Notes on the aldermen, 1701-1838

The Aldermen of the City of London Temp. Henry III - 1912. Originally published by Corporation of the City of London, London, 1908.

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Alfred P Beaven, 'Notes on the aldermen, 1701-1838', in The Aldermen of the City of London Temp. Henry III - 1912( London, 1908), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/london-aldermen/hen3-1912/pp195-211 [accessed 9 October 2024].

Alfred P Beaven, 'Notes on the aldermen, 1701-1838', in The Aldermen of the City of London Temp. Henry III - 1912( London, 1908), British History Online, accessed October 9, 2024, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/london-aldermen/hen3-1912/pp195-211.

Alfred P Beaven. "Notes on the aldermen, 1701-1838". The Aldermen of the City of London Temp. Henry III - 1912. (London, 1908), , British History Online. Web. 9 October 2024. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/london-aldermen/hen3-1912/pp195-211.

Notes on the aldermen, 1701-1838

1701. Sir Jeffrey Jeffreys. Son of John Jefferies (or Jeffreys), Alderman 1661.
1702. Sir Samuel Garrard. Great grandson of Sir John Garrarde (Lord Mayor 1601-2) and also of Sir Edward Barkham (Lord Mayor 1621-2). He was the Lord Mayor before whom Sacheverell preached the sermon on 'Perils among False Brethren' which led to his impeachment. Sir Samuel was father of Thomas Garrard, Common Serjeant.
1702. Sir Gilbert Heathcote. He was the last Lord Mayor to ride on horseback in the Mayoral procession. Reported to have been the richest commoner in England, and commemorated in Pope's line 'Heathcote himself and such large acred men' (Imitations of Horace, Satire II., ii.). He was ancestor of the Earls of Ancaster, and uncle of Sir William Heathcote, 1st Baronet of Hursley, and of George Heathcote (Lord Mayor 1742).
1703. Sir Richard Hoare. See Wilfords Memorials, p. 777. Goldsmith and banker at the sign of the Golden Bottle in Cheapside, grandfather of Sir Richard Hoare (Lord Mayor 1745-6) and ancestor of the Hoares, Baronets of Stourhead. His daughter married Sir Edward Littleton, 3rd Baronet of Pillston.
1704. Sir Charles Thorold. Son of Charles Thorold (Alderman 1654) and brother of Sir George Thorold (Lord Mayor 1719-20), his successor in the Aldermanry of Cordwainer.
1705. Sir Joseph Woolfe. Brother of Sir John Woolfe (Sheriff 1696-7).
1708. Sir James Bateman. Son of Joas Bateman (Alderman 1687) father of the 1st Viscount Bateman and ancestor of the Barons Bateman.
1709. Sir John Ward. Nephew of Sir Patience Ward (Lord Mayor 1680-1).
1709. Sir George Thorold. Brother of Sir Charles Thorold (Alderman, Sheriff 1705-6).
1710. Sir John Fryer. His widow married the 1st Viscount Palmerston.
1711. Sir Francis Eyles. Brother of Sir John Eyles (Lord Mayor 1688) and father of Sir John Eyles (Lord Mayor 1726-7) and Sir Joseph Eyles (Alderman, Sheriff 1734-5).
1711. Sir John Cass. Founder of the Schools bearing his name at Hackney. One of the chiefs of the High Church Party in the City.
1711. Sir Henry Furnese. Father-in-law of the first Lord Edgeumbe and ancestor of the Earls of Mount Edgcumbe.
1711. Sir Ambrose Crowley. A wealthy iron master, the 'Sir John Anvil' of the Spectator (No. 299). Father of John Crowley (Alderman 1727-8). One of his daughters married Sir Francis Pile, last Baronet, and another Sir John Hinde Cotton, Bart., the well known Tory politician, and another Humphrey Parsons (Lord Mayor 1730-1, 1740-1).
1712. Sir Thomas Scawen. His daughter married Sir John Shelley, 4th Baronet.
1712. Sir Peter Delmé. Father-in-law of the first Lord Ravensworth.
1712. Sir George Merttins. He was a banker at the sign of the Peacock, Cornhill, in partnership with John Mitford.
1713. Sir Robert Child. Son of Sir Francis Child (Lord Mayor 1698-9) whom he succeeded in the Aldermanry of Farringdon Without and in the headship of the bank.
1716. Sir John Eyles. Son of Sir Francis Eyles (Alderman, Sheriff 1710-1), nephew of Sir John Eyles (Lord Mayor 1688) and brother of Sir Joseph Eyles (Alderman, Sheriff 1735-6).
1718. Sir Harcourt Master. Son-in-law of the 4th Earl of Leicester of the Sydney line. His grandmother was daughter of Sir Hugh Hammersley (Lord Mayor 1627-8). He was never Lord Mayor, though he became senior Alderman, being rendered incapable of election by Act of Parliament as one of the South Sea Directors in 1720.
1721. Sir Randolph Knipe. He married a niece of John Letten (Alderman 1687).
1721. Humphrey Parsons. Son of Sir John Parsons (Lord Mayor 1703-4) and son-inlaw of Sir Ambrose Crowley (Alderman, Sheriff 1706-7). His daughter married her cousin, Sir John Hinde Cotton, 4th Baronet, son of the well-known Tory politician of the same name. Parsons was one of the leaders of the City opponents of Walpole. He succeeded his father as head of a large brewery in Aldgate, where the porter was brewed which is celebrated (after the Alderman's death) in Goldsmith's lines—
'Where Calvert's butt and Parsons' black champagne Regale the drabs and bloods of Drury Lane.'
[Description of an Author's Bedchamber.]
1721. Sir Francis Child. Grandson of Sir Francis Child (Lord Mayor 1698-9) and brother of Sir Robert Child (Alderman 1713-21), whom he succeeded both as head of the bank and as Alderman of Farringdon Without.
1722. Richard Levett. Son of Sir Richard Levett (Lord Mayor 1699-1700).
1722. John Barber. The well-known Jacobite printer, and friend of Pope, Swift, Bolingbroke and Shippen, to all of whom he left legacies.
1722. Sir William Billers. His only daughter married the 1st Lord Waltham.
1723. Sir John Williams. There is a very full account of the proceedings at his election as Alderman in Sir J. Baddeley's Aldermen of Cripplegate Ward, pp. 88-93.
1726. Sir John Thompson. Father-in-law of Sir William St. Quintin, 4th Baronet.
1727. John Crowley. Son of Sir Ambrose Crowley (Alderman 1706-7) and brotherin-law of Humphrey Parsons (Lord Mayor 1730-1, 1740-1). His daughter married the 2nd Earl of Ashburnham, and was ancestress of the succeeding Earls.
1728. Sir John Barnard. One of the leading opponents of Walpole in the City and in parliament and regarded as an authority on questions of trade and finance. His second daughter was mother of the 2nd Viscount Palmerston and grandmother of the 3rd Viscount, the Prime Minister. Through his elder daughter he was ancestor of the later Lords Hotham.
1728. Micajah Perry. He laid the foundation of the Mansion House in his Mayoralty (October 25, 1739).
1728. Sir Thomas Lombe. The introducer of silk-throwing machinery into England. His eldest daughter married Sir Robert Clifton, 5th Baronet, and a younger was wife of the 7th Earl and ancestress of the later Earls of Lauderdale.
1728. Sir Henry Hankey. Head of the banking firm in Fenchurch Street (now mergod in the Consolidated Bank) and father of Sir Joseph Hankey, his successor in the Aldermanry of Langbourn.
1729. Sir George Champion. He was passed over for the Mayoralty by the Liverymen in Common Hall in consequence of his support of Walpole in the House of Commons. His daughter married Sir Thomas Fludyer, brother of Sir Samuel Fludyer (Lord Mayor 1761-2) and their daughter married the 18th Lord Dacre.
1732. Sir Robert Godschall. Son-in-law of Sir William Lowen (Lord Mayor 1717-8) and brother-in-law of Sir John Barnard (Lord Mayor 1737-8). He was a leader of the anti-Walpole party in the City and was passed over by the Court of Aldermen, in which there was a Walpolean majority, at five successive elections for the Mayoralty in 1739, 1740 and 1741, when returned at the poll at Common Hall.
