RICHARD WHITTINGTON - THRICE LORD MAYOR OF LONDON

RICHARD WHITTINGTON (d. March 1423 - London, England)

English merchant and Lord Mayor of London who has become famous in legend
and as a traditional pantomime hero. The son of a knight of Gloucestershire,
Whittington opened a mercer’s shop in London, supplying velvets and damasks
to such notables as Henry of Bolingbroke (later King Henry IV).
He then entered city politics and served three terms as Lord Mayor of London:
1397 - 1399, 1406 - 1407, and 1419 - 1420. By 1400 he had acquired immense wealth
and commercial prestige. He made large loans to Kings Henry IV (ruled 1399 - 1413)
and Henry V (ruled 1413 - 1422) and bequeathed his vast fortune to charitable and
public purposes.
Popular legend makes Dick Whittington a poor orphan employed as a scullion
by a rich London merchant. He ventures his only possession, a cat, as an item
to be sold on one of his master’s trading ships. Ill treated by the cook,
Dick then runs away, but just outside the city he hears the prophetic peal of
bells that seems to say, “Turn again, Whittington, Lord Mayor of great London.”
He returns to find that his cat has been sold for a great fortune to a Moorish
ruler whose dominions are plagued with rats.
Whittington marries his master’s daughter, succeeds to the business, and
subsequently becomes thrice Lord Mayor of London.

The first recorded reference to the tale appears in 1605.

Note Below: There is a supposed portrait of Whittington and his cat, engraving by Renold (Renier Elstracke, early 17th century).

Information taken from Encyclopedia Britannica.