[3] His biographer, John Webb, suggests that he worked as a factor with at least one established merchant before engaging in trade on his own account.

In 1541 Rede was assigned the manor and advowson of Beccles, which had previously been in the hands of the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds.

Their son, also called William, was born in London in 1509 inherited the manor and advowson and married Anne Ferneley.

After William's death in 1552, she married Sir Thomas Gresham, founder of the Royal Exchange in London.

[3] He left two testaments to his lucrative career as a merchant the Tooley Almshouses and the account books preserved in the Suffolk Record Office.