John Stow - Early Life

Early Life

The son of Thomas Stow, a tallow-chandler, he was born about 1525 in London, in the parish of St Michael, Cornhill. His father's whole rent for his house and garden was only 6s. 6d. a year, and Stow in his youth fetched milk every morning from a farm belonging to the convent of the Minories. He did not follow his father's trade, but was apprenticed as a merchant tailor, being admitted to the Merchant Taylor's company in 1547 and, by that year, had established a business at a house near the well within Aldgate, between Leadenhall and Fenchurch Street. In the 1570s, he moved to a house in St Andrew's parish, in Lime Street ward, where he lived till his death. In about 1560 he entered upon the work with which his name is associated.