Nicholas Wotton (mayor)

Last updated

Nicholas Wotton (or Wootton; d. 1448) was an English merchant and official who twice served as Lord Mayor of London, in 1415 and 1430.

Contents

Family

Wotton was the son of William Wotton (d. 1391), a wealthy wool merchant, and his wife Margaret (d. 1404). [1] His father may be the same William Wotton who was alderman of Dowgate Ward. [2] He married Joane Corbie, only daughter and heiress of Robert Corbie. This marriage brought with it the estate of Boughton Malherbe, which would remain in the Wotton family for generations. [3] After Joan's death in 1413, he remarried to a woman named Margaret. [2]

Career

Wotton was a member of the Drapers' Company. Like his father, he was a large investor in wool, with royal licenses to ship large quantities to Calais. His growing wealth enabled him to advance large loans to both Kings Henry IV and Henry V, in return for which he gained an exemption on customs duties until the loans were repaid. [2]

Apart from his mercantile activities, Wotton held a number of political offices. He was at various times tax collector, Constable of the Staple of Westminster, and Mayor of the Staple of Westminster. He held the position of alderman for Broad Street Ward from 1404-1406 and Dowgate Ward from 1406 until 1446. He was one of the Sheriffs of the City of London in 1406-1407, Mayor of London in 1415 and 1430, and MP for London in the 1406, 1414, 1419, 1421, 1425, and 1429 parliaments. [2]

While living in Kent, Wotton was summoned to be impanelled before the judges of assize. He refused to be sworn, asserting the privilege of former mayors and aldermen of London to not serve the king in any other part of the country without their consent. Though he was held in contempt, he received a royal pardon from Henry VI. [3]

Death and legacy

Wotton died in 1448, leaving his widow Margaret and two sons, Nicholas and Richard, and was buried in the church at Boughton Malherbe. [4] As the younger son, Richard, was a clergyman, his inheritance ultimately reverted back to his brother's family. Among Wotton's descendants were the diplomat Nicholas Wotton, privy councilor Edward Wotton, MP Henry Wotton, Margaret Wotton, Marchioness of Dorset, and the Barons Wotton. [1]

Related Research Articles

Anthony, Duke of Brabant

Anthony, Duke of Brabant, also known as Antoine de Brabant, Antoine de Bourgogne and Anthony of Burgundy, was Count of Rethel (1402–1406), Duke of Brabant, Lothier and Limburg (1406–1415), and Co-Duke of Luxemburg (1411-1415). He was killed at the battle of Agincourt.

Nicholas Wotton

Nicholas Wotton was an English diplomat, cleric and courtier.

Boughton Malherbe Human settlement in England

Boughton Malherbe is a village and civil parish in the Maidstone district of Kent, England equidistant between Maidstone and Ashford. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 428, including Sandway and Grafty Green, increasing to 476 at the 2011 Census.

Henry Stanhope, Lord Stanhope KB, known as Sir Henry Stanhope until 1628, was an English nobleman and politician.

Sir Steven Jenins was a wool merchant from Wolverhampton, Merchant of the Staple and Master Merchant Taylor who became Lord Mayor of London for the year of the coronation of King Henry VIII. An artistic, architectural and educational patron, he founded Wolverhampton Grammar School, and took a leading part in the rebuilding of the church of St. Andrew Undershaft in the City of London.

Baron Wotton was a title that was created twice in the Peerage of England. The first creation came in 1603 for Sir Edward Wotton, of Boughton Place, Boughton Malherbe, Kent, a descendant of Nicholas Wotton, twice Lord Mayor of London, who married Joan Corbye, heiress of Boughton Malherbe and settled at Boughton Place. Edward, in 1594 followed several of his forebears as High Sheriff of Kent and served as Ambassador to Queen Elizabeth I. After the death of his son and heir, the second Baron, in 1630, without male issue, the barony became extinct. His estate passed to his eldest daughter the Honourable Katherine, who firstly married Henry Stanhope, Lord Stanhope. She was created Countess of Chesterfield for life on his death and later married Jehan van Kerkhoven. The title was revived for her son by her second husband, Charles Henry, who also created Earl of Bellomont in 1680. For more information on the second creation, which became extinct in 1683, see Earl of Bellomont.

Thomas Leigh (Lord Mayor)

Sir Thomas Leigh was an English merchant and Lord Mayor of London in 1558-59. He served as a City Alderman from 1552 until 1571.

Edward Wotton, 1st Baron Wotton

Edward Wotton, 1st Baron Wotton (1548–1626) was an English diplomat and administrator. From 1612 to 1613, he served as a Lord of the Treasury. Wotton was Treasurer of the Household from 1616 to 1618, and also served as Lord Lieutenant of Kent from 1604 until 1620.

Margaret Wotton, Marchioness of Dorset

Margaret Wotton, Marchioness of Dorset was the second wife of Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset, and the mother of his children, including Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, with whom she engaged in many quarrels during his minority over money and his allowance. Her lack of generosity to Henry shocked her peers as unmotherly, and inappropriate behaviour toward a high-ranking nobleman, relative of King Henry VIII of England. In 1534, she was compelled to answer to the charges that she was an "unnatural mother".

Boughton Place

Boughton Place, formerly Bocton Place or Bocton Hall, is a country house in Boughton Malherbe, Kent, England. It is the historic home of the Wotton family and birthplace of Sir Henry Wotton (1568–1639), ambassador to Venice under James I.

Sir Robert Lee c. 1550 - 22 December 1606 was an English merchant who was Lord Mayor of London in 1602.

Sir Cuthbert Hacket was an English merchant who was Lord Mayor of London in 1626.

Sir Edward Bromfield was an English merchant who was Lord Mayor of London in 1636.

Sir Edward Wotton (1489–1551) was the Treasurer of Calais and a privy councillor to Edward VI of England.

Thomas Wotton (1521–1587), was a sheriff of Kent, the son of Sir Edward Wotton and father of Edward Wotton, the 1st Baron Wotton.

Sir Nicholas Woodroffe was a London merchant of the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers, who, through the English Reformation, rose in the Alderman class to become a Master Haberdasher, Lord Mayor of London and Member of Parliament for London. Through the complexities of his family's relationships, and the position and security which they afforded, he lived to establish his family among the armigerous houses of late Elizabethan Surrey.

Sir Thomas Offley was a Sheriff of London and Lord Mayor of London during the reign of Queen Mary I of England. A long-serving alderman of London, he was a prominent member of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors, thrice Mayor of the Staple, and a named founding Assistant of the Muscovy Company.

Hugh Fenn, also written Fenne or atte Fenn, was an English businessman from Great Yarmouth in Norfolk who was active in local and national government during the reigns of Kings Richard II and Henry IV. It was a ship he part-owned which in 1406 captured the future King James I of Scotland.

John Fresshe John Fresshe, Mayor of London 1394–95

John Fresshe was a citizen, alderman, and Mayor of London in the latter years of the fourteenth century. A merchant by trade, he was a member of the Mercers' Company, a medieval London trade guild, and has been described as one of London's "leading citizens at the end of the century".

References

  1. 1 2 The Wotton Family
  2. 1 2 3 4 Wotton, Nicholas (d. 1448), of London
  3. 1 2 Hasted, Edward. "Parishes: Boughton Malherbe Pages 397-415 The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 5. Originally published by W Bristow, Canterbury, 1798". British History Online. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
  4. ↑ Nicholas WOTTON, Will 4 January 1447
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.