1499 WILLIAM WIGSTON, the younger,
(120)
(Wool Merchant).
This distinguished townsman and benefactor was the son and heir of AId. John Wigston of the Newarke, Leic., mayor in 1469, and a younger cousin of the preceding mayor. He was born about 1470, admitted a freeman of the borough 1493~4, filled various offices, was M.P. for Leic. 1504, and again mayor in 1510. He was a merchant of the historic Staple of Calais, then an English possession, and it is stated on the monument in the present hospital chapel that he was four times mayor of that town. That he was mayor of Calais in November 1514 is evident, being so described in the Wyggeston Hospital Records of that date (No. 697). In Leic. he was regarded as one of the most successful and influential men of his day, and we are told was an energetic mayor. He married twice, firstly Isabella, sister of AId. Richard Gillot, mayor in 1497 (No. 127), she died issueless about 1508, and secondly Agnes, by birth a Pysford of Coventry, and widow of (--) Trotter, but by her had no children. This lady was in all probability a sister of William Pysford, citizen and grocer of Coventry, the joint founder of Ford's alms, houses in that city. She had a brother John Pysford who became rector of Bagington in 1511, and two daughters, Jane, who married Henry Barnes of London, and Mary Trotter, who was unmarried in 1538. Towards middle life the distinguished alderman, finding himself childless, turned his attention to works of faith and charity. In 1511 he founded and endowed a chantry for two priests in the Newarke College and two years later, 1513, by Letters Patent he founded, and richly endowed, the Hospital bearing his name, for twelve poor infirm men, a foundation since considerably enlarged with its increased revenues.
AId. William Wigston died at Leic. 8 July 1536, aged about 66, and was buried near his parents and by the side of his first wife, Isabella, in the Collegiate church of Our Lady in the Newarke, Leic. Inquisition Post Mortem taken at Sleaford, co. Lincoln, 11 August 36 Henry VIII (1543). It was found that he died seized of lands in Alyngton and Denton, Lincs., and that William Wigston the younger, his nephew, was his next heir, to wit the son of Sir Roger Wigston, Kt., brother of the said deceased. His will, bearing date 26 June 1536, a lengthy and most interesting document, was proved in the P.C.C., London, 19 August the same year. The bequests mentioned in it are numerous and some are interesting, amongst them being a sum of 20s. left by him "to the chapell of our ladye of the Weste brygge in leycestre" for some ornament. In this document the family name is variously spelt as Wyggeston, Wigston and the testator himself signed it as William Wiggeston. Attached to the original draft will, preserved at Somerset House, is a curious and interesting human document, an inventory of the personal belongings of William Wigston, in which is set out in detail the value of his household goods, cattle, stock in trade, books, debts, etc. From this inventory taken and appraised by four well known aldermen of Leic. 26 July 1536, we learn that his personal property, made up of various items, totalled the sum of £3,500. This large amount for those days, included sums of money due to the testator mainly from foreign merchants of no less a sum than £2,430, most of which was beyond recovery, being back debts and marked as "desperate." Obviously the benevolent Wigston had disposed of the bulk of his wealth during his lifetime, amongst relatives and friends, after making due provision for his wife, and his real estate had been settled upon his charitable foundations. He had no ready money and owed but little at the time of his death. His house seems to have been fairly well equipped but beyond furniture, other goods, plate, etc., very little remained for valuation. His funeral we are told cost £90. The inventory which is printed in extenso, with an account of the family, in Professor Hamilton Thompson's Wyggeston Hospital Records, gives us a good insight into the domestic arrangements of a merchant's home four centuries ago.
Agnes Wigston, widow of the benevolent founder, died in 1541 and was buried with her husband in the Collegiate church. Her daughter Jane, by a former husband, married Henry Barnes, citizen of London, and their daughter, Mary Barnes, married AId. Thomas Davenport, mayor of Leic. in 1553 (No. 168).
Arms of the founder, formerly to be seen on the original sculptured stone over the main entrance of the old destroyed hospital :-Per chevron argent, and sable gutttée counterchanged, on the upper part of the first a chevron of the second, charged with three estoiles or. See illustration, page 58. The stone is now missing. Later members of the Warwickshire branch bore arms:Ermine, a chevron per chevron sable and argent, on the first three mullets or. Crest :-A wolf's head erased per pale azure and or, gutttée counterchanged. Plate 2.
1510 WILLIAM WIGSTON, the younger. (2)
(King Henry VIII stayed at Leic. Abbey in August, 1511).
