Lady Joane Bradbury, Founder Grammar School, Saffron Walden

Joan Leche (c. 1450 – March 1530), benefactress, was the wife successively of Thomas Bodley, and of Thomas Bradbury, Lord Mayor of London in 1509. She founded a chantry in London, and a grammar school in Saffron Walden, Essex. Her great-grandson, Sir John Leveson (1555–1615), was instrumental in putting down the Essex rebellion of 8 February 1601, and her great-grandson William Leveson (d.1621) acted as trustee for the original shareholders of the Globe Theatre.

Another school, that of Saffron Walden in Essex - of some note in educational history, since it had been claimed through an egregious blunder as the first school in England in which Greek was taught, and by another blunder its supposed curriculum was quoted as the earliest known - has been attributed to Henry VIII as founded in 1525 by Dame Johane Bradbury, sister and heir of the Vicar of Walden, John Leche, and by the Trinity Gild, itself founded by Henry VIII in 1514. The dates are correct enough as far as they go. John Leche did in fact by deed of 3 December, 1517, give lands to the Trinity Gild, in order that when they could find £10 a year their second 'preest shall be a profound gramarion to the intent that he may teche gramar within the towne after the fourme of the scole of Wynchestre or of Eton'. A new schoolhouse was built by Leche and his sister. The gild was not, however, founded by him or by Henry VIII. It existed before 1389, when in the return made into Chancery in consequence of the panic about gilds due to the peasants' revolt, it is stated to have been begun by John Rote, William Haveryll and others to find fifty torches to be burnt in honour of the Trinity at the elevation of the host on Sundays and feast days and a priest at the Trinity altar in the parish church. It had then no endowment but was maintained by yearly subscriptions. There were two other gilds, the Corpus Christi Gild, founded in 1377, which had an endowment of £1 a year in land, and All Saints' Gild.

Contents [hide] 1 Family 2 Career 3 Footnotes 4 References 5 External links

Family St Mary's Church, Saffron Waldon, towards the reparations of which Joan Leche contributedJoan Leche, born about 1450, was the daughter of Denis Leche of Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, and his wife Elizabeth, whose surname is unknown. She had three brothers whose names are known, Henry, Thomas and John. John entered the priesthood, and was vicar of Saffron Walden, Essex, from 1489 until he died on 8 November 1521.[1]

CareerAt some time between 1470 and 1475 Joan Leche married Thomas Bodley (d.1492). Bodley's family was from Devonshire, and although the exact connection has not been established, he was of the same family as Sir Thomas Bodley, founder of the Bodleian Library, and bore the same coat of arms, 'Gules, five martlets argent on a chief indented or three crowns azure'.[2] Bodley was by occupation a tailor, and had a brother, Richard (d.1491), a London grocer. Both brothers and their families lived in the parish of St Botolph Billingsgate, and both died within months of each other, leaving young children.[3]

Joan Leche had two sons and two daughters by Thomas Bodley:[4]

James Bodley (d.1514), who became a mercer in Saffron Walden, Essex, and married Joan Strachey, the daughter of Thomas Strachey of Saffron Walden and his wife Joan, by whom he had two sons and a daughter.[5] John Bodley (d. by 1522), who became a Benedictine monk at St Albans.[6] Elizabeth Bodley (d. between 1526 and 1530),[7] who married William Tyrrell of South Ockendon, Essex, by whom she had a son, Humphrey Tyrrell (d.1549), another son who died without issue, and two daughters, Elizabeth and Anne.[8] Denise or Dionyse Bodley (d.1561), the youngest daughter,[9] who married the mercer Nicholas Leveson (d.1539), second son[10] of Richard Leveson (d.1503), esquire, of Prestwood, Staffordshire, by his wife Jane Bradbury, by whom she had eight sons and ten daughters.[11] Denise Bodley and Nicholas Leveson's second son,[12] Thomas Leveson (1532-1576),[13] married Ursula Gresham (1534-1574), daughter of Sir John Gresham (c.1495–1556),[14] Lord Mayor of London.[15] Thomas Leveson and Ursula Gresham were the parents of Sir John Leveson (1555–1615), who was instrumental in putting down the Essex rebellion of 8 February 1601,[16][17] and William Leveson (d.1621), one of two trustees used by William Kempe, Thomas Pope (d.1603), Augustine Phillips (d.1605), John Heminges (bap. 1566, d. 1630) and William Shakespeare (1564-1616) to allocate shareholdings in the Globe Theatre in 1599.[18] Thomas Bodley left an estate of £1000, of which his wife, Joan, was entitled to a third, and his children another third, according to the custom of the City of London.[19] Sutton considers it likely that she continued to run her late husband's business.[20]

