Stephen Jenyns

Stephen Jenyns was, according to the Heraldic Visitations of Staffordshire (1614, 1663 and 1664), the son of William Jenyns of Tenby, Pembrokeshire, and his wife Ellen, daughter and coheir of William Lane of Wolverhampton.'Pedigree of Offley', in H.S. Grazebrook (ed.), The Heraldic Visitations of Staffordshire made by Sir Richard St George, Norroy, in 1614, and by Sir William Dugdale, Norroy, in the years 1663 and 1664 (Mitchell and Hughes, London 1885), [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uva.x000047261;view=1up;seq=248 pp. 224-26.] (Hathi Trust.) He was born at Wolverhampton shortly before 1450,Clode, Early History of the Merchant Taylors, II, p. 23. and was apprenticed to a London tailor in 1462–63.R.A. Griffiths, 'After Glyn Dŵr: An Age of Reconciliation?', (Sir John Rhys Memorial Lecture), Proceedings of the British Academy 117 (2002 for 2001), pp. 139-64 [https://books.google.com/books?id=GjDbGzuYQ_gC&pg=PA154 at p. 154], citing M. Davies (ed.), The Merchant Taylors' Company of London: Court Minutes, 1486–1493 (Stamford, 2000), p. 293. He settled in London and became a prominent member of the Fraternity of Taylors and Linen Armourers of St. John the Baptist. In 1485 he and two others supported Hugh Pemberton, a senior Taylor, in a bond for payment of £920 for Pemberton's action in the probate of Richard Nayler, Alderman and Taylor, who died in 1483.R.R. Sharpe (ed.), Calendar of Letter-Books of the City of London: L, Edward IV-Henry VII (HMSO 1912), Fol. 208, [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/london-letter-books/voll/pp210-227 p. 221 (3 June 2 Richard III).] (British History Online accessed 25 October 2016) In 1490–95 he was concerned in the purchase of lands in Westminster with Thomas Randyll (Taylor), Henry Castell (Dyer) and Sir Richard Guildford.W.J. Hardy and W. Page (eds), A Calendar of the Feet of Fines for London and Middlesex, II (Hardy and Page, London 1893), [https://archive.org/stream/calendartofeetof02hard#page/n13/mode/2up pp. 4, 6, 7.]

In an age of Guild reform, William Buck became Master of the Fraternity of Taylors in 1488–89 and commenced the Treasury Accounts Book for payments and receipts.C.M. Clode, Memorials of the Guild of Merchant Taylors of the Fraternity of St John the Baptist, in London (Harrison and Sons, London 1875), [https://archive.org/stream/memorialsguildm00clodgoog#page/n138/mode/2up p. 69-70, and ff.] Jenyns succeeded him as Master and made further reforms. He set aside an old ordinance relating to election of Masters, and decreed that the Wardens in post at any time should have precedence, after the Masters, at all assemblies. At the end of his term he and his successors enacted that various allowances (for fees and expenditures) customarily made to the Master should be discontinued: Jenyns repaid nearly £22 by way of example, including a contribution towards rebuilding a property belonging to the Guild near St Matthew Friday Street. Annual pensions paid to the former Masters and their wives, and fees to the Wardens, were also curtailed.Clode, Early History of the Merchant Taylors II, pp. 24-30.

After the death of John Swan, a former Master, his widow Dame Rose Swan paid £149 6s. 8d. to the Company in 1493 for an Obit for her husband, in the presence of Buck, Jenyns and others.Clode, Early History of the Merchant Taylors, I, [https://archive.org/stream/earlyhistoryofgu01clod#page/94/mode/2up p. 94.] At her death in 1497/8 Jenyns was first-named of the three executors of her richly charitable testament, which they swore to administer.Will, Codicil and Probate of Dame Rose Swan (P.C.C. 1497/8 (proved 15 March)). In 1498 Jenyns was elected Sheriff of London, in company with Thomas Bradbury, in the mayoralty of another elder of the company, Sir John Percyvale,Clode, Early History of the Merchant Taylors II, pp. 8-21; M. Davies, 'Percyvale [nee Bonaventure], Thomasine (d. 1512), trader and school founder, including Sir John Percyvale (d. 1503)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. who set the example of the foundation of Macclesfield Grammar School. (He was the first Master of the Taylors to become Mayor.) For Jenyns (for use in his 'Shrefewyk', or shrievalty) the Fraternity drew from their treasury twelve beautifully crafted spoons, and six silver bowls given by Rose Swan, with a gift of £26 13s. 4d.Clode, Early History of the Merchant Taylors, II, pp. 30-31. Jenyns became Alderman for Castle Baynard in 1499 and occupied that ward until 1505.A.B. Beavan, The Aldermen of the City of London Temp. Henry III to 1912 (Corporation of the City of London, 1913), II, [https://archive.org/stream/cu31924092684731#page/n95/mode/2up p. 19.] Some relationships described in this work are unreliable.

