In 1207 King John granted a charter which permitted Cambridge to appoint a reeve, or mayor.
The first recorded mayor was a Hervey Fitzeustace who served in the year 1213. The home of Mr Fitzeustace stands to the present day and is now known as the School of Pythagoras in the grounds of St John's College. The stone construction of the building not only explains its survival, but also indicates considerable prosperity on the part of Mr Fitzeustace.
Biographies
In 1921, J Milner Grey of King’s College published a book, Biographical Notes on the Mayors of Cambridge, containing information about Cambridge’ mayors from 1213 to the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act 1835.
We have researched and published the biographies of mayors who have served from 1835 through to the present day:
Exhibition
To celebrate the 800th anniversary of our mayoralty, an exhibition called ‘Cambridge mayors: 800 years’ toured local museums and libraries in 2007 to share information about our rich history.
- Cambridge mayors: 800 years – Formative history (scanned document) [PDF, 3.5MB]
- Cambridge mayors: 800 years – Cambridge in the Past (scanned document) [PDF, 3MB]
- Cambridge mayors: 800 years – The Significance of Cambridge (scanned document) [PDF, 3MB]
- Cambridge mayors: 800 years – Some Edited Highlights (scanned document) [PDF, 3.5MB]
- Cambridge mayors: 800 years – Modern Issues (scanned document) [PDF, 4MB]
- Cambridge mayors: 800 years – The Mayoral Year (scanned document) [PDF, 3.5MB]
- Cambridge mayors: 800 years – Modern Relations (scanned document) [PDF, 4MB]
