Biography of Ralph Warren 1486-1553

Henry Machyn's Diary. 6th June 1553. The same day, wyche was the xvj day of July, was Raff Warren (age 67) knyght, mercer and alderman, and twysse [lord mayor of] London, and marchand of the stapull and marchand ven[turer, buried] with standard and v pennons of armes, a cott armur, ... a helmett, mantyll and crest, and sword, and a xij dosen of schochyons; and ther wher my lord mere morner .... berer, the iiij sqyre mornars, and mony aldermen at ys beryng; [there] wher mony mornars in blake, and in blake cotes, and ther wher L. gownes gyffyn unto L. men, of rats coler, of a m ... a yerd; and ther dynyd my lord mayre and mony aldermen, [and] ther wher a gret dener as I have sene.

Note. Funeral of alderman sir Ralph Warren. Son of [his father] Thomas Warren, fuller, son of William Warren of Fering in Essex; sheriff in 1528, mayor in 1537, and again in 1544 (in the place of sir William Bowyer). On a fair marble tomb in the chancel of St. Osythe's, alias St. Benet Sherehog: "Here lyeth buried the right worshipfull sir Ralph Warren knight, alderman and twice lord mayor of London, mercer, merchant of the staple at Callis; with his two wives, dame Christian and dame Joane, which said sir Ralph departed this life the 11. day of July, An. Dom. 1553." He was buried on the 16th. By his second wife [his wife] Joan, daughter and coheir of John Lake, of London, sir Ralph left issue [his son] Richard Warren (age 15) esquire, who married [his future daughter-in-law] Elizabeth (age 10), dau. of sir Roland Lee [Hayward?] knt. alderman and lord mayor, and [his daughter] Joan (age 8), married to sir [his future son-in-law] Henry Williams alias Cromwell (age 18), by whom she had issue Oliver, Robert, Henry, Richard, and Johanna. "Lady Jone Waren, aforesaid, one of the doters and heyrs of John Lake, dysseassed at the howse of sir Henry Williams alias Cromwell knight, her son in lawe, called Hynchyngbroke, in the county of Huntyngton, on Wensday 8. of October, 1572, and the 14. yere of our most gracious soveraigne lady quene Elizabeth, and was beryed in the parish churche of St. Benedicke Sherehogge in London, on tewsday the . . . vember, in the yere aforesaid." Her second husband was sir Thomas White (age 61), another lord mayor, and who is immortalized by his foundation of St. John's college, Oxford. Our diarist records their marriage, in p. 179.

A remarkable instance of the simplifying of arms is afforded by what was done in regard to sir Ralph Warren's monument at St. Osith's. It originally bore this crowded coat: Azure, on a chevron between three lozenges argent, three eagle's heads erased of the first, on a chief checky or and gules a greyhound courant ermine. "These armes were taken downe by his sonne Ric. Warren, and these sett upp in place thereof: Or, a chevron engrailed between three eagle's heads erased sable." Arms of the Lord Mayors, by William Smith, Rouge-dragon.

the iiij sqyre(s) attendant at the same funeral were the four esquires of the Lord Mayor's house, namely, the swordbearer, the common hunt, the common crier, and the water-bailiff.