Kendrick, John (1574-1624), merchant and founder of the first Oracle
“The Phoenix of worthy benefactors.”
Born in Reading, the third child of Thomas Kendrick, mercer and mayor of Reading (1580-81), and his wife, Agnes, daughter of a Reading clothier. He probably attended Reading School before going to St John’s Oxford, where he was a contemporary of William Laud. He did not take a degree, instead learning the trade of cloth making in his father’s workshops on Minster Street, later to be the site of the Oracle. The Kendricks’ business kept several hundred people employed. In 1595 he went to London, leaving the Reading business in the hands of his brother, William. William later became mayor of Reading. After gaining the freedom of the Drapers Company in 1603 John developed a profitable trade as a merchant by exporting broadcloth to the Low Countries, much of which was from Reading and Newbury.
Kendrick, who never married, left a massive £32,000 in his will when he died in 1624, most of this going to charity. Reading Corporation was given 7500 pounds to establish a scheme to employ the poor, a huge sum at the time. A workhouse, called, for unknown reasons, the Oracle, was set up in 1628 but was mismanaged, and the scheme collapsed by 1639. The Oracle was built on the land bought from Kendrick's brother William. The Oracle gates are now on display in Reading Museum. Some money was still left after these problems which, on
Archbishop's Laud’s orders, was used to buy land in what later became Kendrick Road. The remainder later helped found Kendrick School in 1850. He made other bequests to the Reading poor and to St Mary’s Church, where he is remembered in his brother William’s monument.
Link to the Dictionary of National Biography (only from a Library terminal).
John Kendrick
Other External Links to more information:
Royal Berkshire History - Biography of Kendrick
Biography
of Kendrick from Reading Museum
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