The first Clothworker Lord Mayor was Sir William Hewett, Master of the Company in 1543-4. His chief fame today is as the father of Ann Hewett, the girl who (according to John Stow) fell into the Thames and was rescued by her father’s apprentice, Sir Edward Osborne. The two later married and their descendents acquired the Dukedom of Leeds. So important was this event in Clothworker lore that it was painted in the lunette at one end of the plastered barrel ceiling in the Drawing Room of the Victorian fifth Hall.

Sir William was born in Wales, South Yorkshire, son of Edmund Hewett. He was a founder member of The Clothworkers’ Company and became a very wealthy merchant, operating from a property called the Three Cranes in Candlewick Street, originally the centre of the clothmaking district. He lived in Philpot Lane, with a country house in Highgate and owned many other properties throughout England. He died in 1567 and was buried with his wife Alice (third daughter of Nicholas Leveson of Halling, Kent) in the church of St Michael Orgar, which was destroyed in the Great Fire.

Sir William was elected Alderman of Vintry Ward in 1550 and was committed to Newgate prison for refusing to serve. He served as Sheriff in 1553, and during his term of office was charged with carrying out the execution of Lady Jane Grey. He tried to avoid becoming Lord Mayor, but a small committee prevailed upon him to change his mind and he was elected in 1559. A portrait of him in his Lord Mayoral robes is on loan to the Museum of London. A copy hangs in the Court Corridor at Clothworkers’ Hall.