Thomas Savage (died 1611)

Thomas Savage (c. 1552–1611) of Rufford, Lancashire, was a member of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths and one of the ten seacoal-meters in London. Together with William Leveson, he was one of two trustees used by the original shareholders of the Globe Theatre in the allocation of their shares in 1599. He was an associate of the actor and editor of the First Folio, John Heminges, and of John Jackson, both of whom were Shakespeare's trustees in the purchase of the Blackfriars Gatehouse. Savage amassed a considerable fortune, at the time of his death owning five houses in London and an inn called the George.

Thomas Savage, born about 1552 in Rufford, Lancashire, was the son of Jeffry or Geoffrey Savage and Jenett or Janet Hesketh, who according to the parish register were married in the church at Croston on 9 August 1551. Savage may have had a younger brother, Peter Savage, and had at least one sister, as well as a female cousin, the widow of Thomas Hesketh of Rufford.

At some time Savage moved to London, where he lived from about 1580 until his death in 1611 in the parish of St Albans Wood Street. At an unknown date he gained admission to the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. The Company records are missing for the date of his admission; however surviving Company records indicate that he took on nine apprentices from the 1580s until his death, and that his son, Richard, was taken on as an apprentice in 1601. According to Hotson, however, he 'no doubt gained most of his income from his office as one of the ten seacoal-meters of London' officials appointed to measure coal brought into the port of London by sea. According to Hotson, he was a 'man of substance', and Honigmann notes that, 'starting with nothing', he 'amassed a very considerable fortune'. At the time of his death Savage owned at least five houses in the City of London, one of which was occupied by the actor and editor of the First Folio, John Heminges (bap. 1566, d.1630), also one of London's seacoal-meters, from whom Savage had purchased it. Another of the houses owned by Savage was in the parish of St Olave Silver Street; Hotson notes that William Shakespeare lodged for a time in Silver Street at the house of the London tire-maker (head-dress-maker)Christopher Mountjoy. After Savage's death, his son, Richard, sold the latter house to John Heminges. Savage also owned an inn called the George in the parish of St Sepulchre, London.