Sir Stephen Slaney (1524–1608) was an English merchant, four times Master of the Worshipful Company of Skinners,[1] and Alderman, Sheriff and Lord Mayor of London.
[11] He became a substantial figure in the Company of Merchant Adventurers of London, and was among those named in Elizabeth's commission of 1572 to empower the sale, for the recovery of debts, of the ships and merchandize of the subjects of the Catholic King arrested since 1568/69.
[13] Slaney engaged in Mediterranean trade as what was afterwards called a Turkey merchant, and it is said that on one occasion he was captured by the Turks and had to give up his entire fortune (or at least Norton in Chebsey, in Staffordshire) as a ransom.
Some of the Lords of the Council were appointed to have dealings with the Mayor and Aldermen for the putting of the City's forces in order, their organization into bands to be led by men of judgement and experience, and (if necessary) for their augmentation.
Out of the City's general forces, three thousand men were to be chosen to be prepared for defence of the counties of Kent and Sussex from the river Thames, and a fleet of barges was to be kept ready for their conveyance.
As Slaney wrote to the Lord Treasurer, it contained "certain vain and presumptuous matters, bringing in the Queen, speaking with her people dialoguewise in very fond and undecent sort, and prescribing order for the remedying of this dearth".
Although the information came from an official source, the poem was "done in that vain and indiscreet manner" so as to whip up discontent among the poor, and therefore Slaney summoned the printer and publisher, who falsely claimed to have a licence for it.
[21][1][22] Slaney's letter of August 1596 to the Merchant Taylors suggesting they forego their annual feast and apply the money to a charitable purpose received the reply that this had already been done.
They have been engaged in shipping corn and rye from Zeeland on behalf of Thomas Offley (jnr), citizen and leather seller of London, who brings a suit for detention, accusing John and Jasper of collusion against him.
[16] Stephen died on 27 December 1608, aged 84, and was buried in a vault beneath the church of St Swithin, London Stone, Walbrook Ward, where his memorial inscription "on a fair tomb in the east end of the north aisle" was recorded by Anthony Mundy.
[30] His widow Dame Margaret died in 1619 leaving a will of her own (written in 1612), making her sons-in-law Sir Samuel Lennard and Thomas Colepeper, and her "cosens" John and Humphrey Slaney her overseers.
[33] At the same time she also made the larger gift to that company, as trustees, of a fund of £2000 as a perpetual stock for the purchasing and re-uniting to the church of impropriated benefices and parsonages, the work to be audited annually at Christmas by the governors of Christ's Hospital.
[53] John Slany was, according to his will, born at Barrow, Shropshire, in the neighbourhood of Willey, seat of the Weld family, and of Linley, where the Slaneys held the farm estate called "The Hem": this group of villages lies just south of Broseley.