Stephen Soame
[3][4][5] Their father Thomas died at Beetley in April 1569, and by his inquisition post mortem held in the following August he was found to be seised of lands in Little Bradley and Little Thurlow, in Suffolk, and at Beetley, North Elmham, Bilney, Great Bittering and Gressingham in Norfolk: his eldest son and heir Thomas was (according to the inquisition) then aged twenty-six.
[6] Stephen Soame was originally a member of the Worshipful Company of Girdlers,[7] into which he was apprenticed in the ward of Cheap in the City of London.
This caused great offence to the Girdlers, who had his heraldic arms (gules, a chevron between three mallets or[12]) removed from their hall.
[2] A painted portrait of Soame exists, after the manner of Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, which includes several armorial escutcheons showing impalements.
[13] In 1600 he was among the aldermen led by Mayor Sir Nicholas Mosley who unsuccessfully appealed to the Marquess of Winchester for funds for the repair of the steeple of the church of the Austin Friars.
[1] In 1605 he was named among the principals in the Charter granted by James I to revive the Levant Company,[15] and he was among the prominent merchants involved in Alderman Sir William Cockayne's project.
[22] His City of London home was on the west side of Soper Lane, adjacent to that of Sir Roger Martyn.
He built a free school at Little Thurlow with maintenance for a master and usher, for the benefit of children to be taught English and Latin reading and cipher in preparation for admission to the universities:[24] Should the numbers and ages of the students warranted, he also made provision for part of the church of Little Thurlow to be used as an additional schoolroom, a responsibility which he entrusted to his widow in his will.
In West Suffolk, Little Bradley manor (Overhall) had been sold to John le Hunt (who also held Netherhall) in 1565, allied to Soame through his mother's first marriage.
[29] A vellum map of the manor of Earl Stonham, Suffolk, dated 1587, made by the surveyor Thomas Clarke of Stamford Baron and bearing the arms of Sir Stephen Soame, was exhibited in December 1849.
His title in the manor of Northall alias Cornhall at Bures St Mary (Babergh) is mentioned in 1609, but presumably came earlier in connection with the marriage of his daughter Jane Soame to Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston, in which family it was formerly held.
In east Hertfordshire he held the manor of Berkesdon at Aspenden, and further west that of Brickendonbury, south of Hertford, which he purchased from Edmond Allen for £1000 in 1588.
[35] His lengthy will was proved in January 1619/20: the register copy is decorated in the margins with a foliate surround and an escutcheon of his arms.
The monument was commissioned by Dame Anne and is attributed to the London sculptor Gerard Johnson: she had the aisle which contains it newly built.
The very long gilt-lettered inscription on a black stone is framed within a high round-arched recess (the portal) in a reddish-veined marble surround, its arch resting on consoles as capitals, and the nine stones of the arch itself each carved with the head and wings of an angel (cherubim), with the dove of the Holy Spirit descending centrally.
