Page 35 - An account of the Lodge of Nine Muses No. 235. 1777 to 2012UGLE

Lodge of the Nine Muses 35

the efforts of the Public Library, the Museum, and the Post Office at Reading
have failed to identify. Apprenticed in London at sixteen, at twenty-five he had
established himself in business as an upholsterer, and he soon became something
of a power in the City. In 1778 he was admitted to the freedom of the Worshipful
Company of Upholders, of which he was Master in 1811 and acting Master in
1827, 1828, 1831 and 1834.
In 1787 he became a member of the City Corporation for Bishopsgate Ward,
a position he held till his death fifty-one years later. In 1801 he was made Sheriff
and was knighted, and a little later was appointed H.M. Commissioner of the
Lieutenancy of the City. Sir William’s shrievalty had its lively moments, and covered,
among other sources of strife, a contested parliamentary election, over which he
and his colleague Alderman Cox were accused of corruptly admitting to the poll a
large number of unqualified voters, and had to defend themselves to the House of
Commons. They also declined to attend the Lord Mayor when the Prince of Wales
visited the Guildhall, because of some slight which they considered had been put
on the Mayoral Chaplains, and through them on the Church of England. About this
they took the unprecedented course of writing direct to the Prince in explanation
of their conduct; a copy of their letter is preserved in the Guildhall Library. His
Lordship cannot have borne malice, and their actions must have been approved
by the Council, for on 29 September 1802, Sir William and Mr Cox received the
thanks of the Lord Mayor and Liverymen assembled at the Guildhall for “their
manly and conscientious Difcharge of the various important Duties of that high
Office in a year of unprecedented Public Duty . . .”.
His chief financial achievement was his share in the foundation in 1807
10
of the still flourishing Eagle Insurance Company, a bold undertaking in so
distracted a period. He was its first Chairman and for thirty years was the
Company’s mainstay and guide. A parchment found beneath the foundation
stone of Waterloo Bridge during its demolition disclosed Sir William’s name
also among those of the twelve original directors of the Strand Bridge, as it
was at first called; a photograph and description appeared in The Times on 28
July 1938. For these details we are indebted to the Clerk to the Worshipful
Company of Upholders, and to Mr Brian Mountain of the Eagle Star Insurance

10 Now incorporated in the Eagle Star Company. ???