Sir William Laxton (c. 1500 – 27 July 1556) was a Lord Mayor of London during the reign of Henry VIII, and eight times Master of the Worshipful Company of Grocers.J. D. Alsop, 'Laxton, Sir William (d. 1556), mayor of London', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. He was the founder of Oundle School.W. G. Walker, A History of the Oundle Schools (Grocers' Company, 1956), pp. 25–58.
Life Laxton was born in Oundle, Northamptonshire, England, the son of John Laxton, a local merchant. He was educated at the grammar school in Oundle situated in the old 'gildhouse' in the churchyard of St Peter's parish church.W. Page (ed.), 'Parishes: Oundle', in A History of the County of Northampton Volume 3, (V.C.H., London 1930), pp. 85–101. (British History Online. Retrieved 30 July 2016). Upon leaving school he went to London and became an apprentice of the Worshipful Company of Grocers in London. Having completed his seven-year term in 1519 he gained his freedom and prospered. In 1525 the citizen Grocer and Merchant Adventurer Robert Basford of All Hallows, Honey Lane named him as executor together with his widow Katherine and brother Edward, though at Basford's death in 1528 Edward and William reserved power at probate.Will of Robert Basford, Grocer of London (P.C.C. 1528, Porche quire).
He had at least one brother, John Laxton, who was also apprenticed a Grocer but appears to have died young: John was the father of William's heir Joan, who married an apothecary Thomas Wanton.See the memorial inscription of their son Nicholas Wanton, in F. Drake, An Accurate Description and History of the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of York, I (A. Ward, York 1768), p. 88. It is likely that one Richard Laxton, apprenticed to John Preste (Grocer and Merchant Adventurer)For Prest's dealings with the Mercers, see L. Lyell and F.D. Watney (eds), Acts of Court of the Mercers' Company 1453–1527 (Cambridge University Press 1936), pp. 694–702. in 1517, was also his brother, and there was a sister Joan who married Edward Cacher, of the Pewterers' Company.Walker, A History of the Oundle Schools, pp. 33–34. In 1531 William Laxton, John PrestPrest served as Sheriff of London in 1532–33, and was among the leading signatories to the petition of 1535 for the diminution of the expenses of the shrievalty, see J. Gairdner (ed.), Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII Vol. 8, January–July 1535 (H.M.S.O., London 1885), p. 78, item 208. (British History Online. Retrieved 19 January 2017). and Edward Cacher, and two others, together purchased messuages and land in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire.W. Brigg (ed.), 'Feet of Fines for Hertfordshire (Tudor Period)' (Trinity, 23 Henry VIII), The Herts Genealogist and Antiquary Vol. I (William Brigg, Harpenden 1895), p. 140. After gaining his livery Laxton was elected to the Court of Assistants, and was made junior warden on 16 July 1534.
In March 1535/6 Laxton was elected Alderman for the Aldersgate ward, and for the years 1536–37 and 1538–39 he was Master of the Grocer's Company.A.B. Beavan, The Aldermen of the City of London Temp. Henry III to 1912 (Corporation of the City of London, 1913), II, p. 29. Some relationships described in this work are unreliable. Laxton applied for and received a grant of arms in 1536.Walker, A History of the Oundle Schools, p. 37 (citing College of Arms F.12 81b and 82). The shield is illustrated by Page, 'Parishes: Oundle', in A History of the County of Northampton (V.C.H.) Volume 3. He served as Sheriff of London in the year 1540–41, together with Martin Bowes, in the mayoralty of Sir William Roche.W. J. Thoms, A Survey of London written in the year 1598, by John Stow (Chatto & Windus, London 1876), p. 195. Although these selections were made in July or August, the shrieval term of office did not commence until Michaelmas Eve.W.D. Hamilton (ed.), A Chronicle of England during the Reign of the Tudors, by Charles Wriothesley, 3 vols, Vol. 1, Camden Society New Series Vol. XI (Westminster 1875), p. 171. Therefore, the executions of Thomas Cromwell and of Dr Robert Barnes and his Lutheran companions, and the King's marriage to Catherine Howard, were all completed before Laxton took office. At Easter 1541 the Mayor, Aldermen and Crafts, greeted the river procession of the King and Queen from Westminster between the Tower and London Bridge "in barges goodlie behanged and sett with banners", and accompanied them to Greenwich.Wriothesley's Chronicle, I, p. 124. It is particularly recorded that Bowes and Laxton as sheriffs attended Lord Dacre of the South at the Tower of London on 29 July 1541 and accompanied him on foot to Tyburn where he was to be hanged.Wriothesley's Chronicle, I, p. 126. As the summer approached the executions of the Countess of Salisbury and of Lord Leonard Gray took place at the Tower.Wriothesley's Chronicle, I, pp. 124–26.
