Sir William Chester (1509 – c. 1574) was one of the leading English Merchants of the Staple and Merchant Adventurers of the mid-16th century, five times Master of the Worshipful Company of Drapers (and twice more for part-years),A.H. Johnson, The History of the Worshipful Company of the Drapers of London, 2 vols (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1915), II, pp. 470-71 (Internet Archive). Lord Mayor of London in the year 1560–61 and Member of Parliament for the City of London.W.J.J., 'Chester, Sir William (c.1509-c.95), of Lombard Street, 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.J.D. Alsop, 'Chester, Sir William (c.1509–1595?), mayor of London', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. That supersedes the article by C. Welch in the Old D.N.B., which contains some inaccuracies. He should not be confused with his contemporary, William Chester, merchant of Bristol, M.P.M.K. Dale, 'Chester, William (bef.1489-1558), of Bristol, Glos.', in S.T. Bindoff (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509–1558 (from Boydell and Brewer 1982), History of Parliament online.
Origins and early career Parentage Born about 1509, William Chester was the second son of John Chester, citizen and Draper of London, and his second wife Joan, née Hill,'Chester', in J.J. Howard and G.J. Armytage (eds), The Visitation of London in the Year 1568, Harleian Society Vol. I (1869), p. 1 (Internet Archive). sister of the London citizen and Haberdasher John Hill (died 1516).Will of John Hill, Haberdasher of London (P.C.C. 1516, Holder quire). Hill had one child, Anne or Agnes Corbet. By his first marriage John Chester had a daughter Alice (Grene), living in 1542 a widow and nun. Joan had previously been married to Richard Welles, Mercer, who died in 1505,Will of Richard Welles of London (P.C.C. 1505, Holgrave quire). and she had a son Anthony Welles, living in 1513. John and Joan Chester had two sons, Nicholas and William. John died in 1513,Will of John Chester, Draper of London (P.C.C. 1513, Fetiplace quire). his annual obit being kept by the Drapers on 26 May at St Thomas of Acon,W. Herbert, The History of the Twelve Great Livery Companies of London, 2 vols (Author, London 1834), I, p. 452 (Internet Archive). and by 1515 Joan remarried to Sir John Milbourne,The remarriage date is shown by an indenture of 1515/16 establishing a Fellowship at St Catharine's College, Cambridge. Master of the Drapers' Company in that year,The seventh (and second surviving) volume of the Drapers' Wardens Account Books commences (after a lapse of six years) in the Mastership of John Milbourne: Herbert, History of the Twelve Great Livery Companies, I, p. 403, note (Google). who had been Sheriff of London in 1510 and became Lord Mayor in 1521.R.E.C. Waters, Genealogical Memoirs of the Extinct Family of Chester of Chicheley, Their Ancestors and Descendants, 2 vols (Robson and Sons, London 1878), I, pp. 23-25 (Internet Archive). There were no children by the marriage of Sir John and Dame Joan Milbourne.
In business: Drapers and Merchant Adventurers William was educated at Peterhouse College in the University of Cambridge,J. Venn and J.A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses: Part 1: From the earliest times to 1751, I (Cambridge University Press, 1922), p. 330. but did not proceed to a degree. On leaving the University he entered at once into trade as a draper and Merchant of the Staple. He was made free of the Drapers' Company by patrimony in 1529,Records of London's Livery Companies Online, Apprentices and Freemen 1400–1900 ref: DREB 6690 (londonroll.org). and in the path set by his stepfather (who died in 1536,Will of Sir John Mylbourne, Alderman of City of London (P.C.C. 1536, Hogen quire). his obit being kept on 5 April at the Crutched FriarsHerbert, History of the Twelve Great Livery Companies, I, p. 451.) he and his brother Nicholas built their position within it, appearing as Freemen Householders of the Company in the Chapterhouse list of 1537.Herbert, History of the Twelve Great Livery Companies, I, p. 392. A Warden first in 1542-43, William Chester with Thomas Blower assisted William Roche (then Lord Mayor) in taking possession from Sir Edward North of the mansion of Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, which had been purchased by the Drapers for their Company Hall following Cromwell's attainder.Herbert, History of the Twelve Great Livery Companies, I, pp. 470-73, at p. 473 (Google).
In 1544 the art of refining sugar was first practised in England by Cornelius Bussine and four partners, of whom Chester was one. These adventurers set up two sugar bakeries which continued without rivals for twenty years and brought great profit to the proprietors.John Strype, A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster (1720), V.xv, 'The Temporal Government': Refiners of Sugar, p. 244. (HRI Online/University of Sheffield). Dame Joan Milbourne dying in 1545, she was buried in St Edmund's, Lombard Street, where her son erected a monument in 1563. By his mother's will (of which he was executor and chief beneficiary)Will of Dame Jane Milbourne, Widow of London (P.C.C. 1545, Pynnyng quire). Chester received a considerable addition to his fortune. This probably enabled him to weather the storm which befell the English Merchant Adventurers in that year, when the Emperor Charles V placed an embargo on English merchandise. Secretary William Paget, writing from Brussels early in 1545, remarked: 'Some in dede shall wynne by it, who owe more than they have here, but Mr. Warren, Mr. Hill, Chester, and dyvers others a greats nombre are like to have a great swoope [i.e., loss] by it, having much here, and owing nothing or little'.J.W. Burgon, The Life and Times of Sir Thomas Gresham, 2 vols (Robert Jennings, London 1839), I, pp. 48-49 (Google), citing State Papers (Foreign), German Correspondence, 3 March 1544/5. His second term as Draper Warden was in 1546-47, and his third in 1549-1550, on each occasion in the Masterhood of John Sadler.
