John Gresham - The Gresham Family - Descendants of Sir John Gresham

Descendants of Sir John Gresham

The twelve children of John and Mary Gresham were William, Mary, Catherine, James, John, Edmund, Anthony, Ellen, Ursula, Cecily, Elizabeth and Richard. Most of them died without issue, but the senior line of Gresham's descendants continued until the early nineteenth century.

Gresham's eldest son, William Gresham (1512–1579), was the father of Sir Thomas Gresham of Titsey (died 1630), whose sons were Sir John Gresham of Titsey (1588–1643) and Sir Edward Gresham of Titsey (1594–1647). The latter's son, Sir Marmaduke Gresham of Limpsfield (1627–1696), was created a baronet in 1660.

The 17th century Greshams sat as Members of Parliament, loyally supported King Charles I throughout the Civil War, and suffered from the victory of Cromwell. In 1643 the house at Titsey was commandeered by the Parliamentarians, but at the time of the Restoration in 1660 the new King Charles II created the head of the family, Marmaduke Gresham, a baronet as a reward for the family's support for the Royalist cause. This title died out with Sir John Gresham, sixth and last Baronet, of Limpsfield (who died in 1801). However, the last Sir John Gresham's daughter and heiress, Katherine Maria Gresham, married William Leveson-Gower, first cousin of the Marquess of Stafford, later the first Duke of Sutherland, and through Katherine Maria the Titsey estate continued to be owned by Sir John Gresham's descendants until the death of Thomas Leveson Gower in 1992. By his will, Leveson Gower set up the Titsey Foundation, a charitable trust with the aim of preserving the estate for the benefit of the nation.

Nevertheless, the first Sir John Gresham's line continues in the descendants of his third son, another John Gresham, who was the ancestor of the Greshams of Fulham, Albury, and Haslemere. He was also the maternal grandfather of the Elizabethan English Ambassador to France, Henry Neville.