THE LORD MAYORS OF LONDON (_continued_).
John Wilkes: his Birth and Parentage--The _North Briton_--Duel with
Martin--His Expulsion--Personal Appearance--Anecdotes of Wilkes--A
Reason for making a Speech--Wilkes and the King--The Lord Mayor at
the Gordon Riots--"Soap-suds" _versus_ "Bar"--Sir William Curtis and
his Kilt--A Gambling Lord Mayor--Sir William Staines, Bricklayer and
Lord Mayor--"Patty-pan" Birch--Sir Matthew Wood--Waithman--Sir Peter
Laurie and the "Dregs of the People"--Recent Lord Mayors.
In 1774 that clever rascal, John Wilkes, ascended the civic throne. We
shall so often meet this unscrupulous demagogue about London, that we
will not dwell upon him here at much length. Wilkes was born in
Clerkenwell, 1727. His father, Israel Wilkes, was a rich distiller (as
his father and grandfather had been), who kept a coach and six, and
whose house was a resort of persons of rank, merchants, and men of
letters. Young Wilkes grew up a man of pleasure, squandered his wife's
fortune in gambling and other fashionable vices, and became a notorious
member of the Hell Fire Club at Medmenham Abbey. He now eagerly strove
for place, asking Mr. Pitt to find him a post in the Board of Trade, or
to send him as ambassador to Constantinople. Finding his efforts
useless, he boldly avowed his intention of becoming notorious by
assailing Government. In 1763, in his scurrilous paper, the _North
Britain_, he violently abused the Princess Dowager and her favourite
Lord Bute, who were supposed to influence the young king, and in the
celebrated No. 45 he accused the ministers of putting a lie in the
king's mouth. The Government illegally arresting him by an arbitrary
"general warrant," he was committed to the Tower, and at once became the
martyr of the people and the idol of the City. Released by Chief-Justice
Pratt, he was next proceeded against for an obscene poem, the "Essay on
Woman." He fought a duel with Samuel Martin, a brother M.P., who had
insulted him, and was expelled the House in 1764. He then went to France
in the height of his popularity, having just obtained a verdict in his
favour upon the question of the warrant. On his return to England, he
daringly stood for the representation of London, and was elected for
Middlesex. Riots took place, a man was shot by the soldiers, and Wilkes
was committed to the King's Bench prison. After a long contest with the
Commons, Wilkes was expelled the House, and being re-elected for
Middlesex, the election was declared void.
Eventually Wilkes became Chamberlain of the City, lectured refractory
apprentices like a father, and tamed down to an ordinary man of the
world, still shameless, ribald, irreligious, but, as Gibbon says, "a
good companion with inexhaustible spirits, infinite wit and humour, and
a great deal of knowledge." He quietly took his seat for Middlesex in
1782, and eight years afterwards the resolutions against him were erased
from the Journals of the House. He died in 1797, at his house in
Grosvenor Square. Wilkes' sallow face, sardonic squint, and projecting
jaw, are familiar to us from Hogarth's terrible caricature. He generally
wore the dress of a colonel of the militia--scarlet and buff, with a
cocked hat and rosette, bag wig, and military boots, and O'Keefe
describes seeing him walking in from his house at Kensington Gore,
disdaining all offers of a coach. Dr. Franklin, when in England,
describes the mob stopping carriages, and compelling their inmates to
shout "Wilkes and liberty!" For the first fifteen miles out of London on
the Winchester road, he says, and on nearly every door or
window-shutter, "No. 45" was chalked. By many Tory writers Wilkes is
considered latterly to have turned his coat, but he seems to us to have
been perfectly consistent to the end. He was always a Whig with
aristocratic tastes. When oppression ceased he ceased to protest. Most
men grow more Conservative as their minds weaken, but Wilkes was always
resolute for liberty.
A few anecdotes of Wilkes are necessary for seasoning to our chapter.