File:St John the Baptist (British Library Royal MS 2 B XIII fol. 27).jpg

During this time, probably after 1490, Jenyns was married, 'the wif of Stephyn Jenens taillour' receiving £4 and a black gown in Rose Swan's will written in 1496. By this marriage he had two daughters, Katherine and Elizabeth, whose mother died before 1502. In 1501 (28 March) William Buck died,Inquisition: 'William Buck' (held in 1532), in G.S. Fry (ed.), Abstracts of Inquisitiones Post Mortem For the City of London, Part 1: 1485–1561 (British Record Society, London, 1896), [https://archive.org/stream/calendarofchance14grea#page/47/mode/2up pp. 47-48.] Buck's will dated 24 February 16 Henry VII (1500/1) (regnal year began 22 August); proved 7 May Anno Domini 1501 (civil year began 25 March). The late Inquisition slipped over the year of death. and was buried at St. Mary Aldermanbury.Will of Thomas Buck (P.C.C. 1523). For his executors Buck appointed his wife Margaret, John Kirton of London, and William Milbourne, Chamberlain of London 1492–1506. In the Hilary term of 1501/2 the executors acted together to recover sums owing to Buck's estate, by which time Margaret Buck had become the wife of Stephen Jenyns, who acted with them.V. Mead, Index to Common Pleas CP 40/959 (Hilary 1502), WAALT: Wiki for the Anglo-American Legal Tradition (R. Palmer, University of Houston), [http://www.uh.edu/waalt/index.php/CP40no959 Item: CP 40/959, f98] (refers to m. XLVII, front, last entry).

The Company already owned three hangings of Arras tapestry depicting scenes from the life of St. John the Baptist, to be hung on the walls of their Hall. Buck bequeathed to them three more, for the north wall (valued at £120), 'which I have bespoken to be made in Brucellys'.Will of William Buck (P.C.C. 1501). In January 1502/3 Henry VII incorporated the Fraternity under the new name of 'The Guild of Merchant Taylors of the Fraternity of St. John the Baptist':Given 6 January, 18 Henry VII. Clode, Memorials of the Guild, [https://archive.org/stream/memorialsguildm00clodgoog#page/n280/mode/2up pp. 194-98.] this was advocated and procured by William FitzWilliam, Master of the Taylors in 1499–1500.Clode, Early History of the Merchant Taylors II, [https://archive.org/stream/earlyhistoryofgu02clod#page/42/mode/2up pp. 40-43.] Stephen Jenyns gave a further three tapestries, completing the series of nine, to hang at the dais for the High Table and seats of honour in the Hall. Margaret Jenyns, 'for the good zeal that she had for the Company', presented a blue velvet embroidered altar-cloth of St John with a white rose above his head, and with green velvet edges worked with gold fleurs-de-lys and mottos, for their Chapel.Clode, Memorials of the Guild, p. 85. The Chapel was sanctioned by Pope Calixtus III in 1455: Clode, Early History of the Merchant Taylors, I, p. 117. All were recorded in an Inventory of 1512.Clode, Memorials of the Guild, [https://archive.org/stream/memorialsguildm00clodgoog#page/n154/mode/2up pp. 84-85.]

Margaret Buck (née Kirton) was the sister of John Kirton, originally of St. Paul's Cray, Kent, a trusted lawyer of Gray's Inn and J.P., and (in the footsteps of his father William) M.P. for Southwark in 1491–92.J.C. Wedgwood and A.D. Holt, History of Parliament. Biographies of the Members of the Commons House 1439–1509 (HMSO 1936), [https://books.google.com/books?id=xceHAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA517 pp. 517-18.] There was also a sister Beatrix, married to the lawyer Henry Tyngledon.Will of William Buck (P.C.C. 1514): Feet of Fines, Kent [http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/fines/abstracts/CP_25_1_117A_351.shtml#460 CP 25/1/117A/351] no. 460 (1505): Gray's Inn, Lent Reader 1515–16, W.R. Douthwaite, Gray's Inn, its History and Associations (Reeves & Turner, London 1886), [https://archive.org/stream/graysinnitshist00doutgoog#page/n76/mode/2up p. 47]; T.N.A. Discovery Catalogue, piece descriptions C 147/201, C 1/305/42. Their mother was Margery Milbourne, and John had married Margaret White, granddaughter of Nicholas Gaynesford of Carshalton.'White of Swanborne' (i.e. South Warnborough), W.H. Rylands, Pedigrees from the Visitation of Hampshire (etc.), Harleian Society LXIV (1913), [https://archive.org/stream/pedigreesfromvis64beno#page/82/mode/2up pp. 81-83.]. G.J. Armytage (ed.), 'Kirton of Edmonton', in Middlesex Pedigrees as collected by Richard Mundy in Harleian MS no. 1551, Harleian Society LXV (1914), [https://archive.org/stream/middlesexpedigre651914#page/106/mode/2up pp. 106-07.] In 1498 Kirton and Buck were named executors in Gaynesford's will,Will of Nicholas Gaynesford of Carshalton (P.C.C. 1498). and John acted in 1503 for Gaynesford's widow.Will of Margaret Gaynesford (P.C.C. 1503). By his second marriage Stephen Jenyns became stepfather to the four sons and one daughter of William Buck and uncle to John Kirton's five children. Both Jenyns and his maternal aunt, the Lane heiress Isabel Swerder,'Pedigree of Offley', Visitation of Staffordshire, p. 224. Will of John Swerder, Goldsmith of London (P.C.C. 1500). were godparents at baptism to John's son Stephen Kirton.G.C. Bower (ed.), 'A Manuscript relating to the family of Offley', in H.W. Forsyth Harwood (ed.), The Genealogist (Quarterly), New Series XIX (London and Exeter 1903), pp. 2-11, 83-88, 149-53, (The Offley Manuscript), [https://archive.org/stream/genealogist01unkngoog#page/n20/mode/2up at p. 5.]. Will of John Kyrketon of Edelmeton (P.C.C. 1530).

Jenyns received £100 from the Privy Purse 'for plegging of sertain of the Quenes juells' in 1503,S. Bentley (ed.), Excerpta Historica (London 1831), [https://books.google.com/books?id=emgNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA130 p. 130.] possibly to settle a loan unpaid at her death.T.N.A. Discovery Catalogue, piece description C 1/287/38. In 1505, as alderman, he transferred to the Dowgate ward (until 1508), and from 1505 to 1507 he was Auditor to the Court of Aldermen.Beavan, Aldermen of the City of London, II, p. 19. The appointment of John Kirton as Clerk of the Treasury ('clerk of Hell') in 1506 was obtained by royal writ, and was said (by his discharged predecessor) to have been purchased from the king for 300 marks by the management of Stephen Jenyns.J. Baker, The Oxford History of the Laws of England, VI: 1483–1558 (OUP, Oxford 2003), [https://books.google.com/books?id=PKHFAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA134 pp. 133-34 and note 79], citing T.N.A. IND 17180 fol. 5. Kirton joined with Stephen and Margaret Jenyns, and with John Nechylls, in acquiring lands in Whitstable, Seasalter, Chilham and Boughton under Blean, Kent, in 1505.Feet of Fines (Henry VII), CP 25/1/117A/350, no. 446, Abstract and image (AALT) at [http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/fines/abstracts/CP_25_1_117A_350.shtml medievalgenealogy.org.uk]. See T.N.A. Discovery Catalogue, Piece description C 1/205/95.

Transferring again as alderman to the Lime Street ward (where he remained thereafter), in 1508 Jenyns advanced to the Mayoralty. It was perhaps then that his daughter Katherine married John Nechylls,His name is spelled in many ways in first sources, but is often differentiated from any variant of 'Nichols' by use of the letter 'e', with or without the terminal 's', and seldom or never with 'o'. Merchant Taylor and Merchant of the Staple at Calais, for in November 1508 Jenyns, together with John and his wife Katherine, became the principal feoffees of premises in St Andrew, Cornhill, to the use of John and Katherine and the heirs of John forever. They had one daughter and heir, Joan Nechylls, who was born c. 1510.Inquisition post mortem of John Nechylls, 23 Henry VIII no. 81: Fry, Abstracts of Inquisitiones, [https://archive.org/stream/calendarofchance14grea#page/43/mode/2up pp. 44-45.] See also T.N.A. Discovery Catalogue, Piece Description C 1/550/42. Nechylls was, like Jenyns, a native of Wolverhampton,Table of benefactions, Wolverhampton church: 'Wolverhampton: The Free Grammar School' in 'Further Report of the Charity Commissioners', Parliamentary Papers, House of Commons and Command Vol. V (Parliament, House of Commons 1820), pp. 349-356, [https://books.google.com/books?id=_BkSAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA356 at p. 356.] and at about this time Jenyns began to acquire land there with the intention of founding a free Grammar school in the town.Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, 6 vols., III: England (J. Johnson, Rivington, Payne, etc., London 1808), [https://books.google.com/books?id=MTZNAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA539 p. 539, s.a. 1508.] His daughter Elizabeth also married a Merchant Taylor, William Stalworth,Will of William Stalworth of London (P.C.C. 1519); Will of Stephen Jenyns (P.C.C. 1523). in that year churchwarden of St. Martin Outwich.C.W.F. Goss, 'The Parish and Church of St. Martin Outwich, Threadneedle Street', Transcactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society New Series VI, Part 1 (1929), pp. 1-91, [http://www.lamas.org.uk/transactions-archive/Vol%206.pdf at pp. 80-85 (pdf 234-39).]

In the year of his Mayoralty Sir Stephen and Dame Margaret Jenyns presented a Lectionary (with 16 devotional illustrations for the major feasts) to the church of St. Mary Aldermanbury, of which they were parishioners, which entered the Royal Collection and is now in the British Library.British Library Royal MS 2 B XII – XIII. G.F. Warner and J.P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (British Museum, London 1921), I, pp. 48-49. Among the images are the Nativity of Christ, the Resurrection, Pentecost, the Feast of Corpus Christi and the Feast of St John the Baptist (patron of the Merchant Taylors). A scene for the Feast of All Saints shows the blessed company of Heaven, with St. Stephen, St John the Baptist and St. Margaret of Antioch in the foreground representing the patrons of the donors.'Detailed Record for Royal B 2 XIII', [http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=8763 The British Library, Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts.]

Jenyns was the first Merchant Taylor to be Mayor, and was elected through a special intervention by King Henry VII.E.B. Fryde and E. Miller, Historical Studies of the English Parliament, Vol 2: 1399–1603 (Cambridge University Press Archive 1970), p. 132. Thomas Exmew and Richard Smith (Master of the Merchant Taylors in 1503) were his Sheriffs. They officiated in that capacity at the funeral of Henry VII in May 1509: Mayor and aldermen met the cortège with the body at London Bridge, and accompanied it thence to St Paul's, on the next day to Westminster, and on the third day making their offering at the tomb in order of precedence.R. Grafton (ed.), Hall's Chronicle: Containing the History of England, during the Reign of Henry IV (etc.), collated edition (J. Johnson, etc., London 1809), [https://archive.org/stream/hallschronicleco00halluoft#page/506/mode/2up pp. 506-07]; Clode, Early History of the Merchant Taylors, II, pp. 32-33. Immediately Edmund Dudley and Sir Richard Empson, reviled counsellors of the late monarch, were arrested and imprisoned in the Tower.Grafton, Hall's Chronicle, p. 505.

The coronation of King Henry VIII followed. On 23 June the royal procession went from the Tower of London to Westminster, the streets lined with the Crafts of all occupations, culminating with Stephen Jenyns and the aldermen. The rite accomplished, Henry conferred knighthood on Jenyns before sitting at his feast, at which the Mayor served him with Hippocras in a golden cup: having drained it, the King made the customary gift to him of the cup.Grafton, Hall's Chronicle, [https://archive.org/stream/hallschronicleco00halluoft#page/510/mode/2up pp. 507-514, at p. 510.] In this service he was assisted by twelve men chosen from the Livery Companies.Clode, Early History of the Merchant Taylors, II, p. 34. Three weeks later Jenyns led the Justices, Sir Robert Rede and others, hearing Dudley's indictment for Constructive treason at the London Guildhall, and was present at the arraignment.'Baga de Secretis: Trial and Conviction of Edmund Dudley, Esq.', in F. Palgrave, Third Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records (By Command, H.M.S.O. London 1842), [https://books.google.com/books?id=SFVJAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA226 pp. 226-27.] The prisoners were condemned, and Jenyns and his fellow inquisitors received a Commission of gaol delivery for Newgate Prison on 1 October 1509.J.S. Brewer (ed.), Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII Vol. I, (Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts, London 1862), [https://archive.org/stream/letterspapersfor01greauoft#page/78/mode/2up Item 541, p. 78.]

File:British Library Royal 2 B XIII fol 1v detail.jpg

Evidently the gift of the Lectionary was made in 1508 but the inscription added after Stephen received his knighthood in 1509. The lines of dedication, written in Latin, in translation read:

"Pray for the welfare of Stephen Jenyns Knight and Alderman of London and Dame Margaret his wife while they shall live, and for their souls when they shall pass hence from this light. Also for the soul of William Buck. Which Stephen and Margaret gave this book to the Church of Blessed Mary of Aldermanbury to remain there perpetually, in the Year of our Lord 1508, and in the 24th year of the reign of King Henry VII: in which time or year the said Stephen was Mayor of London aforesaid. May God grant the eternal clarity of light unto them. Amen."

Jenyns and Kirton were embroiled in John Ernley's attempts to benefit from Dudley's fall. John Kirton was the principal feoffee for Ernley and Dudley when in 1508 Roger Lewknor, son of Richard Lewknor deceased, ceded the manor of Sheffield in Fletching, East Sussex and many Sussex lands to them,Inquisition post mortem of Edward Dudley, F.W.T. Attree, Notes of Post Mortem Inquisitions Taken in Sussex, Sussex Record Society XIV (1912), [https://archive.org/stream/notesofpostmorte00greauoft#page/74/mode/2up p. 75, no. 348.] in a bargain to escape conviction for murder. Dudley, awaiting conviction in the Tower, declared a will,Will of Edmund Dudley, abstract in Brewer, Letters and Papers Henry VIII, I, [https://archive.org/stream/letterspapersfor01greauoft#page/178/mode/2up pp. 179-80 (item 1212).] making Sir Andrew Windsor,T.F.T. Baker, 'Windsor, Sir Andrew (c. 1457–1543), of Stanwell, Mdx.', in S.T. Bindoff (ed.), The History of Parliament: The House of Commons, 1509–1558, [http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/windsor-sir-andrew-1467-1543 History of Parliament online.] John Colet, Dr Yonge and Bishop FitzJames his executors or feoffees, seeking to thwart Ernley's intentions.C. Whittick, 'Ernley, Sir John (c. 1464–1520), lawyer', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. In February 1511, one ninth part of the manor and lands were granted to Ernley.Brewer, Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, I, [https://archive.org/stream/letterspapersfor01greauoft#page/218/mode/2up p. 219 (item 1484).] Kirton and his associates (including Jenyns and Tyngeldon) refused to surrender the evidences to Ernley, who brought suit and writ dated June 1512. Ernley's interrogation of Lewknor sought to identify his advisors. Dudley's receiver disclaimed any record of profits taken from Sheffield: Lewknor's indentures of sale, reserving an annuity for himself, were to Kirton's use entirely, and he stated that no interest of Dudley's had ever been expressed or intended. Jenyns also knew of none, and called for the executors to be summoned: Windsor and Colet described the declaration of the will.Public Records (Chancery), T.N.A. Discovery Catalogue C 1/305/42-52, C 1/330/38 (cited by Whittick). The first stipulation of Ernley's will (written in 1518) required a bond for Kirton's covenant to be paid to the king, and the closing phrases voluntarily compensated Lewknor's family.Will of John Erneley (P.C.C. 1520, written 20 December 1518), and Codicil. For similar activity of Ernley, see M. Godfrey, Law and Authority in British Legal History, 1200–1900 (Cambridge University Press 2016), p. 25, citing Beamount v Cavell (sc. Carell), C 1/473/78.

In September 1512 the Master and Wardens of the Merchant Taylors received a Mortmain licence by Letters Patent, to acquire possessions worth £20 a year to support a Master and Usher (i.e. second master) in the grammar school 'to teach boys literature and good behaviour' which Jenyns intended to erect and found in Wolverhampton.Brewer, Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, I, [https://archive.org/stream/letterspapersfor01greauoft#page/416/mode/2up Item 3427, p. 417.] Pursuant to this, in April 1513 Jenyns was granted similar licence to alienate the manor of Rushock, Worcestershire, near Chaddesley Corbett,'Parishes: Rushock', in A History of the County of Worcester Vol. 3 (V.C.H., London 1913), [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/worcs/vol3/pp203-205 pp. 203-05.] (British History online, accessed 13 October 2016) worth £14 a year, to them for that purpose.Brewer, Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, I, [https://archive.org/stream/letterspapersfor01greauoft#page/532/mode/2up Item 3879, p. 532.] John Nechylls was one of the attorneys appointed in May 1515 by Jenyns to grant livery of seisin of the manor to the Merchant Taylors, which was completed in June following.Parliamentary Papers V (1820), pp. 610-25, [https://books.google.com/books?id=_BkSAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA619 at pp. 619-21 (in Latin).] By this time the school had presumably been built. Nechylls later gave 20 shillings a year towards the Usher's wages.Parliamentary Papers V (1820), [https://books.google.com/books?id=_BkSAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA356 p. 356.]

Staffordshire men witnessed the Rushock grant: John Jenyns and Thomas Nechills were probably the founder's kinsmen. Also present was William Offley, Bailiff of Stafford in 1510–11,A. Thrush, 'Offley, Sir John (1586–1645) of Madeley, Staffs. and London', in A. Thrush and J.P. Ferris (eds), The History of Parliament; 1604–1629 (Cambridge University Press 2010), [http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-1629/member/offley-sir-john-1586-1645 History of Parliament online] whose eldest son Thomas Offley was sent to London, aged 12, to study with William Lily. In 1512 Lily became the first Master of St. Paul's School, London, then newly founded by John Colet. John Nechylls (who held an important early copy of Chaucer's's translation of Boethius's work De Consolatione PhilosophiaeInscribed by George Glover, 'dwylleng wt Mr Nychelys merchand of the Steepole at Calys', and with many Kirton and Offley inscriptions. British Library, Add. MS 10340: J.M. Manley and E. Rickert, The Text of the Canterbury Tales, I: Descriptions of the Manuscripts (University of Chicago Press, 1940), [https://archive.org/stream/textofcanterbury01manl#page/48/mode/2up pp. 48-51.]) was 'of great acquaintance' with Lily, and Thomas became his apprentice for 13 years' service in Merchandize of the Staple.Bower, 'A Manuscript relating to the family of Offley', [https://archive.org/stream/genealogist01unkngoog#page/n18/mode/2up p. 3.] In due course Offley summoned his sisters and brother John to London, who found their several places within the sphere of Nechylls and the wealthy Leveson brothers (leading representatives of Wolverhampton mercantile interests in London).R.F. Wisker, 'The estates of James Leveson of Wolverhampton (d. 1547)', Staffordshire Archaeological & Historical Society Transactions XXXVII (1995–1996), pp. 119-138. Stephen Jenyns took his godson Stephen Kirton for his own apprentice.Will of Sir Stephen Jenyns, Alderman of London (P.C.C. 1523). Margaret the wife of John Kirton having died, John remarried to Anna (Ruskyn), widow of John Leek (died 1508),'Kirton of Edmonton', Middlesex Pedigrees (1914), pp. 106-07. a man of Nuneaton origins,Will of John Leeke (P.C.C. 1508). who purchased an estate at Edmonton in 1491.A.P. Baggs, D.K. Bolton, E.P. Scarff and G.C. Tyack, 'Edmonton: Other estates', in T.F.T. Baker and R.B. Pugh (eds), A History of the County of Middlesex Vol. 5 (V.C.H., London 1976), [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol5/pp154-161 pp. 154-161.] (British History Online accessed 22 October 2016). Hardy and Page, Feet of Fines, London and Middlesex, II, [https://archive.org/stream/calendartofeetof02hard#page/n11/mode/2up p. 5.] T.N.A. CP 25(1)/152/100 no. 31.

