Gregory Wilsheire d1585

GREGORY WILLSHEIRE. The name Willsheire (variously spelt as Willsheere, Wilshiere, etc) seems to occur first in Gloucester about the middle of the sixteenth century, and although quite a number of them lived here for some time well into the seventeenth century, they had branches in such places as Market Harborough and in Bedfordshire, whilst they may well have originated from Hertfordshire. Most branches of the family were in the clothing trade, as were those in Gloucester. Whilst here almost all of them lived in Barton Street, at that time just outside the City, but in the parish of St. Mary de Lode.

There does not seem to be any evidence that Gregory Willsheire held any civic office, but it is interesting to note that by his will, dated 8 September 1585, he left the sum of one hundred pounds to provide wine at the election of new mayors. The money for the wine was to be raised by lending five tradesmen for five years the sum of twenty pounds 'they paying a Gallon of wine yearly'. This legacy operated for many years but certainly by the end of the last century was not forthcoming 'by failure of repayment'. Willsheire's widow Isabel outlived him by some nine years, but she must have been keeping some control on the family business, for in her will she left 'eightene pence apece to so many of my spinners as it shall seeme mete to mine overseers'. It was either Gregory Willsheire's son or nephew (probably the former), whom, as Alderman Lawrence Willsheere, left one hundred pounds to establish the position of an usher at the Crypt School, 'for the better teachinge, education and bringing up of schollers within the same schoole'. He also lived in Barton Street, and died in 1612.