#117 A VERY POWERFUL AND INFLUENTIAL GUILD

October 30, 2025

#117 A VERY POWERFUL AND INFLUENTIAL GUILD

Lady Juliana Browne (1491-1537) is, quite possibly, my 12^th, 13^th or 14^th great grandmother, or an aunt, or cousin. Her familial connections gave her a life unlike most Londoners as her husband, (John Mundy), two grandfathers (Edmund Shaa, John Browne), a cousin (William Browne), her step-grandfather (Henry Keble) all served as Lord Mayors of London. It is not surprising, then, that her father, William Browne was also a Lord Mayor and an influential man of his times.

SIR WILLIAM BROWNE

William was son of Lord Mayor Sir John Browne and his second wife. He was married twice and had several children. He married his first wife, Katherine Shaa, on April 20 1488; she was a daughter of Lord Mayor Sir Edmund Shaa, a goldsmith and advisor to Edward IV and Richard III. Julianna was a daughter from this marriage. William’s second wife was Alice Keble and they had two sons and three daughters. I have yet to prove William’s royal ancestors but it is possible that William was the 7x great grandson of Henry III of England.

(After William’s death, Alice married William Blount, 4^th Baron Mountjoy. Blount was a keen student of Erasmus, the famous scholar. Erasmus even called Blount “the most learned among the nobles.” Blount later became tutor for Henry VIII; he also served as Chamberlain to Catherine of Aragon and it fell to Blount to tell Catherine that Henry wanted a divorce.)

Browne’s professional identity was anchored in the Mercer’s Company. Browne followed in his father’s footsteps, rising through the company’s hierarchy to become Master of the Mercers for several successive years (1507-1514). This role carried great responsibility: overseeing apprenticeships, settling disputes among traders, managing the company’s charitable endowments and negotiating with the Crown on trade privileges. His private wealth derived from cloth exports to Antwerp, investments in overseas trade ventures and prudent real estate purchases. His will showed that he possessed plate, tapestries, and other luxuries befitting his station; he acquired estates, thus consolidating his family’s status among the landed gentry.

William Browne held several key positions in the City of London. He was a Sheriff in 1504, an Alderman for Cordwainer Ward from 1505 to 1514, and from 1510 to 1512 a city Auditor checking the city’s spending. In 1513, he was elected Lord Mayor of London.

His mayoralty coincided with a moment of national and international display. On May 14, 1514 the Pope’s envoy presented Henry VIII with a ceremonial sword and cap. The sword symbolized the Pope’s recognition of Henry as Defender of the Faith and the cap, (decorated with religious symbols like a dove for the Holy Spirit) signified spiritual authority or protection. Both these items were blessed by the Pope. Henry VIII was seen (within Catholic Christendom) as a potential ally or defender of papal interests. It was the Mercers, led by Browne as Lord Mayor, who staged the civic welcome, organized the liveried procession, the musicians and the gifts that displayed the city’s loyalty to the king. As Lord Mayor, Browne would have attended the event in full regalia.

Pope Leo X bestows Henry VIII with the title Defender of the Faith

The Mercers’ Company ranked first in civic precedence while the Goldsmith Company ranked fifth. But the Browne-Shaa-Mundy families’ intermarriages, their shared ventures and overlapping civic offices showed how closely allied were the two guilds. Mercers controlled long-distance trade routes and the Goldsmiths handled the bullion and precious goods from these routes. By marrying into each other’s bloodlines, these families monopolized the offices of mayors, sheriff and aldermen. They translated their guild wealth into landed gentry status and collectively they endowed churches, charities and London schools. The Shaa-Mundy-Browne triad formed London’s merchant-civic aristocracy.

William Browne died suddenly, while mayor, on June 3, 1514, aged 46. (London experienced plague activity from 1511 until 1514.) In his will, Browne requested burial in the Mercers Chapel of St.Thomas of Acre, but some records suggest that he was buried at St.Mary Magdalen (destroyed in the Great Fire) His will gave bequests to the Mercers’ Company and to several London parishes. A monument, since destroyed, to him was noted at Mercers' Hall.

Will of William Browne

Post Script: The Mercers’ Company

William Browne belonged to the Mercers’ Company and served as Master of Mercers from 1507 to 1514. The Mercers produced a number of London mayors (best known was Sir Richard “Dick” Whittington.); between 1450 and 1550, at least one third of the Lord Mayors were Mercers. Membership in the Mercers was limited and prestigious—open only to those with immense capital, reputation and sometimes lineage. Other notable Mercers include William Caxton (printer), Robert-Baden-Powell (founder of the Boy Scouts) and Winston Churchill (honourary membership).

I am using Browne’s story as a segue to write about the Mercers’ Company. In 2020, just before covid hit, we spent 10 days in London. I knew that I had some familial connection to the Mercers and knew I had kin buried in their chapel, so we arranged an appointment to visit the chapel; that appointment led to a private tour of the Hall. (The woman who spent the two hours with us and gave us so many stories and information was Canadian; she seemed to appreciate our gift of maple sugar.)

Mercers' Hall--a pretty unimposing building on the outside

The Mercers’ Company was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1394 under Richard II. Originally, mercers were dealers in fine textiles, especially silks, velvets and luxury fabrics imported from Italy and the Low Countries. By 1500, Mercers were anything but small traders as their trade had diversified into the brokerage of luxury goods (textiles, jewellery, small plate), credit and finance (often acting as moneylenders) and backers of overseas trade. Their members dealt directly with the mercantile centres of Florence, Venice, Antwerp and Bruge and they formed the merchant elite of the city. London was rapidly expanding, and mercers controlled the export of finished English cloth and its wholesale distribution.

