Exeter Merchants
The merchant class of Exeter was a close knit one, interrelated by marriage, there were around a hundred of them at any one time in the city, and this remained so through many generations. One in every twenty families was likely to be a merchant family and they became the governing class of the city. These were the men who became Exeter City Mayors and sat on the Council.
Names that crop up in that time are Thomas Prestwood, who came from Worcester, John Bodley whose widow married the aforementioned Prestwood; his grandson Sir Thomas Bodley, founder of the famous Bodleian Library in Oxford; Nicholas Ball a trader in pilchards from Totnes, one of the richest towns in England; Thomas Richardson, a wine merchant from Leicestershire, a Merchant Adventurer who kept a wine tavern in Exeter, are but a few.
Elizabethan Merchants in Exeter
An assembly in Exeter in the autumn of 1558 was held at the Guildhall in Exeter, twenty four men and the mayor were present and all but one were merchants. Robert Chafe was the exception, a lawyer of some experience and an ecclesiastical official connected with the cathedral.
To succeed in those times a man had to be a freeman of the city . A man who had served his apprenticeship and was free to conduct his trade in his own town; a son could inherit his father's freedom. A good education was essential to a merchant for he needed to be able to read and write to handle his business and keep his accounts. The merchant class became famous for its interest in learning and many Grammar Schools were founded by merchants, and there Latin grammar was taught, considered essential, the lingua franca for a gentleman who travelled.
Imagination’s were stirred by the voyages of exploration that were happening and with them the promise of riches from the conquest of the sea and the discovery new lands. Merchants and their sons were hort foot in pursuit of these new sources of wealth.
They already traded in wide range of items apart from wool, including wine, herring, grain, cloth, and canvas with the New World and the East offering more. much more.
Exeter was the Staple , where all wool was brought to be weighed , assessed and taxed before it could be sold.
Freemen, who were members of guilds were granted special privileges and monopolies of trade within the city. A freeman had to serve the Mayor, by defending the city and help maintain the city fabric, while in return, he could vote at the election for a new member of the chamber or the Mayor.
This assembly governed the city of Exeter which was one of the wealthiest in Elizabethan England. The social and cultural capital of the west country, a cathedral city, an industrial town and a busy port. Yet it was a small city , it was possible to walk around its walls in twenty or so minutes, something that is still just about possible today, although much of the wall is now missing.
It was possible for a man from a very humble background to make a great deal of money through the wool trade and rise to be the most influential person in Exeter. The names of Mayors of Exeter over 800 years is found here - MAYORs of Exeter
The following are just few of the families of merchants in Exeter. No fewer than 24 families were represented with 3 families having more than 1 - the Smyths had 4 members , Martyns had 5 and Spicers boasted six members of the charmed circle of officeholding families called the Twenty Four, overseen by the City Mayor.
Ameridith, Ball, Blackall / Blackallers, Brewerton, Bucknam, Chapel, Crossing, Davy, Dennys, Dorchester, Duck, DYER, Forde, Flaye, Floyer, Hackwill, Hamlyn, Jordan, Kirk, Lante, Levimore, Lewis , Martins/ Martyn, Midwinter, Peryam, Prestwood, Shillingford, Spicers, Spurway , Stapilehill, Tothill, Tucker, Walke
William Peryam, who began life as the son of a franklyn, more about him here , became a wealthy merchant and was mayor of Exeter in 1532 and 1563. A well liked man, despite his rough and ready personality, he married Mayor Blackaller's daughter.His son John Peryam also became Mayor in 1563 and 1572 - died 5th September 1573, and was replaced by John Blackall . His son William Peryam was born in Exeter in 1534, second son of John and Elizabeth Peryam, a cousin of Sir Thomas Bodley. John Peryam was a man of means, who was twice mayor of Exeter (he died during his second term of office in 1572). William's brother, John, was also twice mayor of the city and was in office when the 1588 Spanish Armada appeared off the coast of Devon. William was educated at Exeter College, Oxford, where he was elected fellow in 1551 at the age of 17.
Another man who rose from nothing to considerable wealth & influence was William Crugge, who is interesting because he also started out very humbly and seems to have been a pretty antagonistic character who, after a fight in which he was maimed, sued his antagonist, won his case and used the resulting money to set up as a clothier- From that he became one of the richest men in Exeter and Mayor twice- in 1505 and also in 1511, when Mayor William Wilsford (Wilford) died 29th Jan 1512, he was replaced him.When he died 26 Feb., 1520 William Crugge left what was then a lot of money £750. ( todays equivalent is around £7 million)
‘ Whereas William Cruygge [or Crugge Mayor in 1515, 1518] hath gevyn unto the Citie as sone as he is departed oute of this transitory lif his cloke of scarlet, 2 paier of brygandyns, 2 saletts, and 2 bills for which is graunted unto Anne the wife of the seid William Gruygge during her wydohode canon brede as olde maiers is wonte to have 8 canon lovys at Ester and 20d. in money and as moche at Christmas .