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Commission in the London Militia - Edward Wigan - 1792





The above document confirms Edward Wigan's appointment as a Major in the 5th Regiment of Foot in the City of London Militia, dated the 4th December 1792. At this time the London Militia comprised of six regiments, in all, 300 men plus officers, but this was greatly expanded following the French declaration of war on the 1st February 1793.

Edward Wigan was the son of the Bristol goldsmith Thomas Wigan. He served his apprenticeship in London under James Stamp and gained his Freedom on the 1st March 1786. In that same year he entered into partnership with Samuel Goodbehere. The partnership was later extended to include James Bult, who had also served his apprenticeship under James Stamp.

Edward Wigan was later to achieve the rank of Lieutenant Colonel of His Majesty's Royal West London Militia. He died in 1814.

Further information on Edward Wigan can be found at: Grimwade Updates - Edward Wigan

Trev.

The document is signed by some of the most important men of London during that turbulent period:

Sir James Sanderson Lord Mayor 1792-3. He played a major role as chairman of the London Association for aiding the Civil Powers in suppressing seditious meetings, for which he received his baronetcy. He was very active in preparing the city for possible invasion following the declaration of war by France on the 1st February 1793, promoting the Volunteer Corps Act and the City Militia Act. He was founder of the Revolution Society, an organisation established to celebrate anniversaries of the 1688 revolution.

Thomas Harley Lord Mayor 1767-8 was unfortunate enough to be a Tory in a Whig dominated London. He was one of the Sheriffs ordered to publicly burn Wilkes’s famous edition No.45 of the ‘North Briton’ and got pelted by the mob and had his coach destroyed for his pains, and in later years also his windows at the Mansion House for daring to defeat Wilkes in the election for Lord Mayor, and again in 1770 he was dragged from his coach and surrounded by the mob. Nevertheless, he had organised extensive food relief for the poor in the hard winter of 1768.

Brass Crosby Lord Mayor 1770-1 was, with Wilkes and Beckford, one of the great London Radicals of the time. He ordered the expulsion of the Navy Press Gangs from the City. He with Wilkes and another refused to carry out Parliament’s orders to arrest the printers of newspaper reports of House of Commons proceedings, and instead arrested the prosecutor. In the course of a long defiance of Parliament, Crosby was committed to the Tower, but the public’s right to reports of Parliamentary proceedings was never again challenged.

Thomas Sainsbury Lord Mayor 1786-7

William Pickett Lord Mayor 1789-90. Campaigned for improvements in the access to Fleet Street and the removal of Temple Bar. He died in 1796 but his scheme was partly carried out in 1819 when Butchers Row, a short stretch of the Strand around St Clements Danes, was cleared and widened and named Pickett Street, which in turn disappeared with the building of the Royal Courts Of Justice.

John Boydell Lord Mayor 1790-1, the renowned print seller and publisher, who did much to encourage artists and raise England’s prestige in the artistic world. Like Sanderson he was a member of the Revolution Society.

J.W. Anderson Lord Mayor 1797-8

Thomas Skinner Lord Mayor 1794-5 refused to allow the authorities to bring in troops to deal with the rioters and succeeded in controlling the mob without their aid.

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