William McArthur (Lord Mayor of London) William McArthur (Lord Mayor of London) Sir William McArthur, (6 July 1809 – 16 November 1887) was an Irish businessman and Lord Mayor of London, and a Liberal Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1868 to 1885. McArthur was born at Malin, County Donegal, the son of Rev. John McArthur, a Methodist minister in Londonderry. In 1821 he was apprenticed to a woollen draper in Enniskillen. He moved to Lurgan in 1825 where he was a merchant and in 1831 established a drapery business in Derry initially in a partnership, but later on his own. In
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