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
William Leighton (Lord Mayor of London) May that year. Leighton was listed as one of the governors of Christ's Hospital in 1825. Leighton died at Kemnal House in Kent, in 1826. He had previously lived in Charlton. William Leighton (Lord Mayor of London) Sir William Leighton (1752 – 23 April 1826) was a British shipowner and merchant who served as the Lord Mayor of London in 1806. Leighton's family was from County Durham in the North East of England and he moved to London around 1779 following his father's death. Leighton worked as a coal merchant shipping coal from the port of Newcastle, and was based