Joan Wilkinson (died 1556)

[2][3] After the death of Roger North, Joan's mother, Christiana Warcop married, as his first wife, Sir Ralph Warren (c.1483–1553), Lord Mayor of London in 1536 and 1544, but had no issue by him.

[4][2][5] Joan North married William Wilkinson, a wealthy London Sheriff and alderman who served on three occasions as Warden of the Mercers' Company.

[8] The suggestion that Joan's religious convictions were formed early is supported by the bequest to her of a ring in the will of the London mercer, Robert Pakington (d. 13 November 1536), who also held radical Protestant beliefs,[2] and by her involvement in the importing of evangelical books in the 1530s.

[3] Joan Wilkinson developed a friendship with him, and with other Protestant reformers including John Bradford, Nicholas Ridley, Hugh Latimer, and Thomas Cranmer.

When the reformers were imprisoned for their beliefs during the early years of the reign of Queen Mary, Joan Wilkinson acted as their advocate and supplied them with necessities.

[2][3] According to Litzenberger, Bradford was of the view that Joan Wilkinson should become a martyr to the Protestant cause, but other reformers, including Archbishop Cranmer advised her to leave England and promote Protestantism from the safety of the continent.

[3][2] After Bishops Ridley and Latimer were executed,[2] Joan became a religious exile in Frankfurt, where she died in December 1556 at the house of her cousin, Cuthbert Warcop, a London mercer, and his wife, Anne.

Subsequently, in March 1565, Lok wrote requesting permission to keep at the Mercers’ Hall a chest containing books and writings of Joan Wilkinson and Cuthbert Warcop, both deceased.