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Mercers
The Mercers' Company, or the Worshipful Company of Mercers, is a livery company of the City of London in the Great Twelve City Livery Companies, and ranks first in the order of precedence of the Companies. Mercer comes from the Latin for merchant. Today, the Company exists primarily as a charitable institution, supporting a variety of causes. The company's motto is ''Honor Deo'' (Latin, "Honour to God"). History The Mercers' Company is based at Mercers' Hall, 6 Frederick's Place in the City of London. The City block upon which it stands contains the archaeology of a Roman-British temple known today as Gresham Temple. Its corporate existence began in the form of a fraternity at least by the reign of King Henry II, in the mid 1100s if not before. From 1210 to 1214, the first two Mayors of London, Henry FitzAlwyn and Robert FitzAlwyn were claimed to be members, and branch of the company was established at this time, the Company of Merchant Adventurers, who established th ...
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Mercery
Mercery (from French , meaning "habderdashery" (goods) or "haberdashery" (a shop trading in textiles and notions (sewing), notions) initially referred to silk, linen and fustian textiles among various other piece goods imported to Kingdom of England, England in the 12th century. Eventually, the term evolved to refer to a merchant or trader of textile goods, especially imported textile goods, particularly in England. A merchant would be known as a ''wikt:mercer, mercer'', and the profession as ''wikt:mercery, mercery''. The occupation of mercery has a rich and complex history dating back over 1,000 years in what is now the United Kingdom. London was the major trade centre in England for silk during the Middle Ages, and the trade enjoyed a special position in the economy amongst the wealthy. A typical mercery business was family-run, consisting of a mercer, wife, their family, servants, and apprentices. The husband would be tasked with the marketing and sale of the business's war ...
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Rowland Hill (MP)
Sir Rowland Hill (Hyll or Hylle or Hull or Hall) of Soulton Hall, Soulton ( 1495–1561), was the publisher of the Geneva Bible, thereby earning the title "The First Protestant Lord Mayor of London", having held that office in 1549. He was a statesman, polymath, merchant and patron of art and philanthropist active through the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I of England, Mary I and Elizabeth I. He is associated with the recovery and development of Tudor English drama a generation before Shakespeare, and events that Hill was involved in may have shaped one or more Shakespearean characters. As a political operator, he has been said to have been "influential at the highest level". Early life Rowland Hill was born of an ancient Shropshire family (first recorded as 'de Hull' and 'de la Hull'), with connections to Court of Hill near St John the Baptist's Church, Hope Bagot, Hope Bagot and Burford, Shropshire, Burford. He was born at Hodnet, Shropshire about 1495. He was the ...
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Thomas Gresham
Sir Thomas Gresham the Elder (; c. 151921 November 1579) was an English merchant and financier who acted on behalf of King Edward VI (1547–1553) and Edward's half-sisters, queens Mary I (1553–1558) and Elizabeth I (1558–1603). In 1565 Gresham founded the Royal Exchange in the City of London. Origins Born in London and descended from an old Norfolk family, Gresham was one of two sons and two daughters of Sir Richard Gresham, a leading merchant mercer and Lord Mayor of London, who was knighted by King Henry VIII for negotiating favourable loans with foreign merchants. Education Gresham was educated at St Paul's School. After that, although his father wanted Thomas to become a merchant, Sir Richard first sent him to university at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He was concurrently apprenticed in the Mercers' Company to his uncle Sir John Gresham, founder of Gresham's School, while he was still at Cambridge. Agent in the Low Countries In 1543 the Mercers' Com ...
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Robert Pakington
Robert Pakington (c. 1489 – 13 November 1536) was a London merchant and Member of Parliament. He was murdered with a handgun in London in 1536, likely the first such killing in the city. His murder was later interpreted as martyrdom, and recounted in John Foxe's Acts and Monuments. He was the grandfather of Queen Elizabeth I's favourite, Sir John "Lusty" Pakington. Family Robert Pakington, born about 1489 at Stanford-on-Teme, Worcestershire, was a younger son of John Pakington and Elizabeth Washborne, the daughter of Thomas Washborne. He had three brothers, John, Augustine, and Humphrey. Life By 1510 Pakington had completed an apprenticeship with the Mercers' Company, one of the twelve great livery companies of London, and was exporting cloth and importing various wares. In 1523, and again in 1529, he and others were chosen to draw up articles on behalf of the Mercers for presentation to Parliament. According to Peter Marshall, one of the articles drawn up in 1529 was "shar ...
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William Caxton
William Caxton () was an English merchant, diplomat and writer. He is thought to be the first person to introduce a printing press into Kingdom of England, England in 1476, and as a Printer (publishing), printer to be the first English retailer of printed books. His parentage and date of birth are not known for certain, but he may have been born between 1415 and 1424, perhaps in the Weald or wood land of Kent, perhaps in Hadlow or Tenterden. In 1438 he was apprenticed to Robert Large, a wealthy London silk Mercery, mercer. Shortly after Large's death, Caxton moved to Bruges, Belgium, a wealthy cultured city in which he was settled by 1450. Successful in business, he became governor of the Company of Merchant Adventurers of London; on his business travels, he observed the new printing industry in Cologne, which led him to start a printing press in Bruges in collaboration with Colard Mansion. When Margaret of York, sister of Edward IV, married the Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgund ...
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Livery Company
