Thomas Atkins (Lord Mayor)

Thomas Atkins was Lord Mayor of London and an English politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1640 and from 1647 to 1653 and was Lord Mayor of London in 1644. He supported the Parliamentary cause in the English Civil War.

Biography

Atkins was the son of John Atkins of King's Lynn, Norfolk. He was an alderman of Norwich, and then an alderman of the City of London for Bridge Without, from Lime Street. He was Sheriff of London in 1637,[1] and colonel of the Red Regiment, London Trained Bands, in 1642.[2][3]

In April 1640, Atkins was elected member of parliament for Norwich in the Short Parliament.[4] He was imprisoned in the Tower of London in May 1640 with three other aldermen – Nicholas Rainton, Thomas Soame and John Gayre – for refusing to list the inhabitants of his ward who were able to contribute £50 or more to a loan for King Charles.[5] During the Civil War he was colonel of the Norwich city militia. He was Lord Mayor of London in 1644.[1] In 1647 Atkins was re-elected MP for Norwich for the Long Parliament and sat until 1653.[4] On Thursday, 7 January 1649, he delivered a solemn thanksgiving to Oliver Cromwell and also issued a Hosannah on 7 June 1649. He was a "busy stickler for independency and republicanism", and the principal tool by which the Rump Parliament managed the common council of London.[1]

Atkkins was knighted by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell on 5 December 1657 (the title passed into oblivion at the restoration of the Monarchy in 1660).[6] He was Father of the City in 1658 and was discharged from his position as Alderman on 12 February 1661.[7]

References
  1. John Burke A genealogical and heraldic history of the commoners of Great ..., Volume 4
  2. Keith Roberts, London And Liberty: Ensigns of the London Trained Bands, Eastwood, Nottinghamshire: Partizan Press, 1987, ISBN 0-946525-16-1, pp. 29–31.
  3. Red Rgt at British Civil War Project.
  4. Willis, Browne (1750). Notitia Parliamentaria, Part II: A Series or Lists of the Representatives in the several Parliaments held from the Reformation 1541, to the Restoration 1660 ... London. pp. 229–239.
  5. 'Notes on the aldermen, 1502-1700', The Aldermen of the City of London: Temp. Henry III – 1912 (1908), pp. 168-195. Date accessed: 15 July 2011
  6. Shaw, William Arthur (1906), The Knights of England: A complete record from the earliest time to the present day of the knights of all the orders of chivalry in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and of knights bachelors, incorporating a complete list of knights bachelors dubbed in Ireland, vol. 2, London: Sherratt and Hughes, p. 224
  7. 'Fathers of the City', The Aldermen of the City of London: Temp. Henry III – 1912 (1908), pp. 250-254. Date accessed: 4 March 2011
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