Sir John Weld restored to office of town clerk.
Sir John Weld, who had been dismissed in 1642 from the office of town clerk[1184] for failing to attend the Common Council, a duty which he was rendered incapable of fulfilling owing to his having been appointed at that time high-sheriff of Shropshire, seized the opportunity of presenting a petition to the court of Common Council (5 June) to be re-instated in office. A committee to whom the matter was referred reported to the council that they found that it had been by special command of the late king that Weld had been prevented carrying out his duties, and recommended that he should now be restored. The court, however, seemed loth to re-instate him, and it was not until after the receipt of a letter from secretary Nicholas and a writ of restitution had been issued that it consented (21 Sept.) to re-admit him to office, and then only by deputy.[1185]
Sadler, town clerk, removed.
John Sadler, who held the office of town clerk at the time, was promptly got rid of on a charge of having given judgment in "a late pretended court of justice," and of having signed the death-warrant of[pg 383] Christopher Love, a zealous Presbyterian and minister of the church of St. Lawrence, Jewry, who had been accused of treason in 1651 and beheaded on Tower Hill in the midst of ominous thunderings and clouds of darkness.[1186]
The deposed aldermen restored pursuant to the king's wishes, 4 Sept., 1660.
On the 4th September the king wrote to the City stating that as by the passing of the Act of Indemnity many of the aldermen were rendered incapable of continuing in office, it was his wish that their places should be filled by restoring those aldermen who had in times past been removed for their allegiance to him. As many of the latter had submitted to pay fines rather than continue in office against their conscience, he further recommended that these fines should be returned to them.[1187] Pursuant to the king's wishes, the Common Council formally declared "that Sir Thomas Adams, Sir Abraham Reynardson, Sir Thomas Soame, Sir John Langham, Sir James Bunce and Sir Richard Browne are aldermen of this city," and called upon them to take upon themselves the execution of their respective places.[1188]
Langham excused on his own petition.
One of these, Sir John Langham, then in his seventy-eighth year, wrote from Crosby House to the Court of Aldermen asking to be excused on the score of his advanced age. He had been, he said, laid aside about twelve years since and imprisoned in the Tower[pg 384] by order of parliament[1189] (24 Sept., 1647), chiefly to prevent his being chosen lord mayor, and had been released on the following 6th June without any effort being made on his part. He had afterwards (7 April, 1649) been removed from office with Sir John Gayer, Alderman Adams and "brother" Bunce by resolution of "that remain of a House of Commons that presumed to sit as a parliament," and others had been chosen in their stead.[1190] The Court of Aldermen acceded to the veteran's request[1191]
Reynardson re-elected mayor, but declines office, 1 Oct., 1660.
At Michaelmas the citizens would again have placed the royalist Reynardson in the mayoralty chair, but he excused himself on the ground of ill-health,[1192] and the gallant Alderman Sir Richard Browne was elected in his stead. A twelvemonth later Reynardson was dead, having passed away on the 4th October, 1661.