As of 20 July 2020, MASL (Mayors and Sheriffs of London, https://masl.library.utoronto.ca) – the open-access, referenced, searchable database of London’s mayors and sheriffs – has been relaunched with the support of the Information Technology Services digital projects team at UTL. Searches can be made by name, office, year, range of years, and/or livery company (in early years, guild) membership. Previously only 1190 to 1558 could be searched, with the years 1558 to 2020 being available in a series of pdf’s; but now the database is fully searchable from 1190 to the present. Explanatory menu-bar texts (on sources, year-of-office dates, spellings, etc.) have also been revised, to cover all 830 years; and links are provided to the websites of all London livery companies in existence today to which mayors and sheriffs are known to have belonged.

MASL is the only searchable online database of mayors and sheriffs of London, and the only listing of London’s mayors and sheriffs to provide sources for all of its information. Source disagreements are noted, and solved or explained wherever possible. MASL also uniquely provides the exact term-of-office start dates, where available in the civic records, for the mayors and sheriffs replacing those who died or were removed from office during their regular mayoral and shrieval terms.

Research is ongoing where information has not yet been found or confirmed, and the database is updated once or twice a year, with new mayors and sheriffs also added as they are elected and admitted to office. Future expansions may include references or links to other useful information sources on the mayors and sheriffs individually or generally.

Any comments, questions, or suggested additions or corrections should be directed to MASL’s editor, Professor Emerita Anne Lancashire. Suggested additions or corrections will be checked and, if adopted, will be credited to their contributors. Any technical issues can be reported to digital.projects@library.utoronto.ca.

Mayors and Sheriffs of London Relaunched