Sir Stephen Soame (c. 1540 – 23 May 1619) was an English merchant, landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1601. He served as Lord Mayor of London for the year 1598 to 1599.A.M. Mimardière, 'Soame, Sir Stephen (c.1544-1619), of London', in P.W. Hasler (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603 (from Boydell and Brewer 1981), History of Parliament Online.
Career Soame was the second son of Thomas Soame, of Betely alias Beetley, Norfolk (Launditch Hundred), and his first wife Anne, sister and heir of Francis Knighton of Little Bradley, Suffolk, and widow of Richard Le Hunt of Little Bradley.J.B. Heath, Some account of the Worshipful Company of Grocers of the City of London (London 1829), at pp. 221-22 (Google). His elder brother was Thomas Soame, gent. (died 1606, aged 64), of Little Bradley, Suffolk, where he has a memorial brass. One of his younger brothers, Robert Soame (1542-1609), became Master of Peterhouse and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.S. Wright, 'Some, Robert (1542-1609), college head', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004)J. Venn and J.A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, Part I vol. 4 (Cambridge University Press 1927), p. 119 (Internet Archive). Their father Thomas died at Beetley in April 1569, and by his inquisition post mortem held in the following August he was found to be seised of lands in Little Bradley and Little Thurlow, in Suffolk, and at Beetley, North Elmham, Bilney, Great Bittering and Gressingham in Norfolk: his eldest son and heir Thomas was (according to the inquisition) then aged twenty-six.Inquisition post mortem of Thomas Soame, 2 August 11 Elizabeth, quoted in Collins, The English Baronetage, p. 715 (Google), from Peter Le Neve's MSS, Vol. III.
Stephen Soame was originally a member of the Worshipful Company of Girdlers,W.D. Smythe, An Historical Account of the Worshipful Company of Girdlers, London (The Chiswick Press, London 1905), pp. 113-14 (Internet Archive). into which he was apprenticed in the ward of Cheap in the City of London.Will of Sir Stephen Soame (P.C.C. 1620, Soame quire). He married, during the 1570s, Anne (1555-1622), daughter of the London Haberdasher William Stone and his wife Marye Gray,William and Marye married at St Pancras, Soper Lane, London, 1554. W. Bruce Bannerman (ed.), The Registers of St. Mary le Bowe, Cheapside, All Hallows, Honey Lane, and of St. Pancras, Soper Lane, London, II: Marriages, Harleian Society, Registers, Vol. XLV (1915), p. 440 (Internet Archive). daughter of John Gray of Barley, Hertfordshire. Their eldest son, William Soame, was born about 1580.Inquisition post mortem of Sir Stephen Soame (Suffolk): The National Archives (UK), C 142/383/89. Quoted in Collins, The English Baronetage, p. 716 (Google), from Peter Le Neve's MSS. His business in the cloth trade lay largely with the Eastland Company from its charter in 1579, but was suffering losses in his trade with the Netherlands when in 1589 the Privy Council sought to obtain his temporary admission to the Merchant Adventurers to stabilize his affairs. He served as Sheriff of London in 1589, becoming alderman for Cheap ward in the same year (which he continued to represent until his death in 1619).A.B. Beavan, The Aldermen of the City of London Temp. Henry III to 1912 (Corporation of the City of London, 1913), II, p. 43 (Internet Archive).
In 1598 he was elected Master of the Girdlers' Company: however, in the same year he was chosen to be Lord Mayor of London, but was found to be ineligible to that office "on accounte of belongyng to an inferior Companie and not one of the twelve greate Companies." He therefore petitioned to be admitted to the Worshipful Company of Grocers, and transferred to them: so he proceeded to the Mayoralty. This caused great offence to the Girdlers, who had his heraldic arms (gules, a chevron between three mallets orB. Burke, The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales (Harrison and Sons, London 1884), p. 947 (Google).) removed from their hall. A painted portrait of Soame exists, after the manner of Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, which includes several armorial escutcheons showing impalements.'Index of the Great and Little Thurlow CD Archive', Section B: The Soame family. Images B1 and B2. (The Thurlows, Village News and Information website). In 1600 he was among the aldermen led by Mayor Sir Nicholas Mosley who unsuccessfully appealed to the Marquess of Winchester for funds for the repair of the steeple of the church of the Austin Friars.John Strype, A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster Book 2 Chapter 7, pp. 114-15 (Strype's Survey Online).
