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,
John Gayer (Lord Mayor of London) John Gayer (Lord Mayor of London) John Gayer or Gayre (died 20 July 1649) was an English merchant who was Lord Mayor of London in 1646. He was born in Plymouth, eldest son of John Gayer senior, a merchsnt, and Margaret Trelawney. Both his parents were Cornish by birth: the Gayer family came originally from Liskeard. Gayer moved to London, and at one stage of his career spent some years in Syria, where a strange event later led him to institute the Lion Sermon. He became a city of London merchant and a member of the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers.