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 Laxton (Lord Mayor of London) hanged. As the summer approached the executions of the Countess of Salisbury and of Lord Leonard Gray took place at the Tower. In 1541–42, and in 1543–44, he was again Master of the Grocers' Company: and, having transferred as Alderman to the Langbourn ward in 1543, late in 1544 he was elected Lord Mayor. Before May 1539 he had married Joan Kirkeby, daughter of William Kirkeby and his wife the heiress Alice Whetthill, and widow of Henry Loddington, who had died in 1531 leaving Joan with at least three children. According to heraldic Visitations Luddington, a London Grocer and Merchant