Sir William Billers FRS (1689 – 15 October 1745) was an English haberdasher who was Alderman, Sheriff and Lord Mayor of London. [1]
He was born in Thorley, Hertfordshire, where the Billers family, who originated from Kirby Bellars in Leicestershire, owned Thorley Hall and manor.
He became a London haberdasher and a member of the Haberdashers' Company, to whom he donated a painting entitled "The Wise Men's Offering" which hung in Haberdashers' Hall. [2]
In 1720–21, he was elected joint Sheriff of the City of London and in 1733-34 elected 399th Lord Mayor of London. In 1722 he became an Alderman for Cordwainer Ward. [3] In 1726 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and was knighted in 1727. [1]
He died in 1745 and was buried in Thorley church. He married Anne ( c. 1711–1750), daughter of Sir Rowland Aynsworth and Sarah Fleet (daughter of Sir John Fleet, Lord Mayor of London in 1693), by whom he had two sons and four daughters: John, William, Martha, Anne, Elizabeth, and Maria. [4] His two sons and daughter Martha predeceased him. His eldest daughter Anne, who married John Olmius (later Baron Waltham) was his eventual heiress. [5]
After his death, his extensive library was auctioned by Christopher Cock at his house in the Great Piazza, Covent Garden on 22 November 1745. [6]
References
- ^ a b "Fellow details". Royal Society. Retrieved 1 March 2017.
- ^ Pugh, Edward. London, by David Hughson. p. 413.
- ^ "Aldermen of the City of London: Cordwainer ward". British History Online. Retrieved 1 March 2017.
- ^ "Topographical Description of Thorley, Herts". The Gentleman's Magazine. 110. E. Cave: 112. August 1811. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
- ^ Burke, Bernard (1866). A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire. Harrison. p. 415. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
- ^ Cock, Mr [Christopher] (1745). A catalogue of the entire library of Sir William Billers, Knt. and alderman, lately deceas'd, etc. London: Christopher Cock.
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