Nicholas Queytrot
Nicholas Queytrot (c.1475-c.1550), also known as Nicholas Greytrot or Nicholas Coitrotte, was a wealthy merchant of Dublin city in the sixteenth century, who served one term as Mayor of Dublin.
He is first heard of in 1504, when the Dublin city fathers employed him to build a flight of stairs leading up to the city assembly rooms. His affairs prospered: in the 1520s he held 30 acres of land at Ballimo, County Dublin, jointly with William More. In 1537 he took a lease for 41 years of a property at Dame's Gate, off present day Dame Street, and in 1543 he was renting three shops in St. Audoen's parish, for which he managed, through a legal technicality, to pay no rent (perhaps an indication of his shrewd business sense).. He was Mayor of Dublin in 1523-4, and city auditor from 1530 to 1537.
Despite his success as a businessman and as a politician, his career was not entirely free from controversy. As Mayor of Dublin he clashed with the highly respected Archbishop of Dublin, Hugh Inge. Archbishop Inge complained to the Privy Council of Ireland that the Dublin city fathers, led by Queytrot, had unlawfully seized the Manor of St. Sepulchre, (which actually consisted of several adjoining manors which between them covered much of present day Dublin city south of the Liffey) : the Archbishop claimed the manoras part of the liberty of the Archdiocese of Dublin. The outcome of this dispute is unclear.
Queytrot was also rather negligent in observing the English Statute of 1406 (7 Henry IV c.17) which prohibited a master from hiring an apprentice whose father's annual income was less than 20 shillings. In 1525 and again in 1541 he was summoned before the Court of Exchequer (Ireland) for breach of the statute; but whatever fines were imposed seems to have been light ones, since he continued to prosper.
His date of death is not recorded but he probably died before 1552, when Walter Tyrrell was renting the house at Dame's Gate which Queytrot had leased in 1537 for a term of 41 years.
Sources
- Gilbert, John T. editor Calendar of Ancient Records of Ireland 19 volumes Joseph Pollard Dublin 1889
- Griffiths, Margaret C. editor Calendar of Inquisitions formerly in the Office of the Chief Remembrancer of the Exchequer Stationery Office Dublin 1991
- O'Brien, Niall "Dublin masters and apprentices in the time of Henry VIII" Medieval News May 17, 2014
- Warburton, John, Whitelaw, James, Walsh, Robert History of the City of Dublin from the earliest accounts to the present day
Cadell and Davies Dublin 1818