It is a pleasure to thank the archivist of the City of London, Jim Sewell, and
his knowledgeable and extremely helpful staff—his deputy, Juliet Bankes;
archivists Vivienne Aldous, Sophie Bridges, Philip Gale, and Elizabeth Scud-
der; and searchroom attendants Larry Francis and Tim Harvey—all of whom
made it a pleasure to work at the Corporation of London Records Office. I am
grateful, too, to Louise Falcini, of the London Metropolitan Archives, for her
help with the Middlesex records, to Richard Landon and the staff of the Fisher
Library at the University ofToronto, and to the staffs of the Microtext Depart-
ment of the Robarts Library, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Manuscripts De-
partment and the Maps and Prints Department of the Guildhall Library,
particularly Jeremy Smith, who helped me with the illustrations. I acknowledge
with gratitude permission granted by the Guildhall Library, the Guildhall
Art Gallery, and the Art Gallery of Ontario to reproduce illustrations in their
collections.
I am indebted to Eveline Cruickshanks and David Hayton for allowing me to
read biographies of MPs prepared for the forthcoming volumes of the History of
Parliament,1689‒1715. And I wish to express my gratitude to my editors at Oxford
University Press, Ruth Parr and Michael Watson, for their skill and thoughtful-
ness, and to Sally McCann for her excellent copy-editing.
Most of all I thank my wife, Susan, for her support and encouragement, for
her ideas and her help with the research, and for reading and improving every
draft. It is a pleasure to dedicate the book to our children, with love.
John Beattie
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