Stephen Jenyns and Dame Margaret 'my moder' were remembered in the will of Jenyns's stepson William Buck (mercer, died 1514).Will of William Buck, Mercer (P.C.C. 1514). John Stow recorded the tomb of 'Dame Margaret Jeninges, wife to Stephen Jeninges, mayor,' as he thought dated 1515, at the church of St Mary Aldermanbury.W.J. Thoms, A Survey of London written in the year 1598, by John Stow (Chatto & Windus, London 1876), [https://books.google.com/books?id=AZMKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA110 p. 110.] However Christopher Rawson, Mercer of LondonWarden 1514–15, see L. Lyell and F.D. Watney, Acts of Court of the Mercers' Company 1453–1527 (Cambridge University Press 1936), pp. 422-28. and Stapler of Calais, who married William's sister Agnes Buck, bequeathed 'to Sir Stephyn Jenyns and my good Lady his wif' a ring of gold of 20 shillings graven with the Five Holy Wounds in 1518.Will of Christopher Rawson (P.C.C. 1519) (written September 1518). Also William Stalworth, Jenyns's own son-in-law, died in 1519 leaving 'my maister Jenyns and my Lady his wif' a black gowne of 20 shillings the yard, and making 'my brother John Nichells' his overseer: his wife Elizabeth survived him.Will of William Stalworth (P.C.C. 1519) (written 17 March 1518/9). William was buried at London Blackfriars.

The Inquisition post mortem of William Buck the elder (died 1501–02), taken in 1532, shows that Margaret Buck his widow – Dame Margaret Jenyns – died on 16 March 1522. Margaret having received the profits from Buck's properties in Aldermanbury and Ludgate until her death, Sir Stephen Jenyns took them in 1522 and 1523, when they reverted to the eldest son, John Buck.Fry, Abstracts of Inquisitions, pp. 47-48. On 28 February 1522 Jenyns had passed deeds for property in Aldermanbury to Thomas Buck.H.C. Maxwell Lyte (ed.), A Descriptive Catalogue of Ancient Deeds, Vol. 6 (London 1915), [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/ancient-deeds/vol6/pp483-497 pp. 483-97, Item C. 7563]. Thomas died in November 1523, making provision for his wife and son and for his brother Matthew Buck:Fry, Abstracts of Inquisitions, [https://archive.org/stream/calendarofchance14grea#page/35/mode/2up pp. 35-36.] See T.N.A. Discovery Catalogue, Piece Description C 1/708/15. Matthew was still living in 1530.

Dame Margaret Jenyns was therefore still living, and was a parishioner of Aldermanbury, when Sir Stephen undertook his last important project, which was to collaborate as a patronHis wealth was considerable: for his dealing with the 10th Baron Ferrers of Chartley over the manor of Chinnor, Oxfordshire in 1517, see M.D. Lobel (ed.), A History of the County of Oxford, Vol. 8: Lewknor and Pyrton Hundreds (V.C.H., London 1964), [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol8/pp55-80 pp. 55-80.] (British History Online accessed 27 October 2016). in the rebuilding of the church of St Andrew, Cornhill in London, also called St. Andrew Undershaft. Jenyns's involvement in the work is recorded in the 1598 and 1603 editions of John Stow's Survey of London. He wrote that the church File:St Andrew Undershaft, St Mary Axe, EC2 - East end - geograph.org.uk - 1491371.jpg

"hath beene new builded by the parishioners there, since the year 1520. every man putting to his helping hande, some with their purses, other with their bodies: Steven Gennings marchant Taylor, sometime mayor of London, caused at his charges to bee builded the whole North side of the greate Middle Ile [aisle], both of the body [nave] and quier [choir], as appeareth by his arms over every pillar graven, and also the North Ile, which hee roofed with timber and seeled [ceiled], also the whole South side of the Church was glased, and the Pewes in the south Chappell made of his costes, as appeareth in every Window, and upon the said pewes."C.L. Kingsford, A Survey of London by John Stow, reprinted from the text of 1603, Vol. I (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1908), [https://books.google.com/books?id=WlwQCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA145 p. 145.]

Jenyns died before the work was finished, and Stow reported that John Kerkbie, John Garlande and Nicholas Leveson contributed to its completion in 1532. Sir William FitzWilliam was also substantially involved.Furdell, 'Stephen Jenyns' (ODNB). St Andrew Undershaft is one of the very few medieval churches to have survived in the present-day City of London.

