 both were importing grain to London from Germany. He traded with the island of Candia or Crete in 1530, imported win from Bordeaux and traded with the Levant and with Portugal in 1531. Sir John Gresham acted as an agent both for Cardinal Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell.

Sir John was Sheriff of London and Middlesex in 1537/1538 and was knighted that same year. In Dec 1541 he was one of the jurors who tried Thomas Culpepper and Francis Dereham for High Treason. Their crime was criminal intimacy with Queen Catherine Howard. Both were condemned and executed. Gresham attended the meeting between Henry VIII and his new bride, Anne of Cleves in Jan 1540. In 1547/8, Sir John Gresham became Lord Mayor of London. He was the grand uncle of the famous Sir Thomas Gresham, son of Richard Gresham, also a Lord Mayor of London.

to Bios Page

to Home Page