Notable Clothworker: Sir William Hewett

By Senior Archivist, Jessica Collins

Sir William Hewett is popularly remembered as the father of Anne Hewett, the young girl who (according to John Stow) fell into the Thames and was rescued by her father’s apprentice, Edward Osborne (later Sir). However, Sir Williamhad a most interesting and variedcareer – a founding member of The Clothworkers’ Company, a wealthy merchant, a prisoner, a reluctant civic official and a trusted servant of Elizabeth I, not to mention being called upon to accompany Lady Jane Grey toher execution. Having recently been gifted a portrait of the gentleman by his descendant Derek Hewett of Singapore, following its long-term loan to theMuseum of London, it is apposite that we consider Sir William’s interesting life more closely.

William Hewett (also Huett/Hewet) was born in Wales, a hamlet in theparish of Laughton-en-le-Morthen in the West Riding of Yorkshire c. 1496. After university at Queen’s College, Cambridge, and a stint at Gray’s Inn, he was apprenticed to a London Clothworker. The date of his apprenticeship predates our earliest extant membership records. However, Hewett must have become a Freeman by 1529, when he is first recorded as taking an apprentice through The Company. Apart from Osborne, these included his cousin William Hewett (later a substantial benefactor of The Company), Robert Barnett and Richard Foster (both bequeathed £5 in Hewett’s will – half the sum required to ‘set up shop’ as a small master) and Henry Boswell (or Bosville), brother of Gilbert, whose sister in law by marriage was ‘Bess of Hardwick’ – or Lady Cavendish, who built Chatsworth.

Hewett became a very wealthy merchant, operating from a property called the Three Cranes in Candlewick Street in the City, originally the centre of London’s clothmaking district. Also a member of The Merchant Adventurers’, Hewett prospered in the Iberian trade, importing hundreds of pounds of goods per annum by the 1560s. In one year alone, a fleet of 40 merchant vessels brought him Spanish wool and iron, fustians from Genoa and Ulm in addition to other commodities such as frying pans, flax, straw hats, madder, and copper from other European ports.

In 1536, he had married Alice Leveson, the third daughter of Nicholas Leveson of Halling, Kent, Mercer, and the couple set up home in Philpot Lane, off Fenchurch Street, although they had a country house in Highgate and owned many other properties. These also included a house on the old London Bridge, where Hewett’s infant daughter (and only surviving child) was once accidentally dropped from a window into the Thames. According to tradition, Edward Osborne jumped out and saved her from drowning. When she grew up, Anne could have had her pick of suitors as a wealthy heiress-to-be, but her father allegedly remarked ‘Osborne saved her, let Osborne enjoy her’, and the two later went on to marry. So important was this event in Clothworker legend, that a mural depicting Anne’s rescue was commissioned for the Red Drawing Room in the Victorian fifth Hall from W.R. Beverley in 1864.

Hewett became Master of The Company in 1543, a pivotal time in Clothworker history – in this period The Company petitioned the Lord Mayor and Aldermen for sole control of clothworking (there being artisan clothworkers in other livery companies) and tried unsuccessfully to reconstitute its yeomanry or craft element. Such was the uneasy relationship between the largely mercantile Court and Livery, and the yeomanry, that a two-tier membership effectively operated within The Company with divergent interests in relation to the export of unfinished cloth (which would threaten its stability in subsequent decades). In 1565, the Clothworkers almost ceded their rights of oversight and control of cloth finishing to The Merchant Taylors’ – a move that would have required the entire yeomanry to translate to the other Company.

Perhaps preoccupied by the gravity of this Clothworker business or indeed his own extensive affairs, Sir William initially refused to serve as Alderman of Vintry Ward when elected in 1550 and was committed to Newgate Prison. Upon his release, having had a change of heart, he became heavily involved in the great political and public affairs of the age. Whilst Sheriff in 1553, he was charged with carrying out the sentence of execution upon Lady Jane Grey. He subsequently received a grant of arms from Queen Mary I for his loyalty.

As the first Protestant and first Clothworker Lord Mayor in 1559, he was given many important tasks by the new Queen Elizabeth. Only a few weeks into his post, the Privy Council sternly wrote to him requiring that he ‘might cause speedy reformation of divers enormities in the same city’, including imposing sumptuary laws, and prohibiting the serving of meat in hostelries on fast-days, the over-pricing of goods, and seeking out houses of illegal dicing and other ‘plays and games’. He was also heavily involved in Elizabeth’s attempt to reform the currency, removing the debased coinage then in circulation.

Despite his initial reluctance to hold office, Hewett had a strongsense of civic duty, and upon hisdeath in January 1567, he left manyphilanthropic bequests including‘herringes, breade and drinke’ forprisoners in Newgate gaol (havinghad first-hand experience of prisonconditions there during his short staypreviously), money for prisoners atLudgate and the two compters (gaols)in Cheapside, money for inmates atSt Thomas’ Hospital and the poorinhabitants of his parish and ward inaddition to funding for a new waterconduit for the City. He also left £15 toThe Clothworkers’ Company towardshis funeral costs and a dinner to be heldthereafter. He had earlier promisedto give the Court as much hardstone as was necessary to build thewharf at the Common Stairs [‘wherehandicraftsmen washed their cloths inthe Thames’].

Hewett was buried in the church of St Martin Orgar alongside his wife who predeceased him (c. 1561). According to Maitland, he is said to have left an extensive estate worth some £6,000 per annum upon his death. His property was shared between his daughter Anne and Edward Osborne, his brother Thomas and nephew Henry.

Osborne and Anne Hewett’s descendants acquired the Dukedomof Leeds and the portrait we nowown is said to have previously hung in Kiveton House, Yorkshire, the formerseat of the dukes. It is understood thatwhen the dukedom became extinct,the possessions of the last duke weresold and thus dispersed. By 1966,this portrait had entered the GeorgeSchafer Collection in Schweinfurt,following acquisition from a Munichbased art dealer. It was purchased byDerek Hewett, a descendant of SirWilliam, in 1989 and had been on longterm loan to the Museum of London.

Previously attributed to Ludger Thomas Ring and later Anthonis Mor, theportrait was painted c. 1553 and depictsSir William as an ageing figure, dressedin his Aldermanic robes. The capindicates his learned status, and chainof gold his mercantile activities. Thelatter was in effect a type of portable bank account worn by merchants, whowould cut off a link or two as and whenthey needed ready cash. There areno insignia or inscriptions explicitlyidentifying Hewett (not uncommonin Tudor portraiture), but the sliver oftopography, seen through the narrowwindow, shows a church spire which isbelieved to represent the church of AllSaints in Laughton-en-le-Morthen, theplace of Hewett’s birth.

None of Anne and Edward Osborne’s five children went on to becomemembers of The Company; howeverthe Most Noble George GodolphinOsborne, the ninth Duke of Leeds,received the Freedom of The Companyby Presentation on 23 July 1890, asa direct descendent of Sir WilliamHewett and his daughter, Anne.