Leonard Halliday "Mayor of London"

Leonard Halliday, later Sir Leonard Halliday, was also known by the spellings Holliday and Hollyday. The supplied life-date heading gives his birth year as 1537, while the family-tree notes say that he was born perhaps about 1550 at Rodborough, Gloucestershire. Those notes identify him as the son of William Halliday, a clothmaker, and Sarah Brydges. [1]

Perhaps in the late 1560s, Leonard was sent to London and served an apprenticeship with the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors. In May 1578 he married Anne, described as an heiress and as the daughter of William Wincoll, whose surname is also given as Wincott or Winhold, of Suffolk. They had three known children: Rowland, born in 1579 and dead in 1580; John, born in 1582 and dead in 1610; and Walter, who died in 1598. [1]

Halliday expanded his commercial interests when he joined the Levant Company in 1592. In 1594, he was among fourteen Merchant Taylors who pledged money under one of the company’s charitable schemes to assist an indigent widow. [2] That year he entered London’s local government as an alderman, and he served as one of the city’s sheriffs in 1595–96. [3]

In September 1599, Halliday was one of 125 merchants who formed the Governor and Merchants of the City of London Trading to the East Indies, later known as the East India Company. The company received its charter on 31 December 1600. Halliday was among its original “committees,” or directors, and served as joint treasurer from 1600 to 1602. [4] He invested £1,000 in the company’s first voyage, described in the notes as the largest individual stake. The first two voyages to India were profitable and provided imported merchandise for resale. [5]

King James I knighted Leonard Halliday on 26 July 1603. The notes state that he was one of 906 men knighted during the first four months of the new king’s reign. [6]

Sir Leonard was Lord Mayor of London from 29 October 1605 until October 1606. His installation was marked by a pageant, The Triumphs of Reunited Britannia. [7] A week later, on 5 November 1605, the plot to kill the king by blowing up the Houses of Parliament was foiled. As Lord Mayor, Sir Leonard was responsible for maintaining public order during the trial and execution of the conspirators in January 1606. On 2 August 1606, he hosted King James I and the king’s brother-in-law, King Christian IV of Denmark, during Christian’s state visit to England. [7]

During his lord mayoralty, Sir Leonard oversaw the redevelopment of Moorfields, a swamp north of the city wall. Despite public criticism, the area was drained and surfaced, and gardens and walks were laid out. The notes report that workers called the difficult labor “Holidaye worke.” [8]

Sir Leonard was Master of the Merchant Taylors Company in 1605–06. He remained a committee of the East India Company, invested £400 in its third voyage, and unsuccessfully stood for the company’s governorship, or chairmanship, in 1609. [4]

He died on 9 January 1612, leaving what the notes describe as a sizeable estate. His widow Anne married Sir Henry Montagu, later 1st Earl of Manchester, in November 1613. The notes state that she died in 1619, but give no supporting citation for that date.

In 1605, Sir Leonard obtained confirmation of his arms and a grant of a crest from the College of Arms. His arms were described as “Sable, three helmets Argent garnished Or, within a bordure engrailed of the second”: a black shield with three silver helmets trimmed in gold, within an engrailed silver border. His newly granted crest was the upper half of a gold lion facing forward and holding an anchor. [9]