William Reade

  General Notes:

William Reade's wife Anne Ferneley remarried Sir Thomas Gresham in 1544, he was the founder of the Royal Exchange in London.

From The Beccles Society (http://www.becclessociety.org.uk/rich.html):

He was born in Beccles in 1513 He married Ann Fearnly of Creeting in 1538. They had one surviving son William Rede born in 1538. He was a successful merchant based in London, whereas his forebears had been working in East Anglia. While his father was buying the Fen of Beccles for the people of Beccles, he was buying the Manor of Beccles, as its fist secular landlord. He only held it for a couple of years before his premature death.
He died in London at the age of 29 in 1542. He had inherited a considerable amount of his father‘s estate.
Ann his widow married, after his death, one of the wealthiest and most influential people in the country Sir Thomas Gresham. Gresham had been concerned with restoring the value of the pound after its debasement in the reign of Henry VIII, besides being the country’s representative in Rotterdam and building the first Royal Exchange in London. He was important n developing London as a financial centre and he personally owned 24 Manors in the country.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Marriage: to Ann Ferneley, 1538.