Edward Clarke (Lord Mayor of London)

Sir Edward Clarke (died 1703), of Brickendon, Hertfordshire, was an English merchant who served as Lord Mayor of London in the year 1696 to 1697.

[1] He was a member of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors and in 1675, he became a Common Councillor for the City of London ward of Farringdon Within.

[1] In 1682, he acquired the Liberty of Brickendon three miles from Hertford from Sir William Soame, 1st Baronet.

[3] The manor was ‘considered “one of the delightful seats of this neighbourhood, having to the front a dry pleasant soil towards Hertford, and on the contrary view woods at half a mile distance, with vistas all pointing to the House’ [4] Clarke was probably responsible for the earliest and most imposing part of the mansion.

[2] In 1690, he was elected Sheriff of London, when he was described as ‘of the same temper with the mayor’ Sir Thomas Pilkington suggesting he was a strong Whig, possibly with dissenting sympathies.