The Ceremony of Administering the Mayoralty Oath to Nathaniel Newnham, 8 November 1782

Nathaniel Newnham (before a sugar-baker and a founder of the private bank of Newnham) became Lord Mayor in 1782 and is seen here in his black and gold state robe being admitted in Guildhall on November 8 in the Silent Ceremony. He faces William Bishop, the Common Cryer, who holds the book from which he reads his Oath with William Rix, the Town Clerk; behind stands Heron Powney, the Sword Bearer with the upraised Sword of State and beside him is William Montague, the Clerk of the Chamber of London. The two small boys at the bottom right are nephews of the Lord Mayor, while the new Lady Mayoress is seen leaning forward on the left.
In the background is John Bacon’s monument to William Pitt, Earl of Chatham in 1783. Next to the Chatham monument is Reynolds’s portrait of Lord Chief Justice Sir Charles Pratt. The other pictures shown are some of the twenty-two portraits by John Michael Wright of the ‘Fire Judges’, together with some Royal portraits. The giant figure of Magog is seen against the North Wall. Beside it is a gallery filled with dignitaries and a balcony bearing a clock.
Newnham was also President of St Thomas’s Hospital from 1782 to his death in 1809 and was from 1804 a Collector of Orphan’s Coal Duties.