Sir William Garrard (1507–1571), also Garrett, Gerrarde, etc., was a Tudor magnate of London, a merchant citizen in the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers, who became alderman, Sheriff (1552–1553) and Lord Mayor of London (1555–1556) and was returned as an MP for the City of London.H. Miller (revised), 'Garrard, Sir William (c. 1510–1571)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004, online revised version 2008). He was a senior founding officer of the Company of Merchant Adventurers to New Lands (The Muscovy Company) in 1554/55, having been involved in its enterprises since the beginnings in King Edward VI's time, and for the last decade of his life was one of its permanent governors. He worked hard and invested largely to expand English overseas trade not only to Russia and the Levant but also to the Barbary Coast and to West Africa and Guinea.R. Brenner, Merchants and Revolution: Commercial Change, Political Conflict, and London's Overseas Traders, 1550-1653 New Edition (original 1993), (Verso Publication, London and New York 2003), p. 17 (Google).
In his late years Garrard and his Company or Society of Adventurers promoted mercantile trading expeditions to Guinea. Under the command entrusted to John Hawkins the expedition of 1567–1568 became the infamous (and disastrous) third slaving voyage to the West Indies.'The Deposition of John Hawkins', in E. Arber (ed.), An English Garner: Ingatherings from Our History and Literature (Privately published, Birmingham 1882), V, p. 231-48 (Google). Garrard is also remembered for his labours on behalf of the London hospitals and for his efforts in practical help for poor and sick inhabitants of London. John Stow called him "a grave, sober, wise and discreete cittizen, equal with the best, and inferior to none of our time."J. Stow, A Survay of London, 2nd edition (London 1603), p. 214 (Google).
Early life William Garrard was descended from an old gentry family of Sittingbourne, Kent,'Gerrard of Dorney', in W.H. Rylands (ed.), The Visitation of the County of Buckingham made in 1634 by John Philipott and William Ryley, Harleian Society, Vol. LVIII (London 1909), pp. 61-62 (Internet Archive). which had formerly gone by the name of Attegare. Sir Simon Attegare, born 1365, was the father of Stephen, who altered the name to Garrard.'60. Garrard, of Lamer, Hertfordshire', in A. Collins, The English Baronetage (Thomas Watton, London 1741), I, p. 492-94 (Google). Their mansion appears to have been the manor of Fulston in Sittingbourne, as suggested by their various tombs or burials in the part of the parish church relating to that place.'Parishes: Sittingborne (Manors of Bayford Castle and Fulston)', in E. Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, Vol. 6 (Canterbury 1798), pp. 153-60 (British History Online).
William was born in London, the son of John Garrard,'Garrard', in J.J. Howard and G. J. Armytage (eds), The Visitation of London Taken in the Year 1568 by Robert Cooke, Clarenceux King of Arms, Harleian Society vol. I (London 1869), p. 5 (Internet Archive). citizen and Grocer, a prominent London businessman. He grew up in the parish of St Magnus-the-Martyr near London Bridge; he was admitted to the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers, and was married to Isabel Nethermill by 1539, when he was named an overseer in the will of his father-in-law Julian Nethermill of Coventry, who made small bequests to each of Garrard's children. In 1542 he purchased the manor of Dorney (in the far south of Buckinghamshire just west of Windsor) from the son of Richard Hill, who had held the manor from 1530 to 1540. Dorney Court remained his principal country seat throughout his life and became the inheritance of his eldest son.'Parishes: Dorney', in W. Page (ed.), A History of the County of Buckingham, Vol. 3 (V.C.H., London 1925), pp. 221-25 (British History Online). In 1545 he purchased the manor of Southfleet, in Kent, from Sir William Petre, which also became a family hereditament.'Parishes: Southfleet', in E. Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, Vol. 2 (Canterbury, 1797), pp. 421-40 (British History Online).
Henrican and Edwardian In 1545, he was appointed by the Court of Aldermen to be a Surveyor of the Poor, with the duties of trying to find ways to combat poverty, and continued in that work until 1549. He was chosen an alderman (for the London ward of Aldgate) in 1547, and served a term as Treasurer of St. Bartholomew's Hospital in 1548–1549.H. Miller, 'Garrard (Garrett), Sir William (by 1518-71), of London and Dorney, Bucks.', in S.T. Bindoff (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558 (from Boydell and Brewer 1982), History of Parliament Online. In 1550 he transferred to the Broad Street ward, and in 1556 to Lime Street, which he represented at the time of his death in 1571.A.B. Beavan, The Aldermen of the City of London Temp. Henry III to 1912 (Corporation of the City of London, 1913), II, p. 32 (Internet Archive).
The shrieval year, 1552–1553 In 1552 William Cecil, on behalf of King Edward VI, negotiated a £40,000 loan from the Merchant Adventurers through Garrard.'VIII. Old method of obtaining a subsidy', in J.W. Burgon, The Life and Times of Sir Thomas Gresham, 2 vols (Robert Jennings, London 1839), I, p. 466 Google). In August Garrard was nominated to be one of the Sheriffs of London for 1552–1553 by the Lord Mayor (Richard Dobbs), while his elected counterpart, the Master Clothworker John Crymes, and after him two others, declined their election by the Commons: by a fourth election, John Maynard (Mercer) was successfully chosen to be Garrard's fellow sheriff, whereupon both were sworn to office on 28 September 1552.W.D. Hamilton (ed.), A Chronicle of England During the Reigns of the Tudors, by Charles Wriothesley, Volume II (of 3), Camden Society, New Series Vol. XX (London 1877), pp. 71-77 (Internet Archive). On the next day George Barne was elected Lord Mayor. As Barne was also a Haberdasher, this was a year of special influence for the company.