1733. Sir Robert Kendal-Cater. His daughter married Sir Francis Knollys, Baronet of Thame.
1735. George Heathcote. Nephew of Sir Gilbert Heathcote (Lord Mayor 1710-1), One of the most prominent leaders of the anti-Walpolean party in the City. (fn. 1)
1736. Sir Robert Willimott. See vol. I., p. 333, for the circumstances under which in his case the custom that required the Lord Mayor to be a member of one of the twelve greater companies was broken.
1737. Sir Joseph Hankey. Eldest son of his predecessor in the Aldermanry of Langbourn, Sir Henry Hankey (Alderman, Sheriff 1732-3), whom he also succeeded as head of the banking house in Fenchurch Street. Although Alderman for 32 years he never served as Sheriff or Lord Mayor. He was rejected at the poll when a candidate for the Shrievalty in 1742, owing to his support of Walpole, and he never came forward again.
1737. Sir Henry Marshall. One of the six Aldermen (Tories and reputed Jacobites) in the picture of 'Benn's Club.'
1739. Sir William Baker. Like Sir Joseph Hankey he was senior Alderman at his death, but did not occupy the chair, or serve as Sheriff.
1740. Sir Richard Hoare. Head of the banking house in Fleet Street: grandson of Sir Richard Hoare (Lord Mayor 1712-3) and grandfather of Sir Richard Colt Hoare, the antiquary.
1740. William Benn. One of the six Aldermen in the picture of 'Benn's Club,' by Hudson, in the ballroom of the Goldsmiths' Company. The other five were Sir Henry Marshall (Lord Mayor 1744-5) John Blachford (Lord Mayor 1750), Robert Alsop (Lord Mayor 1752), Edward Ironside (Lord Mayor 1753) and Sir Thomas Rawlinson (Lord Mayor 1753-4), all Tories with Jacobite sympathies.
1741. Sir Robert Ladbroke. A banker at the sign of the Phœnix in Lombard Street. He was nephew of Sir Henry Marshall (Lord Mayor 1744-5).
1742. Sir Samuel Pennant. He died during his Mayoralty (May 1750) of gaol fever which was caught from the prisoners at the Old Bailey Sessions. Sir Daniel Lambert (Lord Mayor 1741), Sir Thomas Abney (Judge of the Common Pleas) and Charles Clarke (Baron of the Exchequer) were fellow-victims of the same outbreak.
1743. Edward Gibbon. Grandfather of the historian of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
1745. Sir Crisp Gascoyne. The first Lord Mayor to occupy the Mansion House. His great-grand-daughter married the 2nd Marquess of Salisbury and was mother of the 4th Marquess (Prime Minister). The celebrated case of Elizabeth Canning occurred during Gascoyne's Mayoralty, in which he took a prominent part against her, Henry Fielding, the novelist, who was Chairman of the Middlesex Quarter Sessions, being a strong advocate of the truth of her story. The case is discussed fully in Paget's Paradoxes and Puzzles and Andrew Lang's Historical Mysteries. Churchill, in The Ghost (Book I., vv. 461, 462) writes:
'And Betty Canning is at least With Gascoyne's help, a six months' feast.'
1745. Edward Ironside. A banker (firm Ironside and Belchier) at the sign of the Black Lion in Lombard Street. He was the last of five Lord Mayors who died in office within 13 years, the others being Humphrey Parsons (1741), Sir Robert Godschall (1742), Sir Samuel Pennant (1750) and Thomas Winterbottom (1752).
1746. Sir Thomas Rawlinson. Grandson of Daniel Rawlinson, who was first cousin to Sir Thomas Rawlinson (Lord Mayor 1705-6), and father of Sir Walter Rawlinson (Alderman 1773-7). His daughter married Sir George Wombwell, 1st Baronet, and was ancestress of the succeeding Baronets.
1746. James Heywood. In his younger days a contributor to the periodicals of Queen Anne's reign, a letter of his appearing in No. 268 of the Spectator. He also published a small volume of poems. Steele in the Guardian refers to his habit of twisting off the buttons of persons with whom he conversed. (See article on him in Dictionary of National Biography by Mr. C. W. Sutton, who has also printed a much fuller account of him in the Manchester Quarterly for April 1904).
1747. Sir William Smith. Son-in-law of Sir William Withers (Lord Mayor 1707-8).
1748. Sir Stephen Janssen. Third son of Sir Theodore Janssen, Bart., one of the South Sea Directors in 1720; he succeeded his two elder brothers in the Baronetcy.
1749. Slingsby Bethell. Brother-in-law of Sir William Codrington, 1st Baronet, from whose marriage with his sister the later Baronets are descended.
1749. Marshe Dickinson. His daughter was mother of Admiral Sir Alexander Ball, Bart., the friend of Nelson.
1749. Sir Charles Asgill. A banker of the firm of Vere, Asgill and Co., Lombard Street. He was father of General Sir Charles Asgill, Bart.
1750. Sir Richard Glyn. Partner in the firm of Vere, Glyn and Co., Lombard Street, afterwards Vere, Glyn and Hallifax, which in 1864 became Glyn, Mills, Currie & Co. He was father of Sir Richard Carr Glyn (Lord Mayor 1798-9) and grandfather of the 1st Lord Wolverton; his mother was niece of Sir William Lewen (Lord Mayor 1717-8).
1750. Sir Thomas Chitty. He laid the foundation stone of Blackfriars Bridge during his Mayoralty (October 31, 1760) on which was an inscription laudatory of William Pitt the elder, then Secretary of State, the Latinity of which was the subject of much animadversion.
1750. Sir Matthew Blakiston. The acceptance of his resignation of his Aldermanry in 1769 was postponed and at last only granted by a majority of 10 to 9 in the Court of Aldermen, many of whom were apprehensive of the election of a supporter of Wilkes as his successor, which actually resulted.
1751. Sir Samuel Fludyer. His mother's sister was grandmother of Sir Samuel Romilly, the eminent Whig lawyer, who was father of the 1st Lord Romilly, Master of the Rolls.
1752. Sir Peter Warren. A distinguished admiral, who commanded the fleet at the capture of Louisburg, 1745, and was second in command to Anson at the battle off Cape Finisterre, 1747. One of his daughters married the 1st Lord Southampton and another the 4th Earl of Abingdon, from which marriages the succeeding peers are descended.
1752. William Beckford. Brother of Richard Beckford (Alderman 1754-6) and father of the author of Vathek, whose daughter married the 16th Duke of Hamilton. His wife was grand-daughter of the 6th Earl of Abercorn, and his sister married successively the 2nd Earl of Effingham and Field-Marshal Sir George Howard. He was conspicuous by his great wealth, his intimate friendship with Chatham (see vol. I., p. 292) and his strong opposition to the policy of George III., to whom he made the impromptu speech inscribed upon his monument in Guildhall, (the composition of which, however, in the form in which it there appears, was claimed by Horne Tooke.) He died (during his second term of office as Lord Mayor) less than a month afterwards. The events of his Mayoralty (James Townsend and John Sawbridge being Sheriffs) are well summarised in Dr. Sharpe's London and the Kingdom, iii., 90-105. Horace Walpole, who was politically in sympathy with him, estimated him fairly accurately. In a letter to the Earl of Strafford a few days after his death, he writes 'the papers make one sick with talking of that noisy vapouring fool, as they would of Algernon Sidney.' (Letters ed. Cunningham, v., 248.)
1752. John Porter. Son of a French officer who fought in Ireland for James II. and changed his name from La Roche to Porter, and brother to Sir James Porter, Ambassador at Constantinople and Brussels.
1754. Richard Sclater. Great-grandfather of George Sclater-Booth, created Lord Basing (the victim of Lord Randolph Churchill's denunciation of the incompetence of officials with 'double-barrelled' names).
