(1185)

(M612)

John Sadler, who held the office of town clerk at the time, was promptly
got rid of on a charge of having given judgment in "a late pretended court
of justice," and of having signed the death-warrant of Christopher Love, a
zealous Presbyterian and minister of the church of St. Lawrence, Jewry,
who had been accused of treason in 1651 and beheaded on Tower Hill in the
midst of ominous thunderings and clouds of darkness.(1186)

(M613)

On the 4th September the king wrote to the City stating that as by the
passing of the Act of Indemnity many of the aldermen were rendered
incapable of continuing in office, it was his wish that their places
should be filled by restoring those aldermen who had in times past been
removed for their allegiance to him. As many of the latter had submitted
to pay fines rather than continue in office against their conscience, he
further recommended that these fines should be returned to them.(1187)
Pursuant to the king's wishes, the Common Council formally declared "that
Sir Thomas Adams, Sir Abraham Reynardson, Sir Thomas Soame, Sir John
Langham, Sir James Bunce and Sir Richard Browne are aldermen of this
city," and called upon them to take upon themselves the execution of their
respective places.(1188)

(M614)

One of these, Sir John Langham, then in his seventy-eighth year, wrote
from Crosby House to the Court of Aldermen asking to be excused on the
score of his advanced age. He had been, he said, laid aside about twelve
years since and imprisoned in the Tower by order of parliament(1189) (24
Sept., 1647), chiefly to prevent his being chosen lord mayor, and had been
released on the following 6th June without any effort being made on his
part. He had afterwards (7 April, 1649) been removed from office with Sir
John Gayer, Alderman Adams and "brother" Bunce by resolution of "that
remain of a House of Commons that presumed to sit as a parliament," and
others had been chosen in their stead.(1190) The Court of Aldermen acceded
to the veteran's request(1191)

(M615)

At Michaelmas the citizens would again have placed the royalist Reynardson
in the mayoralty chair, but he excused himself on the ground of
ill-health,(1192) and the gallant Alderman Sir Richard Browne was elected
in his stead. A twelvemonth later Reynardson was dead, having passed away
on the 4th October, 1661.

(M616)

In the meantime (5 July) the king and parliament had been entertained at
dinner by the City