Horne Tooke having challenged Wilkes, who was then sheriff of London and
Middlesex, received the following laconic reply: "Sir, I do not think it
my business to cut the throat of every desperado that may be tired of
his life; but as I am at present High Sheriff of the City of London, it
may shortly happen that I shall have an opportunity of attending you in
my civil capacity, in which case I will answer for it that _you shall
have no ground_ to complain of my endeavours to serve you." This is one
of the bitterest retorts ever uttered. Wilkes's notoriety led to his
head being painted as a public-house sign, which, however, did not
invariably raise the original in estimation. An old lady, in passing a
public-house distinguished as above, her companion called her attention
to the sign. "Ah!" replied she, "Wilkes swings everywhere but where he
ought." Wilkes's squint was proverbial; yet even this natural obliquity
he turned to humorous account. When Wilkes challenged Lord Townshend, he
said, "Your lordship is one of the handsomest men in the kingdom, and I
am one of the ugliest. Yet, give me but half an hour's start, and I
will enter the lists against you with any woman you choose to name."
Once, when the house seemed resolved not to hear him, and a friend urged
him to desist--"Speak," he said, "I must, for my speech has been in
print for the newspapers this half-hour." Fortunately for him, he was
gifted with a coolness and effrontery which were only equalled by his
intrepidity, all three of which qualities constantly served his turn in
the hour of need. As an instance of his audacity, it may be stated that
on one occasion he and another person put forth, from a private room in
a tavern, a proclamation commencing--"We, the people of England," &c.,
and concluding--"By order of the meeting." Another amusing instance of
his effrontery occurred on the hustings at Brentford, when he and
Colonel Luttrell were standing there together as rival candidates for
the representation of Middlesex in Parliament. Looking down with great
apparent apathy on the sea of human beings, consisting chiefly of his
own votaries and friends, which stretched beneath him--"I wonder," he
whispered to his opponent, "whether among that crowd the fools or the
knaves predominate?" "I will tell them what you say," replied the
astonished Luttrell, "and thus put an end to you." Perceiving that
Wilkes treated the threat with the most perfect indifference--"Surely,"
he added, "you don't mean to say you could stand here one hour after I
did so?" "Why not?" replied Wilkes; "it is _you_ who would not be alive
one instant after." "How so?" inquired Luttrell. "Because," said Wilkes,
"I should merely affirm that it was a fabrication, and they would
destroy you in the twinkling of an eye."
During his latter days Wilkes not only became a courtier, but was a
frequent attendant at the levees of George III. On one of these
occasions the King happened to inquire after his old friend "Sergeant
Glynn," who had been Wilkes's counsel during his former seditious
proceedings. "_My friend_, sir!" replied Wilkes; "he is no friend of
mine; he was a Wilkite, sir, which I never was."
He once dined with George IV. when Prince of Wales, when overhearing the
Prince speak in rather disparaging language of his father, with whom he
was then notoriously on bad terms, he seized an opportunity of proposing
the health of the King. "Why, Wilkes," said the Prince, "how long is it
since you became so loyal?" "Ever since, sir," was the reply, "I had the
honour of becoming acquainted with your Royal Highness."
Alderman Sawbridge (Framework Knitter), mayor in 1775, on his return
from a state visit to Kew with all his retinue, was stopped and stripped
by a single highwayman. The swordbearer did not even attempt to hew
down the robber.
In 1780, Alderman Kennet (Vintner) was mayor during the Gordon riots. He
had been a waiter and then a wine merchant, was a coarse and ignorant
man, and displayed great incompetence during the week the rioters
literally held London. When he was summoned to the House, to be examined
about the riots, one of the members observed, "If you ring the bell,
Kennet will come in, of course." On being asked why he did not at the
outset send for the _posse comitatus_, he replied he did not know where
the fellow lived, or else he would. One evening at the Alderman's Club,
he was sitting at whist, next Mr. Alderman Pugh, a soap-boiler. "Ring
the bell, Soap-suds," said Kennet. "Ring it yourself, Bar," replied
Pugh; "you have been twice as much used to it as I have." There is no
disgrace in having been a soap-boiler or a wine merchant; the true
disgrace is to be ashamed of having carried on an honest business.
