# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hewett, William (d.1567)

​HEWETT, Sir WILLIAM (d. 1567), lord mayor of London, son of Edmund Hewett, was born in Wales, a hamlet of Laughton-en-le-Morthen in South Yorkshire. His family had been settled in the adjoining county of Derby from early times. He followed the trade of a clothworker, and after duly serving his apprenticeship was admitted to the freedom of the Clothworkers' Company of London before 1529, in which year he himself took an apprentice as a freeman (Records of the Company). He succeeded well in commerce (Stow estimates his ‘estate’ at 6,000l. per annum), and was joined by many of his relatives and friends from Yorkshire. He employed his brother Thomas and the latter's son Henry to assist him in his business, which he probably carried on at a house called the Three Cranes in Candlewick Street, which he bequeathed to his nephew Henry, with remainder to Thomas Hewett.
Hewett became master of the Clothworkers' Company in 1543. He was elected alderman of Vintry on 16 Sept. 1550, and on refusing to serve was committed to Newgate (City Records, Repertory 12, pt. ii. fol. 261 a). He represented Vintry ward until 9 July 1554, when he removed to Candlewick (ib. 13, pt. i. fol. 67). On 11 Feb. 1556–7, in view of the approaching mayoralty duties, he begged to be discharged ‘of his cloke and room’ (ib. 13, pt. ii. fol. 478 b), but a small committee appointed by the court of aldermen (1 June) prevailed upon him to alter his decision (ib. fol. 512 b). He served the office of sheriff in 1553, and was charged with carrying out the sentences of execution upon Lady Jane Grey and her husband, and on Sir Thomas Wyatt's adherents. In the same year he countersigned, with other principal citizens, the letters patent of Edward VI leaving the crown to Lady Jane Grey (Clode, Early History of the Merchant Taylors' Company, ii. 119). In 1559 he became lord mayor, being the first member of the Clothworkers' Company to attain that dignity. On 8 June 1560 he presided at the trial of one Chamberlain for treason (State Papers, Dom. 1547–1580, p. 160), and on 4 Oct. the queen wrote directing him to affix the marks of a greyhound and portcullis on the testoons in currency, to distinguish the base from the better sort (ib. Addit. 1547–65, p. 503). He was knighted at Greenwich by Elizabeth on 21 Jan. 1559–60. Hewett's name appears on the register of admissions to Gray's Inn on 4 March 1565–6, but this date is clearly wrong, since he is described as ‘after lord mayor of London’ (Foster, Register of Admissions to Gray's Inn, 1889, col. 35). His arms, inscribed with his name, are in Gray's Inn Hall (Dugdale, Origines Jurid. p. 306).
Hewett lived in Philpot Lane. He had also a country house at Highgate, and Chief-justice Sir Roger Cholmeley chose him as one of the six governors of his newly established grammar school there in 1565 (Lysons, Environs of London, iii. 64). He also possessed the manor of Parsloes in Dagenham, Essex (ib. iv. 75), and various other manors and estates in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Not​tinghamshire (Hunter, South Yorkshire, i. 142; Morant, Essex, Beacontree Hundred, pp. 3–4).
Hewett died on 25 Jan. 1566–7, and was buried beside his wife in St. Martin Orgar. His monument perished in the destruction of the church at the great fire of 1666. His will (printed by Mr. Chester Waters in his ‘Chesters of Chicheley,’ i. 228–9) is dated 3 Jan. 1566–7, and was proved in the P. C. C. 11 March [9 Stonarde]. Stow and Pennant state that a portrait of Hewett in his robes as lord mayor was preserved at Kiveton House, Yorkshire, the seat of the Duke of Leeds; it has since been removed to Hornby Castle. It is a half-length on board; his dress is a black gown, furred, with red vest and sleeves, a gold chain, and a bonnet.
Hewett married Alice, third daughter of Nicholas Leveson of Halling in Kent, a rich mercer of London and sheriff in 1534. Machyn speaks of her as ‘the good lady,’ for her pious and charitable works. She died on 8 April 1561, and was buried with great pomp on 17 April at St. Martin Orgar. By this marriage Hewett is said to have had several children, all of whom died in infancy except Anne, who was born in 1543, and was twenty-three years old at her father's death. According to Stow, Anne as a child, while playing at one of the windows of her father's house on London Bridge, was dropped by a careless maid into the river, and was rescued by Edward Osborne [q. v.], her father's apprentice. Osborne certainly married her afterwards, being preferred by Sir William above many other suitors, among them George Talbot, sixth earl of Shrewsbury, who was a member of the Clothworkers' Company (City Records, Repertory 15, fol. 66), and an intimate friend of Hewett. But the date of 1536 which Pennant assigns to the episode (Some Account of London, 1791, p. 322) is wrong, since Hewett had not married his wife, Alice Leveson, on 7 Nov. 1536 (Chester Waters, Genealogical Memoirs of the Chesters of Chicheley, i. 227; and statement corrected by the author); nor is there any proof that Hewett ever lived on London Bridge. Osborne, who became lord mayor, inherited through his wife the greater portion of her father's estates (Inq. post mortem, W. Hewett, 9 Eliz.), and his great-grandson was the well-known Earl of Danby and Duke of Leeds [see Osborne, Sir Thomas].
[Collections for the Life of Hewett, by Samuel Gregory, preserved at Clothworkers' Hall; Machyn's Diary; Thomson's Chronicles of London Bridge; City Records; Orridge's Citizens of London and their Rulers; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. vi. 332, 466–7.]
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