Cheapside was the site of a principal produce market in medieval England. Many of the streets feeding into this main thoroughfare are named after produce sold in the area.eg. Honey Street, Milk Lane, Bread Street, Poultry.

Mercers Hall was located just off Cheapside on Ironmongers's Lane between the Bank of England and St.Paul's Cathedral

The Mercers’ Company was arguably the most powerful of the Great 12 London Guilds and ranked first in civic precedence. Its influence extended far beyond trade into finance, politics and royal service, making it one of the central engines of London’s civic and economic life during the reign of Henry VIII. Mercers often lent large sums of money to the Crown; Henry VII and Henry VIII relied on these city loans. And because their trade networks crossed Christendom, Mercers were ambassadors and key intermediaries in papal and continental diplomacy. Members supplied cloth and ornaments for royal and ecclesiastical ceremonies.

Mercers became major patrons of religious foundations, and almshouses. They founded hospitals and schools. They provided charitable relief for members, widows and the poor. Their philanthropy secured them a reputation as London’s moral and civic elite, distinct from mere traders.

We were awed at the wealth and power that the Mercer Company still maintains.

After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, many religious guilds lost their function. But the Mercers, thanks to wise investments in property and trust endowments, reinvented themselves as a charitable and educational foundation. The Mercers became one of the largest private landowners in central London with prime property in Cheapside, Covent Garden and Long Acre; their real estate holdings are estimated to be about 500 million pounds (almost $1billion) . Much of their charity income comes from this property portfolio. Today their annual endowments are around one billion pounds ($1.5 billion Can.), they are among Britain’s’ largest non-government education patron of boys’ and girls’ prep schools, academies, and colleges. They donate tens of millions to arts and heritage, community welfare, medical research and inter-city regeneration.

The Mercers are still ranked first in precedence among the 111 London Livery companies. Present-day Members include leading business figures, financiers, and philanthropists, although membership is merit-based, not hereditary. They continue their ancient traditions including processions at the Lord Mayor’s show

The crowned woman is known as the Mercers' Maiden. It appeared on seals and windows by the 1400s making it one of the oldest heraldic emblems in continuous use in England. The maiden's head represents the Virgin Mary, the Mercers' patron saint; the crown represents purity and queenship; the clouds signify heavenly protection and divine inspiration.

Mercer Hall

The Hospital of St Thomas of Acon was founded on the birthplace of Thomas Becket who was born where Mercers’ Hall stands today. After his murder in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170 and canonisation in 1173, his cult spread throughout Europe. A military monastic order was founded in Acre in the name of St Thomas during the Third Crusade and in the late 1220s the order established a monastery called the Hospital of St Thomas of Acon on the site of Becket’s birthplace. The City of London took St Thomas as its second patron saint. The large Church of St Thomas built by the monastery in the 14th century became a key location in the ceremonial life of the City as well as a meeting place for members of the Mercers’ Company. Many wealthy Londoners paid large sums to be buried in the church and graveyard.

In the early 16th century, the Mercers' Company began to look for a site to build its own Hall. They purchased a small plot of land from the Monastery next to the church. The first hall was completed in 1522 although the Chapel wasn’t consecrated until 1524. In 1538, during the Protestant Reformation, the order was dissolved and the properties were forfeited to the crown, but were subsequently acquired by the Mercers in exchange for various payments, rents, and undertakings.

Mercers' Hall was burned to the ground during the Great Fire of London in 1666, then rebuilt.

The during the night of May 10/11, 1941, Mercers’ Hall was destroyed in a firestorm resulting from German bombing of London; this happened on the last night of the blitz. The present-day Mercer's Hall and Chapel, opened in 1958, are built on the site. It incorporates some of the fixtures from the second hall including 17th-century woodwork and Victorian-stained glass windows of Richard II, Thomas Becket, Elizabeth I; the windows remind all of the Company’s charter, its religious heritage and its Tudor connections. Chandeliers were hidden in caves in Wales and thus saved during the Blitz. All that remains of the original Chapel is the recumbent statue of Christ which lies at the entrance to the Mercers' Chapel. The Worshipful Company of Mercers is one of the few London Livery Companies to have its own private chapel; the chapel remains functional and there are some public sermons.

I wonder why I knew surprisingly little about the Mercers’ Company, even though their members, like William Browne and John Mundy and Edmund Shaa, shaped so much of London’s civic and economic life. But it seems that their influence was woven quietly into the fabric of the city: in guild records and charitable works rather than monuments and royal trappings. The Mercers were merchants, not warriors or courtiers, and their power lay in trade, credit, and civic service — areas that rarely make it into the exciting narratives of history. Their stories of these merchant aristocrats are easy to overlook; it’s satisfying to tell of their place in history.

chapel dome

chapel

This tall, wrought-iron staff or mace, surmounted by a crown-like finial bears the arms of the Mercers’ Company (the crowned Maiden’s Head). Additional shields lower down mounted on decorative iron scrollwork represent the royal arms and allied livery arms, affirming the Mercers’ historic precedence and royal connections. This is not a weapon but a symbol of civic authority and sanctity, and it’s used to mark the Mercers’ Chapel as a sacred and corporate space.