Author: Birch, Samuel
Biography:
BIRCH, Samuel (1757-1841: ODNB)
Politician, dramatist, and pastrycook, he was one of two surviving children of Lucas Birch and his wife Tryphena Sanders (d 1805). Lucas Birch was a pastrycook with premises at 15 Cornhill, London; on his death in 1800, Samuel and his mother inherited the premises and carried on with the business. Samuel was born in London on 8 Nov. 1757 and baptised on 13 Nov. at St. Dunstan in the West, Fleet Street. He was educated at a private school in Newington Butt before being apprenticed to his father. He married Mary Fordyce at St. Mary’s, Islington, on 12 Jan. 1778 when they were both still minors. Mary is identified in the ODNB as a daughter of John Fordyce who was London physician; however, she was born before his marriage to Pleasant Lawford in 1759 and her baptism was registered at the Foundling Hospital on 16 July 1757. She and Samuel had numerous children. During the French revolution he agitated for the formation of a company of volunteers to defend the city in the event of an invasion; later he became Lieutenant Colonel of the First Regiment of Loyal London Volunteers. A staunch Tory, he was active in municipal politics and was elected alderman of Candlewick Ward in 1807 and became a London sheriff in 1811. In Sept. 1814 he was elected Lord Mayor of London. He ran the family business with a nephew until 1836 when he sold it. He died at home on Guildford Street, London, on 10 Dec. 1841 and was buried in the vaults of St. Michael’s, Cornhill; his wife had predeceased him. His other writings include Consilia: or, Thoughts Upon Several Subjects (2nd edition 1786) and numerous musicals of which The Adopted Child (1799) was the most popular. The ODNB also attributes to him sermons but these were the work of his son, the Rev. Samuel Birch. (ancestry.co.uk 18 Apr. 2023; findmypast.co.uk 18 Apr. 2023; ODNB 18 Apr. 2023; Sir Ernest Budge, Memoir of the Late Samuel Birch, LL.D. [1887]; GM 171 [1842]; ACAD; CCEd 18 Apr. 2023) SR