Alderman Clarke (Joiner), mayor in 1784, succeeded Wilkes as Chamberlain
in 1798, and died aged ninety-two, in 1831. This City patriarch was,
when a mere boy, introduced to Dr. Johnson by that insufferable man, Sir
John Hawkins. He met Dr. Percy, Goldsmith, and Hawkesworth, with the
Polyphemus of letters, at the "Mitre." He was a member of the Essex Head
Club. "When he was sheriff in 1777," says Mr. Timbs, "he took Dr.
Johnson to a judges' dinner at the Old Bailey, the judges being
Blackstone and Eyre." The portrait of Chamberlain Clarke, in the Court
of Common Council in Guildhall, is by Sir Thomas Lawrence, and cost one
hundred guineas. There is also a bust of Mr. Clarke, by Sievier, at the
Guildhall, which was paid for by a subscription of the City officers.
Alderman Boydell, mayor in 1790, we have described fully elsewhere. He
presided over Cheap Ward for twenty-three years. Nearly opposite his
house, 90, Cheapside, is No. 73, which, before the present Mansion House
was built, was used occasionally as the Lord Mayor's residence.
Sir James Saunderson (Draper), from whose curious book of official
expenses we quote in our chapter on the Mansion House, was mayor in
1792. It was this mayor who sent a posse of officers to disperse a
radical meeting held at that "caldron of sedition," Founders' Hall, and
among the persons expelled was a young orator named Waithman, afterwards
himself a mayor.
1795-6 was made pleasant to the Londoners by the abounding hospitality
of Sir William Curtis, a portly baronet, who, while he delighted in a
liberal feast and a cheerful glass, evidently thought them of small
value unless shared by his friends. Many years afterwards, during the
reign of George IV., whose good graces he had secured, he went to
Scotland with the king, and made Edinburgh merry by wearing a kilt in
public. The wits laughed at his costume, complete even to the little
dagger in the stocking, but told him he had forgotten one important
thing--the spoon.
In 1797, Sir Benjamin Hamet was fined L1,000 for refusing to serve as
mayor.
1799. Alderman Combe, mayor, the brewer, whom some saucy citizens
nicknamed "Mash-tub." But he loved gay company. Among the members at
Brookes's who indulged in high play was Combe, who is said to have made
as much money in this way as he did by brewing. One evening, whilst he
filled the office of Lord Mayor, he was busy at a full hazard table at
Brookes's, where the wit and dice-box circulated together with great
glee, and where Beau Brummel was one of the party. "Come, Mash-tub,"
said Brummel, who was the _caster_, "what do you _set_?" "Twenty-five
guineas," answered the alderman. "Well, then," returned the beau, "have
at the mare's pony" (twenty-five guineas). The beau continued to throw
until he drove home the brewer's twelve ponies running, and then getting
up and making him a low bow whilst pocketing the cash, he said, "Thank
you, alderman; for the future I shall never drink any porter but yours."
"I wish, sir," replied the brewer, "that every other blackguard in
London would tell me the same." Combe was succeeded in the mayoralty by
Sir William Staines. They were both smokers, and were seen one night at
the Mansion House lighting their pipes at the same taper; which reminds
us of the two kings of Brentford smelling at one nosegay. (Timbs.)
1800. Sir William Staines, mayor. He began life as a bricklayer's
labourer, and by persevering steadily in the pursuit of one object,
accumulated a large fortune, and rose to the state coach and the Mansion
House. He was Alderman of Cripplegate Ward, where his memory is much
respected. In Jacob's Well Passage, in 1786, he built nine houses for
the reception of his aged and indigent friends. They are erected on both
sides of the court, with nothing to distinguish them from the other
dwelling-houses, and without ostentatious display of stone or other
inscription to denote the poverty of the inhabitants. The early tenants
were aged workmen, tradesmen, &c., several of whom Staines had
personally esteemed as his neighbours. One, a peruke-maker, had shaved
the worthy alderman during forty years. Staines also built Barbican
Chapel, and rebuilt the "Jacob's Well" public-house, noted for dramatic
representations. The alderman was an illiterate man, and was a sort of
butt amongst his brethren. At one of the Old Bailey dinners, after a
sumptuous repast of turtle and venison, Sir William was eating a great
quantity of butter with his cheese. "Why, brother," said Wilkes, "you
lay it on with a _trowel_!" A son of Sir William Staines, who worked at
his father's business (a builder), fell from a lofty ladder, and was
killed; when the father, on being fetched to the spot, broke through the
crowd, exclaiming, "See that the poor fellow's watch is safe!" His
manners may be judged from the following anecdote. At a City feast, when
sheriff, sitting by General Tarleton, he thus addressed him, "Eat away
at the pines, General; for we must pay, eat or not eat."