The shrievalty term spanned the death of Edward VI, the brief reign of Lady Jane Grey and the succession of Queen Mary I. Garrard was one of the signatories to the Letters Patent for the Limitation of the Crown.'Letters Patent for the Limitation of the Crown', in J.G. Nichols (ed.), The Chronicle of Queen Jane, and of Two Years of Queen Mary, Camden Society XLVIII (1850), pp. 91-100 (Google). His official role in these memorable events appears in the narratives:"The 10 of July at v of the clock in the afternone was proclamation made, with a trompetter, and 2 of the harouldes Kinges of Armes, and Mr Garret, the sheriffe, rydinge with them, of the death of our late soueraigne Edward VIth, and howe he had ordeyned by his letters patents, bearinge date the 21 of June last, the sayd Quene Jane to be heyre to the crowne of England and the heyres males of hir body lawfully begotten; which proclamation was made in 4 partes of the City of London, under the greate seale of England, bearinge date the 10 daye of July, in the Tower of London, and the first yeare of the raigne of Quene Jane, Quene of England, Fraunce and Ireland, Defender of the Fayth, and of the church of England and Ireland the supreme head".Wriothesley's Chronicle, II, p. 86 (Internet Archive). On the next day he supervised the setting of a man in the Cheapside pillory, with both his ears nailed to it, which were then cut off as a herald read out his offence of having uttered seditious words during the proclamation. But then on 19 July, the Council seeing which way the wind was blowing, they called the mayor and sheriffs to Westminster, and rode with them up to the Cross in Cheap, where the Garter King of Arms, in his rich coat of arms and with his trumpeter, proclaimed Mary to be Queen. After singing the Te Deum in St Paul's, "the Council departed and commaunded Mr Garret the sheriffe with the Kinge of Armes and the trumpetter to see the proclamation made immedyately in other accustomed places within the City."Wriothesley's Chronicle, II, pp. 88-89 (Internet Archive). On 29 July he rode with Sir Martin Bowes and Sir Henry Hubberthorne to New Hall in Essex to deliver a benevolence from the city to Queen Mary, and on 31 July it was his duty to hold Sir John Yorke under house arrest and to seal up his house.Wriothesley's Chronicle, II, pp. 91-92 (Internet Archive).
Garrard was among the original developers of the Moroccan trade. He was, with John Yorke, Thomas Wroth and others, one of the promoters and investors in the second voyage to the Barbary Coast, which made its expedition in a small fleet led by Thomas Wyndham in May to October 1552.E. Goldsmid (Ed.), Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation collected by Richard Hakluyt, Vol. XI: Africa (E. & G. Goldsmid, Edinburgh 1889), pp. 70-72 (Internet Archive). In 1553 the Merchant Adventurers of London sent out a first voyage to Guinea and the Kingdom of Benin, and in that voyage Wyndham became irrational, and died.Goldsmid (ed.), Principal Navigations, XI, pp. 73-82 (Internet Archive).
At this time Garrard was among the original Fellowship of the Merchant Adventurers to New Lands (the incipient Russia Company), for whom a royal charter was prepared under Edward VI but never sealed. According to Henry Lane, writing 33 years later, Garrard helped to finance the first voyage of the Merchant Adventurers to New Lands,'Letter of M. Henrie Lane to the worshipfull M. William Sanderson', in R. Hakluyt, Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation, 12 Volumes (Edinburgh University Press/James MacLehose and Co., Edinburgh 1903), III, pp. 330-36, at p. 331 (Internet Archive). the expedition of April 1553 promoted by Sebastian Cabot and led by Sir Hugh Willoughby in search of a Northeast Passage to Cathay, which failed in its declared objective, but resulted in Richard Chancellor's first diplomatic contacts with Tsar Ivan IV in Moscow. The succession crisis of 1553 drove Thomas Wroth into exile in Europe and found John Yorke in the Tower of London, but Queen Mary soon grasped the importance of the company to her rule and issued her own charter in February 1554/55.
Marian Among the first of Queen Mary's provisions was a commission of December 1553 to the Lord Mayor and the Bishop of London, together with various aldermen and others including William Garrard, to assist the poor prisoners in the Ludgate gaol by inspecting the cases of the debtors and their creditors and reaching equitable terms.Calendar of Patent Rolls, Philip and Mary, Vol. I: 1553-1554 (HMSO 1937), pp. 73-74 (HathiTrust). In February 1555 he was one of a small group, led by Nicholas Hare, similarly commissioned to resolve the cases of debtors in the King's Bench Prison.Calendar of Patent Rolls, Philip and Mary, Vol. II: 1554-1555 (HMSO 1936), p. 343 (HathiTrust).