File:Bookplate Sir John Shorter, Lord Mayor of London, 1687.xcf

Bookplate of Sir John Shorter, Lord Mayor of London in 1687. w:Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Baron Conway (1679-1731/2) married (as his third wife) Charlotte Shorter, a daughter of Sir John Shorter (born 1660), of Bybrook, in Kent, a wealthy merchant (the son of Sir John Shorter (1625–1688), Lord Mayor of London), by his wife Elizabeth Philipps (born c. 1664), a daughter of Sir Erasmus Philipps, 3rd Baronet. By Charlotte Shorter he was the father of Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford (1718–1794). Charlotte's sister Catherine Shorter was the wife of Sir Robert Walpole, the first prime minister of Great Britain.

Heraldry

Quarterly of 4: (tinctures as seen in Strawberry Hill House, Twickenham. Further reading: A Pedigree of Walpole to Explain the Portraits and Coats of Arms at Strawberry Hill, Anno 1776)

• 1&4: Sable, a lion rampant or ducally crowned argent between three battle axes of the last headed of the second (Shorter (modern ?)) (Burke, Sir Bernard, The General Armory, London, 1884, p.924 "Shorter of London, granted 1687").
• 2: Per saltire or and sable, a bordure counter-changed (Shorter (ancient? /augmented coat ?)) (Burke, Sir Bernard, The General Armory, London, 1884, p.924 "Shorter") (Papworth, John Woody, Alphabetical Dictionary of Coats of Arms Belonging to Families in Great Britain and Ireland, Vol.I, London, 1874, p.343); (Marshall/Pipard/Pulley (Per saltire or and sable), per: Papworth, John Woody, Alphabetical Dictionary of Coats of Arms Belonging to Families in Great Britain and Ireland, Vol.II, London, 1874, p.1056)
• 3: Argent, on a chevron azure between three crosses patée fitchée sable a crescent between two escallops or (Birkhead/Birket) (sometimes shown as roses not escallops) (Sir John Shorter (c.1625-1688), Lord Mayor of London, married Isabel Birkhead/Birket, a sister of Edward Birkhead (d.1662) of Richmond House, Twickenham, Serjeant-at-Arms in the House of Commons in 1648, a Quaker Magistrate and the principal landowner in the parish of Twickenham. See pedigree of Walpole in A Pedigree of Walpole to Explain the Portraits and Coats of Arms at Strawberry Hill, Anno 1776 with a drawing of these arms labelled "Birkhead" [1]. Sometimes shown with chevron azure). The land on which Strawberry Hill House was built by Horace Walpole had earlier been acquired by Edward Birkhead.

Birkhead family

The Twickenham Museum: The history centre for Twickenham, Whitton, Teddington and the Hamptons[2], states:

Edward Birkhead (d.1662), Quaker Magistrate and a principal landowner in the parish of Twickenham. Edward Birkhead, the fourth of 11 children was appointed Serjeant-at-Arms in the House of Commons in 1648, under Cromwell's Protectorate. he was replaced, in 1660 by James Norfolk, on the accession of Charles II. He appears to have first acquired property in Twickenham in 1652 although only himself paying rates from 1659. By 1661, when there was a survey of all the real estate in the parish he owned eight properties or houses and various parcels of land. One of the properties was described as the Glass House. This was almost certainly a glassworks. At £94-10-0 the rateable value of his properties made him the principal landowner in the parish. The house he was living in, and which he may have built, was on the riverside, later rebuilt and named Richmond House. It was valued at £20, the same as that of Sir Joseph Ashe at Cambridge Park and John Browne at the Manor House, which gives an indication of its size. When he died his widow Ellen (there were no surviving children) and perhaps a younger brother William remained until 1680 when the house was acquired by John Izzard of Baldock who passed it to Francis Newport, later Earl of Bradford in 1882. Birkhead had taken arms in the parliamentary cause though he asserted his loyalty to Charles II in 1660. His protestantism may have been extreme: in 1659 he hosted a visit from George Fox (1624-91), regarded as a founder of the Quakers, as recorded in Fox's Journal: "And after this I past into severall places off ye Country: & I had a meetinge att Serjant Birketts where there was many considerable people & some of quality & a glorious meetinge it was"

One of Edward Birkhead's four sisters, Isabella Birkhead, married John Shorter, a goldsmith of London. As Sir John Shorter, a Whig Alderman for Cripplegate Ward, he became Lord Mayor in 1688, dying in that office. His son, also John Shorter, of Bybrook in Kent had two daughters, Catherine Shorter (d.1730) who became the first wife of Sir Robert Walpole, and was Horace Walpole's mother. The other sister Charlotte Shorter (d.1734), married Francis Conway, 1st Baron Conway, father of Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford (1718–1794) who was father of Anne Seymour Damer. It was her cousin, Mary Georgiana Seymour, later Mrs Lionel Damer, who had the Birkhead house rebuilt in 1816. Horace Walpole, in his Description of the Villa (Strawberry Hill) notes various members of the Shorter family on pages 27 and 35, whose portraits he displayed in the Green Closet and the Library. Edward bequeathed Isabella a share of one of his properties, Mason's Lodge in the churchyard of St Margarets, Westminster when his wife Ellen died.