As Lord Mayor, Soame presided over the first meeting of merchants to consider the formation of the East India Company. In 1605 he was named among the principals in the Charter granted by James I to revive the Levant Company,"Appendix I. The Charter to the Company of James I. 1605", in M. Epstein, The Early History of the Levant Company (George Routledge & Sons, Limited, London 1908), pp. 152-210, at p. 158 (Internet Archive). and he was among the prominent merchants involved in Alderman Sir William Cockayne's project.A. Friis, Alderman Cockayne's Project and the Cloth Trade: The Commercial Policy of England in Its Main Aspects, 1603-1625 (Levin and Munksgaard, Copenhagen 1927), at pp. 233, 242, 254, 283, 310, 326, 458. Also in 1605, when the Spanish Company was fully reconstituted, he wrote requesting admission, but received the reply that, since he was already free of the Staple merchants and the East merchants, he could not be admitted except by payment of a fine or by procuring a similar freedom for one of their own members. A member offering £100 for admission to the Staple merchants, Soame's application was approved."Register Book, July to September 1605", in P. Croft (ed.), The Spanish Company, London Record Society vol. 9 (1973), items 194, 208, 280 (British History Online). His will refers to a significant East India Company investment, and to his "great Adventures [i.e. investments] abroade in Turkey and in many other places out of the kingdom". One version of his portrait includes an inset scene of a merchantman at sea.'Index of the Great and Little Thurlow CD Archive', Image B2. (The Thurlows, Village News and Information website). According to his epitaph, he was Mayor of the Staple in London for nearly 20 years.
Serving as President of the Bethlem and Bridewell in 1598-99, he was knighted in April 1599. He was elected a Member of Parliament for the City of London in 1601. He was Surveyor-General of Hospitals in 1609-1610 and Comptroller-General of Hospitals from 1610 until his death.Beavan, Aldermen of the City of London, II, p. 43.
Projects
Soame's epitaph shows that he was responsible for building the mansion house at Little Thurlow which became his residence there, and in which he died.'The Soame family', in K. Atherton, Great and Little Thurlow: Past and Present Times (Little Thurlow Projects, 1999), at The Thurlows, Village News and Information website. It was burnt down in 1809, but drawings exist which show a very substantial late Elizabethan or early Jacobean mansion of three main storeys, with a frontage to full height of 11 bays, of which the third, sixth (with main entrance) and ninth projected forward. The rooflines were concealed behind a parapet with pinnacles or small turrets at the quoins and in the midst of the recessed bays, and with small lights to fenestrate the attic spaces.'Index of the Great and Little Thurlow CD Archive', Section A: Thurlow Halls and Mansions. Images A1 and A2. (The Thurlows, Village News and Information website). A thumbnail elevation is also shown in a survey by John Coulter of 1735, when extensive formal gardens were laid out.R. Brooks and D. Stirk, ed. R. Goffin, "Little Thurlow Hall, Pound Green, Little Thurlow: TUL 020", Archaeological Monitoring Report (Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service), Report no. 2011/073 (April 2012), p. 5 (SCC-grey-lit pdf p. 15): Original map from Suffolk Record Office, Bury St Edmunds, ref. HA 540/7/1. His City of London home was on the west side of Soper Lane, adjacent to that of Sir Roger Martyn.J.J. Howard and J.G. Nichols (eds), "Family of Martyn", in 'The Visitation of London taken by Robert Cook, Clarenceux', Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, II (1864) (Society's pdf), Proceedings supplement, pp. 1-12, note at p. 7, citing "List of Mayors, etc., by William Smith, Rouge-Dragon".
Soame made considerable charitable donations. He restored and reglazed the great north window of St Paul's Cathedral, and also (at the cost of £500) restored the ceiling of Grocers' Hall. He made several provisions in his will for regular distributions of food to the poor, and to prisoners in London. He built a free school at Little Thurlow with maintenance for a master and usher, for the benefit of children to be taught English and Latin reading and cipher in preparation for admission to the universities:"Little Thurlow", in C. Paine (ed.), 'Excursions 2001', in Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History XL Part 2 (2002), pp. 237-45 (Society's pdf), at p. 242. Should the numbers and ages of the students warranted, he also made provision for part of the church of Little Thurlow to be used as an additional schoolroom, a responsibility which he entrusted to his widow in his will. (His brother Robert had similarly made over the chancel of Girton church, of which he was rector, as a schoolroom.) He also erected almshouses for eight or nine poor single men and women aged over 64, with small pensions for their maintenance.
Manorial holdings Both school and almshouses were to be maintained from an annuity to be raised from his manor of Carlton, Cambridgeshire, which had been the seat of William Morden, husband of Stephen's sister Frances Soame, and which Soame purchased during his last years. In West Suffolk, Little Bradley manor (Overhall) had been sold to John le Hunt (who also held Netherhall) in 1565, allied to Soame through his mother's first marriage.W.A. Copinger, Manors of Suffolk, V (Manchester 1909), pp. 196-97 (Internet Archive). The manor of Little Thurlow itself had passed to Thomas Turner in 1572, and from him to Thomas Wisbicke, who sold it to Soame, perhaps in 1582, when a fine was levied. In 1595 Soame brought a Chancery suit against Wisbicke to protect his title as lord of the manor. Soame's lands there included an estate called "The Temple". The manor of Cowlinge was in Soame's possession at the time of his death, when he bequeathed it to his son Stephen. The manor at Hundon to which Hundon church was attached, both demised in Soame's will, was part of those former possessions of Stoke-by-Clare College which had been granted to Sir John Cheke in 1548.W.A. Copinger, Manors of Suffolk, V (Manchester 1909), pp. 207, 254, and 296-99 (Internet Archive).'Colleges: Stoke by Clare', in W. Page (ed.), A History of the County of Suffolk, Vol. 2 (VCH, London reprint 1975), pp. 145-50 (British History Online).