About March 1495 she remarried. Her second husband, Thomas Bradbury (c.1439 – 10 January 1510),[21] was in his mid-fifties, and she herself was in her forties. The Bradbury family had come from Ollersett, Derbyshire, to Braughing, Hertfordshire,[22] and from thence to Littlebury, Essex, near Saffron Walden, where Joan Leche's brother was vicar.[23] Bradbury was one of four brothers, and had not been married before. He was a well-off London mercer and Merchant Adventurer,[24] and at the time of the marriage took on her son, James Bodley, as an apprentice.[25]

After the marriage the family lived in the parish of St Stephen Coleman Street,[26] and Bradbury embarked on a public career which he appears to have avoided during his bachelorhood. He was elected to Parliament in 1495, served as warden of the Mercers in 1496, and was one of the two Sheriffs of London in 1498. In 1502 he was Master of the Mercers' Company, and an alderman of the City of London. Barron and Sutton attribute Bradbury's involvement in public office and in the affairs of his Company at this period to his wife's influence[27] and to the likelihood that she was able to 'take full charge of his business in his absence', thus enabling him to devote time to these other pursuits.[28] In 1509 he was elected Lord Mayor, but his term in office was brief. He made his will on 9 January 1510, requesting burial in the chapel of the parish church in St Stephen Coleman Street,[29] and died on the following day.[30] His passing was noted in Arnold's Chronicle.[31] There had been no issue of his marriage,[32] and Thomas Bradbury's heir was his nephew, William Bradbury (d.1550) of Littlebury, son of his eldest brother, Robert Bradbury.[33]

His widow inherited a mansion in Catte Street in London and several manors and annuities, as well as the residue of Bradbury's estate, including his mercery business, which she appears to have sold, although not until after her son James Bodley, a mercer, had died in 1514. In his will James appointed his mother overseer, bequeathing her a pound of saffron in recompense.[34]

Nashe's caricature of Gabriel HarveyAfter Bradbury's death his widow endowed a perpetual chantry for his soul and the soul of her first husband, Thomas Bodley, in the church of St Stephen Coleman Street.[35] This was a major undertaking, involving the purchase of lands whose revenues would fund the chantry in perpetuity. Within a year of Thomas Bradbury's death his widow had purchased the necessary lands, and had agreed to give the Mercers' Company her mansion in Catte Street to use as their Company hall in return for their agreement to act as trustees.[36] As Sutton points out, this arrangement had certain advantages for Lady Bradbury; in 1511 the Mercers held their annual banquet at her mansion at her request, noting that it would be more 'chargeable' than was usually the case because of the 'Company of Gentilwemen that she myndeth to have'.[37] This innovation of having wives present at the Mercers' annual banquet continued for some years, at least until 1525.[38]

In 1513 Lady Bradbury, her brother John Leche, vicar of Saffron Walden, and her son, James Bodley, were involved in obtaining a form of self-government for the town of Saffron Walden through the founding of the Guild of the Holy Trinity,[39] and Lady Bradbury also contributed funds towards reparations of the town's church.[40] After the death of her brother, the vicar, in 1521 Lady Bradbury carried out a project which he had long contemplated, the setting up of a grammar school in the town. Within a year of his death Lady Bradbury had found a schoolmaster, whose salary she paid herself until she had arranged, by 1525, for the endowment of the school.[41] One of the school's students in the early 1560s was the writer Gabriel Harvey; in Have with You to Saffron-Walden (1596), the satirist Thomas Nashe claimed that while there Harvey was known as a 'desperate stabber with penknives'.[42][43]

During her widowhood, Lady Bradbury doubled the inheritance from Thomas Bradbury which had been her jointure, purchasing the properties in Middlesex which endowed her chantry as well as several manors, including Willingale Spain, which partly supported her school in Saffron Walden,[44] and Black Notley.[45] She made her last will on 2 March 1530, and died near the end of that month. She was buried beside her second husband.[46]

The perpetual chantry founded by Lady Bradbury went the way of other church lands during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, but some of the properties still remain with the Mercers' Company, and are known as Lady Bradbury's Estate in Covent Garden.[47][48] The school she founded in Saffron Walden is still in existence; it is currently known as Dame Bradbury's School.[49][50]

