The Colet Family
John Colet
was born in 1466 at the Great Place. His father, Henry, was a wealthy
member of the Mercers Company and twice Lord Mayor of
London (1486 and 1495). Henry died in 1510 at Stepney.
John's
mother, Christian Knyvet of Norfolk, was the mother of another 21
children only one of which grew to adulthood. Stow says
there were twenty children, ten sons and ten daughters.
The children were buried at St Anthony, Budge Row.
John was a
church reformer and vicar of St Dunstans. He was a friend of
Erasmus and Thomas More. In 1505 he was made Dean of St
Pauls (1505-1519) and founded St Paul's School (then in St Paul's
Churchyard and now at Hammersmith)
in 1512 for 153 poor men's children (allusion to the number of fishes
taken by St. Peter). The original school was destroyed in the Fire
of London 1666.
He died of dropsy in 1519 and both he and
his father are buried at St Dunstans.
|