Samuel Birch (Lord Mayor of London) advocacy of the Protestant ascendency in Ireland. In 1811, he was appointed one of the sheriffs of London, and on 9 November 1814 Birch entered on his duties as lord mayor. Tory though he was, he opposed the Corn Bill of 1815, and presided at a meeting of the livery in common hall on 23 February 1815, when he made a vigorous attack upon the intended prohibition of the free importation of foreign corn. The course he took on this occasion is commemorated by a medal struck in his honour on the obverse side of which is the bust of
William Gore (Lord Mayor of London) William Gore (Lord Mayor of London) Sir William Gore (1644 - 1708) was Lord Mayor of London for 1701-02, having been elected Alderman for the City Ward of Coleman Street in 1690. A successful merchant, Gore was appointed a founding Director of the Bank of England in 1694 before serving as Governor of the Hamburg and Levant Companies. The son of William Gore, barrister-at-law, of Morden, Surrey and his wife Jane "née" Smith, Sir William was a grandson of Sir John Gore, Lord Mayor of London (died 1636), a kinsman of Arthur Gore, 1st Earl of Arran, and great-uncle of