Thomas Gresham (1519 - 1579)

Born 1519 in London, Middlesex, England

Ancestors

Husband of Anne (Ferneley) Gresham — married 1543 in London, Middlesex, England

Descendants

Died 21 Nov 1579 at about age 60 in London, Middlesex, England

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Biography

Family and Education

Thomas Gresham was born into a family of prosperous London merchants, previously from Holt in Norfolk.^[1] His father, Sir Richard Gresham, born in Holt, was a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Mercers in London, along with his uncle John Gresham.^[2] Both Gresham brothers were knighted by King Henry VIII in 1538, when Richard was Lord Mayor of London.^[3]

Sir Richard Gresham and his wife Audrey Lynn (Linne) had two sons: the elder, John, (knighted 1547^[4]) was born in 1517, according to the Inquisition Post Mortem at York on his father's death, which states him to be 34 years on 7 April 1551.^[5] The birth of Thomas, the 2nd son, is estimated to be about 1519; given that he was a resident pensioner of Gonville Hall at Cambridge in 1530,^[6] it is unlikely that he would have been younger, and his mother died at the end of 1522.^[7] There were also two sisters: Christian, who married Sir John Thynne of Longleat in Wiltshire,^[8] and Elizabeth,^[9]who died unmarried 26 March 1552.^[10]

While Venn's listing^[6] shows that Thomas Gresham, at about age twelve, was at Cambridge for a year from October 1530, he does not seem to have taken a degree. It is possible that he left to pursue an eight-year apprenticeship with his uncle John Gresham of the Mercers Company before being admitted as a Liveryman in 1543, although this was not strictly required, as he remarked, "for that I was free by my Father's copye (his membership)." ^[11]

Note: These dates don't add up. An eight-year apprenticeship ending in 1543 would have begun in 1535, when Thomas was about 16. Perhaps he spent five years at Cambridge? Or perhaps the Cambridge date is incorrect.

In 1544, Thomas Gresham married Anne, daughter of William Ferneley Esq. of Suffolk,^[12] widow of William Rede (Reade, Read) of Suffolk, who had died earlier that year. Anne and William Rede had one son, William Rede, born about 1539.^{[13] [14]} Read, "citizen and mercer of London", was a close associate of the Greshams and named Sir Richard Gresham overseer of his Will. Anne's younger sister Jane Ferneley married Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper, and their son, Sir Nathaniel Bacon MP of Stiffkey, became the husband of Sir Thomas Gresham's illegitimate daughter Anne.^[15]

Thomas and Anne Gresham had one son, Richard, who died unmarried in 1564.^{[1] [16]}

Royal Agent

After 1543, Thomas Gresham began to take on the work of his father, Sir Richard, largely in Antwerp, where in the first half of the 16th century its Bourse was the commercial and financial center of Europe, and the place where England sent its exports of woolen cloth.^[17] Sir Richard had been an agent of King Henry VIII, following his work for Cardinal Wolsey in the 1520s.^[2] But Henry VIII had involved himself in wars with France, which incurred excessive expense. His response, beginning in 1544, was debasement of the currency, which ruined England's credit in Europe, as merchants and bankers in Antwerp refused to accept the debased coinage at its face value. It was this situation that later inspired the aphorism: "Bad money drives out good", now known as Gresham's Law. By 1560, Thomas Gresham, with his colleague William Cecil, had convinced Queen Elizabeth to withdraw and replace the debased currency, establishing the foundation of English prosperity in her reign.^[18]

By 1551, with both Henry VIII and Sir Richard Gresham dead and King Edward VI on the throne, Thomas Gresham, at the recommendation of his mentor the Duke of Northumberland ^[19] was raised to the position of the Royal Agent, or King's Merchant. "The chief duties of this ancient office were to negotiate loans for the crown with the wealthy merchants of Germany and the Netherlands, to supply the state with any foreign products that were required, especially with military stores, such as gunpowder, saltpetre, and arms, and to keep the privy council informed of all matters of importance passing abroad."^[18]

He found the king's affairs in a desperate condition. Aside from the matter of the debased currency, the Crown owed debts to such bankers as the Fuggers which it was unable to repay, and the constant requests for postponement raised interest charges and made it difficult to secure new funding. Thomas Gresham immediately set to work to remedy this situation.^[20] Although contracting and discharging loans for the Crown and keeping its credit sound was his chief duty, he also served as an ambassador, a spy and a smuggler, especially of munitions.^[18]

The apogee of Thomas Gresham's career began in 1558 with the accession of Queen Elizabeth to the throne and the appointment of his colleague Cecil to the post of Secretary of State. He was knighted in 1559 - one of the first knighthoods awarded by Elizabeth. It was at this time that Sir Thomas persuaded her to address the debasement of the currency. But the decade that followed saw the growing threat of war with Spain for both the Netherlands and England, so that Sir Thomas Gresham had to procure as much military supply as possible, and find a way to transport it safely to England. By 1567, as the Spanish forces closed on Antwerp, it was no longer safe for him to remain.^[18] Antwerp was never again Europe's financial center.

