John Fresshe of King Richard II's ill-fated poll tax within the city from December 1380. It was this tax which was to provoke the outbreak of the Peasants' Revolt in June the next year. Fresshe was one of three such men—along with fellow mercers, John Horn and Adam Karlille—to be sent by the then-mayor, William Walworth, to meet with the army assembled by rebel leader Wat Tyler at Blackheath in June 1381. Juliet Barker suggests that this was a pivotal meeting in the history of the revolt. The Mayor instructed Fresshe and his colleagues to negotiate with the rebels, and, if possible,
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.