Thomas Aldersey

A contemporary description placed him among the "wisest and best merchants in London",[4] and he was particularly known for his efforts to set the Protestant colony of Emden on a secure trade footing.

[1] Aldersey was apprenticed to the London merchant Thomas Bingham in 1541, becoming a liveried member of the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers on 13 July 1548.

[1][8] Cecil's support and his wife's family's influence – he married into the Calthorpes in 1554 – helped Aldersey to gain stature among London traders during Elizabeth I's reign.

He was elected as one of the four London MPs at a by-election on 7 October 1579, following the death of John Marsh; he was re-elected three times, continuing to serve until 1592.

[1] He helped to organise relief efforts after the 1583 fire in Nantwich, serving with Thomas Brassey as London representative of the rebuilding fund, and collecting over £2,700.

[5][9][14][17] Dorothy Williams Whitney has suggested that this gift was associated with the later Puritanism of the Company of Haberdashers, and Bunbury became an early centre for Cheshire nonconformism.

[8] He left £100 to Christ's Hospital, as well as money to alleviate poverty in London, Putney in Surrey, Barking in Essex, and Bunbury and Chester in Cheshire.

Around half of his property was allocated to the ongoing support of his grammar school; the remainder went to his nephew, John Aldersey of Berden, Essex (died 1616).