John Gresham - The Gresham Family

The Gresham Family

It has been claimed that Sir John Gresham belonged to a Norman family, his ancestor in the male line being Ralph de Braunche, one of the knights of William the Conqueror who fought at the Battle of Hastings (1066) under William de Warenne and was later granted lands in Norfolk which included the manor of Gresham, a descendant changing his name to "de Gresham". While evidence for this is lacking, it seems very likely that the manor of Gresham is indeed the ancestral home of the Gresham family, and a branch of the family was established at Holt by the fifteenth century. According to Francis Blomefield in An essay towards a topographical history of the county of Norfolk (1808), James Gresham, the grandfather of Sir John Gresham, was "the son of John Gresham, Gent., of Gresham".

A John Gresham was baptized in 1340 at Aylmerton, Norfolk, and died there in 1410, owning property in Aylmerton and an interest in the manor of Holt. His son John Gresham was born in 1390 and died in 1450. In 1414, he was living at Holt. His son, James Gresham, of Holt, Norfolk, Lord of the Manor of East Beckham, lived from 1442 to 1497, and his son John Gresham of Holt married Alice Blyth and was the father of Sir John Gresham.

Gresham had brothers called William and Richard. The latter became Sir Richard Gresham and was also a Lord Mayor of London in 1537; he was the father of the famous Sir Thomas Gresham who founded the Royal Exchange and Gresham College, both in the City of London.

Sir John Gresham married twice: firstly, in 1521, Mary Ipswell, with whom he had twelve children between 1522 and 1538, and secondly, after Mary's death, Catherine Sampson, the widow of Edward Dormer, on 15 July 1553.