In 1806, Sir James Shaw (Scrivener), afterwards Chamberlain, was a
native of Kilmarnock, where a marble statue of him has been erected. He
was of the humblest birth, but amassed a fortune as a merchant, and sat
in three parliaments for the City. He was extremely charitable, and was
one of the first to assist the children of Burns. At one of his
mayoralty dinners, seven sons of George III. were guests.
Sir William Domville (Stationer), mayor in 1814, gave the great
Guildhall banquet to the Prince Regent and the Allied Sovereigns during
the short and fallacious peace before Waterloo. The dinner was served on
plate valued at L200,000, and the entire entertainment cost nearly
L25,000. The mayor was made baronet for this.
In 1815 reigned Alderman Birch, the celebrated Cornhill confectioner.
The business at No. 15, Cornhill was established by Mr. Horton, in the
reign of George I. Samuel Birch, born in 1787, was for many years a
member of the Common Council, a City orator, an Alderman of the Ward of
Candlewick, a poet, a dramatic writer, and Colonel of the City Militia.
His pastry was, after all, the best thing he did, though he laid the
first stone of the London Institution, and wrote the inscription to
Chantrey's statue of George III., now in the Council Chamber, Guildhall.
"Mr. Patty-pan" was Birch's nickname.
Theodore Hook, or some clever versifier of the day, wrote an amusing
skit on the vain, fussy, good-natured Jack-of-all-trades, beginning--
"Monsieur grown tired of fricassee,
Resolved Old England now to see,
The country where their roasted beef
And puddings large pass all belief."
Wherever this inquisitive foreigner goes he find Monsieur Birch--
"Guildhall at length in sight appears,
An orator is hailed with cheers.
'Zat orator, vat is hees name?'
'Birch the pastrycook--the very same.'"
He meets him again as militia colonel, poet, &c. &c., till he returns to
France believing Birch Emperor of London.
Birch possessed considerable literary taste, and wrote poems and musical
dramas, of which "The Adopted Child" remained a stock piece to our own
time. The alderman used annually to send, as a present, a Twelfth-cake
to the Mansion House. The upper portion of the house in Cornhill has
been rebuilt, but the ground-floor remains intact, a curious specimen of
the decorated shop-front of the last century; and here are preserved two
doorplates, inscribed "Birch, successor to Mr. Horton," which are 140
years old. Alderman Birch died in 1840, having been succeeded in the
business in Cornhill in 1836, by Ring and Brymer.
In 1816-17, we come to a mayor of great notoriety, Sir Matthew Wood, a
druggist in Falcon Square. He was a Devonshire man, who began life as a
druggist's traveller, and distinguished himself by his exertions for
poor persecuted Queen Caroline. He served as Lord Mayor two successive
years, and represented the City in nine parliaments. His baronetcy was
the first title conferred by Queen Victoria, in 1837, as a reward for
his political exertions. As a namesake of "Jemmy Wood," the miser banker
of Gloucester, he received a princely legacy. The Vice-Chancellor Page
Wood (Lord Hatherley) was the mayor's second son.
The following sonnet was contributed by Charles and Mary Lamb to
Thelwall's newspaper, _The Champion_. Lamb's extreme opinions, as here
enunciated, were merely assumed to please his friend Thelwall, but there
seems a genuine tone in his abuse of Canning. Perhaps it dated from the
time when the "player's son" had ridiculed Southey and Coleridge:--
SONNET TO MATTHEW WOOD, ESQ., ALDERMAN AND M.P.
"Hold on thy course uncheck'd, heroic Wood!
Regardless what the player's son may prate,
St. Stephen's fool, the zany of debate--
Who nothing generous ever understood.
London's twice praetor! scorn the fool-born jest,
The stage's scum, and refuse of the players--
Stale topics against magistrates and mayors--
City and country both thy worth attest.
