Edward Osborne

Sir Edward Osborne (1530?–1591), was one of the principal merchants of London in the later sixteenth century, and Lord Mayor of London in 1583. Early life Osborne was the eldest son of Richard Osborne of Ashford, Kent, by his wife, Jane Broughton. In May 1547, although another account makes the date three years later , he was apprenticed to Sir William Hewit (or Hewett), clothworker, one of the principal merchants of London and lord mayor in 1559. His admission to the freedom of the Worshipful Company of Clothworkers is assigned to 8 May 1554, although it possibly took place in 1551. According to a romantic legend, which in its main feature may be accepted, Hewett's infant daughter was dropped by a careless nurse from an apartment on London Bridge into the current below. Young Osborne immediately leaped into the river and saved the child. The date of this event must have been about 1545, as the lady, who became Osborne's wife, was twenty-three years old at the time of her father's death in January 1566–67. Pictorial representations of Osborne's feat are preserved at Clothworker's Hall and at Hornby Castle, Yorkshire, the seat of the Duke of Leeds.