Sir John Wolstenholme (1562 – 25 November 1639) was an English financier and merchant-adventurer.

Life

John Wolstenholme, of an old

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

family, was the second son of John Wolstenholme, who came to London in the reign of

Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. The only surviving son of Henry VIII by his thi ...

and obtained a post in the customs. The son at an early age became one of the richest merchants in London, and during the last half of his life took a prominent part in the extension of English commerce, in colonisation, and in maritime discovery. In December 1600, he was one of the incorporators of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

; in 1609 he was a member of council for the

Virginia Company The Virginia Company was an English trading company chartered by King James I on 10 April 1606 with the objective of colonizing the eastern coast of America. The coast was named Virginia, after Elizabeth I, and it stretched from present-day ...

; he took a lively interest in the attempts to discover a

Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea lane between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, near the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Arctic Archipelago of Canada. The eastern route along the Arctic ...

; was one of those who fitted out the expeditions of

Henry Hudson Henry Hudson ( 1565 – disappeared 23 June 1611) was an English sea explorer and navigator during the early 17th century, best known for his explorations of present-day Canada and parts of the Northeastern United States. In 1607 and 16 ...

(died 1611) (who named Cape Wolstenholme after him) in 1610; of (Sir) Thomas Button in 1612, of Robert Bylot and William Baffin in 1615 (when his name was given to Wolstenholme Island and Wolstenholme Sound), and of Luke Fox in 1631. Together with Sir Thomas Smith (Smythe) (–1625) he engaged Edward Wright (–1615) to give lectures on navigation. On 12 March 1617 he was knighted. Wolstenholme bought the manor of

Clayhall Clayhall is a district of Ilford in the London Borough of Redbridge in east London, England. It is a suburban development. The name is derived from an old manor house that stood within the current area. It is first mentioned in a document of 1203 ...

around this time.Thomas Birch & Folkestone Williams, ''Court and Times of James the First'', 2 (London: Colburn, 1849), p. 207. In February 1619 he was a Commissioner of the Navy, but in December 1619 he was confined to his house by the

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

's command "for muttering against a patent and newly erected office in the customs house". As he was one of the Farmers of the Customs, the innovation presumably threatened to affect his interests. On 15 July 1624, he was appointed a commissioner for winding up the affairs of the Virginia Company; for several years afterwards he was a member of the King's Council for Virginia; in 1631 he was a Commissioner for the Plantation of Virginia. In 1635–1637, he was on a commission to inquire into the administration of the

Chest The thorax (: thoraces or thoraxes) or chest is a part of the anatomy of mammals and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main di ...

at Chatham.Laughton 1900, p. 344. Wolstenholme died on 25 November 1639, and was buried in Great Stanmore church, where there is a handsome monument to his memory by

Nicholas Stone Nicholas Stone (1586/87 – 24 August 1647) was an England, English sculpture, sculptor and architect. In 1619 he was appointed master-mason to James I of England, James I, and in 1626 to Charles I of England, Charles I. During his ca ...

. He married Catherine Fanshawe, and had issue two sons and two daughters. Of the daughters, the elder, Joan, married Sir Robert Knollys; the other, Catherine, married William Fanshawe, a nephew of Sir Thomas Smythe, and half-brother of Sir Henry Fanshawe; see also Thomas Fanshawe.

References

Bibliography

* Laughton, J. K.; Bowen, H. V. (2004)
"Wolstenholme, Sir John"
In ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. n.p. * * Thrush, Andrew; Ferris, John P., eds. (2010)
"Wolstenholme (Worsnam), Sir John"
In ''The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604-1629''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. n.p.

External links

* Ockerbloom, John Mark (ed.)
"Wolstenholme, John, Sir, 1562-1639"
''

The Online Books Page The Online Books Page is an index of e-text books available on the Internet. It is edited by John Mark Ockerbloom and is hosted by the library of the University of Pennsylvania. The Online Books Page lists over 2 million books and has several fe ...

''. Accessed 27 February 2022.
"St. John the Evangelist Brick Church Ruin"
''Stanmore Tourist Board''. Accessed 27 February 2022. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wolstenholme, John 1562 births 1639 deaths 17th-century English merchants