William Shipton (abt. 1543)

Born about 1543 in Shiptons Farm, Halliwell, Lancashire, England [uncertain]

Descendants

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Biography

William's wife, Joan Leigh; his occupation as a Goldsmith of Lombard Street, London; and his fathering of Edward is recorded in the Alumni Oxensis notes for Edward when he attended Brasenose College, Oxford.

John Long Shipton Notes:

Old maps of Halliwell show a farm known as Shiptons.

During the Civil War, around 1640, descendants of William Shipton are recorded as supplying horses and accommodation for the military so it is reasonable to suppose that he had inherited it from his father or a close relative. There is no indication that it was purchased from a third person because it was named, "Shiptons" farm, as indicated by his surname.

Lombard Street was a wool trading area established by William 1 shortly after his conquest of Britain. The name Shipton has it's origins in sheep farming; being a combination of the Old English word for sheep, Sceap + ton, indicating an enclosed area where two or three families were engaged in a mutually supportive enterprise. "Sceap + ton" eventually became Shipton. The only other family within the group enterprise is the Marsh family of Halliwell. Maps show Marsh Farm to be conducting mutually beneficial operations with Shiptons.

It would appear that the Shipton family were wool trading in Lombard street with the Lombardy merchants and being paid in gold coin. Thus it was necessary for William to act as the family Goldsmith with secure premises in Lombard Street. I suspect they needed to have their own Goldsmith premises because they were also acting as wool sales agents for other sheep farmers around the Halliwell area.

Mark Rowland says of Lombard Street :-

'For such a small, unprepossessing little street in the heart of the City, its significance in the history of banking and finance is huge; no less than being able to lay claim to the origin of the word “bank” itself (the original 12th century Lombardian settlers plied their trade from trestle-table type market stalls, the Italian word for which is “banco” and it is believed the term “bank” is a corruption of that). They also introduced a currency system based on the Roman librae, solidi, denarii system or, as we came to know it, £.s.d, – so the £ sign was born there – and introduced into the lexicon still commonly used commercial language such as debtor, creditor, cash, usance, bankrupt, journal, diary, ditto and ledger.'

Sources

• Edward Shipton of London, pleb. Brasenose Coll., matric. 19 Feb., 1590-1, aged 21, B.A. 23 Feb., 1592-3, M.A. 5 July, 1599; (s. William, of Lombard Street, goldsmith, by his wife Joan Leigh, of the Hodnet family), rector of Ashley, co. Stafford, 1608, rector of Alderley, Cheshire, 1625, until his death 8 Sept., 1630; father of Samuel 1623. See Earwaker, ii. 632; & Foster's Index Eccl. [24]