1754. William Bridgen. He married (as her fourth husband) the widow of the 2nd Earl of Bellomont. Mr. Welch (Modern History of the City of London, p. 58) says that from the close of his Mayoralty (1764) till 6 days before his death in 1779, when he came up to vote for Serjeant Adair as Recorder 'in such a state of weakness as to need supporting into the hall,' he had 'attended neither Council nor Wardmote meetings.' He was, however, present and voted for Wilkes as Lord Mayor in the Court of Aldermen in 1772, and for Glynn as Recorder in the same year. In the Guildhall MS. 200, 'Rus habitatum abii' (Terence), is suggested as his motto in reference to his withdrawal from civic life.
1754. Sir William Stephenson. Father-in-law of John Sawbridge (Lord Mayor 1775-6).
1754. Richard Beckford. Brother of William Beckford (Lord Mayor 1762-3, 1769-70).
1754. Sir Francis Gosling. Banker of the firm Gosling, Bennett and Gosling (later Goslings and Sharpe), Fleet Street. He had previously been a bookseller. (Mr. Hilton Price in his Handbook of London Bankers, p. 71, throws unnecessary doubt on this fact.)
1758. Alexander Master. He retired from the Court of Aldermen on account of pecuniary embarrassment, and was granted a pension of £100 June 21, 1768 [Rep. 172, fo. 378).
1761. Thomas Harley. Brother of the 3rd Earl of Oxford of that family, and grand-nephew of the 1st Earl, Queen Anne's Lord Treasurer. Two of his daughters married respectively the 2nd Lord Rodney and the 9th Earl of Kinnoul, from which marriages the later peers are descended. He was a prominent supporter of the Court party in the struggle with Wilkes and the Whig opposition. He was at first in business as a wine merchant in Aldersgate Street, but in 1778 became a banker in the firm of Raymond, Harley, Webber & Co., George Street, Mansion House (afterwards Thomas Harley, Cameron & Sons), which ceased to exist in 1797.
1762. Sir Henry Bankes. His daughter married the 1st Lord Brownlow and was mother of the 1st Earl. He was passed over for the Mayoralty on account of his support of the Court in opposition to Wilkes.
1764. Barlow Trecothick. His widow became the third wife of the 1st Viscount Curzon. His estate of Addington Park was bought after his death for the Archbishops of Canterbury.
1765. Richard Peers. Father of Sir Richard Peers-Symons, Bart.
1765. Brass Crosby. When Lord Mayor he, with Alderman Oliver, was committed to the Tower for the part they took in the struggle with the House of Commons on the question of publishing debates. See Dr. Sharpe's London and the Kingdom, iii., 108-119. He was an attorney and married successively three wealthy widows: hence in Guildhall MS. 200 ('Mottoes for Aldermen 1772') the Juvenalian quotation 'veniunt a dote sagittae' is suggested as appropriate to him.
1766. William Cracraft. His wife married the last Earl of Castlehaven.
1766. Sir Thomas Hallifax. Partner in the banking firm of Vere, Glyn and Hallifax, afterwards Hallifax, Glyn, Mills and Mitton. (The name Hallifax was retained in the firm till 1852.)
1767. Sir James Esdaile. He was a strong supporter of the Court at the period of the American War, which the Whig majority in the Common Council opposed, and when Lord Mayor refused to put to the vote at Common Hall a resolution of thanks to the City members for their opposition to the 'weak and wicked administration' of Lord North. He was the founder in 1781 of the banking firm of Esdaile, Hammet and Esdaile, Birchin Lane (afterwards Lombard Street). Sir John Baddeley, Aldermen of Cripplegate Ward, p. 96, names his 4th son William Esdaile as senior partner, but the style of the firm is given in the Royal Kalendar for 1782 and following years as Esdaile, Sir James and Son, Hammet and Esdaile.
1767. Samuel Plumbe. Brother-in-law of Henry Thrale, the brewer (Dr. Johnson's friend). In the anonymous (and scandalous) City Biography (2nd ed., 1800), he is said to have 'possessed nearly as much avarice as old Elwes.' He was disfranchised in 1773 for refusing, when Prime Warden of the Goldsmiths in 1770, to execute a precept of the Lord Mayor summoning a Common Hall, but the judgment was reversed in 1775. See 'Case of Mr. Alderman Plumbe' [Guildhall Library], and Dr. Sharpe's London and the Kingdom, iii., 138, 139.
1767. Brackley Kennett. He was Lord Mayor at the time of the Gordon Riots, and his display of querulous ineptitude at that crisis is immortalised in Dickens' Barnaby Rudge. He was the last in seniority of four Aldermen, who, as supporters of the Court, were passed over in the elections for the Mayoralty in favour of junior Aldermen who were Whigs in the years 1772 to 1775. He was a wine merchant and, according to City Biography (p. 139), had been a waiter at a tavern.
1769. John Wilkes. His public life is part of the general history of England: it is admirably recorded in the Dictionary of National Biography. His sister is said to have been the prototype of Dickens' Miss Havisham in Great Expectations. The civic history of Wilkes is treated very fully in vol. iii. of Dr. Sharpe's London and the Kingdom. Wilkes, contrary to the usual practice, retained his Aldermanry after election to the Chamberlainship.
1769. James Townsend. One of the most prominent leaders of the Whig party in the City. In general politics he was an adherent of Lord Shelburne. After the split among Wilkes' supporters, he took the anti-Wilkes side together with Horne Tooke and Aldermen Sawbridge and Oliver. There is a good account of him by Mr. W. P. Courtney in Notes and Queries, 11th Series v., pp. 2-4 (January 6, 1912).
1769. John Sawbridge. He was a strong adherent of the Whig opposition and in several successive years brought forward in the House of Commons a motion in favour of annual parliaments. Wraxall in his Memoirs speaks of his 'coarse invectives' against Lord North. He was also famous as a whist player. He was brother to the republican lady historian Mrs. Macaulay, and son-in-law successively of Sir Orlando Bridgeman, Bart. (brother of the first Lord Bradford) and of Sir William Stephenson (Lord Mayor 1764-5).
1770. John Bird. Grandfather of John Bird Sumner, Archbishop of Canterbury, and of Charles Richard Sumner, Bishop of Winchester. His wife's brother was father of William Wilberforce and grandfather of Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Winchester. His sister was mother of the first Lord Carrington and ancestress of the Marquess of Lincolnshire.
1770. Richard Oliver. A West India Merchant and one of the civic Whig leaders in the period of Wilkes and the American war, and one of the conspicuous members of the Society of the Bill of Rights. In the quarrel between Wilkes and some of his former supporters, Oliver took a leading part against him and refused to be associated with him as a candidate for the Shrievalty.
1772. Frederick Bull. A prominent adherent of Wilkes and conspicuous as a supporter of Lord George Gordon's Protestant crusade in 1780 which led to the riots.
1772. Joseph Martin. Partner in the banking firm of Martins, Stone and Blackwell (afterwards Martin & Co.), Lombard Street (at the sign of the Grasshopper).
1772. Sir Watkin Lewes. A Welshman by birth and an attorney in the City. He spent very large sums in electioneering. He was originally one of the prominent Whig politicians in the City, but afterwards steadily supported Pitt.
1772. Sir William Plomer. He is said to have had a pugilistic encounter when Lord Mayor with Alderman Plumbe; see City Biography, p. 24, where another scandalous anecdote is recorded of him.
1773. Sir Walter Rawlinson. Son of Sir Thomas Rawlinson (Lord Mayor 1753-4) and son-in-law of Sir Robert Ladbroke (1747-8), with whom he was partner in the banking firm of Sir Robert Ladbroke, Son, Rawlinson and Porker.
1773. Robert Peckham. Author of 'Considerations on the Advantages of Imports to the Navigation and Commerce of this Country.'
1774. George Hayley. Brother-in-law of John Wilkes.
1774. Nathaniel Newnham. The last member of the Mercers' Company who has condescended to be a member of the Court of Aldermen, in which for more than four centuries (1298-1711) it was only unrepresented for the brief space of three months. He founded in 1785 the banking firm of Newnham, Everett, Drummond, Tibbits and Tanner, Lombard Street (afterwards Everett and Co.).
