Person Page 38

Like his father before him he served as an alderman of London. Henry's official title was Gentleman, Alderman of London, Lord of Manors. Henry had gathered considerable wealth in trade and was lord over many manors, some which were given to him by King Henry VIII for service to the crown. Gentleman Henry Hudson was obviously of the aristocracy, demonstrated by his collection of titles and the ownership of a coat of arms that identified his family. After the suppression of the monasteries by Henry VIII, the crown granted forfeited church lands at Hitchin, County Hertfordshire to Edward Watson and Henry Hudson - Hudson receiving over a dozen ancient manors. (Simply put, when King Henry the 8th broke away from the Roman Catholic Church and declared the Church of England, he divided the land once owned by the Roman Catholic Church and gave it to the English aristocracy.) Henry also purchased the manors of Bertrams, Newington Belhouse, of Skelting, Ackhanger, Terlingham, Folkston and Walton. He was named as Lord of the Manor of Sweeten in Devon, the heart of Dartmoor - which is now a 5 star resort, coming in at number 2 in all of United Kingdom.

Henry was extremely wealthy and had close relations with the crown and the nobility. Henry was a director of the Russian Fur Co. and later he became associated with the Dutch East India Company and was named in Queen Mary's Charter on February 6, 1555, as one of the founders of the Muscovy Company. (Mary was Queen between her father, King Henry the 8th and her half-sister, Queen Elizabeth I)

The inscription on Henry's tomb in St. Dunstan's indicates that he had eight sons and three daughters with a wife named Barbara.

Here lyeth Henry Hudson's corps, Within this Tombe of Stone: His soul, through faith in Christ's death, To God in Heaven is gone. Whiles that he lived an Alderman And skinner was his state: To Verture bare hee all his love, To Vice bare he his hate. He had to wife one Barbara Which made this tombe you see By whom he had of issue store, Eight sonnes and daughters three. Obit 22, Decemb. An. Dom., 1555

Henry I's tombstone and the cemetery where he is buried was sadly bombed and destroyed during WWII. The City of London chose not to reconstruct the church or surrounding area. Instead they turned it into a lovely city garden among the ruins of this medieval church.