The Story of London

by Henry B. Wheatley

No Lord Mayor in a city procession used a coach before 1712, and then only an ordinary one. The present State coach was built in 1757.

Sir John Shaa, Mayor in 1482, was the first to give the annual banquet in the Guildhall. Previously, the feast had taken place either at Grocers’ Hall or some other convenient place. The practice of dining at the Guildhall did not become general until 1501, when alterations were made in the kitchen, and the requisite offices having been added the series of annual banquets was commenced there.

There was no feeling of contempt of trade in the Middle Ages, and the Merchant Princes of London were held in high esteem. The custom of ridiculing the city and its rulers did not then exist, but it seems probable that it first came into being in the reign of Elizabeth.

Richard Johnson’s Nine Worthies of London (1592) contains the praise of the worthies, written by the author in a mock heroic style. Of the nine four were Mayors, namely, Sir William Walworth, 1374, 1380; Sir Henry Pitchard (Picard), 1356; Sir William Sevenoke, 1418; and Sir William White, 1553.

Most of the Mayors of the Middle Ages were men of birth and position, and it is difficult to understand how it was that the popular idea of a poor boy coming up to London penniless, making his way here, and eventually rising to be Mayor, first came into existence. The elaboration of this idea in the chap-book life of Sir Richard Whittington is entirely opposed to the facts of the case.

Aldermen

The consideration of the actual position of the alderman in the government of London is one of great difficulty, and Mr. Round’s discovery of the Oath of the Commune in which aldermen are not mentioned has made it difficult to conjecture when it was that they took their natural place as the advisers of the Mayor.

The title ‘alderman’ is a survival of the Saxon period (as is also that of ‘sheriff’), but the duties of the holders of the office have frequently been changed.

The word ‘alderman’ was a generic term as well as the distinctive title of a special officer. King Alfred appointed an alderman over all London, and the chief officer of the various guilds was originally known as an alderman.

The various wards were each presided over by an alderman from an early period, but, as already noted, we cannot fix the date when they were united as a Court of Aldermen.