Sir William Lok

Sir William Lok was a mercer and merchant adventurer, was the second son of Thomas Lok and grandson of John Lok, sheriff of London in 1461, both of whom were also members of the Mercers' Company. Although formally admitted to the company only in 1507, Lok was already supplying clothes of gold and silver to the king in that year. His daughter Rose Hickman later claimed that he became the mercer and agent of Henry VIII ‘beyond the seas’. Lok's strong Lutheran convictions—his first wife, Alice, was one of England's first converts to that doctrine—made him a willing servant of the early architects of the English Reformation. During annual visits to the Low Countries to trade at the marts of Antwerp and Bergen op Zoom, Lok provided intelligence to Cromwell or the king, reporting rumours concerning political and diplomatic developments in Europe. In a prophetic letter of February 1535 he commented upon the growing reaction against the Anabaptists: ‘They be gon owte of every parte of this countre towards that town , and that distrowyd, they schall go to the town of Mynster as they do say here…’ (LP Henry VIII, 8.76). From further afield he passed on rumours that the Turks, fearful of Charles V's eastern ambitions, were attempting to form an alliance with any state who would join with them. In March 1527 Lok received official recognition in the form of an exclusive licence to import silks, jewels, and mercery wares for court revels. While in Dunkirk in December 1533 he tore down a papal bull excommunicating Henry VIII for his adulterous marriage to Anne Boleyn (who was herself supplied with French editions of the gospels, epistles, and Psalms by Lok), an incident which earned Lok a pension of £100 annually, the position of gentleman of the privy chamber, and, upon at least one occasion, the honour of entertaining the king at his home.

Lok's business activities were not confined solely to the importation of merceries; he was also involved in the export of beer, while in 1528 he sold 600 leather harnesses to the royal ordnance. In 1533 he was named in a letter to the king as someone known to have visited the island of Candia (Crete), which suggests that he was active in the wine or currant trade. In 1531 a ship jointly hired by Lok and John Gresham was detained at Lisbon en route for London from Chios, another indication of interests in foreign consumables. In 1535 Lok was rated—possibly for the king's subsidy—at £1000. On 20 October 1545 he was elected alderman of Vitry ward, and on 3 March 1549 created sheriff of London and knighted by Edward VI. On 10 October that year Lok was a member of the procession escorting the duke of Somerset to the Tower.

Lok was married four times: to Alice Spenser (d. 1522); Catherine Cooke (d. 14 Oct 1537); Eleanor Marsh (d. 1546); and Elizabeth Meredith (d. 1551). He fathered nineteen children, of whom twelve, five sons and seven daughters from his first two marriages, survived into adulthood. His children included Rose, Michael Lok and Henry, father of the poet Henry Lok, all children of Catherine Cooke, and from his first marriage daughters Elizabeth (who married Nicholas Bullingham, later bishop of Lincoln and Worcester) and Jane, whose own three daughters all married members of the common council.

Lok died at his home in Cheapside, ‘at the sign of the Padlock’ on 24 August 1550, and was buried in the Mercers' Chapel, St Thomas Acres, with his parents and first and fourth wives, his coat of arms being set into a window there. Like many of his contemporaries, in later life Lok had converted much of his capital into property; in his will he bequeathed numerous houses and shops in Bow, Spitalfields, and Cheapside (including his retailing shop, the Lok), some twelve farms with land in Merton Holts and Tottenham, and at least one inn, the Dogges Head in the Potte, in White Leg Entry, Cheapside.