Gregory Isham

Gregory Isham, third son of Euseby Isham and Anne Poulton, was born about 1520.^1,2 A family memoir says he was "bred up lykwyse in his youth at learning" and then sent to London and bound apprentice to a mercer.³ He was made free of the Mercers' Company in 1546, having served William Chelsham, and in 1556 his own apprentice John Iremonger was made free.⁴

On 16 December 1548 he married Elizabeth Dale in London.⁵ She was a daughter of Matthew Dale of Bristol.^1,2 Gregory lived and traded in London, in the parish of St Michael Paternoster, and his will reckons his merchandise "within the Citie of london or elswhere in any partes beyonde the Sees."⁶

In December 1554 he, Walter Marler and Thomas Revett were licensed to acquire from Henry, Earl of Rutland, the manors of Braunston Newsted and Braunston Lynsell in Braunston, Northamptonshire.⁷ In 1558 he and his brother-in-law Henry Belamy were granted the manor of Welton by the Crown.⁸ The family memoir says that before he was forty he bought land worth at least four hundred pounds a year in Braunston, Farthingstone, Creake, Creaton and Old.^3,1

He made his will at Braunston on 3 September 1558, "thoughe visited with sicknes in my bodie," and asked to be buried in Braunston church.^6,9 Following the custom of London, he divided his goods into three parts: one for his wife, one for his children and one for his legacies.⁶ He named his children Mary and Thomas and "the childe wherewith my wife nowe goth."⁶ His wife Elizabeth was to have his London house and forty pounds a year in place of her dower.⁶ His four brothers, Giles, Robert, John and Henry Isham, were his executors, and they were to have charge of the younger children if she remarried.⁶ He had leased his lands to the same brothers for the bringing up of his children.⁶ If the lease failed, Creake and Creaton were to descend to his heir, and Braunston, Farthingstone, Old and Irchester were to be held by the executors for twenty-one years.^6,1 He left twenty pounds to the Mercers' Company for two dinners, gifts to the poor of Braunston, Pytchley, Ringstead and ten towns near Braunston, and ten pounds a year to his cousin Ferdinando Poulton for his study of the common law.⁶ His overseers included Edward Griffin, the Attorney General, and Sir Thomas Andrewes.⁶

Gregory died on 4 September 1558, the day after making his will, aged about thirty-eight, and was buried at Braunston.^1,10 The inquisition taken after his death found him seized of Rose manor and the manor of Braunston Newsted, with the advowson of Braunston, all bought from the Earl of Rutland.^10,1 The will was proved on 16 November 1558.^9,11,6 His daughter Elizabeth was born after his death.^6,1 Between 1558 and 1561 his brothers appear in the courts of Common Pleas and King's Bench as "executors of Gregory Isham, citizen and mercer of London."^12,13,14,15 His widow married secondly William Rosewell of Forde Abbey, solicitor-general to Queen Elizabeth.¹

Stephen Alford's London's Triumph (2017), chapter 8, gives a fuller modern account of his career.