Long before Adam Smith spelt it out for us in the late 18th Century, Britain was becoming wealthy through trade, and, in the Age of Discovery (c. 1418 – c. 1620), merchant adventurers were finding new routes to facilitate trade with the wider world.
In those early times, as now, secure trading required trust, and underpinning this rare and valuable commodity, a robust framework of civil law and institutions was developing to regulate trade and commercial life. Guilds offered reputation, quality assurance, and financial stability to traders, and privileges to guild members, giving them commercial advantages which enabled them to prosper.
Black pepper, one of the most sought-after traded commodities, gave rise to the Guild of Pepperers from at least 1180 which became the Fraternity of Pepperers in 1345, and then, in the 1370s, the Company of Grocers.
Its early name reflects its chief trade in spices from the East (including pepper, cloves and nutmeg), though, as merchants, members were also heavily involved in the wool and cloth trade and were moneyers.
Its income came largely through the right of weighing goods en gross at the King’s Beam, and from 1447, garbling, or testing the quality of the goods in which it traded. The Mercers and Grocers were recognised as the leaders of the Great Twelve livery companies. There was much competition as trade was expanding, both within the country and with Europe and beyond, especially when the sea route to India was discovered in the 1490s.
John Preste c1484 – 1546
Our hero John Preste was a member of both the Mercers and the Grocers, and as we shall see, became wealthy during his eventful lifetime:
John started with the Grocers Company as an apprentice to Richard Young in about 1496 and was made Free in 1503.
The Youngs (also Yonges) were a powerful Grocer dynasty dating back to the 1300s. A Richard Yonge joined the Fraternity of Pepperers (formed in 1345 and a precursor of the Grocers) in 1345 (d.c.1385), and his son John became an important Grocer. A Sir John Yonge was Lord Mayor of London in 1466. In 1452 he had secured the Great Beam (King’s Weighing Beam) for the Company in defence of its privileges, and had also been Master of the Company in 1470. So Prest was connected with an important City family through his Master.
We know that sometime after 1503, after becoming a Freeman, John Prest married. He had his first three children – daughter Osythe, son William and daughter Elizabeth – with his first wife (who is currently unknown).
John’s Will of 1546 names his older children, stating that they will get nothing, as they had all had an education and monies from him whilst he was alive.
In 1509, records show that John Preste, citizen and Grocer of London was living in the parish of the Blessed Mary of Aldermanbury, in the ward of Crepuigate – with 4 tenements.
By 1514/15, John was involved with the Mercers’ Company. Records show that he was paying £10.10s. rent to the Mercers for The White Hart, which consisted of shops, warehouses, cellars and solars (rooms mostly on an upper storey, designed as the family’s private living and sleeping quarters). Before the Mercers’ Company took ownership, the property was owned by Canterbury Cathedral Priory. Between 1514-1516 – the property came into the hands of St. Thomas of Acre until it was dissolved in 1538. Records stated that John Preest, a wealthy Grocer resident in the parish, probably lived at the property until 1526.
The Mercers’ Company – Merchant Adventurers (Acts of Court of the Mercers’ Company 1453 – 1527). It details that John Prest attended the General Court in January 1516, October 1525 and February 1528. On the last occasion, Prest was named as one of the members deputed to attend the Synxon (ie. St John’s) Midsummer Mart in the Netherlands.
1525 – Mercers’ Company Hall, on Cheapside – spare land at the rear of the Hall.
Negotiations were conducted with John Prest, grocer, who was to draw up a plan for a new House and prepare to take a lease for 50 years at £11 rent, and to contribute £160 towards the cost of building. He was limited to sublet only to a Mercer, Grocer or a Freeman of the City. No firm conclusion was reached. (In 1528 John Judde of London, Gentleman, agreed to take the lease of the void ground at the back of the hall on terms similar to those agreed with Prest).
The next Grocers’ Records supplied by Dr. Helen Clifford, state that in 1529 Arthur Devonshire became a Freeman of the Grocers – his Master being John Prest.
This means in 1522, Apprentice Arthur Devonshire was aged 12 years (birth year 1510). As it was normal for apprentices to lodge with their Masters – is this how Arthur and Osythe met?
Arthur Devonshire later married John’s eldest daughter Osythe – were they of similar age? Followed by William and Elizabeth?
(In his Will of 1572/3, Arthur refers to his wife as the ‘well beloved’ wife, Osyth. Northamptonshire Archive).
John was the Master of various apprentices, such as –
In 1525, apprentice William Pratt became a Freeman – John Prest was recorded as his Master.
