Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 63.djvu/360

  (Acts of the Privy Council, 10 May 1552).

York was enriching himself during this period not only by his official income, but in the course of foreign trading. He had acquired land in Yorkshire, and also at Woolwich (, Hist. of Kent, ed. H. H. Drake, 1886, p. 168). In May 1553 he formed one of the Russia company or ‘merchant adventurers to Moscovy,’ incorporated under a charter of Edward VI [see ]. He evidently retained Northumberland's friendship, and he was prominent as a supporter of the claims of Lady Jane Grey. On 23 July 1553, after the collapse of that conspiracy and two days later than the duke, York was put under arrest in his own house by the lord mayor (, Chronicle, ii. 92). On 30 July the privy council issued a warrant for his committal to the Tower. An inventory of his goods was ordered, and they were seized to the queen's use. Sixty cloths which were being exported by him were stopped at Dover (Acts of the Privy Council, 9 Aug. 1553). On 31 July he was sent to the Tower, being confined in the Bell Tower. At first his imprisonment was rigorous, for it was not till 14 Sept. that he was allowed ‘the liberty of the leades’ (Chronicle of Queen Jane, p. 27). On 18 Oct. he was released (ib. p. 32). The inhabitants of Whitby, tenants of the lands of the abbey which he had bought from the Duke of Northumberland, took occasion of his imprisonment to bring an action against him in the court of requests for excessive raising of their rents. These they alleged to have been increased by sums amounting to a rate of 122 per cent., besides exactions in the way of fines upon change of lord. On 24 Oct. the court gave judgment against him. About the same time another action was brought against him in the same court by Avere or Alvered Uvedale, mineral lessee of the recently dissolved abbey of Byland, complaining that York having purchased the manor of Netherdale, Yorkshire, part of the land of the abbey in June 1553, had refused to allow the plaintiff to cut down timber for his mines, and had seized a large quantity of lead ore belonging to him. The issue of this case has not been preserved, but the two plaints throw some light upon York's character.

York's early care on release from prison was to conform to the new order of things, for on 5 Nov. following he attended at St. Stephen's, Walbrook, the sermon of John Feckenham [q. v.], Queen Mary's private chaplain and confessor (, Diary, p. 48). He was at this time an alderman of the city; but his place at the mint had been filled up, and he does not reappear in public life till after the accession of Elizabeth. On 5 Oct. 1560, when a project of recoinage was under consideration, York wrote to Cecil a letter of advice, winding up with a request for Cecil's interest in his favour (State Papers, Dom. Eliz. xiv. 10). Among his recommendations was one for the employment of foreign refiners, as being of superior skill. It would appear from a letter from a Flemish company to Sir Thomas Gresham, written from Antwerp in this year, that York actually went to Flanders on this business. But he was never reinstated in office at the mint. He died some time before the end of 1569, for on 15 Dec. of that year Sir Ralph Sadler, writing to the council from Northallerton, mentions ‘Peter Yorke, son and heir of Sir John Yorke deceased’ (State Papers, Dom. Eliz. xv. 99).

York married Anne or Anna, daughter of Robert Smyth of London. According to the ‘Visitation of Yorkshire’ of 1563–4, and Glover's ‘Visitation of Yorkshire’ in 1584–5, Lady York afterwards married Robert Paget of London; but according to the ‘Visitation of London’ in 1560 she was the widow of one Pagett when she married York. Sir John York left ten sons, two of whom were knights, Sir Edmund and Sir Edward, a vice-admiral in the navy. Rowland York [q. v.] is said to have been another. He also left three daughters. The spelling of the name, both in the signature of his letter to Cecil and in the plea put in by him in his defence against the tenants of Whitby in the court of requests, is York.

[Acts of the Privy Council 1542–56; State Papers, Dom. Hen. VIII, Edw. VI, xv. 36, ib. Eliz. xiv. 10; The Visitation of Yorkshire, 1564, sub Yorke of Gowthwaite, Harl. Soc. 1881, xvi. 357; The Visitation of London, 1568, Harl. Soc. 1869, i. 81; The Visitation of Yorkshire, 1584–5, J. Foster, 1875; F. Drake's Eboracum, 1736; R. Davies's Extracts from the Municipal Records of the City of York, 1843; Strype's Ecclesiastical Memorials, Oxford, 1822, pts. ii. iii.; Burke's History of the Commoners, 1838, vol. iv.; Burgon's Life of Sir Thomas Gresham, 1839, vol. i.; R. Ruding's Annals of the Coinage, 1840, vol. i.; H. Machyn's Diary; Chronicle of Queen Jane; Wriothesley's Chronicle (Camden Soc.); Official Return of Members of Parliament; R. R. Sharpe's London and the Kingdom, 1894, vol. i.; Select Cases from the Court of Requests, ed. I. S. Leadam, Selden Soc. 1898.]  YORK, LAURENCE (1687–1770), Roman catholic prelate, born in London in 1687, joined the Benedictine order and made his