Edward Ironside (Lord Mayor of London) Edward Ironside (Lord Mayor of London) Edward Ironside (25 Feb 1705 – 1753) was a British banker and Lord Mayor of London in 1753. Ironside was born in the parish of St Martin in the Fields, Westminster, the son of Edward Ironside and his wife Mary Gatton. He was apprenticed to his father on 8 November 1720 for seven years and was granted freedom of the City on 2 October 1728 and admitted to the Goldsmiths Company on 5 March 1729. He became a Banker in business at the Black Lion, 65 Lombard Street. In 1730, he married Anne Newman.
James Townsend (Lord Mayor of London) a co-founder. He turned from a friend of Wilkes's to one of his fiercest opponents. Townsend was elected Lord Mayor of London in 1772. Wilkes had come first in the polls but Sheriff Richard Oliver manipulated the voting process to prevent the election of Wilkes. This created political turmoil in the City and a mob incensed by Townsend's coup rioted outside Guildhall during the ball on Lord Mayor's Day. Townsend's arms were erased from the church of St Helen's Bishopsgate. John Wilkes was eventually elected Lord Mayor in 1774. In 1781, Townsend presented a petition for electoral reform from the