He was born at Tonbridge on the estate of his ancestors called “Barden,” situated by the river side below Quarry Hill. He was apprenticed in London into the Company of Skinners, and became himself a Skinner and a Merchant of Muscovy. He went with the ships of the Merchants’ Company, which rounded the North Cape to the coast of Russia. He crossed the country in sledges a seven days’ journey to the River Volga, and so to Astrakan on the Caspian Sea. He also went to the West Coast of Africa, to Guinea, at the request of King Edward VI, and brought thence gold dust to be coined into guineas, and many natural curiosities. In the year 1544 he was Sheriff of London, and in the year 1550–1 he was Lord Mayor, in which office he bore himself with loyalty and with valour. On six several occasions he was Master of the Skinners’ Company—in the years 1533, 1538, 1542, 1547, 1551, and 1555. In 1554 he was called upon to make stand for Queen Mary against the rebellion of Sir Thomas Wyatt. He was, moreover, Mayor of the Staple of Calais, and held many public offices of trust, under both Edward and Mary, so that he is rightly accounted one of “the Worthies of England.” He died in 1558, and is buried in the Church of St. Helen’s, in Bishopsgate, in London, where stands a monument to his memory in marble. Five years or more before he died he founded, not by will, but at his own expense during his lifetime, besides his almshouses near to St. Helen’s Church, “a stately Free School” at Tonbridge. This he diligently fostered, and framed for it Statutes under which it was governed for 327 years: Statutes full of kindly wisdom. Further, he endowed it with certain houses in Gracechurch Street, and with the estate of the Sandhills in the parish of St. Pancras, and afterwards by will in 1558 with other gifts, whence the School is to this day supported and increased. For all these good deeds, and because this School hath for its Founder so manly and so worthy a gentleman, you shall thank God. And, secondly, you are to remember the grandson of your Founder, the son of his daughter Alice, Sir Thomas Smythe, a great benefactor to the School and to the poor of Tonbridge. He was born about 1558, and dwelt near Southborough. He was for fifteen years Governor of the East India Company, and took part in establishing the Colony of Virginia. He founded four Exhibitions from this School to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. He died in 1625, and was buried at Sutton-at-Hone, in Kent.