Henry Tooley (d. 1551) was a

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

merchant. Alive during the

Tudor period The Tudor period occurred between 1485 and 1603 in History of England, England and Wales and includes the Elizabethan period during the reign of Elizabeth I until 1603. The Tudor period coincides with the dynasty of the House of Tudor in Englan ...

, by the time of his death he was one of the richest businessmen in the town of

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

. He was closely associated with the fellow merchant and

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for

, Robert Daundy. His trade network extended Biscayan ports, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and

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as well as including much of

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east of line drawn between

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It is located north-east of London a ...

and

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– and the highly populated and industry towns of south Suffolk in particular.

Early life

Two locations have been put forward for the origin of his family:

Corton, Suffolk Corton is a village and civil parish in the north of the English county of Suffolk. It is north of the centre of Lowestoft in the East Suffolk district. The village is on the North Sea coast with the county border with Norfolk to the north. It i ...

or Catton, Norfolk. He was born in the last quarter of the

15th century The 15th century was the century which spans the Julian dates from 1 January 1401 ( MCDI) to 31 December 1500 ( MD). In Europe, the 15th century includes parts of the Late Middle Ages, the Early Renaissance, and the early modern period. M ...

. Traditional accounts claim he was born in the house which became the Ram Inn. He probably completed an

apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners ...

, but there is no mention of him in the records until 1499 when 'Henry Toly' is mentioned occupying some land near the river in Ipswich. His biographer, John Webb, suggests that he worked as a

factor Factor, a Latin word meaning "who/which acts", may refer to: Commerce * Factor (agent), a person who acts for, notably a mercantile and colonial agent * Factor (Scotland), a person or firm managing a Scottish estate * Factors of production, suc ...

with at least one established merchant before engaging in trade on his own account.

Family life

Henry had two sisters: Joan (born c 1470) who first married someone about whom little is known. He may have had some connection with Thomas Ufford, one of the bailiffs of

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in 1510. When she remarried, her husband was Ralph Dene, who himself was three times a bailiff of Yarmouth (1517, 1526 and 1536) and died in 1543. A second sister, Margaret (or Maud), married William Rede of

Beccles Beccles ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . The town is shown on the milestone as from London via the A145 and A12 roads, north-east of London as the crow fli ...

. In 1541 Rede was assigned the manor and advowson of Beccles, which had previously been in the hands of the

Abbey of Bury St Edmunds The Abbey of Bury St Edmunds was once among the richest Benedictine monasteries in England, until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539. It is in the town that grew up around it, Bury St Edmunds in the county of Suffolk, England. It was ...

. The last Abbot, John Reeve relinquished control in 1539 and then died 1540 before the property was transferred. Their son, also called William, was born in

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in 1509 inherited the manor and advowson and married Anne Ferneley. a niece of Edmund Daundy. After William's death in 1552, she married Sir

Thomas Gresham Sir Thomas Gresham the Elder (; c. 151921 November 1579), was an English merchant and financier who acted on behalf of King Edward VI (1547–1553) and Edward's half-sisters, queens Mary I (1553–1558) and Elizabeth I (1558–1603). In 1565 G ...

, founder of the Royal Exchange in

Legacies

He left two testaments to his lucrative career as a merchant the Tooley Almshouses and the account books preserved in the

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tooley, Henry 1551 deaths 16th-century English businesspeople