Family and Education

educ. appr. London c.1563/4.1 m. lic. 31 May 1581, Susan (d.May 1638), da. of William Munsey, ironmonger, of Ironmonger Lane, London, 3s. 2da.2 d. 2 Mar. 1618.3

Offices Held

Freeman, Clothworkers’ Co. 1571, liveryman aft. 1584, renter warden 1597-8, 3rd warden 1600-1, master 1609-10.4

Vestryman of St. Olave’s, Southwark 1597-d., churchwarden 1601-3, auditor churchwardens’ accts. 1604-17; deputy alderman, Bridge Without Ward by 1602-d.; 5 gov. St. Thomas hosp. Southwark, Surr. by 1605-at least 1606;6 St. Olave’s free sch. by 1616.7

Biography

The bearer of a common name in Southwark and elsewhere, this Member can be confidently identified by virtue of his prominence in Southwark, where he was one of the three alderman’s deputies; he also headed the list of ‘burgesses’ who were party to the by-election indenture of 1610.8 Nevertheless he was unusual among Members returned in this period in that he was resident in the less prosperous parish of St. Olave’s Southwark, rather than St. Saviour’s, where he had been among those appointed by the vestry in 1601 to confer with the inhabitants of St. Saviour’s about the borough’s business in Parliament.9

Coxe may have been a clothworker by trade as well as a member of the Company; in 1597 he had been among those appointed by the Company to inspect cloths in and around the metropolis. In March 1604 he was appointed to a committee of the Court of Assistants of the Clothworkers’ Company instructed to assist the yeomanry in lobbying Parliament to pass a bill to prohibit the export of unfinished cloth.10 It may be that Coxe sought election in 1614 to support the Cockayne Project, which aimed to promote the export of dressed cloth and create more employment for clothworkers like Coxe. However, Coxe left no mark on the records of the Addled Parliament.

It is possible that Coxe was acquainted with Shakespeare; both his daughter Mary (before 1611) and his son William* married into the family of one of the playwright’s Warwickshire friends.11 Coxe made his will on 27 Feb. 1618 and died three days later: he was buried in St. Olave’s churchyard. He left his wife a house in the City of London, and his sons Edward and William £300 apiece. He also gave his fellow vestrymen of St. Olave’s Southwark £5, 40s. to the poor of the parish and £5 to the poor of St. Thomas’s Southwark. He named his wife and son Robert executors, but Robert had died before the will was proved in September 1619. His eldest son William was elected for Southwark in 1625.12

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Authors: Alan Davidson / Ben Coates

Notes

• 1. Estimated from the date of his admiss. to the freedom of the Clothworkers’ Co.
• 2. Bp. of London Mar. Lics. 1520-1610 ed. G.J. Armytage (Harl. Soc. xxv), 102; H.F. Waters, Genealogical Gleanings in Eng. 617-18, 803; PROB 11/134, f. 165.
• 3. WARD 7/85/2.
• 4. Clothworkers’ Hall, London, wardens’ accts. 1558-78, quarter warden’s acct. 1570-1; wardens’ accts. 1578-98, quarter warden’s acct. 1584-5; ct. bk. 1581-1605, ff. 173, 198; ct. bk. 1605-23, f. 51v. Information from D.E. Wickham, former archivist of Clothworkers’ Co.
• 5. Southwark Local Studs. Lib. Stolave/1622, ff. 100v, 109v, 110v, 111, 117; Stolave/1623, ff. 3, 26, 28; LMA, P71/OLA/9 (St. Olave’s Southwark par. reg.), 94.
• 6. GL, ms 12806/3, ff. 87v, 96v.
• 7. C78/202/9.
• 8. C219/35/2/73.
• 9. Southwark Local Studs. Lib. Stolave/1622, f. 109v.
• 10. Clothworkers’ Hall, London, ct. bk. 1581-1605, ff. 168v, 232.
• 11. Vis. Warws. (Harl. Soc. xii), 147.
• 12. PROB 11/134, ff. 104v-5; LMA, P71/OLA/9, p. 94.