John Harte (mayor)

Sir John Harte (1575 – January 1604) was a 16th-century English merchant who was one of the principal founders of the English East India Company as well as a Lord Mayor of London. He was a native of Kilburn who became a grocer in the city of London. He was elected one of the Sheriffs of London in 1579, serving with future mayor , and later elected Lord Mayor of London in 1589. He purchased a large mansion, known as Oxford House, that had once belonged to the Earls of Oxford and later to Lord Mayor Ambrose Nicholas. One of his daughters married Sir George Bolles, a later Lord Mayor of London. Harte died in 1604. rdf:langString