William Capel

He was the son of John Capell (1398–1449) of Stoke-by-Nayland in Suffolk, a member of the Suffolk gentry,HOP: "born into an armigerous family"; family is not listed in the heraldic visitations of Suffolk, not listed in index[https://archive.org/stream/visitationsofsuf00harvuoft#page/216/mode/2up] whose family had been seated at Capel St. Mary{{cite web|url=https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-1629/member/capell-sir-gamaliel-1561-1613|title=CAPELL, Sir Gamaliel (1561-1613), of Rookwood Hall, Abbess Roding, Essex |publisher=History of Parliament Online|website=Historyofparliamentonline.org|accessdate=1 March 2019}} in Suffolk since the 12th century.{{cite web|url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/capell-sir-william-1448-1515|title=CAPELL, Sir William (by 1448-1515), of London|publisher=History of Parliament Online|website=Historyofparliamentonline.org|accessdate=1 March 2019}}

William Capel was a member of the Worshipful Company of Drapers, who served as Sheriff of the City of London for 1496, and was twice elected Lord Mayor of London, in 1503 and 1510.Richard Grafton, Chronicle At Large, 2 (London, 1809). He was elected as a Member of Parliament for the City of London from 1511 to 1515.

His London mansion stood in the vicinity of the present London Stock Exchange and of Capel Court (named after him, now a short sidestreet or walkway) in the City of London.[https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/CAPE1.htm Capel's House: Map of Early Modern London] He added a south chapel to his parish church of St Bartholomew-by-the-Exchange in the City. He purchased the estate of Hadham Hall in the parish of Little Hadham, Hertfordshire, which remained in the Capell family from many generations. A new house was later built there, whether on the site of the old hall or on a new site is uncertain, which became the seat of his Capell descendants from the 1570s onwards.

Capel loaned money on the security of jewellery. In April 1489, he lent money to a goldsmith Symond Garardson on the security of a group of diamond and ruby rings.[https://archive.org/details/hists52200685/page/334/mode/2up HMC Report on manuscripts in various collections, 7 (London, 1914), p. 335] Capel lent £100 to Elizabeth of York in 1502.Nicholas Harris Nicholas, Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York (London: William Pickering, 1830), pp. 12, 183.[https://www.tudorchamberbooks.org/edition/folio/E36_210_p_035.xml Tudor Chamber Books: May 1502, the Queen's book] As mayor of London, he had some dealings with two officers of Henry VII, Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley. Capel was fined for a perceived lapse in regulating customs in 1495, and his penalty was mitigated by the intercession of the courtier and Lord Chamberlain, Giles Daubeney, 1st Baron Daubeney.S. J. Gunn, The Courtiers of Henry VII, The English Historical Review, 108:426 (January 1993), pp. 29–30. Capel was censured again in a legal court in 1504, he had to pay for pardons for himself and his son Giles Capel.Nicholas Harris Nicholas, Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York (London: William Pickering, 1830), pp. 12, 183 citing British Library Harley MS 1877. In 1507, William Capel was imprisoned for not acting against the circulation of counterfeit money, by a jury said to have been influenced by Dudley and Empson.Julia Boffey, Henry VII's London in the Great Chronicle (Teams, 2019), p. 126.

File:Shield of Arms of the Lord Arundell of Wardour.svg of Arundell: Sable, six martlets argent (hirondelle (French), martlet)]]

He married Margaret Arundell, a daughter of Sir John Arundell (1421–1473) of Lanherne in Cornwall, by his second wife Katherine Chideocke, by whom he had issue including a son and two daughters:

• Elizabeth Capell (abt 1480-1558), the first wife of William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester.
• Giles Capel of Rayne (abt 1485-1556), son and heir, an esquire to the body of Henry VII.Calendar Patent Rolls, Henry VII, 2 (London, 1914), p. 414. Giles Capell married Isobel Newton, and secondly, Mary Roos, widow of Hugh Denys, and a servant to both Elizabeth of York and Catherine of Aragon.William Minet, "Capells at Rayne", Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, 9:4 (Colchester, 1904), p. 246–247.Barbara J. Harris, English Aristocratic Women, 1450–1550: Marriage and Family, Property and Careers (Oxford, 2002), p. 216.[https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/orbis:3346707 Book inscribed by Mary, Dame Capel: YCBA] His descendants included: Sir Gamaliel Capell (1561-1613), MP, of Rookwood Hall, Abbess Roding, Essex, 4th son of Henry Capell (d.1588), MP, by his wife Katherine Manners, a daughter of Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland; Arthur Capell, 1st Baron Capell of Hadham (1604–1649), only son of Sir Henry Capell of Rayne Hall in Essex by his wife Theodosia Montagu, a daughter of Sir Edward Montagu of Boughton House, Northamptonshire; Arthur Capell, 1st Earl of Essex (1631–1683), son of 1st Baron Capell, created Earl of Essex in 1661.
• Dorothy Capel, the wife of John La Zouche, 8th Lord Zouche.Walter C. Metcalfe, [https://archive.org/details/visitationofwilt00harvrich/page/42/mode/2up Visitation of Wiltshire (London, 1897), 1565, p. 43]

Margaret Capel made her will in 1516 and died in 1522.William Minet, [https://archive.org/details/transactionsess01socigoog/page/n311/mode/2up "Capells at Rayne", Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, 9:4 (Colchester, 1904), p. 243]Tim Thornton, "Sir William Capell and A Royal Chain: The Afterlives (and Death) of King Edward V", History: The Journal of the Historical Association, 109:308 (2024), pp. 445–480. {{doi|10.1111/1468-229X.13430}} She made a number of bequests of rich fabrics to churches, some of which she had embroidered herself, especially for the family's chantry chapel at St Bartholomew-the-Less.Barbara J. Harris, [https://archive.org/details/oapen-20.500.12657-49981/page/59/mode/2up English Aristocratic Women and the Fabric of Piety (Amsterdam University Press, 2018), pp. 60, 67, 99]Nicholas Orme, Cornish Wills, 1342–1540 (Devon and Cornwall Record Society, 2007), p. 67. She also bequeathed a chain of her late husband's, which had belonged to the "yonge kyng" Edward V, to her son Sir Giles Capel.Susan E. James, Women's Voices in Tudor Wills, 1485–1603: Authority, Influence and Material (Ashgate, 2015), p. 88: Nicholas Harris Nicolas, Vestusta Testamenta, 2 (London, 1826), p. 595.[https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/extraordinary-new-clue-about-the-princes-in-the-tower-found-at-the-national-archives/ Extraordinary new clue about the Princes in the Tower found at The National Archives], The National Archives, 2024, accessed 2 December 2024 Giles was also given a best bed with curtains embroidered with the badge of an anchor and the motto used by his father.William Minet, "Capells at Rayne", Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, 9:4 (Colchester, 1904), pp. 243, 246. The anchor badge was carved in the doorways at Rayne Hall.[https://archive.org/details/inventoryofhist01grea/page/n389/mode/2up Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Essex (London: HMSO, 1916), p. 219]

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Category:1440s births

Category:1515 deaths

Category:Sheriffs of the City of London

Category:16th-century lord mayors of London

Category:15th-century English people

Category:Members of the Parliament of England for the City of London

Category:English MPs 1512–1514

Category:English MPs 1515

Category:Year of birth uncertain

Category:Capell family