The family of Rich, Earls of Warwick and Holland, arose from Richard Rich, an opulent mercer, sheriff of London in the year 1441. His descendant, Richard, was distinguished by his knowledge of the law; became Solicitor General in the reign of king Henry the eighth, and treacherously effected the ruin of Sir Thomas More; was created a baron of the realm in the reign of Edward the sixth, and became Lord Chancellor by the favour of the same monarch.
The Holles’s, Earls of Clare, and afterwards Dukes of Newcastle, sprung from Sir William Holles, Lord Mayor of London in 1540, son of William Holles, citizen and baker. His great-grandson was the first who was called to the House of Peers, in the reign of James the first, by the title of Lord Haughton, and soon after was advanced to the dignity of Earl of Clare. The fourth peer of that title was created by king William, Duke of Newcastle; but the title became extinct in his name in 1711.
Sir Thomas Leigh, Lord Mayor of London, in 1558, furnished the Peerage with the addition of two. He was the son of Roger Leigh, of Wellington, in Shropshire. Sir Thomas’s grandson, Francis, was created by Charles the first, Lord Dunsmore, and afterwards Earl of Chichester; and Sir Thomas’s second son, Sir Thomas Leigh, of Stoneleigh, had the honour of being called to the House of Peers by the title of Lord Leigh, of Stoneleigh.
The Pleydell-Bouveries, Earls of Radnor, descend from Edward De Bouverie, an opulent Turkey merchant, who died in 1694.
Ducie, Lord Ducie, is descended from Sir Robert Ducie, who belonged to the company of merchant tailors, and was sheriff of London in 1621, and Lord Mayor in 1631. He was immensely rich, and was made banker to king Charles the first, and on the breaking out of the rebellion, lost £80,000, owing to him by his Majesty. Nevertheless he is said to have left at the time of his death, property in land, money, &c. to his four sons, to the amount of £400,000.
Paul Bayning, sheriff of London in 1593, had a son of the same name, who was first created a baronet, and in the third of Charles the first, a baron of the realm, by the title of Baron Bayning, and soon after a viscount, by the title of Viscount Bayning of Sudbury. He was buried in the paternal tomb, in the church of St. Olave’s. His house was in Mark-lane. After the fire of London, the business of the custom house was transacted in that which went under the name of Lord Bayning’s.
The Cranfields, Earls of Middlesex, rose from Lionel Cranfield, a citizen of London, bred up in the custom house. He became, in 1620, Lord Treasurer of England. The Duke of Dorset is descended from Frances, sister and heir of the third Earl of Middlesex, married to Richard, Earl of Dorset.
The noble family of Ingram, Viscount Irwin, was raised in the reign of queen Elizabeth, by Hugh Irwin, citizen, merchant, and tallow-chandler, who died in 1612. He left a large fortune between two sons; of whom Sir Arthur, the younger, settled in Yorkshire, and purchased a considerable estate, the foundation of the good fortune afterwards enjoyed by the family. The present Marchioness of Hertford is the representative of the Ingrams, being the daughter and co-heir of the last Viscount Irwin.
Sir Stephen Brown, son of John Brown, of Newcastle, Lord Mayor of London, in 1438, and again in 1448, was a grocer, and added another peer, in the person of Sir Anthony Brown, created Viscount Montagu, by Philip and Mary, in 1554.
The Legges rose to be Earls of Dartmouth.—The first who was raised to the peerage was that loyal and gallant naval officer, George Legge, created Baron of Dartmouth in 1682. He was descended from an ancestor who filled the Pretorian Chair of London in the years 1347 and 1354, having by his industry in the trade of a skinner, attained great wealth.