Sir Thomas White (1492 - 1566) was a principal member of the guild of Merchant Taylors. He served as Sheriff of London in 1547, and was elected Lord Mayor of London in 1553. He was knighted in the same year by Queen Mary I. He was a member of the commission for the trial of Lady Jane Grey.
He was subsequently the founder of St. John's College, Oxford, and used his prosperity as a clothworker to benefit nearly thirty cities and towns throughout England in at least some of which his trade had probably been particularly extensive. One such town was Coventry which, to rescue it from its 'great ruin and decay', he enabled by a gift of £1,400 to buy in 1542 a large amount of former priory property in and near the town. He bought Whitefriars Monastery in Coventry at the dissolution to use as a private residence and he endowed charities locally.
In 1852 a new license was granted for this pub.
In 1898 the pub was leased by Phillips and Marriott for 21 years for £45 per annum plus a £95 bonus from J. Warden of Walsgrave on Sowe. There was a clause allowing the purchase of the pub during the term of the lease for £2,800. In 1919 they did, in fact, buy the pub. It closed in 1968.
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