Legacies

Sir Thomas Gresham's work for the Crown, as well as his trading on his own account, had left him a very wealthy man without a direct heir. His only son Richard had died in 1564 and his daughter was married with an ample dowry the year after his return from the continent.^[21]

He left two major legacies, instead, to the nation. The first was also a legacy of his father's, as Sir Richard Gresham had wanted, as early as 1537, to establish in England a Bourse like that of Antwerp's.^[2] His son Sir Thomas was finally able to accomplish this goal. The land for this edifice, between Threadneedle Street and Cornhill in the center of what would become the City's commercial center, was donated by the City of London Corporation and the Mercers Company. The building was known as the "Burse" until Queen Elizabeth in 1571 christened it the Royal Exchange. It was not a stock exchange, but rather a shopping mall that drew all who wanted to see and be seen, earning it the name: The Eye of London.^{[22] [23]}

In his Will dated 1575,^[24] Sir Thomas Gresham left the Royal Exchange jointly to the City of London and the Mercers Company, after the demise of his wife Anne, who was given a life interest. In the same document, he created his second great legacy: the institution known as Gresham College, to which he donated Gresham House in Bishopsgate Street, again after the demise of his wife, who had a life interest. He stipulated that a moiety of the rents from the Royal Exchange were to be used jointly by the City of London and the Mercers Company to maintain the house and to pay the salaries of seven resident professors chosen to deliver regular lectures on seven subjects: divinity, astronomy, geometry, music, law, medicine, and rhetoric. The lectures are still being given today.^[18]

Sir Thomas Gresham died unexpectedly on 21 November 1579, and was buried in a magnificent ceremony at St Helen's church, Bishopsgate. His wife Anne survived him for almost twenty years, dying at his house at Osterly, Middlesex, on 23 November 1597. She was buried next to him at St Helens in a ceremony even more magnificent.^[18] Her estate passed to her son from her first marriage, William Rede.^[25]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} The visitation of London in the year 1568.London: 1869. p. 15. [1]
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 23: Gresham, Richard.[2]
3. ↑ Shaw, William Arthur. The Knights of England.London: Sherratt and Hughes. 1906. p. 51.[3]
4. ↑ Shaw, William Arthur. The Knights of England.London: Sherratt and Hughes. 1906. p. 70.[4]
5. ↑ Gower, Granville Leveson. Genealogy of the Family Gresham London: 1883. p. 140.Genealogy
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} Venn, J A. Alumni Cantabrigienses, vol II. p. 264.[5]
7. ↑ Gower, p. 22. Memorial
8. ↑ Gower, p. 152 Pedigree
9. ↑ Gower, pp. 74-75.Will of Richard Gresham
10. ↑ Gower, p. 99.Elizabeth Gresham - 6 Edward VI
11. ↑ Burgon, John William. The Life and Times of Sir Thomas Gresham. vol I. United Kingdom: R. Jennings, 1839. pp. 46-47. [6]
12. ↑ The Visitations of Suffolk. British Museum: 1882. p. 29.Ferneley
13. ↑ Gower, pp. 142-143. i.p.m. Anne Gresham
14. ↑ Burgon, p. 49.Rede
15. ↑ Burgon, p. 457.Pedigree
16. ↑ Gower, p. 152 Pedigree
17. ↑ Burgon, pp. 75-77. Antwerp
18. ↑ ^{18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 18.5} Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 23: Gresham, Thomas [7]
19. ↑ Burgon, p. 101. Northumberland
20. ↑ Burgon, pp. 91-97.correspondence
21. ↑ http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-1629/member/bacon-nathaniel-1546-1622 History of Parliament online: BACON, Nathaniel (1546-1622), of Stiffkey, Irmingland, Norf]
22. ↑ Thornbury, Walter. "The Royal Exchange." Old and New London: Volume 1. London: Cassell, Petter & Galpin, 1878. 494-513. British History Online. Web. 30 August 2020. The Royal Exchange
23. ↑ Wikipedia: Royal Exchange, London. [8]
24. ↑ Gower, p. 80. Will of Thomas Gresham
25. ↑ Gower, pp. 142-143. i.p.m. Anne Gresham

• Gower, Granville Leveson. Genealogy of the Family Gresham London: 1883. [9]

• Burgon, John William. The Life and Times of Sir Thomas Gresham. United Kingdom, R. Jennings, 1839. Life and Times

• Gresham AWYSI Newsletter: Sir Thomas Gresham is perhaps the most famous of the Gresham line. He was educated at Gonville Hall, Cambridge. Admitted a Mercer 1543, entertained John Dudley, earl of Warwick, at his seat, Intwood Hall, on his journey against the rebel Kitt. He was knighted in December 1559. He was a personal friend of Queen Elizabeth and entertained her at Mayfield and Osterley. He founded the Royal Exchange in London and was the "Royal Merchant".

• A Brief History of Gresham College, 1597-1977, by Richard Chartres and David Vermont: Sir Thomas' will was dated May 20, 1575. In addition to a number of bequests to the poor and to prisoners, one part of the revenues of the Royal Exchange property was given in trust to the Lord Mayor and Corporation, with another "moiety" entrusted to the Mercers' Company for the purpose of establishing and supporting Gresham College. The will was signed and sealed with Gresham's device of the grasshopper four years before the great merchant died in November 1579. Holinshed's Chronicle records that "on Saturday the 21st November 1579, between six and seven o'clock in the evening coming from the Exchange to this house in Bishopgate Street, he suddenly fell down in his kitchen and being taken up he was found speechless and presently dead". He was sixty.

• Suckling, Alfred Inigo, The History and Antiquities of the County of Suffolk (J. Weale, London, 1846) Vol. 1, Page 4

• Transcript of Thomas Gresham’s will viewable here, accessed 29 August 2020