Over the next three weeks, historian and CovSoc member Peter James, tells us the interesting history of one of Coventry’s most well known families. This part covers the period 1500 – 1604. Peter writes….
Thomas Gregory c.1500-1573
When his father William died in 1528 Thomas Gregory moved to Coventry. His family had an estate in Asfordby, Leicestershire where his brother William continued to live until he died in 1563.
Thomas had studied law at the Inner Temple in London and immediately began work for Coventry Corporation as the mayor’s clerk. He initially lived near St. Mary’s Hall as a tenant of the Holy Trinity Guild. He appears to have had a number of different duties during his employment which spanned over 40 years becoming temporary coroner in April 1530 to swear in the new mayor Roger Wale. When Robert Greene retired in 1546 Thomas succeeded him and took up the office of coroner. Alongside his Corporation duties he worked for The Holy Trinity Guild as a surveyor of their lands after being appointed in 1534.
Acting Solicitor
This led to him operating in a private capacity dealing with legal matters. As well as assisting in Edward Marrow’s purchase of Wolvey Manor he was the auditor at Stoneleigh Abbey at the time of the Dissolution. This was a post which paid him 26s – 8d per annum. In 1535 along with Christopher Wade they bought the Overhallstude Estate from Richard Greene, where Wade lived until he died in 1539. Thomas worked closely with members of the Wade family and married Christopher’s daughter Elizabeth Wade in May 1538. Christopher Wade was a wealthy mercer and former Coventry mayor who passed away a year later in 1539. In his will he left his house, lands in Stivichall and elsewhere to Thomas and £40 to Elizabeth.
Property Portfolio
After his marriage Thomas moved into a larger house belonging to the Holy Trinity Guild in Broadgate. He was a tenant but had been employed as a surveyor for the guild since 1534.
After the guild was dissolved Thomas obtained the freehold and soon acquired other properties in Greyfriars Lane, Smithford Street, Spon Street and Gosford Street. Most of the land in Stoneleigh was acquired by the Leigh family after the dissolution but Thomas managed to buy property in Kingshill. He also purchased Hellinhull Grange, Rabcroft Mill and John Suffolk’s house.
After 1451 Kingshill was no longer part of Coventry but Stivichall was. King Henry VI granted Coventry a charter elevating the city to the Liberty of the City of Coventry. It separated the city and some surrounding hamlets from the administration of Knightlow Hundred and gave the city its own judicial rights.
Thomas continued to add to his property portfolio in Stivichall by buying the freehold of three crofts and a virgate from Thomas Fisher in 1549. After leasing land from the Drapers Company in Stivichall he purchased the freehold in 1556. After buying a cottage and land from the Norris family he acquired the manorial rights once held by the Bishop of Coventry. At the time of Thomas’ death in 1573 the Gregory family held the majority of land in Stivichall. His eldest son Arthur aged 34 was the beneficiary of his will.
Arthur Gregory
Arthur Gregory was born on 16th March 1540 and followed his father by going to Oxford University at the age of eighteen and studying at Magdalen College. He went on to the Inner Temple in London where he qualified as an Utter Barrister. Returning home in 1568 he gradually took over the management of the family estates. In 1578 Arthur married Jane Ferrers head of the Ferrers family owners of lands in Tamworth as well as Stivichall. Soon after in 1580 he added another estate in Stivichall from Henry, Lord Berkely consolidating their holdings there.
Private business
Like his father he also held a number of positions at Coventry Corporation. After becoming coroner in 1574, he became a Justice of the Peace in 1575 and in 1598 was assigned to investigate chantry lands as one of Her Majesty’s Commissioners. In Warwick he served as an officer in the Court of Wards from November 1570 checking land values locally and collecting royal rents.
Arthur provoked the Corporation in September 1574 by asking them to recognise his sovereign right to a rivalcourt to their Leet Court in Stivichall. This threatened their authority and income from tax revenues.
In 1580 Arthur Gregory was accused by Coventry Corporation of severe fraud, document theft and forgery. He was charged at the Court of Star Chamber with:
1. “taking parchment unwritten upon called blankes sealed with the seals of the corporacion.”
2. Forging and altering medieval deeds to secure land.
3. Exploiting “missing documents”.
When his father Thomas died, many town documents were not returned to the city. If Arthur was ever sued in a border or property line dispute he would either suppress the true record or produce one he had doctored.
By the early 1590s the corporation had stripped him of all of all his duties but by then he had secured another source of income. Working for Sir Francis Walsingham the spymaster his illicit skills were utilised. He operated as as a counterfeiter removing wax letter seals and replacing them without detection. Records of the Gregory family held at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust show Arthur’s eldest son John taking control of the estate in 1604 after his father’s death on 1st December 1603 – having fallen out with his brothers and with very few friends.
Arthur’s youngest brother Edmund was alarmed at how the family funds were managed. He launched a number of legal challenges and won control of most of the family property leaving Arthur to write in despair: “I am worne so lowe estate y my children go wouldward, ragged and almost naked….and myself in despaire.”
David Porter