Peter Symonds

Peter Symonds was a wealthy English merchant and benefactor who is credited with founding of almshouse in Winchester which later became Peter Symonds College.

Symonds was born in Winchester into the influential family of city’s bailiff. Around 1542 he was sent to London on apprenticeship to William Wilkinson, a London sheriff and alderman and after his master’s death he remained in the service of his widow receiving £6 13s.4d or around £1,135 in today's money after her death.

During his lifetime, Symonds emerged as successful mercer and by 1583 he was appointed one of the three wardens of the Worshipful Company of Mercers. In 1582 he was among the wealthy citizens of the city earning his fortune in cloth trade that “dominated London’s exports”. The acquired wealth Symonds invested in purchase of a large amount of land in the South East of England.