File:British Library Royal 2 B XIII All Saints image.jpg above, and St John the Baptist, St George (armour) and St Mary Magdalene (to anoint) with the Agnus Dei below. Left and right, St Stephen and St Margaret. Jenyns Lectionary, fol. 34.]]

Jenyns made his will on 29 January 1521/2, appointing John Nechylls and John Kirton his executors and John Baker overseer.Will of Sir Stephen Jenyns, Alderman of London (P.C.C. 1523). He was to be buried in the conventual church of the London Greyfriars. He desired them to arrange that 24 poor men's children 'such as can say our lady matens or the psalme of Deprofundis' should bear torches at his funeral, and that the five orders of Friars, the priests of the Fraternities and of St Augustine Papey, and the 60 priests and company of the Fraternity of Parish Clerks of London should accompany his funeral procession. He provided for many masses of requiem and dirige, for his soul and for the souls of his wives, to be sung by the priors and convents of Elsing Spital (St. Mary within Cripplegate), of St Mary Spital without Bishopsgate and of the London Charterhouse, the Abbots of Faversham,From c.1509-1515 Jenyns owned part of the manor of Perry-Court at Preston-next-Faversham, see E. Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent Vol. 6 (Canterbury 1798), [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol6/pp532-549 pp. 532-49.] (British History Online accessed 13 October 2016). Boxley and Stratford, the Franciscan friars at Greenwich and Richmond, and the two Lazar houses; and there were plenty of charitable bequests to be made. This will was proved on 28 May 1523.

In June 1522 he made a separate will to John Bennett, granting three parcels of land or property in London, and provision for the payment for his obits, to the Merchant Taylors. Bennett fulfilled his intention in 1527: this was a means of assuring the Guild's future title to the property.Clode, Early History of the Merchant Taylors, II, [https://archive.org/stream/earlyhistoryofgu02clod#page/36/mode/2up pp. 37-38], with abstract of Bennett's will. Obits were still being kept for him by the Merchant Taylors at St. Martin Outwich during the 1540s, but the moneys reserved for that purpose at the Greyfriars were surrendered to be stripped of their superstitious uses (and given over to profane ones).D.J. Hickman, The Religious Allegiance of London's Ruling Elite 1520–1603; PhD Dissertation (History), University College London (1995), [http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1317968/1/309512.pdf pp. 77-78, 95-96.] (Discovery, at UCL).

Jenyns had a tomb prepared for himself in the Apostles Chapel on the south side of the choir of the church. His monument is illustrated in polychrome in the Book of Funerals of Sir Thomas Wriothesley, Garter King of Arms (died 1534).British Library MS 'Add. 45131 f.86 – Sir Stephen Jenyns, d 1524 Lord Mayor of London 1508: Heraldic drawing of his effigy: 16th cent.' (British Library Images Online, Filename c11847-05.) C. Steer, 'A royal grave in a fifteenth-century London parish church', in L. Clark (ed.), The Fifteenth Century XIII: Exploring the Evidence: Commemoration, Administration and the Economy (Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2014), pp. 31-40, [https://books.google.com/books?id=cREABQAAQBAJ&pg=PA32 at p. 32.] C.O. Steer, Burial and Commemoration in Medieval London, c. 1140–1540. PhD Dissertation, 2013 (Royal Holloway College, University of London), [https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/portal/files/19528031/STEER_Burial_and_Commemoration_in_Medieval_London_c_1140_1540.pdf p. 446.] In this Herald's image the long sides of the rectangular tomb-chest are shown each divided into three equal panels framed by slender squared pilaster strips with gothic detailing. Each panel encloses a quatrefoil containing a large heraldic shield, and there is a single panel of the same kind at either end. The central panel of the sides and foot show the Jenyns emblazonment: Argent a chevron gules between three plummets sable.Grazebrook, Heraldic Visitation of Staffordshire, p. 224. The four outer shields on the long sides repeat a Jenyns impalement with another coat, and at the head end of the chest is a shield (Barry nebuly of six argent and sableThe blazon should read azure for Merchants of the Staple: B. Burke, The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales (Harrison, London 1884) [https://archive.org/stream/generalarmoryofe00burk#page/962/mode/2up p. 963.]) The sable variant was displayed by the Elizabethan Stapler Walter Calcot at the manor house of Williamscot, Oxfordshire: R. Carleton, The Lives of William Smyth Bishop of Lincoln and Sir Richard Sutton Knight, Founders of Brazen Nose College (Author, Oxford University Press 1800) [https://books.google.com/books?id=XYJbAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA226 pp. 226-27, note (u).] on a chief gules a lion passant guardant or), for the Merchants of the Staple.

