Image: Thomas Canynges, Lord Mayor 1456–1457, in aldermanic robes (c 1450) by Roger Leigh

Description: A watercolour portrait of Thomas Canynges (fl. 1450), who was Lord Mayor of London in 1456–1457 having been elected Alderman for Aldgate ward in 1445, and a member of the Worshipful Company of Grocers. Thomas was the eldest brother of William II Canynges (c. 1399–1474), a merchant and shipper from Bristol and one of the wealthiest private citizens of his day. The portrait was one of a series of 15th-century Lord Mayors painted in watercolour on paper by Roger Leigh. The series places emphasis on the subjects' armorials, shown in escutcheons. Thomas Canynges is shown wearing his aldermanic robes and holding the Canynges arms in his right hand, the blazon of which is "argent, three Moors' heads couped in profile proper wreathed around the temples of the first and azure": from a description of the arms of his descendant Canning in Bernard Burke (1884) The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales: Comprising a Registry of Armorial Bearings from the Earliest to the Present Time, London: Harrison, p. 166 OCLC: 1647426. The arms of the City of London are depicted under his left hand in the pediment of the framed shields.
Title: Thomas Canynges, Lord Mayor 1456–1457, in aldermanic robes.
Credit: [2]; originally uploaded to en.wikipedia by Lobsterthermidor at English Wikipedia on 11 October 2011.
Author: Roger Leigh (fl. 1450).
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No