Robert Geffrye
Sir Robert Geffrey was an English merchant and Lord Mayor of London.
He was born at Landrake, near Saltash, Cornwall and moved to London, where he became an eminent East India merchant, and slave trader, and was knighted in 1673. He was also Master of the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers, appointed a Sheriff of London in 1674 and elected Lord Mayor of London in 1685.
Under his bequest 14 almshouses, mainly for widows of ironmongers, were constructed in 1715 in Shoreditch. The almshouses now house what was formerly known as the Geffrye Museum; it was announced in 2019 that, following renovation, it would be renamed the Museum of the Home, "to keep up with shifts in society — and problems pronouncing its name".
In his will he also left money to the school master and the poor of Landrake and St Erney in Cornwall. Today there is a Sir Robert Geffery's School in the village.
