Juliana Hicks

Juliana or Julian Arthur, d. November 14, 1592, was the daughter of William Arthur, Esq. of Clapham, Somerset. She married Robert Hicks or Hickes (c.1524-1557/8), an ironmonger who also operated a retail mercery at the sign of the White Bear at Soper Lane End in Cheapside near the Great Conduit. On his death, Juliana inherited a life interest in the White Bear as well as in land in London, Bristol, and Gloucestershire. Her second husband was Anthony Penn or Penne (d.1577), to whom she was married c.1558, and it was as Mrs. Penn that she was well known as a London moneylender, although she also carried on the mercery business. She loaned money to such luminaries as Lord Burghley and the earls of Oxford and Kildare and in 1577 the debts owed her totaled £1800. In 1559 she bought a house on St. Peter's Hill where she lived for the remainder of her life. In 1590, she may have rented lodgings in St. Peter's Hill at £25 a quarter to Thomas Churchyard and other writers. She had six sons by Hicks, Sir Michael (October 21, 1543-1612), Francis (January 1545-before 1557), Hilary (January 1546-July 1548), John (March 1548-March 1548), Clement (d.1627), and Sir Baptist (1551-October 18, 1629). The latter was created viscount Campden under the Stuarts. Juliana may be the Mrs. Penne, a gentlewoman, who gave Queen Elizabeth silk knit hose at New Year’s in 1561/2 (or that may have been Sybil Hampden). Dunning letters written by her show, according to her son's biographer, "uneducated but vigorous and distinctive handwriting." For more information see Alan G. R. Smith's Servant of the Cecils: The Life of Sir Michael Hicks and R. G. Lang, “Social Origins and Aspirations of Jacobean London Merchants,” Economic History Review, February 1974.