Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
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Description area
Dates of existence
History
Sir Thomas Davies was the first of very few stationers to become Lord Mayor of London. Born in London and educated at St. Paul’s School, Davies was apprenticed in 1648 to bookseller, Thomas Whitaker, whilst also being bound to his father in the Drapers’ Company. He was freed of the Stationers’ Company in 1655 and set up as a bookseller in St Paul’s Churchyard. Davies took the livery in 1664. He was able to become increasingly involved in London civic life after inheriting a fortune from his great-uncle Hugh Audley (d.1662). In 1667, Davies was made alderman and knighted in quick succession, and was consequently elected to Company Assistant and shortly after Master of the Stationers’ Company. Upon his election to Lord Mayor of London in 1676, Davies transferred to the Drapers’ Company as only a liveryman of one of the Twelve Great Companies could hold the mayoralty. Following his tenure as Lord Mayor, Davies served as Master of the Drapers’ Company and Colonel of the Orange Regiment.
Places
Legal status
Functions, occupations and activities
Alderman of Farringdon Without (1667), Sheriff (1667-8), Assistant (1667-1676), Master of the Stationers’ Company (1669-1670), Lord Mayor of London (1676-1677), Master of the Drapers’ Company (1677-1678), Colonel of the Orange Regiment (1677-1680)
Mandates/sources of authority
Internal structures/genealogy
John Davies (father), merchant adventurer and draper; Mary Pecock (mother); Elizabeth Ridges (wife); Hugh Audley (great-uncle)
General context
Relationships area
Access points area
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Control area
Authority record identifier
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Rules and/or conventions used
International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) 2nd edition - ICA 2004 ISBN 2-9521932-2-3
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Language(s)
English
Script(s)
Latin
Sources
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
C. Rivington, ‘Sir Thomas Davies: the first bookseller lord mayor of London’, The Library, 6th ser., 3 (1981), 187–201