Bid him leave off his shallow Eton wit,
More fit to soothe the superficial ear
Of drunken Pitt, and that pickpocket Peer,
When at their sottish orgies they did sit,
Hatching mad counsels from inflated vein,
Till England and the nations reeled with pain."
In 1818-19 Alderman John Atkins was host at the Mansion House. In early
life he had been a Customs' tide-waiter, and was not remarkable for
polished manners; but he was a shrewd and worthy man, filling the seat
of justice with impartiality, and dispensing the hospitality of the City
with an open hand.
In 1821 John Thomas Thorpe (Draper), mayor, officiated as chief butler
at the coronation feast of George IV. He and twelve assistants presented
the king wine in a golden cup, which the king returned as the
cup-bearer's fees. Being, however, a violent partisan of Queen Caroline,
he was not created a baronet.
In 1823 we come to another determined reformer, Alderman Waithman, whom
we have already noticed in the chapter on Fleet Street. As a poor lad,
he was adopted by his uncle, a Bath linendraper. He began to appear as a
politician in 1794. When sheriff in 1821, in quelling a tumult at
Knightsbridge, he was in danger from a Life-guardsman's carbine, and at
the funeral of Queen Caroline, a carbine bullet passed through his
carriage in Hyde Park. Many of his resolutions in the Common Council
were, says Mr. Timbs, written by Sir Richard Phillips, the bookseller.
Alderman Garratt (Goldsmith), mayor in 1825, laid the first stone of
London Bridge, accompanied by the Duke of York. At the banquet at the
Mansion House, 360 guests were entertained in the Egyptian Hall, and
nearly 200 of the Artillery Company in the saloon. The Monument was
illuminated the same night.
In 1830, Alderman Key, mayor, roused great indignation in the City, by
frightening William IV., and preventing his coming to the Guildhall
dinner. The show and inauguration dinner were in consequence omitted. In
1831 Key was again mayor, and on the opening of London Bridge was
created a baronet.
Sir Peter Laurie, in 1832-3, though certainly possessing a decided
opinion on most political questions, which he steadily, and no doubt
honestly carried out, frequently incurred criticism on account of his
extreme views, and a passion for "putting down" what he imagined social
grievances. He lived to a green old age. In manners open, easy, and
unassuming; in disposition, friendly and liberal; kind as a master, and
unaffectedly hospitable as a host, he gained, as he deserved, "troops of
friends," dying lamented and honoured, as he had lived, respected and
beloved. (Aleph.)
When Sir Peter Laurie, as Lord Mayor of London, entertained the judges
and leaders of the bar, he exclaimed to his guests, in an after-dinner
oration:--
"See before you the examples of myself, the chief magistrate of this
great empire, and the Chief Justice of England sitting at my right hand;
both now in the highest offices of the state, and both _sprung from the
very dregs of the people_!"
[Illustration: BIRCH'S SHOP, CORNHILL (_see page 412_).]
Although Lord Tenterden possessed too much natural dignity and
truthfulness to blush for his humble origin, he winced at hearing his
excellent mother and her worthy husband, the Canterbury wig-maker, thus
described as belonging to "the very dregs of the people."
1837. Alderman Kelly, Lord Mayor at the accession of her Majesty, was
born at Chevening, in Kent, and lived, when a youth, with Alexander
Hogg, the publisher, in Paternoster Row, for L10 a year wages. He slept
under the shop-counter for the security of the premises. He was reported
by his master to be "too slow" for the situation. Mr. Hogg, however,
thought him "a bidable boy," and he remained. This incident shows upon
what apparently trifling circumstances sometimes a man's future
prospects depend. Mr. Kelly succeeded Mr. Hogg in the business, became
Alderman of the Ward of Farringdon Within, and served as sheriff and
mayor, the cost of which exceeded the fees and allowances by the sum of
L10,000. He lived upon the same spot sixty years, and died in his
eighty-fourth year. He was a man of active benevolence, and reminded one
of the pious Lord Mayor, Sir Thomas Abney. He composed some prayers for
his own use, which were subsequently printed for private distribution.
(Timbs.)
