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Richard Whittington of the parish of St Michael Paternoster Royal, City of London, was an English merchant and a politician of the late medieval period. He is also the real-life inspiration for the English folk tale Dick Whittington and His Cat. He was four times Lord Mayor of London, a member of parliament and a sheriff of London. In his lifetime he financed a number of public projects, such as drainage systems in poor areas of medieval London, and a hospital ward for unmarried mothers. He bequeathed his fortune to form the Charity of Sir Richard Whittington which, nearly 600 years later, continues to assist people in need.
William Caxton was an English merchant, diplomat, and writer. He is thought to be the first person to introduce a printing press into England, in 1476, and as a printer was the first English retailer of printed books.
The Worshipful Company of Mercers is the premier Livery Company of the City of London and ranks first in the order of precedence of the Companies. It is the first of the Great Twelve City Livery Companies. Although of even older origin, the company was incorporated under a Royal Charter in 1394, the company's earliest extant Charter. The company's aim was to act as a trade association for general merchants, and especially for exporters of wool and importers of velvet, silk and other luxurious fabrics (mercers). By the 16th century many members of the company had lost any connection with the original trade. Today, the Company exists primarily as a charitable institution, supporting a variety of causes. The company's motto is Honor Deo, Latin for "Honour to God".
William Alington, lord of the manor of both Bottisham and Horseheath, Cambridgeshire, was Speaker of the House of Commons of England, Treasurer of The Exchequer, and High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire.
Richard Rich was a London mercer, and Sheriff of that city in 1441.
Francis Levett (1654–1705) was a Turkey Merchant of the City of London who in partnership with his brother Sir Richard Levett, Lord Mayor of London, built a trading empire, importing and distributing tobacco and other commodities, mainly from the Levant. He served as Warden of the Worshipful Company of Mercers.
Sir Thomas Leigh was an English merchant and Lord Mayor of London in 1558-59. He served as a City Alderman from 1552 until 1571.
Richard le Lacer of Bromley, Kent, was an English mercer and Mayor of London.
Sir Henry Rowe was an English merchant who was Lord Mayor of London in 1607.
Thomas Canynges was Lord Mayor of London in 1456-57.
The Mayor of Barnstaple together with the Corporation long governed the historic Borough of Barnstaple, in North Devon, England. The seat of government was the Barnstaple Guildhall. The mayor served a term of one year and was elected annually on the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin by a jury of twelve. However Barnstaple was a mesne borough and was held by the Mayor and Corporation in chief not from the king but from the feudal baron of Barnstaple, later known as the lord of the "Castle Manor" or "Castle Court". The Corporation tried on several occasions to claim the status of a "free borough" which answered directly to the monarch and to divest itself of this overlordship, but without success. The mayor was not recognised as such by the monarch, but merely as the bailiff of the feudal baron. The powers of the borough were highly restricted, as was determined by an inquisition ad quod damnum during the reign of King Edward III (1327–1377), which from an inspection of evidence found that members of the corporation elected their mayor only by permission of the lord, legal pleas were held in a court at which the lord's steward, not the mayor, presided, that the borough was taxed by the county assessors, and that the lord held the various assizes which the burgesses claimed. Indeed, the purported ancient royal charter supposedly granted by the Anglo-Saxon King Æthelstan (d.939) and held by the corporation, from which it claimed its borough status, was suspected to be a forgery.
Sir Henry Colet was twice Lord Mayor of London.
Sir Robert Chichele was a 15th-century English merchant and Lord Mayor of London.
Andrew Aubrey was an English merchant and politician, who served three terms as Lord Mayor of London during the reign of Edward III.
Sir John Ward, of Hookfield, Clay Hill, Epsom, Surrey and St Laurence Pountney, London, was a British merchant, banker and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1701 and 1726. He was an original Governor of the Bank of England and served as Lord Mayor of London in 1718.
Sir Thomas Offley was a Sheriff of London and Lord Mayor of London during the reign of Queen Mary I of England. A long-serving alderman of London, he was a prominent member of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors, thrice Mayor of the Staple, and a named founding Assistant of the Muscovy Company.
Sir George Bond was a 16th-century English politician who served as Lord Mayor of London in 1587/8. A native of Somerset, he was the younger son of William Bond of Buckland and younger brother of William Bond, alderman and Sheriff of London. He was a member of the Haberdasher's Company. Prior to becoming mayor, he was elected as Sheriff of London in 1579 and alderman of Walbrook in 1584. At the time of his election in 1587, the usual Mayoral Feast was cancelled, on account of plague within the city of London.
Sir Edward Clarke, of Brickendon, Hertfordshire, was an English merchant who served as Lord Mayor of London in the year 1696 to 1697.
References
- ↑ "Chronological list of aldermen: 1302-1400". British History Online. Retrieved 7 October 2016.
