Family and Education

b. by 1520.1

Offices Held

Sheriff, Hull 1541-2, mayor 1546-7, 1552-3, alderman in 1553; commr. goods of churches and fraternities 1553.2

Biography

Although he bore a name that was fairly common in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, nothing has come to light about the personal life of John Thacker. Described on the pardon roll of 1553 as a merchant alias alderman of Hull, he may well have been the John Thacker who was among the men from Yorkshire and Lincolnshire summoned in 1546 by Privy Council letters before a commission appointed to settle disputes between German and English merchants. The John Thecher, draper, to whom John Gates owed £3 14s. in 1542 was probably a different man, although another Member for Hull, Thomas Dalton, later had business relations with (Sir) Henry Gates.3

Little has come to light about Thacker’s role in the Commons save that in April 1554 his help was sought for the unsuccessful attempt to repeal the Licensing Act of 1553 (7 Edw. VI, c.5), but he evidently continued his trading ventures while in attendance there. It was on 26 Nov. 1548, two days after the opening of the second session of the Parliament of 1547, that he and two partners shipped wool from London to Calais: one of the partners was John Tredeneck, a Cornishman whose marriage to a Lincolnshire woman reflects his connexion with Thacker’s part of England. The session was still in progress when, on the following 8 Feb., the consortium acknowledged that they owed the King £244 in customs on the shipment: when this remained unpaid the manor of Salford, Warwickshire, belonging to the third partner Anthony Littleton, was seized by the crown, but whether Thacker or Tredeneck was penalized does not appear.4

The last references found to Thacker date from about 1556. Shortly before February of that year he sued Robert Hall of Tuxford, Nottinghamshire, for a debt of £10 18s., and about the same time he bought two messuages in Hull in partnership with Simon, younger brother of Robert Kemsey, who had sat for Hull in 1539. It is not known whether he was the John Thatcher, gentleman, required in July 1557 to take an inquisition post mortem in Yorkshire and other counties on Thomas Lee III.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Alan Davidson

Notes

• 1. Date of birth estimated from first sentence.
• 2. T. Gent, Kingston-upon-Hull (1735), 117-18; L. M. Stanewell, Cal. Anct. Deeds. Kingston-upon-Hull, D. 598.
• 3. Guildhall Studies in London Hist. i. 48-49; CPR, 1553-4, p. 423; LP Hen. VIII, xxi, add.; APC, i. 535.
• 4. CPR, 1553-4, p. 502.
• 5. Ibid. 1555-7, p. 143; 1557-8, p. 112; Yorks. Arch. Soc. rec. ser. ii. 181.