[edit] Footnotes1.^ Sutton 1994, pp. 209-11, 225, 229. 2.^ Sutton 1994, p. 210. 3.^ Sutton 1994, p. 210. 4.^ Sutton 1994, pp. 210-11. 5.^ Sutton 1994, pp. 211, 225. 6.^ Sutton 1994, p. 219. 7.^ As White points out, earlier sources erroneously state that Elizabeth Bodley was the daughter of Sir Thomas Bodley, founder of the Bodleian Library; Burke 1838, p. 536; White 1881, pp. 422-3. 8.^ White 1881, pp. 422-3; Sutton 1994, pp. 211, 219. 9.^ Sutton 1994, p. 229. 10.^ Nicholas had a younger brother, James Leveson (d.1547), who was the father of Sir Richard Leveson (d.1560); 'Lilleshall: Manor and other estates', A History of the County of Shropshire: Volume 11: Telford (1985), pp. 153-155 Retrieved 10 April 2013. 11.^ Overall 1875, pp. 287-8; Sutton 2005, p. 584. 12.^ Denise Bodley and Nicholas Leveson's eldest son, John Leveson, was slain in Kett's Rebellion; Sutton 1994, p. 233. 13.^ Sutton 1994, p. 230. 14.^ Sutton 2005, p. 584. 15.^ Sutton 1994, p. 210; Leveson Gower 1883, p. 21. 16.^ Wisker 2004. 17.^ Leveson, Sir John (1556–1615), History of Parliament Retrieved 6 April 2013. 18.^ Hotson 1937, pp. 160-1; Corrigan 2004, pp. 64-71; Honigmann 1998, pp. 87-9. 19.^ Sutton 1994, pp. 210, 212-13. 20.^ Sutton 1994, p. 213. 21.^ Sutton 1994, pp. 214, 217. 22.^ Metcalfe 1886, pp. 129-30. 23.^ Sutton 1994, p. 214. 24.^ Sutton 1994, pp. 213, 216. 25.^ Sutton 1994, p. 214. 26.^ Sutton 1994, p. 214. 27.^ Barron 2004. 28.^ Sutton 1994, p. 216. 29.^ Bradbury 1890, p. 36. 30.^ Sutton 1994, p. 217. 31.^ Douce 1811, p. xliv. 32.^ White 1881, pp. 422-3. 33.^ Sutton 1994, p. 219. 34.^ Sutton 1994, pp. 220-1, 227. 35.^ White 1881, pp. 422-3; Barron 2004; Sutton 1994, pp. 220-1. 36.^ Barron 2004; Sutton 1994, pp. 222-3. 37.^ Sutton 1994, p. 223. 38.^ Sutton 1994, pp. 223-4. 39.^ Brewer 1862, pp. 771-2; Sutton 1994, pp. 226-7. 40.^ White 1881, pp. 422-3;Sutton 1994, p. 227. 41.^ White 1881, pp. 422-3; Sutton 1994, pp. 228-9. 42.^ Smith 1913, p. 9. 43.^ It has been said that the Tudor statesman Sir Thomas Smith was educated at the school, but according to Smith's biographer, Mary Dewar, the claim is unsupported; Smith did, however, cause the school to become a royal foundation in the reign of King Edward VI; Dewar 1964, p. 11; Harwood 1797, p. 4; Strype 1821, pp. 5-6. 44.^ Harwood 1797, p. 4. 45.^ Sutton 1994, pp. 229-31. 46.^ Sutton 1994, pp. 237-8. 47.^ Sutton 1994, p. 238. 48.^ Covent Garden, The Mercers Company Retrieved 7 April 2013. 49.^ Sutton 1994, p. 238. 50.^ Dame Johane Bradbury's School, Saffron Walden Retrieved 8 April 2013.

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[1] A biographical encyclopedia of early modern English women Exemplary lives and Memorable acts, 1500- 1650, p194 by Carole Levin, Anna Riehl Bertolet, Jo Eldridge Carney

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A number of wealthy individuals lived locally and contributed generously to the building but a large part of the money was raised by the efforts of John Leche, who was Vicar of Walden from 1489 to 1521, and his sister Jane (Johane) who married Thomas Bradbury, the Master of the Mercers Company in the City of London and Lord Mayor of London from 1509 until his death early the following year. Her name lives on in Saffron Walden, of course, in the title of Dame Bradbury's School in Ashdon Road These two, together with four other notable citizens of the town, created the Guild of the Holy Trinity whose history and purposes are set out in Appendix 7. it was chiefly through the work of this Guild that the building of the church was carried through to its successful conclusion.

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