Rowland Heyward

Sir Rowland Hayward (c. 1520 – 5 December 1593) was a London merchant, and Lord Mayor of the City in both 1570 and 1591. Through his commercial activities he acquired considerable wealth, and was able to loan money to Queen Elizabeth I and purchase properties in several counties as well as houses in and near London. He entertained the Queen at King's Place in 1587.

Hayward was the eldest son of George Hayward (d.1557) of Bridgnorth, Shropshire, by Margaret Whitbrooke, the daughter of John Whitbrooke. George Hayward carried on the trade of shoemaker in Bridgnorth, was Member of Parliament for Bridgnorth in 1529 and alderman of the town about 1543.

Hayward was educated locally at Bridgnorth Free School. He moved to London when he was about twelve years of age, and was apprenticed to a clothworker, becoming free of the Company of Clothworkers in 1541 or 1542.

In 1558 Hayward attended the Lord Mayor at the coronation banquet of Queen Elizabeth I. In 1559 he was Master of the Clothworkers. In 1560 he was elected Alderman, a dignity to which no citizen worth less than 2000 marks could then attain, and in the same year, together with another Alderman, loaned the City £1000 towards the purchase of wheat. In 1561 he became President of Bridewell Hospital, and remained involved in the administration of London's hospitals until his death. He was elected Sheriff in 1563-4.

Hayward quickly became one of London's "commercial magnates". Before 1563 he was trading with Antwerp. As a member of the Company of Merchant Adventurers he exported English cloth, and imported from abroad coarse materials such as fustian and buckram and luxury fabrics such as camlet and silk. In 1565 he played a role in the founding of the Royal Exchange. In 1567 he was one of the promoters of Sir John Hawkins' third slave-trading voyage. He was a founding member of the Muscovy Company, serving as its Governor on eight occasions during the years 1567–1587. He was named as among its leading merchants in both 1567, when Czar Ivan the Terrible granted the Company a monopoly, and in 1570, when the Shah of Persia granted the Company a similar licence. From 1568 he also served as Governor of the Company of Mineral and Battery Works. In 1570 he was elected Lord Mayor of London, and knighted in 1571. In 1572 he was elected to Parliament, where he played an active role on several committees, and in the same year became President of St Bartholomew's Hospital, a post he continued to hold until his death. In 1582 he was among the investors in Edward Fenton's 'disastrous' voyage to the Far East. He served as Lord Mayor again in 1591, taking over when Sir John Allot died in September without having completed his term.