| Simon Eyre, son of draper John Eyre, was born in Brandon in about 1395. The story goes that having served seven years as an apprentice he found out that his master was not in fact a Draper but an Upholder (upholsterer) and so "after considerable expense and difficulty" (Milford, p58) he started all over again with another master and served another seven years, finally becoming a journeyman draper. It seems an unlikely story, but just what took him to an apprenticeship in London in the first place is unclear. It seems obvious that he was following in his father's footsteps and according to R P Mander in the East Anglian Magazine article "A Suffolk Dick Whittington" "There were several people from Brandon about the time he commenced his commercial career who occupied important positions in the city and an introduction from one of them would have secured the required opening with a city merchant."
In 1418 he married Kathleen Millington, daughter of John Millington, a brewer and was admitted a freeman of the Draper's company a year later at the age of 24.
His initial commercial success is largely credited to his wife for it seems she heard news of a cargo of linens and cambrics that were being sold off cheaply from a damaged ship in the Port of London. Realising they could be resold at a significant profit Simon, dressed to impress, managed to bluff the vendor into letting him have the goods without payment, the bill to be sent on later. The sale was a great success but the Eyre's were far from wealthy, or at least as wealthy as Simon thought he needed to be to accept the office of sheriff when he was proposed in 1434. He argued that his modest means would not yet sustain such a high honour.
R. P. Mander writes; "One of the aldermen standing nearby said that this could not be true for Eyre habitually boasted that he broke his fast every day on a table which he said he would not sell for a thousand pounds. The Mayor and the two aldermen were so intrigued that they invited themselves to dinner at Eyre's house. When the reluctant sheriff-elect arrived at his dwelling with his three guests he asked his wife to prepare the little table and set refreshment before the visitors. At first his wife demurred but seeing that her husband was adamant she seated herself on a low stool and spread a damask napkin over her lap with a venison pasty thereon. Simon turned to the astonished visitors and said: 'Behold the table for which I would not take a thousand pounds.'"
Eyre did become Sheriff, however, and in 1444 was made an alderman. A year later he was elected mayor. Some say that he was also knighted at this time but, although Eyre probably became Sir Simon at some point, no reference has yet been found confirming any honour he might have received and in documents issued in the city after his death he is referred to as plain Simon Eyre. So not Lord Mayor but simply Mayor of London will have to do for the time-being.
In any event on reaching this high office Simon and Kathleen Eyre's celebratory pancake feast at the Mansion House for all the city apprentices must have been quite an occasion. "The whole party marched there.," writes Mander "Simon and his wife presided and no guest was allowed to want for wine or ale".
Also at that time Simon Eyre was instrumental in the financing of the Leaden Hall city granary. In the early 1300s it had been a private lead-roofed manor house, belonging to Sir Hugh Nevill. Later it was enfeoffed to Richard fitzAlan, earl of Arundel, by Nevill's wife Alice and then, in 1380 she confirmed it to Thomas Gogsall and others. In 1384 it passed to Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford, and then, in 1408 Robert Rikeden of Essex and his wife Margaret confirmed it to three-times Lord Mayor of London, Richard Whittington, with whom Simon Eyre has often been compared.
In 1411 Whittington confirmed it to the mayor and commonalty of London, then 32 years later mayor John Hatherley purchased the licence of Leaden Hall from the king. A year after that, in 1444, Simon Eyre put up most of the money to build a granary there. Edward IV granted Letters Patent for the tronage (weighing) of wares at Leadenhall and another for the tronage of wool in 1464. This then took the place of an open market that had existed on that site for over 200 years. Also a gift of Simon Eyre was the tiny chapel of the Holy Ghost which was for the use of people attending the market and stood adjacent to the hall.
In his book "The Worthies of England" Thomas Fuller says that over the porch of Leadenhall "he [Eyre] caused to be written, Dextra Domini exaltavit me (the Lord's right hand hath exalted me.) He is elsewhere styled Honorandus et famosus Mercator."
On completing his term of office as mayor Simon Eyre spent the rest of his life supervising his substantial business interests and carrying out many public duties from his home in Swan and Hoop Alley (between Lombard Street and Cornhill, now built over). It was here that he died on 18th September 1459, sadly soon to be followed to the grave by his son and grandson. In his will he left 5000 marks to charitable uses.
Simon Eyre is buried in the church of St. Mary Woolnorth, Lombard Street, London.
150 years later the life story of this popular and successful man came to the attention of an Elizabethan dramatist. In 1600 a play titled "The Shoemaker's Holiday," was performed before Queen Elizabeth. Set in the reign of Henry V, in the mayorality of Sir Roger Oatley and the shrievalty of Eyre, Simon Eyre is the central character, but in this rollicking comedy he has been transformed from a draper into a shoemaker and his wife's name changed from Kathleen to Margery. When it was first published, sometime during that same year, no author's name was given, however, it is generally thought to have been the work of Thomas Dekker, a contemporary of Shakespeare's in the Chamberlain's Men company. Following the play's great success, and not to be outdone, Shakespeare countered with his own comedy - the Merry Wives of Windsor. Several hundred years later, in 1926, Edith Evans played Eyre's wife in the first 'modern' production of the play at the Old Vic Theatre in London. With her starred Balliol Holloway as Eyre a role also played at one time by Sir Donald Wolfit. More recently Orson Welles directed a notable production of the play its last recorded performance having been in 1944.
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