Richard Fermor

Who is Richard Fermor?

Richard Fermor, was an English wool merchant. His father was also a wool merchant in Witney, Oxfordshire, called Thomas Fermor. By 1505 Richard was a merchant of the staple at Calais.

He married Anne, daughter of Sir William Browne, Lord Mayor of London. They had five sons, inclusing John and Thomas, and five daughters.

In 1509, he was one of the jurors who convicted Richard Empson and he benefited financially from Empson's fall by buying the manor of Easton Neston. From 1520 to 1523, Fermor was the warden of the Grocers' Company. In 1540, Fermor was found guilty of misprision of treason and on 9 May 1540 he was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Marshalsea Prison and attainted. In 1541, he was pardoned.