On 16th July 1526, John became involved with running the Grocers’ Company, when he was elected as one of the two Wardens, to the Upper Master Sir William Butler.
Also around 1526, Marion Partriche became John’s second wife, after her husband Nicholas Partriche died, in 1525. Marion’s first marriage was to Gerard Danyell – Fishmonger to the King – his second wife. (Gerard married his first wife Elizabeth Seygar in 1487)
When Gerard died in 1513, he left property to Marion for her lifetime; Salt House and Wharf at Woolwich on the Tammies (Thames).
Her next marriage after 1513 was to Nicholas Partriche, Master Grocer and Sheriff of London in 1520. He died in 1525 – so it was after that time she married John Prest.
In 1531, John’s property dealings continued, when he purchased messuages and land in Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, with William Laxton Grocer and Edward Cacher, of the Pewterers’ (married to William’s Laxton’s sister Joan) plus two others.
In 1533, John’s wife Marion is still alive as she is mentioned in a Court Case reference TNA C 1/768/50 along with John Preste as a Sheriff of London, about ‘plate’ (money) lent to her former husband Nicholas Partriche, when he was Sheriff in 1520.
In 1533, John was elected as a Sheriff of London along with Richard Reynolds. Being Sheriff was more than a badge of honour, as the case below reflects how cruel and harsh some of the duties were in those days.
Both Sheriffs are mentioned in the horrific duties of the office below:-
The storie, examination, death, and marttyrdome of John Frith (Fryth) – with Andrew Hewet, Martyr (As per The Acts and Monuments Online).
4th July – John Fryth – burnt with Andrew Hewet, at the stake for being heretics.
John Fryth
“This sentence thus readde, the Byshop of London (John Stokesley) directed hys letter to Syr Steuen Pecocke, (Sir Stephen Peacock) Mayor of London, and the Sheriffes of the same Citie, (Richard Reynold and John Preste) – for the receyuyng of the foresayde John Frith into their charge. Who being so deliuered ouer vnto them the fourth daye of Julie, in the yeare aforesayde, was by them caryed into Smithfield to be burned.” . . .
Andrew Hewet case – was heard on 20th April – Andrew’s sentence –
“Then certayne of the Bishoppes smyled at him, and Stokesley the Bishop of London sayd: Why, Fryth is an heretique, and already judged to bee burned, & except thou reuoke thyne opinio, thou shalt be burned also wyth him. Truelye (sayth hee) I am contented therewithall. Then the Bishop asked him if hee woulde forsake hys opinions, Whereunto he answered, that he would do as Frith did.” ……… “Whereupon he was sent vnto the prison to Frith, and afterwarde they were caryed together to the fire.”
By 1536c John Preste married Alice, his third wife, and mother of his youngest daughter Frances. Was she born in 1537/8? We know that Frances was about 8 years old when John died in 1546.
As John states in his Will of 1546, Frances had nothing from him whilst he was alive, so he leaves her the Lease of Calke, plus other properties and a third of his monies.
The next set of Grocers’ Records reveals how John continued to be more involved in the Grocers’ Company. In 1534, 1535 and again in 1537 – John held the most senior position in the Grocers’ Company, that of Upper Master.
Helen’s Information
(Upper Master was what we call now the Master or Prime Warden – an annually elected position at the Head of the Company. The route to Company power began with election to the Livery, thence to the Court; from the Court to being one of the Wardens and from the Wardens a Master is chosen).
In 1535, John signed the Shrievalty Petition; details are recorded as below.
14th February was the hearing date for the petition to the Lord Mayor, Aldermen and Common Council of the City for diminution of the expenses of the Shrievalty. The petition bears 19 signatures, the first three names being those of Richard Reynolds (sheriff 1532-3), John Prest (Sheriff 1533) Robert Trappys (Alderman 1534). It sets forth that
of late years divers (many) aldermen and commoners have been reduced to extreme poverty after exercising the offices of sheriff and mayor, ….. divers citizens elected as aldermen and sheriffs have discharged themselves of the office on oath by which they have been supposed to incur the guilt of perjury, and that others, …. have made suit to be discharged of these offices by patent or letters missive or by payment of fines.
The petition was
that in future the Mayors and Sheriffs should keep one house and household, at an expense of not less than £1,600 per ann. over and above the charges of their feast on the day following SS. Simon and Jude, of which, as heretofore, the Mayor shall sustain one half and the two Sheriffs the other.
Thanks to Dr. Helen Clifford for extracts from Grocers’ Records.
Next article: The dissolution of the monasteries, Repton Priory and its cell at Calke
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