A livery company is a type of guild or professional association that originated in medieval times in London, England. Livery companies comprise London's ancient and modern trade associations and guilds, almost all of which are Style (form of address), styled the "Worshipful Company of" their craft, trade or profession. There are 113 livery companies as at March 2025. They play a significant part in the life of the City of London, not least by providing charitable-giving and networking opportunities. Liverymen retain voting rights for the senior Official, civic offices, such as the Lord Mayor of London, Lord Mayor, Sheriffs of London, Sheriffs and Court of Common Council, Common Council of the City of London Corporation, City Corporation, London's ancient Municipal corporation, municipal authority with extensive local government powers. The term ''livery'' originated in the designed form of dress worn by Affinity (medieval), retainers of a nobleman and then by extension to Unif ...
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Hospital Of St Thomas Of Acre
The Hospital of St Thomas of Acre was the medieval London headquarters of the Knights of Saint Thomas, founded as a church (building), church in 1227 in the parish of St Mary Colechurch, birthplace of the order's patron saint, Thomas Becket, Saint Thomas Becket. From the 14th century, it was the main headquarters of the military order. In 1512, the Worshipful Company of Mercers bought from the order a site by the church on which to build its hall. In 1514, it formally became the order's patron. In 1538, during the Protestant Reformation, the order was dissolved. The properties were forfeited to the crown and subsequently acquired by the Mercers in exchange for various payments, rents, and undertakings."The London Encyclopaedia" Hibbert,C;Weinreb,D;Keay,J: London, Pan Macmillan, 1983 (rev 1993,2008) Burials *John Alleyn (mayor), John Alleyn *Joan Butler, Countess of Ormond, in the Mercers' Chapel *Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond, in the Mercers' Chapel Notes The church of St. ...
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Lord Mayor's Show
The Lord Mayor's Show is one of the best-known annual events in London as well as one of the longest-established, dating back to the 13th century. A new lord mayor is appointed every year, and the public parade that takes place as their inauguration ceremony reflects that this was once one of the most prominent offices in England and subsequently the United Kingdom. The show is named after the Lord Mayor of the City of London, a city and ceremonial county within Greater London and the historic centre of the wider metropolis. This is distinct from the Mayor of London, the elected head of the Greater London Authority (a position which has existed only since 2000). The City is London's main financial district, widely known informally as 'the Square Mile'. The Lord Mayor's Show is centred on a street parade, which in its modern form is a light-hearted combination of traditional British pageantry and elements of carnival. On the day after being sworn in, the Lord Mayor and several o ...
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Thomas Leigh (Lord Mayor)
Sir Thomas Leigh (c. 1504 – 15 November 1571) was an English merchant and Lord Mayor of London in 1558-59. He served as a City Alderman from 1552 until 1571. Life Leigh was born about 1504 at Wellington, Shropshire to Roger Leigh (died 1506) and Anne ''née'' Trafford. He was the 2nd great-grandson of Sir Piers Leigh, who was wounded at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, whose family was a cadet branch of the ancient Leighs, of West Hall, High Legh, Cheshire. Leigh was raised by Sir Rowland Hill, a City mercer and wool merchant, and later joined Sir Rowland's business, and circa 1535, he married his niece and heir, Alice Barker, daughter of John Barker and Elizabeth ''née'' Hill. The following year he was appointed a Justice of the Peace for Shropshire. Leigh, who served three times as Master of the Mercers' Company, also served as Sheriff of London (1555–56), and in 1558 became Lord Mayor of London. He was also a merchant of the Staple and a member of the Merc ...
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Magna Carta
(Medieval Latin for "Great Charter"), sometimes spelled Magna Charta, is a royal charter of rights agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. First drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Stephen Langton, to make peace between the unpopular king and a group of rebel barons who demanded that the King confirm the Charter of Liberties, it promised the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift and impartial justice, and limitations on feudal payments to the Crown, to be implemented through a council of 25 barons. Neither side stood by their commitments, and the charter was annulled by Pope Innocent III, leading to the First Barons' War. After John's death, the regency government of his young son, Henry III, reissued the document in 1216, stripped of some of its more radical content, in an unsuccessful bid to build political support for their cause. At the end of th ...
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Magna Carta (British Library Cotton MS Augustus II
(Medieval Latin for "Great Charter"), sometimes spelled Magna Charta, is a royal charter of rights agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. First drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Stephen Langton, to make peace between the unpopular king and a group of rebel barons who demanded that the King confirm the Charter of Liberties, it promised the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift and impartial justice, and limitations on feudal payments to the Crown, to be implemented through a council of 25 barons. Neither side stood by their commitments, and the charter was annulled by Pope Innocent III, leading to the First Barons' War. After John's death, the regency government of his young son, Henry III, reissued the document in 1216, stripped of some of its more radical content, in an unsuccessful bid to build political support for their cause. At the end of the war ...
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Serlo Le Mercer
Serlo le Mercer was Mayor of London for five terms in the early 1210s. He was a member of the Worshipful Company of Mercers and was one of the negotiators of Magna Carta (Medieval Latin for "Great Charter"), sometimes spelled Magna Charta, is a royal charter of rights agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. First drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardin ....William Hardel.
Magna Carta Trust. Retrieved 24 April 2016.


See also

* List of lord mayors of London


References


External links

*
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