John York (Master of the Mint)
Sir John York or Yorke (c.1490-1569) was an English merchant and landowner who became
Life
Early career
He was born about 1490,[1]: 41 the third son of John Yorke, by his wife Katherine Patterdale or Patterdall. His grandfather, Sir Richard Yorke, was a merchant in York, and in 1466 was Mayor of the Staple at Calais. Sir Richard's son Thomas, John's uncle, was also a merchant, and John appears to have joined the family business and spent time as a merchant in Calais and Antwerp.[1]: 41
On 3 September 1535 he arrived at Calais from Antwerp with intelligence of a sermon preached against King Henry VIII, by a friar in Antwerp. The Lord Deputy of Calais, Lord Lisle, passed on the report to Thomas Cromwell, and York received a reward. In 1544 he was appointed assay master to the Mint. In 1547 he was promoted to be Master of the Mint at Southwark, established in the former mansion of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk.
In 1549 he was
York appears to have enjoyed at this time the office of master of the king's woods.
Currency speculation
During some time in the summer of 1550 York was employed in secret missions abroad. The king's debts were mounting, and the Privy Council turned to York to solve the problem. He devised a plan to make a large profit on the Antwerp exchange as well as to bring home quality bullion from abroad for the production of new English coin. In December 1550 York went to Antwerp to speculate with the king's money. Things did not go to plan, and by March 1551 he had suffered losses of at least £4000 of silver bullion, when he and his men were caught red-handed trying to smuggle £4000 in bullion out of Antwerp.
However the scheme did not fail entirely, and as a mint official York brought in large amounts of bullion on which he made a handsome personal profit. In 1551 he was given the task, with
Later career
York enriched himself by foreign trading. In May 1553 he formed one of the
On 18 October he was released. After his release, on 5 November 1553, York attended at
Landed estates
York's merchant activities and his career as a mint official enabled him to enrich himself. He acquired land at
While York was imprisoned in 1553, the inhabitants of Whitby, tenants of the lands of Whitby Abbey, took advantage of his imprisonment to bring an action against him in the Court of Requests for excessive raising of their rents. On 24 October the court gave judgment against him. About the same time another action was brought against him in the same court by Avere or Alvered Uvedale, mineral lessee of the Byland Abbey lands, complaining that York had refused to allow the plaintiff to cut down timber for his mines, and had seized a large quantity of lead ore belonging to him. The issue of this case has not been preserved.
Family
York married Anne or Anna, daughter of Robert Smyth of London. According to the ‘Visitation of Yorkshire’ of 1563–4, and Glover's ‘Visitation of Yorkshire’ in 1584–5, Lady York afterwards married Robert Paget of London; but according to the ‘Visitation of London’ in 1560 she was the widow of one Pagett when she married York. Six of York's sons were still alive when he wrote his will in 1562:
The spelling of the name, both in the signature of his letter to William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley and in the plea put in by him in his defence against the tenants of Whitby in the court of requests, is York.
References
- ^ ISBN 0-9511112-21.
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/30233. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ Charles Bremont, 'Les Révolutions D'Angleterre en 1553 et 1554 racontées par un fourrier de L'Empereur Charles-Quint', Revue Historique, 110:1 (1912), p. 66.
- ^ "History of Parliament". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 8 November 2011.
- ^ ISBN 1-85072-114-9.
- ^ William Page, ed. (1923). "The liberty of Whitby Strand". Victoria County History. A History of the County of York North Riding: Volume 2. pp. 502–505. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
- Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. .
- Craig, John (1953). The Mint: A History of the London Mint from A.D. 287 to 1948. ASIN B0000CIHG7.
- Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "York, John". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.