Navorska tree » Richard Chamberlain (± 1501-1563)

Personal data Richard Chamberlain 

• He was born about 1501 in Eng.
• (note1) .Source 1

  Sources David Brett Chamberlin, M. Mod, William Henderson, et al.

• He died in the year 1563 in London city, London Co., Eng.
• A child of William Chamberlain and Clemencia Kingston
• This information was last updated on April 2, 2025.

Household of Richard Chamberlain

He is married to Margaret Knyvet Bristowe.

They got married on June 29, 1533 at Whitehall, London, Eng.

Child(ren):

1. Joan Chamberlain  1540-1602 

Notes about Richard Chamberlain

Richard Chamberlain

Sources: Author: Chamberlin, David Brett; Mod, M.; Henderson, William; et al.; Title: "Richard Chamberlain," (Publication site: Salt Lk. City UT, Publisher: Family Search, Publication date: xxvi Oct MMXXIV)

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LRHP-KQT

"... Richard Chamberlain Last Changed: January 1, 2017 David Brett Chamberlin Sex Male ...

Birth Abt 1501 England, ... Reason: WikiTree: Richard Chamberlain (abt. 1501-1566) Last Changed: January 18, 2024 Larry Payne

Death 1563 London, London, England, ... Reason: WikiTree: Richard Chamberlain (abt. 1501-1566) Last Changed: January 18, 2024 Larry Payne

Burial 23 September 1563 Whatcote, Warwickshire, England, ... Last Changed: January 18, 2024 Larry Payne

NFS ID 2TK4-PJD

Spouses & Children

Richard Chamberlain Male 1501-1563 LRHP-KQT [<-ancestor]
Margaret Knyvet Bristowe Female 1520-1581 LRHP-5SC [<-ancestress]
Marriage 29 June 1533 Whitehall, London, England

Children (3)

[1] Henry Chamberlain Male 1533-1600 G497-X99
[2] Thomas Chamberlin Male 1534-1586 MRB9-YDL
[3] Joan Chamberlain Female 1540-1602 LYCS-GWQ [<-ancestress]

Parents & Siblings

Sir William Chamberlain Male 1483-1533 LZ64-VVK [<-ancestor]
Lady Clemencia Kingston Female 1484-1530 MJK7-2KW [<-ancestress]
Marriage 1503 Prestbury, Gloucestershire, England

Children (9)

[1] Richard Chamberlain Male 1501-1563 LRHP-KQT [<-ancestor]
[2] Elizabeth Chamberlaine Female 1510-Deceased G4WF-3Z9
[3] Mathew Chamberlaine Male 1511-Deceased K8X6-9H8
[4] Agnes Chamberlaine Female 1512-Deceased 2TVB-Q2J
[5] Cecilia Chamberlaine Female 1513-Deceased KCNX-XJG
[6] John Chamberlaine Male 1518-Deceased 2TK4-PJB
[7] Willem Chamberlayne Male 1525-1575 MF7C-BMV
[8] Margaret Chamberlian Female 1531-Deceased G4WX-8VZ
[9] Margarett Chamberlaine Female 1531-Deceased G4WX-X1F

Brief Life History

Alderman Richard Chamberlain

Born about 1501 [location unknown]
Son of [father unknown] and [mother unknown]
[sibling(s) unknown]

Husband of Anne (Downe) Chamberlain - married 31 Jan 1541 (to 1562) in St Olave Old Jewry, London, England

DESCENDANTS
Father of Margaret Chamberlain and John Chamberlain
Died 19 Nov 1566 at about age 65 in St Olave, London, England

Richard Chamberlain /Chamberlayne/Chamberlyn was an Ironmonger, Common Councillor, Alderman, and Sheriff of London between 1562 and 1563. As a Member of the Company of Merchant Adventurers to New Lands, the forerunner of the Russia Company, which formed in 1555, he was a pioneer of the first major trading company of the early modern era.

Birth and Parentage
Richard Chamberlain's parentage is at present unknown. There is a suggestion that he may have descended from the Chamberlaynes of Shirburn, Oxfordshire, and that Richard was the son of Sir Edward Chamberlayne.

There is no proof that Edward and Richard Chamberleyn were respectively grandfather and great-grandfather of John, but the assumption appears reasonable; the remaining details of the pedigree are duly authenticated.

He was at least from a wealthy family, but his father can't have been a freeman of a Livery Company; if he had been, Richard could have become a freeman by right of his father and thereby not have had to serve an apprenticeship.

Rychard Chamburlyn was apprenticed to Ironmonger Master Robert Downe of Yalding, Gentleman, of the Ironmongers Company between 1515 and 1517. Records of the Ironmongers' Company to do with Richard Chamberlain are now available to research and view online via the commercial family history website FindMyPast.

An apprenticeship with a livery company was designed to teach a young man a trade and also to instill the habits of sobriety, piety, and hard work. This meant that an apprentice's behavior was strictly regulated. He was not to engage in fornication or marry, he was not to play at "cards, dice, tables, or any other unlawful games," nor could he haunt taverns and playhouses. His loyalty was to his master whose "lawful commandments" he must obey, and whose service he must not neglect day or night.

Masters often became father figures and apprentices were remembered in their masters' wills. The master's widow or daughters might also carry on his trade and inherit his apprentices if the master died. However, it was also common for these working relationships to be fraught and many apprentices did not complete their terms of servitude as they struggled to cope with the demands of the position.

First Marriage and Family
On 31 January 1541, in Saint Olave Old Jewry, London, Richard married Anne Downes, daughter of Robert Downes and his wife, Margery. They had eleven known children, of whom eight, Elizabeth, Robert, Thomas, Richard, Alexander, Margery, John, and George survived to adulthood.

