Sir Joseph Woolfe

     londonroll.org ( the records of London`s livery companies) show Joseph Woolfe ,son of Samuel Woolfe (deceased), apprenticed to Benjamin Hunt, mercer ,for a period of 8 years beginning March 25th ,1669. By 1677 both Joseph and his brother John had completed their apprenticeships and had embarked on their career as merchants, belonging to a group known as the Muscovy Company. They successfully traded in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant and in 1684 they spent a year in Russia, as in the previous year a good detente had built up between Russia and Britain. A gift of a silver-gilt cup and cover was presented to `the foreign born Osip Ulf ,son of Samoil, from the Tsar of Russia, Peter the Great` for facilitating trade in potash to the benefit of both countries. He later became a director of the Royal African Company.                                                                                               

    Sir Joseph Woolfe was the son-in-law of Sir Gabriel Roberts , married to his daughter Ann (died 1695).The marriage licence issued on February 9th 1687 shows that he was a bachelor aged about 33 ,she a spinster aged about 19, consent given by her father Gabriel Roberts.  Sir Joseph was a Sheriff of the City of London in 1703 and an Alderman of the City of London elected March 6th 1705, Broad Street Ward.  He was a man of considerable wealth ,leaving this in his Will to his only son Joseph, with the direction that in the event of Joseph`s death without leaving issue, it should pass to the next male heir ,who was John Godden Woolfe ,his nephew .This did happen ,Joseph the younger dying shortly after his father.