Sir John Champneys (1495–1556) was City of London Sheriff in 1522 and Lord Mayor of London in 1534, when he was knighted.

Life

A merchant, Champneys began the building of Hall Place, Bexley, in about 1537. The son of Robert Champneys of Chew Magna, Somerset, he was a member of the Worshipful Company of Skinners. A contemporary chronicler, John Stow, noted that he was blind in later life: a divine judgment for having added "a high tower of brick" to his house in Mincing Lane, "the first that I ever heard of in any private man's house, to overlook his neighbours in this city."

He married twice. His first wife was Margaret (died by 1515), daughter of Thomas Murfyn, and widow of Roger Hall. His second wife was Merial Barret (died 1534) by whom he had three sons:

  • Francis
  • Clement
  • Justinian

He died on 3 October 1556 and was buried on 8 October at St Mary the Virgin, Bexley.

See also

Notes

  • Beaven, Alfred B. (1913). . Vol. II. London: Corporation of the City of London.
  • Betteridge, Tom (September 2006) [First Published 2004]. "Champneys, John (d. in or after 1559), religious radical". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:. (Subscription, access or required.)
  • Hyde, Patricia (1981). . In Hasler, P. W. (ed.). Members. The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1558–1603. Historyofparliamentonline.org.
  • Machyn, Henry (1848). Nichols, John Gough (ed.). . [Camden Society. Publications]. Vol. XLII. London, UK: Camden Society by J.B. Nichols and Son.
  • Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1887). "Champneys, John". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 10. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  • Vere-Hodge, H. S. (1953). Sir Andrew Judde, Lord Mayor of London 1550-1551, Mayor of the Staple of Calais, six times Master of the Skinners Company, Founder of Tonbridge School 1553. Tonbridge School Shop.
  • Wadmore, J. F. (1881). . Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society. 5. London: J. H. & J. Parker: 92−182.