Sir Richard Gresham

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1507-? As a mercer, he was in partnership with his brother, John Gresham, in exporting textiles and importing grain from the continent.
1507-? Richard Gresham supplied King Henry VIII with arras, velvets, and satins. Most of his trade was with the Low Countries, which were the most significant area for English overseas trade for most of the sixteenth century, and he amassed a large fortune
1520 Gresham supplied tapestries to Cardinal Wolsey for his new house of Hampton Court.
1520 In October 1520 he measured eighteen rooms and went to the mart in Flanders to order hangings to the value of 1000 marks or more.
1521 In part payment, in January 1521, Gresham asked Wolsey to obtain a licence for him to profit by international trade, including the right to send a ship to Turkey.
1521 Margaret, Duchess of Savoy, impounded one of his ships carrying wheat from Antwerp. Gresham asked Wolsey to sign a letter in his support in March 1521, and wrote that he had obtained eight cloths-of-gold for hanging in the Cardinal's closet at Hampton
1531 Richard Gresham became Sheriff of London and Middlesex in 1531, and was knighted the same year.
1537 Richard Gresham was elected as Lord Mayor of London in 1537, and when Cardinal Wolsey was on his death bed he called Gresham his "fast-friend". Gresham paid for the Cardinal's funeral.
Sir Thomas Gresham