Sir John Cowan (Wax Chandler), mayor in 1838, was created a baronet
after having entertained the Queen at his mayoralty dinner.
1839. Sir Chapman Marshall, mayor. He received knighthood when sheriff,
in 1831; and at a public dinner of the friends and supporters of the
Metropolitan Charity Schools, he addressed the company as follows:--"My
Lord Mayor and gentlemen,--I want words to express the emotions of my
heart. You see before you a humble individual who has been educated at a
parochial school. I came to London in 1803, without a shilling, without
a friend. I have not had the benefit of a classical education; but this
I will say, my Lord Mayor and gentlemen, that you witness in me what
may be done by the earnest application of honest industry; and I trust
that my example may induce others to aspire, by the same means, to the
distinguished situation which I have now the honour to fill." Self-made
men are too fond of such glorifications, and forget how much wealth
depends on good fortune and opportunity.
[Illustration: THE STOCKS' MARKET, SITE OF THE MANSION HOUSE. (_From an
Old Print._) (_See page 416._)]
1839. Alderman Wilson, mayor, signalised his year of office by giving,
in the Egyptian Hall, a banquet to 117 connections of the Wilson family
being above the age of nine years. At this family festival, the usual
civic state and ceremonial were maintained, the sword and mace borne,
&c.; but after the loving cup had been passed round, the attendants were
dismissed, in order that the free family intercourse might not be
restricted during the remainder of the evening. A large number of the
Wilson family, including the alderman himself, have grown rich in the
silk trade. (Timbs.)
In 1842, Sir John Pirie, mayor, the Royal Exchange was commenced.
Baronetcy received on the christening of the Prince of Wales. At his
inauguration dinner at Guildhall, Sir John said: "I little thought,
forty years ago, when I came to London a poor lad from the banks of the
Tweed, that I should ever arrive at so great a distinction." In his
mayoralty show, Pirie, being a shipowner, added to the procession a
model of a large East Indiaman, fully rigged and manned, and drawn in a
car by six horses. (Aleph.)
Alderman Farncomb (Tallow-chandler), mayor in 1849, was one of the great
promoters of the Great Exhibition of 1851, that Fair of all Nations
which was to bring about universal peace, and wrap the globe in English
cotton. He gave a grand banquet at the Mansion House to Prince Albert
and a host of provincial mayors; and Prince Albert explained his views
about his hobby in his usual calm and sensible way.
In 1850 Sir John Musgrove (Clothworker), at the suggestion of Mr. G.
Godwin, arranged a show on more than usually aesthetic principles. There
was Peace with her olive-branch, the four quarters of the world, with
camels, deer, elephants, negroes, beehives, a ship in full sail, an
allegorical car, drawn by six horses, with Britannia on a throne and
Happiness at her feet; and great was the delight of the mob at the
gratuitous splendour.
Alderman Salomons (1855) was the first Jewish Lord Mayor--a laudable
proof of the increased toleration of our age. This mayor proved a
liberal and active magistrate, who repressed the mischievous and
unmeaning Guy Fawkes rejoicings, and through the exertions of the City
Solicitor, persuaded the Common Council to at last erase the absurd
inscription on the Monument, which attributed the Fire of London to a
Roman Catholic conspiracy.
Alderman Rose, mayor in 1862 (Spectacle-maker), an active encourager of
the useful and manly volunteer movement, had the honour of entertaining
the Prince of Wales and his beautiful Danish bride at a Guildhall
banquet, soon after their marriage. The festivities (including L10,000
for a diamond necklace) cost the Corporation some L60,000. The alderman
was knighted in 1867. He was (says Mr. Timbs) Alderman of Queenhithe,
living in the same row where three mayors of our time have resided.
Alderman Lawrence, mayor in 1863-4. His father and brother were both
aldermen, and all three were in turns Sheriff of London and Middlesex.
Alderman Phillips (Spectacle-maker), mayor in 1865, was the second
Jewish Lord Mayor, and the first Jew admitted into the municipality of
London. This gentleman, of Prussian descent, had the honour of
entertaining, at the Mansion House, the Prince of Wales and the King and
Queen of the Belgians, and was knighted at the close of his mayoralty.