Master William Smith, the mercer, was called alderman (as distinct from the haberdasher), an office next below Bailiff (Mayor). As early as 1548, he owned the “New House” at 34 High St (which still stood in 1974). About that time he was widowed with a young daughter and he remarried in 1551. He was a member of the Corporation in the royal charter given to Stratford on Avon in 1553. He was also in 1553 was the Bridge Warden, maintaining the bridge over the Avon. Sometime in 1577, he moved to Worcester, leaving his son John in the New House. He is buried in Worcester Cathedral. [681]

Children (not entered separately since so little is known):
William, "the elder" and eldest son, b. ca. 1553 and so named in the wills of his mother and his uncle, the Bishop.
iii. Richard, graduated by Christ Church, Oxford in 1570; Vicar of Warcombe, Isle of Wight. He had a son William. (See Compton Reade's Smith Family, 1902, Bristol, for descendants of William.}
iv. Robert, bur. 11 July 1579, Stratford. Probably ill at the date of his father's will in which he is not named.
v. 2. v. John, the ironmonger, b. ca 1557.
vi. vi Thomas, Bapt. 11 Nov. 1563; father of a Richard Bapt. 1583/4.
vii. vii William, "the younger" called a student in Winchester College in the 1583 will of his uncle, the Bishop of Winchester.
viii. viii A daughter, referred to in the Bretchgirdle will.
ix. ix A daughter, posthumous, b. ca, 6 April 1579.

Stratford registers start in 1558. Children of William born before 1579 include: Elizabeth 24 Oct 1565, Margaret 20 Jan 1559, 15 Sep 1561, 10 Jul 1562, Johanna 22 Apr 1561, Lewis 18 Aug 1558.

Her brother John was Bishop of Winchester.