Sir John York or Yorke (c.1490-1569) was an English merchant and landowner who became Master of the Mint and a Member of Parliament.
Life
Early career
He was born about 1490,the third son of John Yorke, by his wife Katherine Patterdale or Patterdall. His grandfather, Sir Richard Yorke, was a merchant in York, and in 1466 was Mayor of the Staple at Calais. Sir Richard's son Thomas, John's uncle, was also a merchant, and John appears to have joined the family business and spent time as a merchant in Calais and Antwerp.
On 3 September 1535 he arrived at Calais from Antwerp with intelligence of a sermon preached against King Henry VIII, by a friar in Antwerp. The Lord Deputy of Calais, Lord Lisle, passed on the report to Thomas Cromwell, and York received a reward. In 1544 he was appointed assay master to the Mint. In 1547 he was promoted to be Master of the Mint at Southwark, established in the former mansion of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk.
In 1549 he was sheriff of London. In October of this year the quarrel had broken out between the Protector Somerset and John Dudley, Earl of Warwick. Somerset as a defensive move had retired with King Edward VI to Hampton Court, and asked the City of London to furnish him with a thousand men for the royal protection. Warwick, in order to counteract him, moved into the city and stayed at York's house in Walbrook from 6 October 1549. The city came onto Warwick's side. On 8 October the confederate lords dined together at York's house, and on the following day the common council responded to their summons of aid by promising a contingent of soldiers to support them. As a reward for his services Edward VI visited York at his official residence in Southwark on 17 October, and, after dining there, knighted him. Somerset, having been confined in the Tower of London, was brought to York's house at Walbrook on 6 February following, and there released on his recognisances. Here the privy council again sat two days after, probably for security.
York appears to have enjoyed at this time the office of master of the king's woods. Edmund Bonner, bishop of London, was deprived of office on 1 October 1549, and the temporalities of the see passed to the crown. York thereupon began felling the bishop's woods. The privy council on 24 February 1550 issued an injunction against him, further prohibiting him from removing the woods already felled, which suggests suspicions of peculation. He apparently disobeyed, for a fresh prohibition was issued on 17 March. On the following 14 June the council again wrote to him, this time forbidding him to continue felling the king's woods near Deptford, the timber to be preserved for naval purposes. Meanwhile, York was active in his duties at the mint, at a time when changes in the coinage followed each other in rapid succession.
Currency speculation
During some time in the summer of 1550 York was employed in secret missions abroad. The king's debts were mounting, and the Privy Council turned to York to solve the problem. He devised a plan to make a large profit on the Antwerp exchange as well as to bring home quality bullion from abroad for the production of new English coin. In December 1550 York went to Antwerp to speculate with the king's money. Things did not go to plan, and by March 1551 he had suffered losses of at least £4000 of silver bullion, when he and his men were caught red-handed trying to smuggle £4000 in bullion out of Antwerp.
However the scheme did not fail entirely, and as a mint official York brought in large amounts of bullion on which he made a handsome personal profit. In 1551 he was given the task, with Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, of restoring the coinage. Many of the coins issued were stamped with Y, one of York's mint marks. In 1552 York was pardoned 'for all treasons and offences concerning making and issuing of the king's money', on the condition that he settle his mint accounts for over £9500 'due to the king'.