Thomas Kytson was born in 1485 in Lancashire and after serving his London apprenticeship became a freeman of the Mercers' Company in 1507. He was a member of the Merchant Adventurers Company, dealt extensively in cloth (especially in the quality undyed broadcloths or "whites" obtained predominantly from Wiltshire and Somerset, which were highly prized on the Continent) and became one of the wealthiest London citizens of his time.
The "Boke of Remembraunce" is principally a record of Kytson's purchases of cloth and the shipments of these to the annual "marts" held in the Low Countries between 1529 and his death in 1540, together with a note of the sales of expensive fabrics, spices, sugar, wine, glass and other goods imported on the returning ships. There are also memoranda relating to materials delivered to his wife or friends, or to his own personal dealings in property. His dealings reveal the names of hundreds of suppliers, fellow merchants, customers, and ships' masters.
The "Boke" is edited here with introduction and elucidatory notes.

COLIN J. BRETT's published writings volumes for the Somerset Record Society and papers on regional historical topics.