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John Gresham

Lord Mayor of London in 1547

Sir John Gresham (1495 – 23 October 1556) was an English merchant, courtier and financier who worked for King Henry VIII, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, and Thomas Cromwell. He was Lord Mayor of London and founded Gresham's School.²

From Wikipedia’s article on John Gresham (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Born 1495, died Nov 2, 1556.¹

About

He was the brother of Sir Richard Gresham.

From Wikipedia’s article on John Gresham, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.²

Companies

Gresham's SchoolFounder⁸

Career

Occupation: financier, merchant.⁵

1547 to 1548Lord Mayor of London⁴
1538 to 1539Sheriff of the City of London⁴
Date not recordedFounded Gresham's School³

Personal life

Born1495, Holt⁶
SpousesMary Ipswell⁷; Catherine Sampson⁷

The Gresham family

The Gresham family had been settled in the Norfolk village of Gresham since at least the 14th century, and an early Victorian writer concluded that it seemed very likely that the manor of Gresham Castle was the ancestral home of the family.

A John Gresham was baptized in 1340 at Aylmerton, Norfolk, and died there in 1410, owning property in Aylmerton and an interest in the manor of Holt. His son John Gresham was born in 1390 and died in 1450. In 1414, he was living at Holt. His son, James Gresham, of Holt, Norfolk, was Lord of the manor of East Beckham, where he lived from 1442 to 1497, In the mid-fifteenth century he also built a manor house in the centre of the small town of Holt. His son John Gresham of Holt married Alice Blyth and was the father of the John Gresham born about 1495. A branch of the family was thus established at Holt by the fifteenth century.

Gresham had two brothers, William Gresham, and Sir Richard Gresham, Lord Mayor of London in 1537 and father of Sir Thomas Gresham, founder of the Royal Exchange and Gresham College, both in the City of London.

Marriages and issue

Gresham married firstly, in 1521, Mary Ipswell, with whom he had twelve children between 1522 and 1538:

William Gresham (1522–1579), who was the father of Sir Thomas Gresham (d.1630) of Titsey Place, whose sons were Sir John Gresham of Titsey (1588–1643) and Sir Edward Gresham of Titsey (1594–1647). The latter's son, Sir Marmaduke Gresham of Limpsfield (1627–1696), was created a baronet in 1660.

John Gresham (born 13 March 1529), second son, who married on 17 July 1553, Elizabeth Dormer, daughter and heir of Edward Dormer, haberdasher, of London and Fulham and his wife, Katherine Sampson (see below). John Gresham and Elizabeth Dormer had three sons. After John Gresham's death his widow, Elizabeth, married William Plumbe (d.1593) of Northend near Fulham.

Mary Gresham.

Catherine Gresham.

James Gresham.

Edmund Gresham.

Anthony Gresham.

Ellen Gresham.

Ursula Gresham (1534-1574), who married Thomas Leveson (1532-1576), son of the London mercer Nicholas Leveson (d.1539) and Denise or Dionyse Bodley (d.1561), the daughter of Thomas Bodley (d.1493) and Joan Leche (d. March 1530), by whom she was the mother of William Leveson (d.1621), one of two trustees used by Cuthbert Burbage, Richard Burbage, William Kempe, Thomas Pope (d.1603), Augustine Phillips (d.1605), John Heminges (bap. 1566, d. 1630) and William Shakespeare (1564-1616) to allocate shareholdings in the Globe Theatre in 1599.

Cecily Gresham.

Elizabeth Gresham.

Richard Gresham.

Gresham married secondly, on 15 July 1553, Katherine Sampson (d.1578), widow of Edward Dormer (d.1539), brother of Sir Michael Dormer, Lord Mayor of London in 1541.

Descendants of Sir John Gresham

Most of Gresham's twelve children died without issue, but the senior line of Gresham's descendants continued until the early nineteenth century.

The 17th century Greshams sat as Members of Parliament, loyally supported King Charles I throughout the Civil War, and suffered from the victory of Cromwell. In 1643 the house at Titsey was commandeered by the Parliamentarians, but at the time of the Restoration in 1660 the new King Charles II created the head of the family, Marmaduke Gresham, a baronet as a reward for the family's support for the Royalist cause. The Gresham baronets came to an end with Sir John Gresham, sixth and last Baronet, of Limpsfield (who died in 1801). However, his daughter and heiress Katherine Maria Gresham had married William Leveson-Gower, a first cousin of the Marquess of Stafford, later the first Duke of Sutherland, and through Katherine Maria the Titsey estate continued to be owned by Sir John Gresham's descendants until the death of Thomas Leveson Gower in 1992. By his will, Leveson Gower set up the Titsey Foundation, a charitable trust with the aim of preserving the estate for the benefit of the nation.

Nevertheless, the first Sir John Gresham's line continues in the descendants of his third son, another John Gresham, who was the ancestor of the Greshams of Fulham, Albury, and Haslemere.