Elizabeth married Hugh Stukeley, lawyer of London, and had a daughter, Susan, who married Sir Henry Drury. Elizabeth was living at the time of her father's death and is mentioned in his will.

The fact that Richard had two daughters named Margery/e is confusing. There are, as can be seen, two separate baptism records, six years apart. According to Leah Rhys, in Richard's will, both his daughters Margaret and Margery, who at the time of his death, were both living. However, Stathan says that the Margery baptized in 1544 died in infancy.

George Chamberlain married Ann Merrick, who, after George's death, married Alderman John Poole, Esq., of London.

Life and Career
Richard Chamberlain became a prominent member of the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers, and lived in St Olave Old Jewry, "Saincte Tolloys," in the Ward of Coleman Street, of which it may be inferred, from various passages in the will, that Chamberlain was Alderman. Three of his sons, Robert (his eldest son, was almost of age at his father's death. He also became a master of the Ironmongers' Company), Richard and George followed in their father's footsteps and also became members.

The "market," or special place of business of the fraternity, was, as we have said, in the neighborhood of the City Guildhall, and hence the existing name of Ironmonger Lane, which is a thoroughfare out of Cheapside, on the north side, and the next turning to the Old Jewry westward, between which streets to this day stands a church, known as St. Olave's (about to be removed), the predecessors of which— St. Martin's, Ironmonger's Lane, and St. Olave— contained the remains of several eminent ironmongers, including William Dikeman, "Feroner," one of the sheriffs, 1367; Robert Havelocke, 1390; Thomas Michell, 1527; Richard Chamberlain, 1562.

Richard became Auditor of the Ironmongers' Company from 1558 to 1560 and then Master of the Ironmongers on 9 January 1560.

He and most of his sons were involved in emerging English international trade.

In 1551, Sir Hugh Willoughby, Sebastian Cabot, and Richard Chancellor co-founded the Mystery and Company of Merchant Adventurers for the Discovery of Regions, Dominions and Islands and Places Unknown, with the goal of finding a shipping route to China that would undercut Spain's spice-trade monopoly.

"our merchants perceived the commodities and wares of England to bee in small request with the countreys and people about us and neere unto us, and that those merchandizes which strangers in the time and memorie of our auncesters did earnestly seeke and desire, were nowe neglected and the price thereof abated, although by us carried to their owne portes, and all forreine merchandizes in great accompt and their prises wonderfully raised; certaine graue citizens of London, and men of great wisedome, and carefull for the good of theire countrey, began to thinke with themselves howe this mischiefe might be remidied. Neither was a remidie (as it then appeared) wanting to their desires, for the auoyding of so great an inconvenience: for, seeing that the wealth of the Spaniards and Portingalse, by the discouerie and search of newe trades and conntreys was marueilously increased, supposing the same to be a course and meane for them also to obteine the like, they thereupon resolued upon a newe and strange nauigation. And whereas at the same time one Sebastian Cabota, a man in those dayes very renowned, happened to be in London, they began first of all to deale and consult diligently with him, and after much speeche and conference together, it was at last concluded that three shippes should bee prepared and furnished out, for the search and discouerie of the northerne part of the world, to open a way and passage to our men for trauaile to newe and unknowen kingdomes."

Richard Chamberlain, along with 23 others, Sir John Gresham, Sir Andrew Judde, Sir Thomas White, Sir John Yorke, Thomas Offley the elder, Thomas Lodge, Grocer, Henry Herdson (Hudson), John Hopkins, William Watson, Will. Clifton, Richard Pointer, William Mallorie, Thomas Pallie the elder, William Allen, Henry Becher, Geffrey Walkenden, Richard Fowles, Rowland Heyward, George Eaton, John Ellot, John Sparke, Blase Sanders, and Miles Mording, were ordained the first 24 Assistants to Sebastian Cabot.

In the course of his business deals, his engagement in transactions relating to the sale of cloth to certain German merchants tied him up him in long and serious litigation.

As a representative of the Ironmongers' Company, he was involved in the commercial and ceremonial activities of the City of London, including the banquets that were a part of business life.

On 5 November 1561, he was a principal mourner at the heraldic funeral procession of Sir Rowland Hill, at St. Stephen Walbrook, followed by a dinner at the Mercers' Hall.

He was the executor of the will of Mistress Agnes Lewen (widow of Alderman and Ironmonger Thomas Lewin) in 1562. Elizabeth I had been on the throne four years in 1562-1563 when Richard Chamberlain was made Sheriff of London, along with William Alin, when Sir Thomas Hodge, Grocer, was Lord Mayor. In 1563, his servant George Draycotte was involved in the sale of an Ironmongers Company property lease in Bread Street to the wealthy ironmonger John Donne of Lincoln's Inn, (father of the poet, John Donne). John Donne completed his apprenticeship under Agnes Lewen.

When Sir John White was Lord Mayor of London in 1563-1564, Richard Chamberlain was at a banquet described by Anne F. Sutton in "The Mercery of London: Trade, Goods and People, 1130– 1578," a grand occasion at which new Guild Masters were elected with solemn rites.

Second Marriage
After Richard's wife Anne Chamberlain's death in 1562, (she was buried in St Olave's Old Jury), Richard remarried, surprisingly soon, on 18 July 1562, under license from the Bishop of London.

-- WikiTree: Richard Chamberlain (abt. 1501-1566)

Last Changed: August 23, 2022 M. Mod"
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