GEN-MEDIEVAL-L Archives

From: Tanya Marshall <>
Subject: Lord Mayors of London - identities
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 1996 09:07:56 EST

I have been a lurker. And a lover of medieval English history and genealogy for years. May I contribute?

Richard Barney: In your 16 Feb 1996 request for the identity of the Lord Mayor of London 1552:

His name was "George Barn, son of Geo. Barn, Haberdasher"

On the same page, in the same listing for Lord Mayors of London, is shown for the year 1586:
"George Barne, son of Geo. Barne, Haberdasher"

I have spelled it as seen.

The year 1552 was the 6th year of Edward VI's reign. In 1586, his half-sister Elizabeth the Great was reigning. The presence of the Lord Mayor as a city representative was required at particular royal functions. This George Barn/Barne (whether one man or father/son) was frequently in the royal presence. Desmond Seward's The Wars of the Roses Through the Lives of Five Men and Women of the Fifteenth Century (Viking, 1995) will give you an idea of the responsibilities of the Lord Mayor of London and the kind of life he and his wife might have had. Seward covers several socials levels. Though of an earlier time, the book is readable and has genealogical data that might be interesting.

My source for the Lord Mayors' identities is The History of the Worthies of England by Thomas Fuller, D.D., AMS Press Inc., New York, 1965. See Vol. II, pg. 387, where Lord Mayors for 1426-1656 are listed.

Pages 388-408 list the "Sheriffs of London and Middlesex."

Thomas Fuller was born 1608, Northhamptonshire, and died 16 Aug 1661. This edition of Fuller's Worthies was edited and indexed by P. Austin Nuttall, LL.D. Any edition of Thomas Fuller's book, The Worthies of England, is valuable to the researcher for the of medieval/renaissance England.

Richard Kuhns: As for William Webb - On page 405, there is a Will. Webb, who is shown as a sheriff of London/Middlesex in the 23rd year of the reign of Elizabeth the Great (1558-1603). That would be about 1580. No Webb/Webbe listed for Lord Mayor.

The same listing on pg. 405 shows a "Georg. Barne" as a sheriff of London in the 18th year of Elizabeth's reign. About 1575.

Melissa Boyn - Also from Fuller's listing of "Sheriffs of London and Middlesex": In the 36th year of Elizabeth's reign - about 1593 - a "Rob. Lee" is listed. No Lee is listed for Lord Mayor of London. There is a "Thomas Low, son of Simon Low, Haberdasher" as Lord Mayor in 1604.

It is not unusual to find an ancestor identified as a Lord Mayor when he was actually a sheriff. However, they weren't the same thing. A sheriff was a shire-reeve, the king's representative in the shire (county). Politically, both offices had high visibility and were undoubtedly a source of pride to their descendants, who began confusing the two.

Note that the listing I searched was for London and Middlesex. There are listings of sheriffs for other counties in Fuller's Worthies of England.

Melissa, if searches of libraries and old book stores have not been successful in finding Cledes' History of Merchant Tailors, ask at the interlibrary loan desk at the public/university library. They can usually work miracles in finding any book.

>Tanya Fuller (no kin)

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