The poor lad who worked his way upward in the nineteenth
century belonged to the bourgeoise, not the craftsman class. While his
schoolfellows remained clerks, he, by some early good fortune--by
marriage, by cousinship, was enabled to get his foot on the ladder, up
which he proceeded to climb with strength and resolution. The poor lad
who got on in earlier times was the son of a country gentleman. Dick
Whittington was the son of Sir William Whittington, Knight and
afterwards outlaw. He was apprenticed to his cousin, Sir John
Fitzwarren, Mercer and merchant-adventurer, son of Sir William
Fitzwarren, Knight. Again, Chichele, Lord Mayor, and his younger
brother, Sheriff, and his elder brother, Archbishop of Canterbury,
were sons of one Chichele, Gentleman and Armiger of Higham Ferrers in
the county of Northampton. Sir Thomas Gresham was the son of Sir
Richard Gresham, nephew of Sir John Gresham, and younger brother of
Sir John Gresham, also of a good old country family. In fact, we may
look in vain through the annals of London city for the rise of the
humble boy from the ranks of the craftsmen. Once or twice, perhaps,
one may find such a case. If we consider the early years of the
nineteenth century, when the long wars attracted to the army all the
younger sons, it does seem as if the Mayors and Aldermen must have
come from very humble beginnings.
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