1907.] J/r. Charh>i Welch on the Guildhall Library. 467 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, January 25, 1907. 



The Right Hon. Lord Alveestone, G.C.M.G. P.O. M.A. 

 D.C.L. LL.D. F.R.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Charles Welch, Esq., F.S.A., Late Librarian to the Corporation 



of London. 



The GuiJdhall Library. 



The story of the Guildhall Library has its origin in the interesting 

 personality of Sir Richard Whittington, around whose memory has 

 gathered a halo of romance and veneration which has endeared him 

 to Londoners of every generation since his day. The good knight 

 well deserved this homage — a merchant prince whose far-sighted 

 enterprise not only brought great gain to himself, but largely con- 

 tributed to build up and extend his country's commerce ; a patriot 

 whose munificent assistance to his sovereign was on a scale befitting 

 a king rather than a subject ; a magistrate whose wisdom and probity 

 secured for him the approbation of the king and of his fellow citizens, 

 by whom he was four times placed in the honourable position of Lord 

 Mayor ; a terror to evil-doers, a friend of the poor, and lastly, an 

 ■enthusiastic lover of learning, and by means of his great wealth one 

 of its most generous supporters — Sir Richard is truly described by 

 Canon Lysons, his biographer, as "The model merchant of the 

 Middle Ages." His benevolence to the poor is fittingly com- 

 memorated by one of the historical paintings which now decorate 

 the interior of the Royal Exchange in which he is represented with 

 his wife, Dame Alice, relieving the wants of poor people who are 

 crowding round his door. That his charitable disposition was 

 associated with genuine piety is clearly seen in the kindness that 

 pervaded all the acts of his busy life, and is further shown by the 

 institution of a religious service at the Guildhall Chapel before his 

 election for his third mayoralty in 1406, a service which has lasted in 

 its post-Reformation form to the present day. 



It would seem that Whittington was too much occupied with his 

 many public duties to arrange during his life-time for the exact 

 disposition of his immense fortune, which was left absolutely at the 

 disposal of his executors. These were men who enjoyed his complete 

 confidence and with whom he must have frequently discussed in 

 outline the various beneficent schemes which they so faithfully 

 earned out after his decease. Their names were John Coventry, 

 a brother alderman, who was mayor in 1425 ; John, or Jenkin, 



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