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
Frederick Bull (Lord Mayor of London) 1772. He became Lord Mayor of London for 1773-74. Bull stood for the City of London at a by-election in 1773 and was returned after a hard-fought contest on 23 December 1773. He was returned for the City after a contest again in 1774 and 1780. Bull was a Dissenter and close supporter of John Wilkes. He followed the Bill of Rights Society programme throughout his parliamentary career. His politics were radical and anti-Popery and in the spring of 1780 he supported Lord George Gordon’s Protestant crusade which led to the riots in June. Bull retired from business about 1782.