1775. William Lee. A native of Virginia, and one of six brothers who strongly supported the colonists in the struggle for independence. One of his brothers, Richard Henry Lee, proposed the resolution in Congress for separation from the mother country. He returned to Virginia and died there.
1775. Hugh Smith. He was Physician to the Middlesex Hospital. The (usually scurrilous) City Biography contains a very laudatory account of his virtues, touching lightly on his whimsicalities.
1776. Thomas Wooldridge. He became bankrupt in July, 1777, but retained his seat as Alderman till February, 1783, when he was removed by a vote of the Court. The notice of him in City Biography says that 'impudence made him and caused him to be unmade an Alderman,' and that 'if he had possessed capacity equal to his effrontery, it is probable he would have made a considerable figure.' A grant of £100 was voted to his widow by the Court of Common Council, June 2, 1795.
1777. Evan Pugh. Was partner with William Benn (Lord Mayor 1746-7) in his soap boiling business, having been (according to City Biography) originally a porter. He became bankrupt about the same time as Alderman Hart, and was made with him one of the principal Land Coal Meters.
1780. John Burnell. Described in City Biography as 'very rich and very penurious.' He is said to have been originally a journeyman bricklayer, and to have been advised by Wilkes at a city feast, when he had a difficulty in cutting a pudding with an ordinary implement, to try a trowel.
1781. William Gill. Brother-in-law and partner of Thomas Wright (Lord Mayor 1785-6).
1782. William Pickett. At the Common Hall for the election of Lord Mayor in 1788 he proposed the demolition of Temple Bar, but obtained no support.
1782. John Boydell. The well-known engraver and print-seller, projector of the Shakspeare Gallery of Engravings.
1783. Sir James Sanderson. His second wife (daughter of Thomas Skinner, Lord Mayor 1794-5) after his death married the religious fanatic, William Huntington 'S.S.' Their daughter married Richard Burdon, and was mother of Sir John Burdon-Sanderson, the eminent physician. He was a banker in Southwark and afterwards in Mansion House Street; Sir Charles Price (Lord Mayor 1802-3) was later senior partner in the same house. Before engaging in the banking business Sanderson had been a hop merchant.
1784. Sir Brook Watson. He lost a leg when a boy by the bite of a shark while bathing at Havanna. Being a strong adherent of Pitt in parliament, he was one of the butts for the witticisms of the Rolliad.
'Modest Watson, on his wooden leg: That leg, in which such wondrous art is shown, It almost seems to serve him like his own. Oh! had the monster, who for breakfast ate That luckless limb, his nobler noddle met, The best of workmen, nor the best of wood, Had scarce supplied him with a head so good.'
1784. Richard Atkinson. An army contractor and adherent of Pitt. He also is satirised in the Rolliad, where he is referred to as 'the minor Kinson' to distinguish him from Charles Jenkinson (afterwards 1st Earl of Liverpool).
1785. Thomas Skinner. The leading auctioneer of his time. 'Peter Pindar' satirised him in 'The Royal Sheep' as the
'Emperor of auctioneers, Who, with a hammer and a conscience clear Pompously gets ten thousand pounds a year.'
He was a staunch Whig, and refused to accept the Mayoralty a second time when elected by the Court of Aldermen in 1799 in preference to Harvey Combe, whom the Tory majority had rejected six times in succession.
1785. Sir William Curtis. He was the civic leader of the Tories for many years and a favourite subject of satire for the Whigs. He is popularly credited with the paternity of the phrase 'the three R's." City Biography gives a variant version 'the three C's—Cox, King and Curtis.' Byron makes fun of his appearance in a kilt during George IV.'s visit to Scotland. He was originally a sugar baker at Wapping, and established about 1790 the banking firm of Robarts, Curtis, Were, Hornyold and Berwick, Cornhill (afterwards Lombard Street).
1785. Sir Benjamin Hammett. Son-in-law of Sir James Esdaile (Lord Mayor 1777-8) and partner with him in the banking firm of Esdaile, Hammett and Esdaile. He declined to accept the Mayoralty when elected in 1797 and resigned his Aldermanry the following year. He was said to have been a footman to 'Vulture Hopkins,' the miser and usurer.
1786. William Newman. He was repeatedly passed over for the Mayoralty on account of his Whiggism at the time of the French Revolutionary War.
1786. George Mackenzie Macauley. He failed to reach the Mayoral chair for the same reason as Newman.
1789. Sir John Anderson. The son of a day-labourer in Hampshire according to City Biography, which gives a ludicrous account of his appearance on horseback when George III. went to St. Paul's in state during his Mayoralty. In G. E. C[okayne]'s Complete Baronetage it is stated that he was born at Dantzic, the son of a Scotch merchant who had settled there, and City Biography admits that 'it is generally supposed' that that city was his birthplace.
1790. Harvey Christian Combe. For many years the leader of the civic Whigs; during the French Revolutionary War period he was returned at six successive elections for Lord Mayor and passed over by the Court of Aldermen. He was elected in 1799 after Alderman Skinner, who had been returned with him, had declined to accept office, and at the close of his Mayoralty was returned by the Liverymen for re-election, but not chosen. He established the brewing firm of Shum, Combe and Delafield.
1790. Sir Richard Carr Glyn. Son of Sir Richard Glyn (Lord Mayor 1758-9), father of the first Lord Wolverton, and grandfather of Bishop Carr Glyn of Peterborough. He was head of the banking firm of Glyn, Mills, Hallifax and Co.
1793. Sir William Staines. An interesting account of his early life was printed in the European Magazine for November, 1807, which is epitomised by Sir J. Baddeley in his Aldermen of Cripplegate Ward, pp. 98, 99.
1795. Sir John Eamer. For a hoax of which he was the victim, see Mr. Welch's Modern History of the City of London, p. 148.
1795. William Lushington. In his earlier days a strong Reformer and one of the founders of the Radical Society of Friends of the People: afterwards a staunch supporter of Pitt, and the successful champion of the civic Tories against Harvey Combe in the bye-election of 1795. He was a partner in the banking firm of Boldero, Adey, Lushington and Boldero, Cornhill, which stopped payment in 1812.
1796. Robert Williams. A partner in the banking firm of Williams, Son and Drury, Birchin Lane, which later became Williams, Deacon, Thornton and Co.
1798. Sir Charles Price. In his later years partner in the banking firm of Harrisons, Price, Kay and Chapman (afterwards Sir C. Price, Kay and Coleman), of which Sir James Sanderson (Lord Mayor 1792-3) had formerly been the head.
1798. Sir John Perring. Was partner in the banking firm of Sir John Perring, Shaw, Barber and Co., Cornhill, from 1812 till it stopped payment in 1823.
1798. Thomas Cadell. A native of Bristol, partner and successor of Andrew Miller, the well-known bookseller. He is described in City Biography as 'perhaps the first bookseller in London or the world.' He is said to have contracted asthma, of which he died, through attending service every Sunday at some one of the prisons during his Shrievalty (Mr. Welch's Modern History of the City of London, p. 108).
1798. George Hibbert. One of the leaders of the 'West India interest,' and of the opposition to the abolition of slavery. He was a great collector of books, pictures and plants, the sale of his library lasting 42 days.
1802. Thomas Rowcroft. He was shot by a sentinel of the advanced guard of Bolivar's army whose challenge he disregarded on the road from Callao to Lima in 1824. He was acting as British Consul in Peru at the time of his death.
1803. Joshua Jonathan Smith. He was co-executor with Lady Hamilton of Nelson's Will.
1803. Sir Matthew Bloxam. (fn. 2) Originally a stationer, afterwards head of the banking firm of Bloxam, Wilkinson, Taylor and Bloxam, Gracechurch Street, which failed in 1809. From 1818 till his death he was storekeeper to the Public Stationery Office. He founded the Sheriffs' fund for the relief of debtors.
1804. Sir Claudius Hunter. A solicitor, afterwards called to the Bar: his maternal grandfather was great-nephew of Sir Hans Sloane. His sister was mother of Cardinal Manning.
1804. John Prinsep. He had been an indigo planter, and wrote a Review of the Trade of the East India Company.
1804. Josiah Boydell. Nephew of John Boydell (Lord Mayor 1790-1).
1806. John Peter Hankey. Great-grandson of Sir Henry Hankey (Alderman, Sheriff 1732-3). He was a partner in the banking firm of Hankey, Hall, Hankey and Alers, Fenchurch Street, and died during the progress of the poll for the City at the general election of 1807, being himself one of the candidates. (See vol. I., p. 282.)
1807. Samuel Birch. He was the head of the confectionery establishment in Cornhill, and was also a writer of dramas and of a poem called 'the Abbey of Ambresbury.' He was a strong opponent of the Catholic claims, and published speeches against concession.
1807. Sir Matthew Wood. Father of Lord Chancellor Hatherley and of Western Wood, M.P. for the City. His eldest son, Sir John Page Wood, was father of Field-Marshal Sir Evelyn Wood, and of Mrs. C. S. Parnell (previously Mrs. O'Shea). The Alderman's daughter gave her name to the City Barge the Maria Wood which cost £2,000 and was sold in 1860 for 100 guineas. He was a leader of the advanced Liberal party in the City, and made himself conspicuous by his vehement support of Queen Caroline, which caused him to be the butt of Theodore Hook, who satirised him in John Bull as 'Absolute Wisdom.' He was originally a druggist and afterwards a hop merchant.
1808. Sir William Plomer. Son of Sir William Plomer (Lord Mayor 1781-2). He was a graduate of Brasenose College, Oxford.
1809. Samuel Goodbehere. A leading member of the advanced Whig party in the Common Council for many years.
1809. William Jacob. A well-known writer on agriculture and the corn trade.
1812. Sir William Heygate. A partner in the banking firm of Pares and Heygate, Aldermanbury.
1813. Robert Albion Cox. He obtained a verdict for £800 damages against Edmund Kean the actor, in January, 1825, for crim. con.
1818. Robert Waithman. A Welshman, proprietor of a linen-drapery business in Fleet Street, where the obelisk to his memory now stands, which a critic of the time describes as 'supremely contemptible.' (Mr. Welch's Modern History of the City of London, p. 170.) He was the leader of the extreme Radical party in the City, and a popular orator.
1821. William Venables. His mayoralty was made memorable and somewhat ridiculous by the account of his state visit as Conservator of the Thames to Oxford by water, which was printed by his chaplain, the Rev. Robert Crawford Dillon and reviewed by Theodore Hook in John Bull. (See Dictionary of National Biography, s. v. Dillon, where a good account of Dillon's erratic career is given, and of his narrative of the Lord Mayor's visit to Oxford it is very justly said that it 'is so supremely ridiculous that it is difficult to believe it was written seriously. Such, however, was the fact.')
1821. Matthias Prime Lucas. He was Commodore of the River Fencibles at the time of the anticipated invasion by Napoleon (1804-5). His mayoral procession was exceptionally magnificent.
1822. William Thompson. A wealthy ironmaster, proprietor of the Pen-y Darran and Tredegar iron works. His daughter married the Earl of Bective, afterwards 3rd Marquess of Headfort.
1823. Sir John Key. Lord Mayor during the Reform Bill agitation and re-elected as a reward for his Reforming zeal. He was also one of the Liberal members for the City, elected after the passing of the bill, but his tenure of the seat was brief and his exit inglorious. He was often spoken of during his mayoralty as 'Don Key.'
1823. John Crowder. He was proprietor of the Public Ledger newspaper.
1826. Sir Peter Laurie. A saddler in Oxford Street, having been originally foreman to David Pollock, the King's saddler, founder of the Pollock family which has given so many distinguished members to the law, the army, or the church. He was a very active magistrate, and the object of much banter in the early issues of Punch. He was also supposed to be the original of Alderman Cute in Dickens' The Chimes. A nephew, (fn. 3) John Laurie, was Sheriff 1845-6, and another, Peter Northall Laurie, was one of the last Common Pleaders of the City.
1826. Charles Farebrother. The head of the eminent firm of auctioneers, whose business was afterwards acquired by Sir J. Whittaker Ellis (Lord Mayor 1881-2).
1827. Edward Archer Wilde. Brother of Lord Chancellor Truro and father of Lord Penzance, Judge of the Divorce Court.
1829. William Taylor Copeland. An eminent porcelain manufacturer at Stokeupon-Trent, head of the business formed by Josiah Spode, with whom his father was partner.
1829. Henry Winchester. During his Mayoralty he refused to allow political meetings in Common Hall, and in consequence the customary vote of thanks by the Common Council at the end of his term of office was negatived. Shortly before his death he became insolvent and lost his reason.
1830. Thomas Kelly. He was a well-known publisher. See Passages from the Life of Alderman Kelly, by R. C. Fell, also Curwen's History of Booksellers, pp. 363-371.
1832. William Hughes Hughes. His original patronymic was Hewitt: he changed his name to Hughes in May, 1825. He wrote a preface and notes to an edition (1834) of De Lolme's Constitution of England.
1833. James Harmer. The son of a Spitalfields weaver. He was an attorney and proprietor of the ultra-Radical Weekly Dispatch. His connexion with that paper caused his rejection at the poll for Lord Mayor in 1840. Lord Broughton (Recollections of a Long Life, iv., 327), writes (December 4, 1833), 'Alderman Harmer, the attorney, who sits on the London bench to punish petty larceny, gets £3,000 or £4,000 a year by being proprietor of the Weekly Dispatch, a paper which thrives on the worst of all crimes, the destruction of private and public character.'
1833. Thomas Johnson. Originally an oil merchant in Aldgate; afterwards founded the banking firm of Johnson, Mann and Co., at Romford, the failure of which caused his resignation of the Aldermanry. He died a pensioner of the Charterhouse at the age of 86, in 1849.
1834. Sir John Pirie. The Prince of Wales (afterwards King Edward VII.) was born on the day on which Pirie entered on office as Lord Mayor. He was Deputy-Chairman of the Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company.
1835. Thomas Wood. A solicitor in the City. He was rejected by the Court of Aldermen when returned at the Common Hall at the elections for Lord Mayor in 1842, 1844, 1845 and 1846, and in 1843 was defeated at the poll. The opposition to him was due to the circumstances of his connexion with the Talacre Coal and Iron Company. He became bankrupt in December, 1847, and was afterwards provided for by being made Clerk to the Justices at Guildhall.
1835. Sir David Salomons. He was the first Jew to be elected Alderman, Sheriff or Lord Mayor. He was one of the founders of the London and Westminster Bank.
1835. John Humphery. Father of Sir William Henry Humphery, 1st Baronet (who married a daughter of William Cubitt, Lord Mayor 1860-62), and grandfather of John Humphrey (Alderman 1912-).
1835. James White. He was a merchant in the China trade and after giving up his Aldermanry lived for some years in China. After his return he was a prominent member of the extreme Radical party in the House of Commons.
1838. Sir William Magnay. Son of Christopher Magnay (Lord Mayor 1821-2). The present Royal Exchange was opened during his Mayoralty.
1838. Michael Gibbs. He was Churchwarden of St. Stephen's, Walbrook, and Treasurer of the Ward schools, and was in constant litigation with the parishioners with regard to the administration of the parochial funds in his hands. He was repeatedly attacked by Punch.
1839. John Johnson. His father was the contractor for the Plymouth breakwater.
1841. Thomas Farncomb. One of the few bachelor Lord Mayors.
1842. Sir John Musgrove. He was the head of an eminent firm of auctioneers. Sir John Whittaker Ellis, who succeeded him in his Aldermanry, became his partner. He was Lord Mayor during the year of the Great Exhibition in 1851.
1844. Sir Francis Moon. Head of the print-publishing firm of Moon, Boys and Graves. His eldest son married a daughter of Thomas Sidney (Lord Mayor 1853-4).