On the slab above, the tinctured figure of Sir Stephen Jenyns is presented in full-length effigy (possibly in alabaster). He is shown in military armour under a long red robe with furred lining, with his gold chain over, and his hands in prayer: his armoured feet rest on a recumbent greyhound and his head (clean-shaven, with long black hair) on his crested helm. The crest is: A griffin's head couped between two wings inverted proper in the beak a plummet pendant sable. This tomb was one of the great number listed by John Stow as having been destroyed or utterly defaced by Sir Martin Bowes.Thoms, A Survey of London... by John Stow, [https://books.google.com/books?id=AZMKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA119 pp. 119-20.]

Jenyns's granddaughters Joan Nechylls and Elizabeth Stalworth were both living at his death. The children of John Kirton and Christopher Rawson were also remembered in the will. After Katherine Nechylls (Jenyns's daughter) died, John Nechylls married Margaret Offley (Thomas Offley's sister) who had lived in his household as a servant, and secured her fortunes.Bower, 'A Manuscript relating to the family of Offley', pp. 3-5. Nechylls was granted arms by Thomas Wriothesley and Thomas Benolt in 1526: T.N.A. Discovery Catalogue, Piece description DCR/38/8/11 (Cheshire Archives). John Offley took up residence in Nychills's house at Hackney, Middlesex.Bower, 'A Manuscript relating to the family of Offley', [https://archive.org/stream/genealogist01unkngoog#page/n98/mode/2up p. 83.] Nechylls died in December 1530,Inquisition post mortem 1531: Fry, Abstracts of Inquisitions, Henry VIII, part 2. having promised his daughter and heir Joan to Thomas Offley, who married her. Stephen Kirton, who as Jenyns's apprentice received a legacy of £20 from him, married Margaret, Offley's sister and now Nechylls's widow: he was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1534.J. Foster, The Register of Admission to Gray's Inn, 1521–1889 (Hansard, London 1889), [https://archive.org/stream/registerofadmiss00gray#page/6/mode/2up p. 10.] Another Offley sister, Margery, became the second wife of James Leveson.G.C. Bower and H.W.F. Harwood, 'Pedigree of Offley', The Genealogist (Quarterly), New Series XIX (London and Exeter 1903), pp. 217-231, [https://archive.org/stream/genealogist01unkngoog#page/n240/mode/2up at p. 225.] See note to 'Offley of Madeley', in Grazebrook (ed.), Visitations of Staffordshire, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uva.x000047261;view=1up;seq=248 pp. 224-26.] (Hathi Trust.) Thomas Offley and Stephen Kirton became highly successful wool merchants shipping through Calais during the following decades. Two of John Kirton's children, William and Margaret, married two of the Leek children, their step-siblings, and the later Leek family of Wyer Hall at Edmonton were Margaret Kirton's descendants.G.J. Armytage (ed.), 'Leeke of Wyerhall in Edmonton', in Middlesex Pedigrees as collected by Richard Mundy in Harleian MS no. 1551, Harleian Society LXV (1914), [https://archive.org/stream/middlesexpedigre651914#page/12/mode/2up pp. 12-14.] The affiliation of Anne Ruskin to Jasper Ruskin, as shown in the Kirton pedigree (this volume p.106-07) is preferred to William Ruskin, as shown in the Leeke pedigree: see D. Richardson, ed. K.G. Everingham, 'Raynsford', in Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study In Colonial And Medieval Families, 2nd Edition, Vol. III (Richardson, 2011), at pp. 63-64.

Jenyns bequeathed £40 towards the recovery to Civic patronage of the Bethlehem without Bishopsgate Hospital, if it could be achieved within three years of his death. The School at Wolverhampton remained fully under the control of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors until the later 18th century.Parliamentary Papers, V (1820), [https://books.google.com/books?id=_BkSAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA350 p. 350.] After an interval the company's interest was reinstated under different terms, and continues fruitfully to the present time.Furdell, 'Stephen Jenyns' (ODNB) Thomas Offley, whose father had witnessed the original endowment, acquired the manor of Madeley, Staffordshire, in 1547 and was involved in the administration of the Rushock estate.Clode, Early History of the Merchant Taylors, II, p. 35. The volume of Chaucer's Boethius, its endpapers much scribbled upon, remained with the Kirtons and Offleys (apparently in London, and then in Thorpe Mandeville) down to the 1560s.Manley and Rickert, The Text of the Canterbury Tales, pp. 48-51. The church of St Andrew Undershaft became the family vault of Jenyns's descendants and dependants, as the burial-place of John Nechylls,The recorded name was amended from 'John Michell' to 'John Nichell' between Stow's 1598 and 1603 editions, leaving the date as 1537: John Nechylls's death on 16 December 1530 is established by his Inquisition post mortem in 1531. Fry, Abstracts of Inquisitions, Henry VIII, part 2. Nicholas Leveson, Stephen Kirton, Sir Thomas Offley and his half-brother Alderman Hugh Offley, and also of David Woodroffe (Sheriff, and Merchant of the Staple of Calais), whose son Nicholas Woodroffe married a daughter of Stephen Kirton and Margaret Offley.Kingsford, Survey of London by John Stow, I, p. 145

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