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Barnards Inn in the 1930s, now home to Gresham CollegeGresham College
Sir Thomas Gresham (1519-1579) was a Mercer and Elizabethan financier. He was Master of the Mercers’ Company three times and was knighted in 1559. In 1566 he founded the Royal Exchange which was opened by Elizabeth I in 1570.
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By his will of 1575 he established Gresham College for the delivery of free public lectures in Divinity, Astronomy, Music, Geometry, Law, Physic and Rhetoric, endowed by revenue from the Royal Exchange.
 
Since 1596 the lectureships have been administered by the Joint Grand Gresham Committee of the Corporation of London and the Mercers’ Company. Gresham College has now moved to Barnards Inn, Holborn, the home of Mercers’ School from 1894 until its closure in 1959.
 
In recognition of this fact a Mercers’ School Memorial Chair of Commerce was added to the original seven chairs in 1985. The College provides an extensive free public lecture programme, and aims to sponsor innovative research.
 
 
 
 
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