Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/374

 first professor was Sir [q. v.]



VINER, ROBERT (1631–1688), lord mayor of London, third son of William Viner of Eathorpe, Warwickshire, by his second wife, Susanna, daughter of Francis Fulwood of Middleton Hall, Derbyshire, was born at Warwick in 1631. He came from an old and respectable family, an account of which, with a full pedigree, by Charles J. Viner, was published anonymously in 1885 (Viner, a Family History). He came to London at an early age, and was apprenticed to his uncle, Sir [q. v.], goldsmith, and ultimately became his partner. On the termination of his apprenticeship he became a member of the Goldsmiths' Company. The court of the company thanked him on 4 May 1670 ‘for his exemplary bounty and love’ in contributing 300l. to the repair and beautifying of their great parlour. He was specially admitted a member of the court of assistants on 13 May 1666, although he had served as renter-warden, this irregularity being overlooked on his payment of a fine, excusing him from all offices except that of upper (or prime) warden, which he duly served. A silver bell and ivory hammer bearing his arms and those of the company, which he gave on 5 July 1667, are still in use at the hall.

He was elected alderman of Broad Street ward on 20 Aug. 1666 (City Records, Rep. 71, fol. 157 b), and removed to that of Langbourn on 19 Oct. 1669 (Rep. 74, f. 309 b). He was knighted by the king at Whitehall on 24 June 1665, and obtained a baronetcy on 10 May 1666. On the midsummer day following he was elected sheriff, and held that office during the trying period of the great fire of London. During his shrievalty Sir John Towers, bart., sentenced to death for high treason for counterfeiting the king's seal, who was probably under Viner's charge as sheriff, escaped from prison; Viner's influence with the king procured him a special pardon for all penalties and forfeitures concerning the escape of Towers. In 1674 Viner was elected lord mayor; the pageant on that occasion, which was witnessed by the king and queen, appears to have been more than usually magnificent. [q. v.], the city poet, composed the verses, and the whole was produced at the cost of the Goldsmiths' Company (, History of the Twelve Great Companies, ii. 220–1).

Viner's relations with King Charles were very intimate, and the king, who always delighted in public spectacles, readily accepted an invitation to Viner's mayoralty feast. As the banquet proceeded, the mayor's attentions became somewhat too pressing, and the king, with a hint to the company to avoid ceremony, stole off to his coach in the Guildhall yard. The mayor quickly followed, and, seizing the king's hand, cried out with an oath, ‘Sir, you shall stay and take t'other bottle.’ Charles, looking kindly at him, repeated a line of the old song, ‘He that's drunk is as great as a king,’ and immediately returned to the table with his host. This story is told in the ‘Spectator,’ No. 462, by Sir Richard Steele, who himself witnessed the occurrence. It also forms the subject of a print drawn by F. Hayman and engraved by C. Grignion.

Viner also set up an equestrian statue in honour of Charles II in Stocks Market, the site of the present Mansion House. He is said to have bought the statue during a visit to the continent, and it originally represented John Sobieski, king of Poland, trampling a Turk beneath his horse's feet. To save time and expense, the Polish king was converted into Charles, and the Turk into Oliver Cromwell; unfortunately, the turban on the Turk's head was overlooked and remained as a proof of the conversion (, Review of Publick Buildings, 1736, p. 9). The statue was mounted on a conduit, and to please the king it was publicly opened on 29 May 1672, being the anniversary of his majesty's birth and of his restoration (London Gazette, 30 May 1672). It was probably this same statue which the Gresham committee politely declined on 29 March 1669 as a gift from Viner for the Royal Exchange. It figures in many prints of the period, and was taken down in 1736 to make room for the Mansion House. In 1779 the corporation presented the statue to Robert Viner, a descendant of the lord mayor. This occasioned some satirical verses entitled ‘The last Dying Speech and Confession of the Horse at Stocks Market’ (, Gilda Aurifabrorum, 1883, p. 67).

Following the practice of those days, Viner combined the business of a banker with that of a goldsmith, and was engaged in large financial transactions with Charles II. At that king's coronation he furnished a new set of regalia at a cost of over 30,000l. in place of the crown jewels, which had been sold or pawned by Charles I and the parlia-