Marriage In 1541–42, and in 1543–44, he was again Master of the Grocers' Company: and, having transferred as Alderman to the Langbourn ward in 1543, late in 1544 he was elected Lord Mayor.Beavan, Aldermen of the City of London, II, p. 32. Before May 1539Will of William Pratt, Grocer of London (P.C.C. 1539, proved 12 June), makes a bequest to Laxton's wife. he had married Joan Kirkeby,The manor of Roos Hall at Sarrett, Hertfordshire, which became a property of the marriage, was purchased by the Luddingtons in Hilary 1543/44: W. Brigg (ed.), 'Hertfordshire Feet of Fines', in The Herts Genealogist & Antiquary, Vol. I (William Brigg, Harpenden 1895), p. 157. See Common Pleas concerning Nicholas and John 'Loodyngton' and William Laxton re Sarrett, CP 40/1120 (Hilary 1544), AALT images 6093-94 (fronts), and 7531 (dorse). daughter of William Kirkeby and widow of Henry Loddington,The visitations disagree as to whether the heiress Alice Whetthill was Joan's mother ('Luddington', in J. J. Howard and G. J. Armytage, The Visitation of London in the Year 1568, taken by Robert Cooke, Harleian Society Vol I (London 1869), p. 46), or, as the wife of John Kyrkeby, her grandmother ('Machell of Hackney', in G.J. Armytage (ed.), Middlesex Pedigrees as collected by Richard Mundy in Harleian Manuscript no. 1551, Harleian Society LXV (1914), p. 7); (both: Internet Archive). who had died in 1531 leaving Joan with at least three children.Will of Henry Lodington, Grocer of the City of London (P.C.C. 1531). The register copy of the will has the number of children overwritten, seeming to suggest that Luddington was survived by seven, but in later records only three are mentioned. According to heraldic visitations, Luddington, a London Grocer and Merchant Adventurer,Acts of Court of the Mercers' Company, 1453–1537, pp. 432–36 (1515/6), 543 (1522). originated from the Adlingfleet area of south Yorkshire between Goole and Scunthorpe.J. W. Walker (ed.), Yorkshire Pedigrees, 3 Vols, Harleian Society Vols 94–96 (1942–44), in Part II G-S (Vol. 95), p. 279. William Kirkeby, whom Luddington made an overseer of his will, is also said to have been of Yorkshire parentage.The inference that the manor of Rolleston, Nottinghamshire came to Anne Luddington's descendants as a Kirkby hereditament (C. J. Sisson, 'Thomas Lodge and his family', in Thomas Lodge and Other Elizabethans (Harvard University Press, 1933: reprint by Frank Cass and Co., Ltd., London 1966), pp. 58–60, p. 77, p. 118 ff. (Google)) is not demonstrated: it was vested in the family of Nevill of Holt (Medbourne, Leicestershire) until at least 1570, before being sold to Sir Thomas Lodge, Anne's second husband (see John Throsby (Ed.), Thoroton's History of Nottinghamshire: Volume 3, Republished With Large Additions (Nottingham, 1796), pp. 101–104. (British History Online. Retrieved 31 July 2016)). Laxton, who had no children of his own, accepted the Loddington children as stepson and stepdaughters, one of whom (Anne) married the wealthy Grocer William Lane (whose first wife had been sister of Peter Osborne).Lane and his wife are mentioned in a letter of Sir John Cheke to Peter Osborne, dated 30 May 1549, see 'Biographical Memoir of King Edward the Sixth', in J. G. Nichols, The Literary remains of King Edward VI, Vol. I, Roxburghe Club (J. B. Nichols & Sons, London 1857), p. l, note (a). (Lansdowne MS 2, no. 29).
