Peter Symonds

Peter Symonds was a wealthy English merchant and benefactor, most notable for founding a number of almshouses for charitable endeavors in Southeast England. His most prominent achievement was the foundation of an almshouse in Winchester which later was recommissioned into Peter Symonds College.

Symonds was born in Winchester, the son of the citys bailiff John Symonds and his wife Joan. His family was an influential one, and two of his three brothers became prosperous. John became bailiff of the city in 15651567, and again in 1580 William became a wealthy clothier and mayor of Winchester in 1575, 1585 and 1596. As for Peter, he was sent to London in 1542 or 1543, where he served as an apprentice to William Wilkinson, a London sheriff and alderman, and continued in the service of his widow, Joan, after Wilkinsons death in 1543. The Wilkinson household was deeply Protestant, and Joan, a former silkwoman in Anne Boleyns household, was known to figures such as Bishop John Hooper and the Protestant bishops imprisoned during the reign of the Catholic Queen Mary. Former Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer advised her to flee abroad, which she did after his execution in the 1550s. She died in 1556 among her bequests was13s. 4d. to Symonds in London.

Source: Wikipedia