Joan Leche (c. 1450 – March 1530), benefactress, was the wife successively of Thomas Bodley, and of Thomas Bradbury, Lord Mayor of London in 1509. She founded a chantry in London, and a grammar school in Saffron Walden, Essex. Her great-grandson, Sir John Leveson (1555–1615), was instrumental in putting down the Essex rebellion of 8 February 1601, and her great-grandson William Leveson (d. 1621) acted as trustee for the original shareholders of the Globe Theatre.
Family
Joan Leche, born about 1450, was the daughter of Denis Leche of Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, and his wife Elizabeth, whose surname is unknown. She had three brothers whose names are known, Henry, Thomas and John. John entered the priesthood, and became vicar of Saffron Walden, Essex, from 1489 until his death on 8 November 1521.
First marriage
At some time between 1470 and 1475 Joan Leche married Thomas Bodley, citizen and Merchant Taylor of London. Of Devonshire origins, Thomas and his brother Richard, Grocer, and their families lived in the parish of St Botolph Billingsgate. Richard died in 1491, and Thomas in 1492, both leaving young children.
They were of the same family as Sir Thomas Bodley (founder of the Bodleian Library), and bore the same coat of arms: 'Gules, five martlets argent on a chief indented or three crowns azure'. The precise connection has not been identified.
Children
Joan's children were all of her first marriage, and were as follows: James Bodley (d.1514). He became a mercer in Saffron Walden, and married Joan, daughter of Thomas Strachey of Saffron Walden and his wife Joan. They had two sons and a daughter. John Bodley (d. by 1522). He became a Benedictine monk at St Albans. Elizabeth Bodley (d. between 1526 and 1530). She married William Tyrrell of South Ockendon, Essex. They had two sons, Humphrey Tyrrell (d.1549) and another who died without issue, and two daughters, Elizabeth and Anne. Dionysia Bodley (d.1561), the youngest daughter. She married the citizen and Mercer Nicholas Leveson (d.1539), second son of Richard Leveson Esquire of Prestwood, Staffordshire (d.1503) by his wife Jane Bradbury. (Leveson and his younger brother James (d. 1547) were leading merchants of London and Wolverhampton.) They had eight sons and ten daughters, including at least three sets of twins. Of these, John Leveson, eldest son, was killed in Kett's Rebellion. Thomas Leveson (1532-1576), second son, married Ursula Gresham (1534-1574), daughter of Sir John Gresham (c.1495–1556), Lord Mayor. Of their children, Sir John Leveson (1555–1615) was instrumental in putting down the Essex rebellion of 8 February 1601 William Leveson (d.1621) was one of two trustees used by William Kempe, Thomas Pope, Augustine Phillips, John Heminges and William Shakespeare (1564-1616) to allocate shareholdings in the Globe Theatre in 1599.
Thomas Bodley left an estate of £1000, of which his wife, Joan, was entitled to a third, and his children another third, according to the custom of the City of London. Sutton considers it likely that she continued to run her late husband's business.
Second marriage
About March 1495 Joan Leche remarried. Her second husband, Thomas Bradbury (c.1439 – 10 January 1510), was in his mid-fifties, and she herself was in her forties. The Bradbury family had come from Ollersett, Derbyshire, to Braughing, Hertfordshire, and then moved to Littlebury, Essex, near Saffron Walden, where Joan's brother was vicar. Bradbury was one of four brothers, and had not been married before. He was a well-off London mercer and Merchant Adventurer, and at the time of the marriage took on her son James Bodley as an apprentice.