1848. Thomas Quested Finnis. Brother of Colonel Finnis, who was commander of the Station at Meerut and was killed by the Sepoys when the Indian Mutiny broke out in May, 1857, during the year of the Alderman's Mayoralty.
1848. William Lawrence. Father of Sir William Lawrence (Lord Mayor 1863-4), Sir James Lawrence (Lord Mayor 1868-9) and Sir Edwin Durning Lawrence (one of the literary champions of the Anti-Shakspeareans in the controversy as to the authorship of Shakspeare's plays). He and his sons were Unitarians in religion.
1849. Sir Robert Walter Carden. Grandson of John Walter, the founder of The Times. When he entered on his Mayoralty the customary water procession was discontinued.
1851. David Williams Wire. A solicitor of the firm of Wire and Child. He was seized with paralysis very shortly after entering on his year of office as Lord Mayor.
1851. William Cubitt. An eminent builder and contractor, younger brother of Thomas Cubitt, the builder of South Belgravia. He was re-elected to the Mayoralty at the close of his first year of office, partly as a consolation for his defeat in the contest for the parliamentary representation of the City on the retirement of Lord John Russell. He started the Mansion House Lancashire Relief Fund while Lord Mayor. His son-in-law, Sir William Humphery (son of John Humphery, Lord Mayor 1842-3) succeeded him as M.P. for Andover. His re-election to the Presidency of St. Bartholomew's Hospital after his resignation of his Aldermanry gave rise to litigation, which was not judicially decided till after his death, the office having hitherto been regarded as tenable only by an Alderman of London,
1854. Richard Hartley Kennedy. Was for many years a physician and surgeon in the Bombay army and wrote Notes on the Epidemic of Cholera at Calcutta, 1827, and a Narrative of the Campaign of the Army of the Indus, also a tragedy and some poetical fragments. On his return to England he became Deputy Governor of the Royal British Bank, on the failure of which he, with other directors, was convicted of fraud and was sentenced to nine month's imprisonment.
1855. Sir William Lawrence. Son of William Lawrence (Alderman, Sheriff 1849-50). He was the last Liberal representative of the City in parliament up to the present time. He was one of the bachelor Lord Mayors, as also was his brother, Sir James Lawrence, but, unlike him, he remained unmarried till his death.
1856. Warren Stormes Hale. Son-in-law of Richard Lea (Alderman 1803-8). He was the originator of the City of London School and Chairman of its Committee from its opening till his death.
1857. Sir Benjamin Phillips. Father of Sir George Faudel-Phillips (Lord Mayor 1896-7), and father-in-law of Baron Henry de Worms, created Lord Pirbright.
1857. Sir Thomas Gabriel. Son-in-law of Charles Pearson (City Solicitor) and father-in-law of His Honour Judge Lumley Smith, Judge of the City of London Court.
1858. William Ferneley Allen. His procession on Lord Mayor's Day was devoid of all attraction, even the State Coach not being used. This absence of the usual pageantry gave great dissatisfaction. He was the author of a work on the Corporation of London: its rights and privileges.
1858. John Joseph Mechi. Was in business as a cutler, and invented a well-known razor strop; also devoted much attention to agricultural experiments at his model farm at Tiptree Heath. Author of How to Farm Profitably.
1860. Sir James Clarke Lawrence. Son of William Lawrence (Alderman, Sheriff 1849-50), and brother of Sir William Lawrence (Lord Mayor 1863-4). The Holborn Viaduct was opened during his Mayoralty. At the close of his term of office he was nominated for re-election but withdrew before the close of the poll. Like his brother, he was a bachelor when Chief Magistrate of the City, but later, when almost a septuagenarian, he married.
1863. Sir Sydney Waterlow. Gave the land for the construction of Waterlow Park at Highgate.
1863. Sir Andrew Lusk. He was a prominent advocate of retrenchment in the House of Commons and a rigid critic of the smallest details of the estimates. He was a Scotchman by birth.
1864. David Henry Stone. A solicitor and the last Principal of Clifford's Inn. He was nephew of Thomas Farncomb (Lord Mayor 1849-50).
1866. Sir Richmond Cotton. The first Conservative Alderman who sat for the City in Parliament since 1830 (a period of 44 years). He, like Samuel Birch (Lord Mayor 1814-5), was a votary of the Muses and published a volume of Verse entitled Imagination and other Poems.
1867. Sir Joseph Causton. Father of Lord Southwark.
1871. Sir Thomas White. During his Mayoralty his daughter, who was acting as Lady Mayoress, was married in St. Paul's Cathedral, this being the first marriage there celebrated for 120 years.
1871. Sir Francis Truscott. Father of his successor in the Aldermanry of Dowgate, Sir George Truscott (Lord Mayor 1908-9).
1872. Sir William M'Arthur. Amassed a large fortune in the Australian export trade: was the leader of the movement for the annexation of Fiji and one of the founders of the London Chamber of Commerce.
1872. Sir John Whittaker Ellis. During his Mayoralty Epping Forest was formally opened to the public by Queen Victoria. He was the first Mayor of Richmond. He was partner with his predecessor in the Aldermanry, Sir John Musgrove (Lord Mayor 1850-1), as an auctioneer and estate agent, and was afterwards head of the firm of Farebrother, Ellis and Co., having acquired the business formerly carried on by Charles Farebrother (Lord Mayor 1833-4).
1874. Sir Henry Knight. He is now (October, 1912) the senior Alderman, having represented Cripplegate in the Court of Aldermen for over 38 years. It is worthy of note that Cripplegate has had only three Aldermen in 105 years, Sir Matthew Wood having served for 36 and Mr. Challis for nearly 31 years.
1875. Simeon Charles Hadley. He was passed over by the Court of Aldermen in his turn for the Mayoralty, but as in the case of Sir Henry Muggeridge (1861), 'subsequent events fully justified the course taken' (Mr. Welch's Modern History of the City of London, p. 362).
1875. George Swan Nottage. The only Lord Mayor who died in his year of office since William Beckford, 105 years previously.
1876. Sir John Staples. Brother-in-law of Sir John Whittaker Ellis (Lord Mayor 1881-2). He was the author of Notes on the Church of St. Botolph, Aldersgate.
1877. Sir John Bennett. A native of Greenwich and brother of William Cox Bennett the song-writer, who claimed the merit of introducing Gladstone's name to the electors of that borough which he represented after his rejection by South Lancashire. Sir John was the proprietor of a much-advertised retail watch business in Cheapside, and was the last person elected an Alderman whom the Court rejected three times successively.
1878. Sir Robert Fowler. Partner in the banking firm of Dimsdale, Fowler, Barnard and Dimsdales, Cornhill. He was of Quaker parentage but joined the Established Church and exchanged the Liberal politics of his family for strong Toryism. He was a good classical scholar and quoted from the Iliad of Homer in the original Greek at his Mayoral banquet in 1883. His only son and successor in the Baronetcy was killed in the Boer war in 1902: one of his daughters married Sir Alfred Pease, Bart.
1880. Sir Reginald Hanson. Educated at Rugby and Trinity College, Cambridge. Father of Sir Francis Hanson, who succeeded him in the Aldermanry of Billingsgate.
1882. Sir Polydore De Keyser. A native of Belgium, and the first Roman Catholic Lord Mayor of London since the 16th century. He was proprietor of De Keyser's Hotel, Victoria Embankment.
1882. Herbert Jameson Waterlow. Nephew of Sir Sydney Waterlow (Lord Mayor 1872-3).
1883. Sir Henry Isaacs. Uncle of Sir Rufus Isaacs, the eminent Counsel [now (1912) Attorney-General]. He published memoirs of his Mayoralty and a work on the teaching of the deaf and dumb.
1883. Edward James Gray. He and his colleague Sir Alfred Newton (Lord Mayor 1899-1900) were the last Sheriffs of London and Middlesex, the Local Government Act of 1888 taking away from the City the right of electing a Sheriff for the County.
1885. Sir Stuart Knill. The second Roman Catholic Lord Mayor since the era of the Reformation.
1887. Sir George Tyler. During his Mayoralty the Tower Bridge was opened.
1888. Sir George Faudel-Phillips. Son of Sir Benjamin Phillips (Lord Mayor 1865-6) and his successor in the Aldermanry of Farringdon Within. He married a sister of Lord Burnham.
