Hugh Clopton (c. 1440 – 15 September 1496) was a

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional powe ...

, a member of the

Worshipful Company of Mercers The Worshipful Company of Mercers is the premier Livery Company of the City of London and ranks first in the order of precedence of the Companies. It is the first of the Great Twelve City Livery Companies. Although of even older origin, the c ...

and a benefactor of his home town of

Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-we ...

in Warwickshire.

Origins

Hugh Clopton was born in about 1440 at

Clopton House Clopton House is a 17th-century country mansion near Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire, now converted into residential apartments. It is a Grade II* listed building. The Manor of Clopton was granted to the eponymous family in the 13th century an ...

near

, where the Clopton family had lived since the reign of King Henry III (1216–1272). He was a younger son of John Clopton by his wife, a certain Agnes whose surname is unknown. In 1450 his father received license to erect an oratory at the manor house. In 1474 Thomas Clopton, Hugh's elder brother, obtained permission from

Pope Sixtus IV Pope Sixtus IV ( it, Sisto IV: 21 July 1414 – 12 August 1484), born Francesco della Rovere, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 August 1471 to his death in August 1484. His accomplishments as pope include ...

to add a chapel to the house for the celebration of divine service.

Career

As a younger son excluded from his patrimony by

primogeniture Primogeniture ( ) is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn legitimate child to inherit the parent's entire or main estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some children, any illegitimate child or any collateral relativ ...

, he was expected to make his own fortune and left Clopton for the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

at an early age, where he was apprenticed in 1457 to the

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John Roo, and was admitted to the

in 1464. He served as Warden of the Company three times, in 1479, 1484 and 1488. On 15 October 1485 he was chosen as Alderman for Dowgate ward. In 1486 he was elected

Sheriff of London Two sheriffs are elected annually for the City of London by the Liverymen of the City livery company, livery companies. Today's sheriffs have only nominal duties, but the historical officeholders had important judicial responsibilities. They have ...

during Sir Henry Colet's term as mayor, and was himself chosen

in 1491. By 1495 he was living in Bread Street. Although some biographers have stated that he was knighted, this does not appear to have been the case as he described himself in his will merely as "citizen, mercer and alderman". His vast fortune enabled him to become possessed of his ancestral estates at Clopton, the inheritance of his elder brother, and it is certain that the neighbouring town of Stratford-upon-Avon was his favourite place of residence. In about 1483 he erected there (in Chapel Street) "a pretty house of brick and timber", which was later purchased in 1597 and renovated by the playwright

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

, and under the name of

New Place New Place () was William Shakespeare's final place of residence in Stratford-upon-Avon. He died there in 1616. Though the house no longer exists, the site is owned by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, which maintains it as a specially-design ...

served as his residence until his death in 1616. Clopton rebuilt the nave of the Chapel of the Stratford Guild of the Holy Trinity, situated opposite his new house in Chapel Street, and he adorned the building with a tower, steeple, glass windows and paintings for the ceiling. He also built the

Clopton Bridge The Clopton Bridge is a Late Medieval masonry arch bridge with 14 pointed arches, located in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, which spans the River Avon, crossing at the place where the river was forded in Saxon times, and which gave the town it ...

, a remarkably fine stone bridge of fourteen arches over the River Avon, having removed at his own expense an old wooden bridge on the site. He also founded the Clopton

chantry chapel A chantry is an ecclesiastical term that may have either of two related meanings: # a chantry service, a Christian liturgy of prayers for the dead, which historically was an obiit, or # a chantry chapel, a building on private land, or an area in ...

in the

Church of the Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon The Collegiate Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon, is a Grade I listed parish church of the Church of England in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. It is often known simply as Holy Trinity Church or as Shakes ...

, still notable features of modern Stratford.

Death and burial

He died on 15 September 1497, holding the manor of Clopton as a

tenant-in-chief In medieval and early modern Europe, the term ''tenant-in-chief'' (or ''vassal-in-chief'') denoted a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the king or territorial prince to whom he did homage, as op ...

of King Henry VII "as of the manor of the Castle of Beaudesert" by 1/8 of a

knight's fee In feudal Anglo-Norman England and Ireland, a knight's fee was a unit measure of land deemed sufficient to support a knight. Of necessity, it would not only provide sustenance for himself, his family, and servants, but also the means to furnish him ...

, and left as his heir William Clopton (died 1521), the son of his nephew John, then aged 15. In 1504 William had livery of his great-uncle Hugh's manors of Clopton and Little Wilmcote, and his lands in Stratford and Bridgetown.'The borough of Stratford-upon-Avon: Manors', ''A History of the County of Warwick'': Volume 3: Barlichway hundred (1945), pp. 258–266
Retrieved 24 December 2013. By his will, dated a week before his death, he provided for the completion of the Stratford improvements, and left a hundred marks to twenty-four maidens of the town and £200 for rebuilding the cross aisle of the parish church. He also instituted exhibitions of £4 a year each for five years for three poor scholars at each university of Oxford and Cambridge, and gave £10 to the common box of the

Mercers Company The Worshipful Company of Mercers is the premier Livery Company of the City of London and ranks first in the order of precedence of the Companies. It is the first of the Great Twelve City Livery Companies. Although of even older origin, the c ...

, and other sums to the Venturers fellowship resident in Zeland, Brabant, and Flanders, and to "the fellowship of the Staple of Calais". Clopton desired to be buried in the parish church of Stratford, if he died in that town, where he spent much time in his later years. But he died in his London house, in the parish of

St Margaret Lothbury St Margaret Lothbury is a Church of England parish church on Lothbury in the City of London; it spans the boundary between Coleman Street Ward and Broad Street Ward. Recorded since the 12th century, the church was destroyed in the Great Fire of ...

, and he finally bequeathed his body to the church of that parish.

Succession

Clopton never married and left no children. The Clopton estates ultimately passed to Joyce Clopton, of the sixth generation in descent from Thomas Clopton, Sir Hugh's elder brother. She married

George Carew, 1st Earl of Totnes George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd President ...

, who thus inherited from his wife the manor of Clopton, and was buried in Stratford Church, where survives his magnificent monument containing the effigies of himself and his wife.

Notes

References

* * * * Attribution *

External links

Clopton Charters, National Archives
Retrieved 24 December 2013 {{DEFAULTSORT:Clopton, Hugh 1440s births 1496 deaths Year of birth uncertain Sheriffs of the City of London People from Stratford-upon-Avon 15th-century lord mayors of London People of the Tudor period