John Kendrick (lord mayor) explained

Sir John Kendrick (or Kendricke; died 1661) was an English merchant and politician who was Lord Mayor of London in 1652.

Family

John Kendrick was the son of Hugh Kendrick, of Chester, and his wife Anne Moulson.[1] His paternal family was kin to the Kendrick baronets as well as the merchant John Kendrick.[2] His maternal grandparents were not Sir Thomas Moulson, the Lord Mayor of London in 1634, and his wife Ann (Radcliffe) Mowlson, whose children died young.[3] (In his will Moulson referred to his sister Kendrick.)[4] John Kendrick seems to have had five sisters.

Kendrick married Katherine Evelyn, a cousin of the noted author John Evelyn, and is mentioned in Evelyn's famous diary as "a fanatic Lord Mayor, who had married a relation of ours."[5]

Career

Kendrick was a member of London's Grocer's Company, one of the city's livery companies. He was elected as Sheriff of London in 1645, serving alongside future mayor Thomas Foote. He was elected Lord Mayor of London in 1651.

Kendrick was noted as a staunch Puritan and Republican.[6] He was one of the aldermen who in 1648 was appointed by Parliament as part of a committee to form a militia to defend the rights and liberties of the city of London.[7] [8] During his mayoral term, he witnessed the Oath of Abjuration undertaken by William Petre, 4th Baron Petre to regain his lost estates by renouncing Catholicism.[9] He also was the primary audience for a sermon by the Puritan divine Nathaniel Holmes after a great eclipse during his mayoralty.[10] He had business dealings with the Irish faith healer Valentine Greatrakes, who purchased an interest in Kendrick's estates in Tipperary.[11]

Death

Kendrick died in 1661. His old associate Valentine Greatrakes acted as a representative for his heirs; several former owners of Kendrick's Irish estates sought to repossess the estates under the Act of Settlement 1662, and Greatrakes assisted Kendrick's heirs in their efforts to keep their inheritance intact.

Notes and References

  1. Sanders, Francis, Irvine, William Ferguson, and Brownbill, J. "The Cheshire Sheaf" pg. 41
  2. Coates, Charles "The History and Antiquities of Reading" pg. 453
  3. Web site: MOULSON, Thomas (c.1568-1638), of St. Christopher-le-Stocks, London. 9 July 2024.
  4. The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Genealogical gleanings in England. 47. 1893. 113.
  5. Evelyn, John "The Diary of John Evelyn, Vol. 1" pg. 278
  6. Book: Hope. Valerie. My Lord Mayor. 1989. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. London. 0-297-79519-8. 88. John Kendrick and John Fowke were fanatical anti-Royalists.
  7. Clode, Charles Mathew "London During the Great Rebellion" pg. 52
  8. https://books.google.com/books?id=qSoOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA98 "The Parliamentary or Constitutional History of England"
  9. Great Britain House of Commons "Journals of the House of Commons, Vol. 7" pg. 146
  10. http://ota.ox.ac.uk/tcp/headers/A86/A86503.html University of Oxford Text Archive
  11. Elmer, Peter "The Miraculous Conformist" pg. 44