1517 Henry Polsted, merchant taylor, was the plaintiff in a case concerning a property boundary in the Parish of St. Augustine beside Paul's Gate, London. [1]
[B.32] 1 October 1517.
Parish of St. Augustine beside Paul's Gate. Variance between Henry Polsted, merchant taylor, pl., and Christopher Nicolson, merchant taylor, def., concerning a certain void ground. The viewers find that the ground is 40 ft. 5 in. from the E side of the N post of the frame of a partible wall stretching northward to the E side of a SE corner post of a shed. From the same E side of the two posts westward to a tenement of the Petty Canons of [St.] Paul's and a tenement pertaining to the College of Windsor, line right and plumb, the void ground belongs to pl. Further, pl. ought to make a sufficient defence between his ground and def.'s. All which premises etc. Without etc.
Endorsed: . . . H 8
Subscribed: . . . per Hayes Certificatur ad Cur[iam] . . . sexto die [N]ovembris a[nno] ix° r[egni] r[egis] H[enrici] VIII
1521 Henry Polsted and his wife Matilda conveyed land to John and Joan Hardy. "John Hardy, and Joan, his wife, and Henry Polsted, and Matilda, his wife. Premises in Stretford at Bowe. Warranty against John, abbot of Westminster. Trin. Anno 13." [2]
1528/9 The will of Thomas Polsted of Stoke next Guildford, Surrey, dated March 12, named his sons Thomas and Henry, his daughter Margaret (unmarried), his wife Agnes, and his brothers Henry and John. The will was proved on 20 April 1528/9. [3] [4]
1534 "Bill of Henry Polsted, citizen and tailor of London, to William Sharington, for 3 yards of ginger colour for George Bowser. Total bill 16s. Date: 1534 April 29." [5]
1537 A list of 97 names of the company of "marchaunt taylours" in 1537 includes Henry Polsted. [6]
1543 Thomas Polsted was admitted by patrimony on July 13 to the Company of Merchant Taylors of London. [7]
1547 Henry Polsted paid rent for a messuage and 5 Tenements, £15 per annum, to the company of Merchant Taylors for property that had been bequeathed by John Churchman, citizen and grocer of London, in 6 Henry IV. [8]
1550-51 Henry Polsted the younger was admitted by patrimony to the Company of Merchant Taylors of London. [9]
1556 Henry Polsted (senior) died in 1556. [10]
Research Notes:
In the visitation of Surrey, Henry Polsted of Albury in Com. Surrey is listed as a husband of Joane, daughter and coheir of William Company als. Compienie in com. Middlesex and his wife Margaret. William Nicholson, of Walton in com. Buckinghamshire and son of John Nicholson of Com. York, is also listed as a husband of Joane. [11] The HOP biography of Henry Polsted, son of Thomas, states that the "ascription to him of an earlier marriage in the Surrey visitation of 1623 probably arose from a confusion of Polsted with his uncle and namesake of Purley, a merchant taylor of London." [12]
In addition to the admissions by patrimony cited above, the index of the Company of Merchant Taylors of London states that a Henry Polsted the elder was probably admitted before 1545-5, but the deeds and records cited above suggest that he was admitted well before that date.[13]
[1] Janet Senderowitz Loengard, ed., London Viewers and their Certificates, 1508-1558 Certificates of the Sworn Viewers of the City of London, (London: London Record Society, 1989), 17, [BritishHistoryOnline].
[2] W. J. Hardy and W. Page, A calendar to the feet of fines for London and Middlesex, Vol. 2, 1 Henry VII and 11-12 Elizabeth (1893), 27, [HathiTrust].
[3] Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858, PROB 11, Piece 23: Jankyn (1529-1530), [AncestryImage].
[4] Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858, [AncestryImage].
[5] The National Archives of the United Kingdom Catalog, Court of Wards and Liveries, WARD 2/58/215/22xxv, [UKNationalArchives].
[6] Charles Mathew Clode, ed., Memorials of the Guild of Merchant Taylors of the Fraternity of St. John the Baptist, in the City of London and of its Associatated Charities and Institutions (London: Harrison and Sons, 1875), 560, The footnote states that the list is from the Record in Chapter House, Westminster, as communicated by T. Caley, Esq., F.R.S. F.S.A., &c., and printed in "Allen's History of London," 1838. The editor states that he presumes that the list is of the Livery only, [HathiTrust].
[7] The Merchant Taylors' Membership Index 1530–1928 (formerly on Parish Registers website but no longer available). See London Metropolitan Archives, Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors, Indexes of Freemen, 1530-1509, Reference Code CLC/L/MD/C/015, [LondonMetropolitanArchives], [LondonMetropolitanArchives], [FamilySearchCatalog].
[8] Charles Mathew Clode, ed., Memorials of the Guild of Merchant Taylors of the Fraternity of St. John the Baptist, in the City of London and of its Associatated Charities and Institutions (London: Harrison and Sons, 1875), 104, [HathiTrust].
[9] The Merchant Taylors' Membership Index 1530–1928 (formerly on Parish Registers website but no longer available). See London Metropolitan Archives, Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors, Indexes of Freemen, 1530-1509, Reference Code CLC/L/MD/C/015, [LondonMetropolitanArchives], [LondonMetropolitanArchives], [FamilySearchCatalog].
[10] Joseph Jackson Howard, ed., The Visitation of London, Anno Domini 1633, 1634, and 1635, Vol. 2 (London: The Harleian Society, Vol. 92, 1883), 169, date reported by grandson, [HathiTrust].
[11] W. Bruce Bannerman, ed., The Visitations of the County of Surrey Made and Taken in the Years 1530, 1572, and 1623 (Publications of the Harleian Society, Vol. 43, London, 1899), 83, [GoogleBooks], [InternetArchive].
[12] S.T. Bindoff, ed., The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1509-1558 (Boydell & Brewer, 1982), [History of Parliament Online].
[13] The Merchant Taylors' Membership Index 1530–1928 (formerly on Parish Registers website but no longer available). See London Metropolitan Archives, Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors, Indexes of Freemen, 1530-1509, Reference Code CLC/L/MD/C/015, [LondonMetropolitanArchives], [LondonMetropolitanArchives], [FamilySearchCatalog].