Terry Foreman on 26 May 2012  •  Link

Thomas Farriner. Careless baker of London. After an apprenticeship, he became a member of the Baker's Company in 1637 and by 1649 had set up shop with his wife at Pudding Lane in the parish of St Margaret New Fish Street (now the site of the Monument). By 1666 he held the post of 'Conduct of the King's Bakehouse', and was supplying the Navy with biscuits. He was also a churchwarden. In the morning of 2nd September 1666, a fire broke out in his bakehouse. Farriner and his family escaped; their maid died, the first victim of what became the Great Fire of London. It burned until the 5th, destroying 80% of the old City. Farriner resumed his trade after the fire, for which he managed to escape blame due to widespread theories that the Fire had been started by disgruntled Catholics. He died in 1670 and was buried in the middle aisle of St Magnus Martyr, which had been merged with the parish of the destroyed St Margaret. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin…