My x13 great grandfather, William Feake, originally from Wighton, Norfolk, was a goldsmith on Lombard Street in London. He died in 1595 and from what I can gather he was born around 1540. A later document pertaining to one of his grandchildren mentions that his son (my x12 great grandfather) was also a goldsmith, and that the practice and property they had was in the family into the following generation. This of course suggests that it was a viable and successful business, and this led me to wondering what the socio-economic standing of my ancestor(s) in this community would have been like, especially since Lombard Street is a mere kilometre from the Tower of London.
Were my 12 and 13-times great grandfathers likely more akin to a higher-end blacksmiths, or were they more likely highly-skilled professionals whose patrons would include royals, nobles, and wealthy merchants?
I’m hoping someone well-versed in the history of London can chime in! I’d love to hear what you can tell me!
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As a goldsmith, William Feake would have worked with gold and silver, mostly creating either “large” work (like cups and dishes, referred to collectively as “plate”) or “small” work (including jewelry). The Goldsmith’s Company also had additional responsibilities, running the London Assay Office which ensured the purity of precious metals by stamping them with a hallmark, and overseeing the “Trial of the Pyx” ensuring the quality of coins produced by the Royal Mint.
Lombard Street was a very typical place for a goldsmith to live in Elizabethan London. It had longstanding associations with wealthy merchants, and especially goldsmiths. Today, the street is known for its association with Banking (the Bank of England is located just two streets away, on Threadneedle Street), and that’s not a coincidence. This is because London’s early banking industry in the late seventeenth century was largely conducted by goldsmiths. This is after your ancestor’s time, but it helps paint a picture, I think—this is a wealthy and powerful group of highly skilled merchants and craftsmen, and lots of money is passing through their hands. While defining social class in this period isn’t simply a matter of wealth, your ancestor would have been quite wealthy.
That tends to be true of goldsmiths generally, but given William’s will, we can confidently say that about him specifically. He records generous bequests to fellow goldsmiths, relatives, and others, but what really stands out is that he grants 200 pounds to each of his sons. The National Archives’ Currency Converter tool estimates that in modern money, this would be worth £34,330. That’s not the whole story, though, since £200 is really much more than that in an Elizabethan social context—for a skilled tradesman, that would be worth about 4000 days of labor, and William is bequeathing that much to each of his three sons. The will also notes several properties in London. His wife’s will, made about 25 years later, includes other properties in Surrey she apparently bought after her husband’s decease, and similarly makes large bequests to her children and grandchildren (including £600 pounds—roughly £78,912 today or 33 years of labor for a skilled tradesman then—to her daughter).
So yes, William was a wealthy man.
William seems to have been fairly prominent in the Goldsmith’s Company as well, and one source claims he served as as Prime Warden (that’s the company’s term for the Master, the annually elected company head) in 1621, though given that he had died by this point this was probably a relative. In 1592, he (or possibly one of his sons) was “licensed to touch the workmen’s plate with the Liberd’s Head” while the Prime Warden was away traveling for a month. That is, he was in charge of stamping the plate produced by other goldsmiths with the Goldsmiths’ Company leopard’s head hallmark to verify their purity for that time. The Goldsmith’s Company today even has a silver cup engraved with his and his wife’s coats of arms. Incidentally, his wife may have had her own connections to the goldsmith’s company. You can find a picture here. The original cup was one of 34 pieces of plate sold off and melted in 1634 to help the Company raise money for a new hall, but it was remade in 1665 along with a few others.