1. John Vesey was born, probably in about 1462, the son of William Harman, Esquire, of Moor Hall in the manor of Sutton Coldfield in Warwickshire, a minor member of the county gentry, who bore arms of: Argent, on a cross sable a buck's head cabossed couped between four doves of the field.
John Vesey is believed to have adopted the surname "Vesey" in lieu of his patronymic after his tutor of that name.
John Vesey's mother was Joan Squier, daughter and heiress of Henry Squier of Handsworth in Staffordshire.
John Vesey received his education at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he gained a doctorate in canon and civil law.
John Vesey became a friend of Thomas Wolsey who was educated at Magdalen College.
From some unknown date until 1508 John Vesey served as Archdeacon of Barnstaple in North Devon.
John Vesey was appointed a Canon of Exeter Cathedral in Devon.
The township of Sutton Coldfield had fallen on hard times and John Vesey took it on himself to restore the fortunes of the town and its inhabitants.
John Vesey prevailed upon the King to grant a Royal Charter of incorporation for the town in 1528; this entrusted the government of the town to a warden and to 24 local inhabitants known together as the "Warden and Society of the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield".
John Vesey was restored to the See of Exeter when the Roman Catholic Queen Mary came to the throne in 1553.
John Vesey asked for the person responsible to come forward and a young woman from Sutton Coldfield came out of the trees.