Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 21.djvu/19

Garraway extensive trade with the Low Countries, France, Italy, the East Indies, Greenland, Russia, and Turkey, and in 1639 was governor of each of the great companies trading with the three last-named countries (, Londini Status Pacatus, 1639, epistle dedicatory). Garraway was admitted a livery man of the Drapers' Company by patrimony, 7 Dec. 1607; he served the office of warden in 1623, and that of master in 1627 and 1639. He became sheriff in 1627, and afterwards alderman of the ward of Vintry, removing to Broad Street ward, 22 Jan. 1638.

Garraway was elected lord mayor on Michaelmas day 1639, and his inauguration pageant, written by Thomas Heywood, the dramatist, was entitled 'Londini Status Pacatus, or London's Peaceable Estate.' Copies of this scarce little book are in the British Museum and the Guildhall Library, and it is reprinted in Heywood's collected works (edit. 1874, v. 355-75). The expenses of the pageant were borne by the Company of Drapers, the mechanical devices or 'triumphs' being executed by John and Mathias Christmas (ib. p. 374). On 4 April 1640 he writes to Secretary Vane that, in obedience to the king's letter and the council's directions for impressing two hundred soldiers to reinforce the garrison of Berwick, he had issued a precept under which about one hundred idle persons found in taverns, inns, and alehouses had been sent to Bridewell. These were, however, released, in compliance with a further letter received from Secretary Vane (Cal. of State Papers, Dom. 1640, p. 7). The London apprentices having attacked Laud's palace at Lambeth on 9 May, Garraway effectually suppressed the tumult, and inflicted summary punishment upon the ringleaders (, Memoires, 1668, p. 633). The council in two letters (12 and 14 May) ordered him to double the watches in the city, and to call out the trained bands when he should think necessary (State Papers, Dom. 1640, pp. 150, 162, 167). From news-letters written by Edmund Rossingham, dated 14 April and 12 May 1640, it appears that Garraway was in frequent communication at this time with the king and his council in reference to loans to be raised in the city for the king. Each of the aldermen was to furnish a list of the richest inhabitants of his ward, classed according to their wealth. Garraway was summoned with the aldermen before the council (10 May). He hesitated to comply with the king's request, and Charles ordered him to resign his sword and collar of office, but quickly restored them. Finally, four aldermen for refusing to aid the king were sent to prison (ib. pp. 31-2, 41, 155, 170). Another order from the council, dated 31 May, required the lord mayor to raise a regiment of four thousand men for the king's service in the north. After some debates the common council refused either to raise or to equip the force, and Garraway was left to his independent exertions to furnish the men required (ib. pp. 248-9, 255, 308). In August a demand was made upon the livery companies for a loan, and Garraway took an active interest in its promotion, rating his own company, the Drapers, for 4,500ɭ. (ib. p. 554). Garraway endeavoured in June to levy ship-money in the city in the face of bitter opposition from the common council. The sheriffs flatly refused their assistance, whereupon he personally distrained upon the goods of a linendraper who would not pay the tax (ib. p. 307). Again in August he unsuccessfully proposed a loan and present for the king (ib. p. 618). He also vainly endeavoured to dissuade the corporation from petitioning the king to call a parliament (ib. 1640-1, pp. 73, 90).

His shrievalty and mayoralty were kept at his newly built mansion in Broad Street, the Drapers' Company giving him towards its 'beautifying' one hundred nobles on the former and one hundred marks on the latter occasion. Garraway was knighted by the king at Whitehall on 31 May 1640 (, Pedigree of Knights, p. 195). On 29 Oct. a new lord may or had to be elected, and every effort was made by the king to secure one favourable to his cause, but a precedent of three hundred years forbade the refusal to sanction the citizens' choice except on the ground of poverty or infirmity. Garraway was heartily with the king, and the council desired to secure his re-election or the choice of Sir William Acton. Garraway was not re-elected, but exerted himself to the last to prevent the final rupture between the city and the king. A common hall was held on 13 Jan. 1642 to receive the king's answer to the city petition, when Pym and others came down from the parliament to prevent the city from coming to terms with Charles. The meeting was adjourned till 17 Jan., when Garraway answered the arguments of Pym in a clever and fearless speech, which completely silenced the supporters of the parliament, and carried the king's cause with the assembled citizens by acclamation. Several editions of the speech were published, including a translation into Dutch. On his way home he was accompanied by throngs of enthusiastic followers, whom he had some difficulty in keeping within the bounds of public order (Speech, postscript). The cause of the parliament, however, eventually prevailed with the citizens Garraway was dismissed, 10 April 1643, by