Sir John Weld (1582 – 1623) was a wealthy landowner and London merchant, the son of a Lord Mayor of London and the father of the branch of the Weld family which became settled at Lulworth Castle in Dorset. He was a charter member and Council assistant of the Newfoundland Company of 1610.
Contents
Early life
John was the son of Sir Humphrey Weld, citizen and Grocer, who derived from Eaton, Cheshire, and his first wife, Ann Wheler. His mother dying, his father remarried to Mary, eldest daughter of Sir Stephen Slaney (Lord Mayor in 1595-96) and relict of Richard Bradgate (died 1589), both citizens and Skinners, who so became his stepmother. John had two surviving sisters, Joan (1580-1618), who in 1597 became the first wife of Sir Robert Brooke of Cockfield Hall, Yoxford, Suffolk, and Anne, who, after the death of her first husband Richard Corbett Esquire (of the Shropshire family), married secondly Sir James Stonehouse c. 1618.
John's father joined the City Aldermanry in 1598, in which year John matriculated a fellow-commoner from Trinity College, Cambridge. Sir Humphrey served as Sheriff of London in 1599-1600, and became Lord Mayor for 1608-09, when he received his knighthood. On 1 May 1610 Sir Humphrey made his will, making the customary division of his estate into three parts, one of which went entirely to his son John because his two sisters had already been advanced. His will particularly mentions both John Weld his son, and John Weld Esquire his nephew (1582-1666, son of Humphrey's brother John Weld (died 1588), citizen and Haberdasher) whom he named jointly among trustees to manage a fund to benefit the children of his brothers and sisters. In January 1607/08 he had already bound his son John into a tripartite indenture to ensure that Dame Mary should retain possession of his great mansion house in St Olave, Old Jewry and other properties in St Mary Colechurch during her widowhood. Sir Humphrey died in 1610.