in Ireland. In 1811, he was appointed one of the sheriffs of London, and on 9 November 1814 Birch entered on his duties as lord mayor. Tory though he was, he opposed the Corn Bill of 1815, and presided at a meeting of the livery in common hall on 23 February 1815, when he made a vigorous attack upon the intended prohibition of the free importation of foreign corn. The course he took on this occasion is commemorated by a medal struck in his honour on the obverse side of which is the bust of the lord mayor, and on the reverse a representation of a wheatsheaf, with the legend, 'Free Importation, Peace and Plenty.' During his mayoralty the marble statue of George III by Chantrey, the inscription on which was written by Birch, was placed in the council chamber of Guildhall. Almost his last act as lord mayor was to lay the foundation-stone of the London Institution in Finsbury Circus (then called the Amphitheatre, Moorfields) on 4 November 1815. In 1836 Birch, who had for many years carried on his father's old business in Cornhill, disposed of it to Messrs. Ring & Brymer, the present proprietors. He retired from the court of aldermen in 1810, and died at his house, 107 Guildford Street, London, on 10 Dec. 1841, aged 84. His grandson, also named Samuel, would become an eminent Egyptologist at the British Museum. Notes References External links 1757 births 1841 deaths Sheriffs of the City of London 19th-century lord mayors of London 19th-century English politicians 18th-century English politicians English dramatists and playwrights English male dramatists and playwrights 19th-century British dramatists and playwrights 19th-century English male writers