Civic responsibilities The Act for suppression of Chantries having been revived in the first year of Edward VI's reign, in March 1551 Mr. Chester reported to the Drapers that the repurchase of the lands and benefits of their obitts would amount to £1402.6s. payable to the City's Trustees (Richard Turke, William Blackwell and Augustine Hynde).Herbert, History of the Twelve Great Livery Companies, I, pp. 415-16 (Internet Archive). Closely involved in the refoundation of the Hospitals, and serving as Treasurer of St Thomas' Hospital,S.V. Morgan and W. Lempriere, John Howes' MS., 1582, Proceedings in the First Erection of the Three Royal Hospitals of Christ, Bridewell and St. Thomas the Apostle (London 1904), at pp. 30, 33, 41, 46 (Internet Archive). he was appointed in 1552 one of twelve persons, led by Sir Martin Bowes and Bishop Ridley, to petition the King on behalf of the City for the grant of Bridewell Palace for the reception of vagrants and mendicants.W. Waddington, Considerations on the Original and Proper Objects of the Royal Hospital of Bridewell: also the charters of the royal hospitals of Bridewell and Bethlem (London 1798), see abstract in 'Review of new publications, no. 23', Gentleman's Magazine Vol. 83 Part 1 (January 1798), pp. 55-57 (Google). Chester made generous private benefactions towards the reconstruction of Christ's Hospital,W. Trollope, A History of the Royal Foundation of Christ's Hospital (William Pickering, London 1834), pp. 339-40 (Google). making "the bricke wals and way on the backe side, which leadeth from the said new Hospitall, unto the Hospitall of Sainte Bartholomew".J. Stow, ed. A. Munday, The Survey of London; contayning the Orignall, Increase, Moderne Estate and Government of that Citie, begun by Iohn Stow (Elizabeth Purslow for Nicholas Bourne, London 1633), p. 344 (Internet Archive).
Chester was elected an Alderman of London for Farringdon Ward Without in January 1552-3.A.B. Beaven, The Aldermen of the City of London Temp. Henry III to 1912 (Corporation of the City of London, 1913), II, p. 34, and note 48 (Internet Archive). Some relationships described in this work are unreliable. It was however as a senior Merchant of the Staple or Merchant Adventurer that he was among those summoned by the Duke of Northumberland to countersign the Letters Patent for the Limitation of the Crown,'Letters Patent for the Limitation of the Crowne' from the transcript of Ralph Starkey in MS Harl. 35, fol. 364, in J.G. Nichols (ed.), The Chronicle of Queen Jane, and of Two Years of Queen Mary, Camden Society Vol. XLVIII (1850), pp. 91-100, at p. 100 (Google). when the death of King Edward was anticipated.
The Marian period Masterhood and shrievalty Chester was elected on 5 August 1553 to his first term as Master of the Company,Herbert, History of the Twelve Great Livery Companies, I, pp. 422-23, note (Internet Archive), citing Court Books fols. 543-44. and (with the alteration of religious policy on the accession of Queen Mary) was for 1554–55 Sheriff of London with David Woodroffe as his colleague, in the mayoralty of Sir John Lyon. In their term the Marian persecutions began in earnest: they were obliged to superintend executions of Reformers, in first place the distinguished divines John Rogers and John Bradford. Chester's humanity towards the sufferers was highly praised by John Foxe and contrasted with Woodroffe's harshness.John Foxe's The Acts and Monuments Online, 1583 edition, Book 11, p. 1648 (HRI/University of Sheffield). Before giving Dr Rowland Taylor into the custody of the Sheriff of Essex, Chester intervened to allow him a leave-taking from his wife, and offered her his own house in which to await.John Foxe's The Acts and Monuments Online, 1570 edition, Book 11, p. 1739 (HRI/University of Sheffield).
In 1541 Chester had taken as apprentice Lawrence Saunders, a Cambridge graduate, who longed to return to his religious studies. Chester released him from his bond, and during Edward's reign Saunders preached in the Midlands until appointed to All Hallows, Bread Street in 1553.J.H. Irving, Lawrence Saunders, the Martyr, and His Friends (Pickering and Inglis, Glasgow 1903), p. 14 & passim (download available at brethrenarchive). Although warned against taking up his benefice he did so, and preached against the Roman errors. He was arrested on Bonner's orders, imprisoned in London, condemned as a heretic at St Mary Overie, and burned at Coventry in February 1555.John Foxe's The Acts and Monuments Online, 1570 edition, Book 11, page 1703 (HRI/University of Sheffield). Chester, a governor of Christ's Hospital, also took a sustained interest in the career of Edmund Campion, and sponsored him as a scholar to St John's College, Oxford.G. Kilroy, Edmund Campion: A Scholarly Life (Routledge, 2016), pp. 18-27, passim (Google). In December 1557, John Bury, his wife's nephew, dedicated to him a translation of the Parænesis to Demonicus by Isocrates.John Bury (translator), The Godly aduertisement or good counsell of the famous orator Isocrates, intitled Parænesis to Demonicus wherto is annexed Cato in olde Englysh meter (In fletestreate, at the signe of the Rose Garland, by William Coplande, London 1557). (Full text at umich/eebo.
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