Samuel Birch

Son of a pastry chef, Birch was born in 1757, and after finishing a private school education, he was apprenticed to his father. He married in 1778, and had thirteen children by his wife. He worked his way up in local politics, and was a vocal supporter of Pitt’s administration. When he first proposed the formation of volunteer regiments at the outbreak of the French revolution, not a single common councilman supported him. Subsequently, when the measure was adopted, he became the lieutenant-colonel commandant of the 1st regiment of Loyal London volunteers. He became Lord Mayor of London in 1814, and despite being a Tory he was 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. 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.