William Carr

Born [date unknown] in Ipswich, Suffolk, England [uncertain]

Descendants

Died 10 Jan 1575 in Bristol, England

Problems/Questions Profile manager: I. Speed [send private message]

Biography

William Carr is Notable.

William Carr MP was an alderman of Bristol and sat in the House of Commons as Member of Parliament for Bristol.

He was the son of William Carr of Ipswich, Suffolk, and Margaret Holland, his wife.^[1][2]

He was a merchant in Bristol and is credited with being 'the inventor of white soap'^[3] which he commercialised into a lucrative business. He served as sheriff of Bristol in 1545-6, mayor in 1560-1, and was elected to the House of Commons as Member of Parliament for Bristol in 1559 and again in 1563.^[3]

In 1562 he bought the manors of Congresbury and Wick St Lawrence in Somerset for £3,500, and in 1566 the manors of Woodspring and Locking. He completed the conversion of Woodspring Priory, a former Augustinian monastery, into a residence for his son Edward.

He married twice. His first wife was Joyce, the daughter of Thomas Bylford.^[1] She died in 1571.^[4] His second wife's name was Anne.

An outbreak of the plague in 1574 claimed the lives of more than 1,900 residents of Bristol, including William Carr and three other former mayors.^[5] He died on 10 January 1574/5 and was buried at St Werburgh, Bristol, on 13 January 1574/5.^[6]

His will was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury on 16 May 1575.^[7]

His widow remarried. Her second (or third?) husband was Thomas Colston, alderman of Bristol.^[8]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Visitation of Gloucestershire, 1569, Ex MSS, Phillipps, 1854, Bodleian Library, page 4. Google Books (accessed 11 Jan 2020). The pedigree of 'Care, alias Carr, of Bristol,' records that 'Wm. of Bristol' was the son of 'William Care, of Ipswich, descendant of a 4th. Brother of the Cares of the North. (i.e. Carr.)' and 'Margt. d. of . . . . Holland, sister to Olyver Holland, one of the Gentlemen Sewers to K. Hen. 8.'
2. ↑ The visitation of the county of Gloucester : takes in the year 1623, with pedigrees from the herald's visitations of 1569 and 1582-3, London, 1885, pages 224-5. Internet Archive (accessed 11 Jan 2020).
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} W. R. Williams, The Parliamentary History of the County of Gloucester, Hereford, 1898, p. 110.
4. ↑ Parish register, St Werburgh , Bristol, England (available on Ancestry). “1570 … Joice wife of Mr Wm Carre, buried 22 of January.”
5. ↑ The Bristol Memorialist, Bristol, 1823, p. 116-7.
6. ↑ Parish register, St Werburgh, Bristol, England (available on Ancestry). “1574 … Mr William Carre Alderman, buried 13 of Januarie.”
7. ↑ The National Archives (UK). PROB 11/57/253. Will of William Carr, Merchant of Bristol, Gloucestershire. 16 May 1575.
8. ↑ The National Archives IUK), C 78/81/26. Short title: Colston v Carre. Plaintiffs: Thomas Colston of Bristol, alderman and his wife Anne, widow of William Carre of Bristol, merchant. Defendant: Edward Carre. Subject of decree: Payment of an annuity of £20 out of site of dissolved priory of Woodspring, Somerset, under will of William Carre. Date: 1591 May 11.

• The History of Parliament: CARR, William I (d.1575), of Baldwin Street, Bristol