Mayoralty 1544–45 Laxton's mayoralty was an eventful one, during which the King asserted himself towards the Court of Aldermen. His sheriffs were John Wilford and Andrew Judd. Soon after Christmas Henry demanded a national levy (a "benevolence") at 2 shillings in the pound to support his continuing wars in France and Scotland. The mayor and aldermen were required to make the first payments in a formal ceremony at Baynard Castle, and all did so apart from Richard Read, a newly elected alderman, who was immediately sent to the wars in Scotland, on pain of death, and was taken prisoner by the Scots three months later. Soon afterwards Sir William Roche, for speaking to the council's displeasure, was arrested in the presence of the Mayor and aldermen and sent to the Tower. On 8 February 1545 Laxton was presented to the King at Westminster and, after the King had thanked him for supporting his recent military successes, he bestowed upon him the honour of knighthood.Wriothesley's Chronicle, I, pp. 151–52.
Laxton's part in the first inquisition of the Protestant martyr Anne Askew is told in her own words. Having been detained under the Six Articles Act for her association with Evangelicals, she went before an inquisition led by Christopher Dare. She was then questioned by Laxton (as the temporal authority) on the same points. After Bishop Bonner's Chancellor had also interviewed her, Laxton put her in temporary custody, refusing to accept sureties, and telling Anne's cousin Brittayne that he would be glad to help her but could neither imprison or bail her without consent of the spiritual powers. Of this John Bale remarked, "The Mayor of London, which is the king's lieutenant, and representeth there his own person, standeth here like a dead idol, or like such a servant slave who can do nothing within his own city concerning their matters." However, Laxton's adherence to due process ended in a Not Guilty verdict for Anne in June 1545, and she was acquitted: and the authority of his office was maintained.H. Christmas (Ed.), "The first Examinacyon of Anne Askewe, latelye martyred in Smythfelde... with the elucydacyon of Johann Bale", in Select Works of John Bale, D.D., Bishop of Ossory: containing the Examinations of Lord Cobham, William Thorpe and Anne Askew, and the Image of Both Churches, Parker Society (Cambridge University Press, 1849) pp. 136–84, at pp. 153–161.
Duty of service was again subverted when Richard Jerveis obtained letters patent freeing him from his aldermanry and from future city office. Laxton and the aldermen went in a body to Greenwich and laid their objections before the King and privy council, and Jerveis was induced to resume his office. The Council meanwhile charged the Aldermen to summon the wealthiest citizens to complete the payment of the King's Subsidy. In an atmosphere of growing alarm, large grain imports became necessary, for which the aldermen met the initial costs. The French navy blockaded the Pas de Calais and made attacks on the English coast, and the Mary Rose sank at Portsmouth. A great muster from London marched to Farnham prepared to repel a French army which landed on the Isle of Wight.Les Mémoires de Mess. Martin du Bellay Seigneur de Langay (A l'Olivier de P. l'Huilier, Paris 1569) pp. 340–41. (in French) Intensive house-searches and curfews were imposed on all strangers living in London, and a nightly mounted watch was maintained by the aldermen, Laxton himself taking the first duty. Another muster of 1000 city men was gathered at Finsbury Fields and sent to Dover from Gravesend.Wriothesley's Chronicle, I, pp. 152–61.