1889. Sir Horatio Davies. He was for some years the proprietor of Crosby Hall, then used as a restaurant.
1890. Sir Alfred Newton. The City Imperial Volunteers were raised during his Mayoralty.
1891. Sir Frank Green. Son-in-law of Joseph Haydn, compiler of the Dictionary of Dates.
1891. Sir Joseph Dimsdale. An Etonian, and a partner with Sir Robert Fowler (his predecessor in the Aldermanry of Cornhill) in the banking firm of Dimsdale, Fowler, Barnard and Dimsdales.
1891. Sir James Ritchie. Elder brother of the first Lord Ritchie of Dundee (Lord St. Aldwyn's successor as Chancellor of the Exchequer). He and Sir Horatio Davies (Lord Mayor 1897-8) died on the same day and Sir J. Whittaker Ellis (Lord Mayor 1881-2) in the same week (September, 1912).
1892. Sir Walter Vaughan Morgan. One of the few bachelor Lord Mayors.
1892. Sir William Treloar. Author of Ludgate Hill Past and Present. Known as 'the Children's Alderman' from the part he has taken in organising the annual Guildhall Christmas Entertainments for poor children. He founded the Cripples Hospital and College at Alton, which bears his name.
1895. Sir George Truscott. Son of Sir Francis Truscott (Lord Mayor 1879-80) whom he succeeded in the Aldermanry of Dowgate, and brother-in-law of Sir Homewood Crawford, the City Solicitor.
1897. Samuel Green. Son-in-law of James Figgins (Alderman, Sheriff 1865-6).
1897. Sir John Knill. Son of Sir Stuart Knill (Lord Mayor 1892-3): the third Roman Catholic Lord Mayor of modern times.
1897. Sir Vezey Strong. The first total-abstaining Lord Mayor on record, and was toasted as such at a complimentary dinner at the National Liberal Club. He is the third Lord Mayor admitted to the Privy Council in modern times, the others being Thomas Harley (1768) and Sir Joseph Dimsdale (1902). He is one of the leading promoters of 'Esperanto,' which has superseded the less euphoniously-named 'Volapük' as an attempt to provide a universal language.
1898. Sir Thomas Crosby. The first practising medical man who has filled the Mayoral Chair.
1905. Sir Francis Hanson. Son of Sir Reginald Hanson (Lord Mayor 1886-7) and his successor in the Aldermanry of Billingsgate.
1912. Sir John Baddeley. Author of The Guildhall of the City of London, The Church and Parish of St. Giles Without, Cripplegate, and The Aldermen of Cripplegate Ward. (fn. 4)
1912. John Humphery. Grandson of John Humphery (Lord Mayor 1842-3).

[The following additional notes on Aldermen are inserted here, having been inadvertently omitted from their places in the text in proper chronological sequence.]

1230. John Viel. For the litigation consequent on the claim of his widow, Margaret Viel, to one-third of his goods in addition to her specified dower, see Chronicles of Mayors and Sheriffs (trans. Riley), pp. 13-16: Loftie History of London i., 133-136.
1230. John Travers. The four Franciscan friars, who were the first of their order to come to London, hired Travers' house in Cornhill soon after their arrival and built their cells there.
c1232. William Joynier. He was ejected from the Mayoralty by Henry III. because he refused to admit Simon fitz-Mary to the Shrievalty, who had obtained a mandamus from the King enjoining the citizens to elect him. Joynier was an early patron of the Franciscan friars and built the choir of their church. Later Aldermen contributed liberally to the completion of the Church of the Grey Friars, the body of which was built by Henry le Waleys, Walter Poter contributing the chapter house, Gregory de Rokesle the dormitory, and Bartholomew de Castell the refectory: Richard Whittington later paid a large portion of the cost of their library.
c1257.
[See vol. i., p. 405.]
Simon fitz-Mary. He objected to the continuance of Nicholas Bat as Sheriff for a second year, declaring that the Mayor (M. Tovi), who favoured Bat, would be a perjurer if he admitted him to office again, (fn. 5) and he temporarily resigned his Aldermanry but had it restored. Afterwards he supported Margaret Viel in her appeal against the judgment of the City Courts in her case, and was removed finally from his Aldermanry for this and 'many other evil and detestable actions of which he had secretly been guilty against the City' (Chronicles of Mayors and Sheriffs, pp. 11, 16).
1375.
[See ante, p. 162.]
John de Northampton. He is described by the chronicler Walsingham (ii., 65) as 'homo duri cordis et astutus.' The history of the civic struggle between the victualling and non-victualling trades, which continued during a considerable portion of Richard II.'s reign and in which Brembre and Northampton were protagonists is admirably summarised by Dr. Sharpe in London and the Kingdom, vol. i., pp. 222-240.
1379. John Heende. He was elected Mayor for the second time in 1404 when he had ceased to be an Alderman, which office, however, he soon after resumed (see ante, p. 3). [Henry le Waleys also appears not to have been an Alderman of a Ward during his last tenure of the Mayoralty, 1298-9. See ante, Introduction, p. xxiii.]
1392. Drew Barentyn. The clerks at Guildhall appear to have had some trouble with his somewhat unusual Christian name. On March 10, 1400, he represented to the Mayor and his brother Aldermen that he had been enrolled in 'the red paper of redemptions of freedmen and apprentices of the City' as Andreas Barentyn on April 30, 1364, and afterwards in the 'black paper of redemptions of freedmen and apprentices' was admitted a freeman by that name on October 26, 1370, and he requested to have 'Andreas' (= Andrew) changed to 'Drugo' (= Drew) [Letter Book I, fo. 1b]. Apparently the writer of the indenture of apprenticeship to whom his name 'Drew' was given in English, not being familiar with such a baptismal appellation, had understood him to mean 'Andrew' and entered that name accordingly by its Latin equivalent. The petition was, of course, granted and the worthy Alderman was no longer saddled with a Christian name which he disclaimed. The incident irresistibly recalls Mr. Justice Stareleigh's inaccurate note of the prœnomen of Mr. Nathaniel Winkle.
1456.
[See ante, p. 165]
Sir Thomas Cook. In Fabyan's Chronicle (p. 660) he is described as 'a man of great boldnesse in speech, and well spoken and syngulerly wytted and well reasoned.' In Letter Book L (fo. 75b) his name appears in the list of Aldermen present on January 19, 11 Edw. IV. (1472) although he had been removed in 1471. This, however, is a clerical error. Stokton heads the same list as Mayor, which office he ceased to hold in October, 1471, and the entry itself stands between minutes of 12 and 13 July, 11 Edw. IV. (1461) and is therefore obviously misplaced.
1460.
[See ante, p. 165.]
Sir John Yonge. In Gregory's Chronicle [Collections of a London Citizen, Camden Soc.] p. 233, it is recorded that 'menne callyd hym the good Mayre.'
1515. Sir Thomas Seymour. I owe an apology—which debt I most willingly discharge — to the distinguished writer of the article in the D.N.B. on Thomas, Lord Seymour of Sudeley, for having commented (ante, p. 24, note 31) on his omitting to particularize a presumed relationship between the Alderman and his namesake, which I discovered to be erroneous too late for correction in the text. I take the opportunity of acknowledging gratefully much valuable assistance from Professor Pollard from time to time in the course of my historical researches in various directions.
1524. Sir Stephen Pecocke. In 1531 he was fined £40 for bringing his 'iii. Clokes of Aldermanship' into Court, saying that he would be no longer an Alderman. (He remained an Alderman till his death, and occupied the Chair in 1532-3.) Afterwards he was mulcted in the more modest sum of twenty shillings 'for that he hath disclosed the counsayll of this house contrary to warnyng gyven.' [Rep. 9, fo. 48, quoted in Sir John Baddeley's Aldermen of Cripplegate Ward, p. 184.]
