Thomas Skinner (Lord Mayor of London, 1596) he had been elected 28 September, master of the Clothworkers Company, 1584. Shortly after the month of November, 1588, Alderman Skinner was detained in custody for disobedience to an Order of the Queen-in-Council, and was suspected to be one of those that upon retirement out of the City of London, or some other cause, refused to contribute what was allotted him towards Her Majesty's loan from the City. In 1596 Queen Elizabeth interfered with the ordinary course of election of the Lord Mayor as will be seen by a "Letter (dated 1st Sept., 1596) from the Aldermen to Mr. Alderman
James Townsend (Lord Mayor of London) James Townsend (Lord Mayor of London) James Townsend (baptised 8 February 1737 – 1 July 1787) was an English Whig politician and Lord Mayor of London in 1772–73. It has been claimed that he was the first person of mixed race to hold such positions. James Townsend was baptised on 8 February 1737 at the church of St. Christopher-le-Stocks in London. He was the son of London merchant (and later MP) Chauncy Townsend and his wife Bridget Phipps. He attended Hertford College, Oxford in 1756. In politics James Townsend was closely linked from the 1760s with the Whig grandee William