Sir William Cokayne

Sir William Cokayne was a much admired Lord Mayor of London and close friend and private counsellor on business matters to James I, who made him a knight.

Much of his later fortune came from the plantation of Ulster in 1612, where he was the 1st Governor of the settlers and where he founded the modern city of Londonderry. In 1872, his livery company, the Skinners, still held its original 34,000 acre stake in the county of Derry. He built on the fortune left to him by his father, a skinners merchant, in 1599, and became successively sheriff of London and an alderman of several City wards.

Having enhanced his fortune in the classic manner by taking the stolen lands of others, he built splendid houses and financed several expeditions to establish new imperial colonies. He gave each of his seven daughters a dowry of £10,000 and saw them all married to aristocrats, but still left his son a rent roll of £12,000. He had land in Leicestershire, Northampton and in London.

At the time of his death he was reckoned the largest commoner landowner in the country. His total estate was reckoned to be worth £300,000, about 1.07% of net national income of £28m at the time. In modern money he would be worth £11.8bn.