1527 Paul Wythypool. Noorthouck, in recording (History of London, p. 119) a vote of Common Council, according Wythypool the privilege of being present at all their meetings and debates (October 22, 1539), gives his name as 'Paul Wythyn Pool' and indexes him as 'Pool.' This appears to be an anticipation of Count Smorltork's entry of Mr. Pickwick's name in his notebook as 'Peek Weeks.'
1538.
[See ante, p. 170.]
John Tolos. He married the widow of Thomas Huntlowe (Sheriff 1539-40).
1542. Sir Richard Dobbys. During his Mayoralty he took an active part in the establishment of Christ's Hospital, thereby winning the heart of Bishop Ridley. See Ridley's letter to him from prison shortly before his death, in Dr. Sharpe's London and the Kingdom i., 450. He was one of the Aldermen who in conjunction with the Lord Mayor (Sir G. Barne) attested the Will of Edward VI., leaving the succession to the throne to Lady Jane Grey. With him were Aldermen Sir J. Gresham, Sir A. Judde and T. Offley.
1546. Sir John Lyon. He married the widow of Augustine Hynde (Alderman 1546-54).
1548.
[See ante, p. 171.]
David Woodroffe. Foxe, the martyrologist, writes of his long illness (he being paralysed for nearly eight years before his death) as a judgment of God for his cruel treatment of the Protestant Martyrs, Rogers and Bradford, who were burned during his shrievalty: his colleague, Sir W. Chester, treated them with more humanity.
1554. Henry Herdson. His widow married Sir Richard Champyon (Lord Mayor 1565-6).
1556.
[See ante, p. 172.]
Sir Richard Malorye. Machyn (Diary of a London Citizen, p. 232) records the burial on April 24, 1560, of his wife, "the wyche she ded in chyld-bed of xvii. children,"—a statement which cannot be accurate in its literal interpretation and probably indicates that this prolific lady died in giving birth to her seventeenth child.
1556.
[See ante, p. 172.]
Sir Christopher Draper. He is said to have been the first to institute the office of bellman, having appointed such a functionary to go round his Ward (Cordwainer) by night ringing his bell and exhorting the inhabitants in 'an audible voice to take care of their fires and lights, to help the poor and to pray for the dead.' It is not recorded whether the responses of the inhabitants whose slumbers may have been broken by his bell 'and audible voice' were of a pious or an imprecatory character. See Noorthouck's History of London, p. 129. (Fuller says that 'the useful custom of the night-bellmen' began in the Mayoralty of Sir T. Offley).
1593. Lancelot Bathurst. Grandfather of Sir Benjamin Bathurst (Alderman 1683-6), from whom the Earls Bathurst are descended. One of his sons was pressed to death ('peine forte et dure') for refusing to plead when arraigned on a charge of murder in 1609.
1628.
[See ante, p. 179 footnote.
Sir William Acton. Further proof that Acton was not elected Lord Mayor is afforded by Clarendon State Papers i., 208, where it is recorded under date October 6, 1640 that The City have rejected Acton and return Wright as next in order.' Moreover Wright is described as 'Mayor elect' in the list of Aldermen present in the Court on October 8 (Rep. 54, fo. 318).
1648. Zachary Highlord. Son of John Highlord (Alderman 1634–41).
1722.
[See ante, p. 196.]
John Barber. The City Press of April 6, 1912 contains under the heading 'A London Prentice' a summary of his civic career with copious extracts from a contemporary biography of him.
1741. Sir William Calvert. The head of the great brewery with which the name of his family was long associated. The original brewhouse is said by Stow (in whose time it was the property of Abraham Campion) to have been 'builded by one Pot'—a suggestive and not inappropriate name.
1751.
[See ante, p. 198.]
Sir Samuel Fludyer. He was a strong Tory and supporter of the policy of George III. and as such obnoxious to the Wilkes party, whose poet, Churchill, satirized him as 'Dulman' in The Ghost (iii., 993–998).
'Our Dulman with a face was bless'd, Where no one passion was expressed ; His eye, in a fine stupour caught, Implied a plenteous lack of thought; Nor was one line that whole face seen in, Which could be justly charged with meaning.'
1752.
[See ante, p. 198]
William Beckford. Lord Stanhope (History of England, vol. v., p. 174) says that he was noted in the House of Commons for his loud tones and his faulty Latin: a specimen of the latter 'omnium meum mecum porto' is given in the Cavendish Debates (i., 489).
1768. John Kirkman. He was nominally a Whig, but acted an independent and uncertain part in civic politics and at the election of 1780 received considerable support from the Court party. In reference to his 'wobbling' tendencies, the compiler of the 'Mottoes for Aldermen 1772' (Guildhall MS. 200) suggests for him Virgil's 'Animo nunc huc, nunc fluctuat illuc.'
1774. George Hayley. The Guildhall MS. 200 (Mottoes for Aldermen-Addenda 1776), in reference to his submission to his wife, by whom he appears to have been henpecked, suggests two quotations as applicable to him—Shakespeare's
'How like a dog Looked Hercules thus to a distaff chained.' and Juvenal's 'Intolerabilius nihil est quam femina dives.'
1775. William Lee. His parsimony when Sheriff, combined with his vehemence in opposition to the Court, led the compiler of the 'Mottoes for Aldermen' Addenda 1776, preserved in Guildhall MS. 200, to apply to him Dryden's lines on Slingsby Bethel (Sheriff 1680–1)—
'His Shrieval board The grossness of a City feast abhorred : His cooks with long disuse their trade forgot; Cool was his kitchen, though his brains were hot.'
1838.
[See ante, p. 145.]
Sir William Magnay. His resignation of his Aldermanry followed on the appointment of a Committee to consider the circumstances under which he had been condemned in his absence by a Belgian Court of Justice (on the appeal of the State prosecutor from a verdict of acquittal in a lower Court) to fine and imprisonment for alleged fraud committed by him as a Director of the Great Luxembourg Railway. He challenged the fullest investigation into the facts, but the Committee being unable to compel attendance of foreign witnesses, he resigned his gown in a letter to the Lord Mayor which was at the same time dignified and pathetic, and the Committee was then dissolved without reporting.

Footnotes

  • 1. In his letter to the Lord Mayor (Sir W. Calvert) resigning his Aldermanry in 1749 he gave as his reason that 'the general corruption of the age I have the misfortune to live in, and the frequent detestable instances of apostacy from every principle of honour, integrity and public spirit of many of my countrymen having fully convinced me, that the endeavours of the few determined to live and die honest men, are fruitless and vain; I have resolved to seek that small share of happiness, which is to be acquired in this venal country, in privacy and retirement, where I am sure it is only to be found.'
  • 2. The spelling in the text which is that of the Official Returns of Members of Parliament and of the London Gazette notice of his Knighthood is certainly correct; in Hilton Price's Handbook of London Bankers and elsewhere the name appears as Bloxham.
  • 3. In the original edition of the Dictionary of National Biography appear the contradictory statements that he took his sons into partnership, and that he had no children. The latter is correct. 'Nephews' has been substituted for sons in the later edition.
  • 4. The last-named work contains, in addition to the subject matter implied in the short title, 'some account of the office of Aldermen, Alderman's Deputy and Common Councilmen of the City of London,' embodying many interesting and important extracts from the records of the City at Guildhall. Hence it has occasionally (and not inexcusably, though inaccurately) been referred to by the title of 'The Aldermen of London.' The present writer has already (preface to vol. I., p 2) given expression, which he desires now to repeat, to his sense of the great value of Sir John Baddeley's work and of the encouragement which he has afforded him in the preparation of this record of the Aldermen of London, which, though planned on a more ambitious scale, proceeds entirely from his initiative and of which Sir John may justly be regarded as 'the only begetter,' though in no way responsible for its errors or other imperfections.
  • 5. At the close of the Shrievalty of Walter de Winchester and Robert fitz-John (1229-30), 'all the Aldermen and principal men of the City' had 'made oath that at no time would they allow any Sheriff to be admitted to the Sheriffwick for two consecutive years' (Chronicles of Mayors and Sheriffs, trans. Riley p. 6).