Samuel Birch (Lord Mayor of London) the lord mayor, and on the reverse a representation of a wheatsheaf, with the legend, 'Free Importation, Peace and Plenty.' During his mayoralty the marble statue of George III by Chantrey, the inscription on which was written by Birch, was placed in the council chamber of Guildhall. Almost his last act as lord mayor was to lay the foundation-stone of the London Institution in Finsbury Circus (then called the Amphitheatre, Moorfields) on 4 November 1815. In 1836 Birch, who had for many years carried on his father's old business in Cornhill, disposed of it to Messrs. Ring & Brymer, the
Lord Mayor of London Mayor in 1752, when Sir Crispin Gascoigne took up residence. In each of the eighteen courtrooms of the Old Bailey, the centre of the judges' bench is reserved for the Lord Mayor, in his capacity of Chief Justice of the City of London. The presiding judge therefore sits to one side. It is sometimes asserted that the Lord Mayor may exclude the monarch from the City of London. The legend is based on the misinterpretation of the ceremony observed each time the sovereign enters the City. At Temple Bar the Lord Mayor presents the City's Pearl Sword to the sovereign