Merchant Taylor, son of William Offley, of Chester; alderman of Portsoken and Aldgate Wards. Was one of the signatories to the document nominating Lady Jane Grey successor to Edward VI, and was within a few weeks (1 Aug.) elected sheriff. Knighted with alderman William Chester, 7 Feb., 1557. His mansion-house was in Lime Street, near the Church of St. Andrew Undershaft. Ob. 29 Aug, 1582.—Machyn, pp. 125, 353; Index to Remembrancia, p. 37, note. Fuller, who erroneously places his death in 1580, describes him as the "Zaccheus of London" not "on account of his low stature, but his great charity in bestowing half of his estate on the poor."—Fuller's "Worthies," p. 191.
Repertory 13, pt. ii, fos. 521b, 522; Letter Book S, fo. 134.
Journal 17, fo. 54b.
Repertory 13, pt. ii, fo. 530.
Repertory 13, pt. ii, fos. 530, 532, 522b, 535; Journal 17, fo. 54.
Machyn, p. 147.
Repertory 13, pt. ii, fo. 571.
Journal 17, fo. 55. See Appendix. They were ordered in the first instance to be forwarded to Dover by the 19th Jan. at the latest, but on the 6th Jan. the Privy Council sent a letter to the mayor to the effect that "albeit he was willed to send the vc men levied in London to Dover, forasmuch as it is sithence considered here that they may with best speede be brought to the place of service by seas, he is willen to sende them with all speede by hoyes to Queenburgh, where order is given for the receavinge and placing of them in the shippes, to be transported with all speede possible."—Harl. MS. 643, fo. 198; Notes to Machyn's Diary, p. 362.
Journal 17, fo. 56.
Wriothesley, ii, 140.