18 January 2008
Lord Mayor of the Square Mile honours leading figures from
Oxford - City of Dreaming Spires
Lord Mayor David Lewis, whose main home has been in Oxford for the
40 out of the last 60 years and who is Chairman of the Governors of
the famous Dragon School, this week gathered four leading
representatives of the City and County - to confer on them
the Freedom of the City of London.
The Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire Hugo Brunner, the Lord Mayor
of Oxford Councillor John Tanner, the Chancellor of Oxford
University Lord Patten, and the Chancellor of Oxford Brookes
University Jon Snow all met at the Mansion House opposite the Bank
of England on Thursday (17 January) for the ancient Freedom
ceremony.
Lord Mayor Lewis, who is also a graduate and Honorary Fellow of
Jesus College and former Chairman of the Development Committee of
the Oxford University Law Faculty, said:
“All four are leading citizens of the City and County of Oxford
– committed to the community and to preserving the great
reputations of both. As Lord Mayor I work for the financial
services industry but it’s fair to say my heart is divided between
Oxford and the Wales of my forefathers.
“Oxford changed my family’s fortunes and turned my father from
the son of a subsidence sheep-farmer into an Education Minister –
and so set me on a course to become a Lord Mayor. Without the
chances my father was offered at Oxford he would have worked a farm
in the Welsh valleys – and I would not have been Lord Mayor!
“Oxford and Oxfordshire have given the City of London – and the
UK – some of its best fruit and this joint Freedom ceremony is a
way of marking the close bonds between our sister cities.”
Next week Lord Mayor David Lewis travels to Israel and the
Occupied Palestinian Territories, leading the first of more than a
score of overseas business visits supporting links with the
UK-based financial services industry.
The four Freedoms were sponsored by the Lord Mayor David Lewis
(pictured at rear) and his wife Lady Mayoress Theresa Lewis.
Ends
Notes to editors
The Lord Mayor of the City of London is the elected head of the
City of London, the business district of the Square Mile at the
heart of the UK’s financial services industry. The City of
London provides local government services the Square Mile and is
committed to maintaining and enhancing the status of the business
City as the world's leading international financial and business
centre through its policies and services. Its responsibilities also
extend far beyond the City boundaries and include management of the
Barbican Centre, Central Criminal Court at the Old Bailey, 10,700
acres of open space including Hampstead Heath and Epping Forest,
three wholesale food markets, as well as acting as the London Port
Health Authority.
One of the oldest surviving traditional ceremonies still in
existence today, the Freedom of the City of London is believed to
have begun in 1237. Traditionally, it gave the recipients the
freedom to earn money and own land – usually only bestowed to
feudal lords. Today it is not an award but links recipients to
London’s City as they pledge to “keep this city harmless” .
The Freedom of the City of London is a ceremony of great
antiquity and was significant throughout the mediaeval era.
Following a declaration and signing of the Declaration Book, those
receiving the Freedom are now given a document of sheepskin
parchment called ‘copy of Freedom’ along with a book entitled
‘Rules for the Conduct of Life”. The ceremony concludes with
‘the right hand of fellowship’ and a welcome as ‘a Citizen of
London’.
Others who have received the Freedom include Alan Greenspan,
Chairman of the Federal Reserve; Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank
of England; Christopher Gibson-Smith, Chairman of the London Stock
Exchange and Jean-Francois Theodore, Chief Executive of
Euronext.
The Freedom gives two benefits to the recipient. If a Freeman's
children are orphaned they may be educated at The Freeman’s School
at Ashtead in Surrey, at no cost to the family. Or if in old age a
recipient is destitute they may qualify for housing in the Alms
houses. Many of the traditional privileges associated with the
Freedom, such as driving sheep across London Bridge, to be hung
with a silken cord if convicted of a capital offence, to go about
the City with a drawn sword, to be married in St Paul's Cathedral,
to be buried in the City and to be drunk and disorderly without
fear of arrest, have long since disappeared.
Press contact: Greg Williams, 020 7332 1455, 07889 167
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