Sir Andrew Riccard was an English merchant and politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1654.
Background
Riccard was the son of Walter Riccard of Portesham. He married firstly, Katherine, and their only surviving daughter Christiana married successively Lord Kensington, son of the second Earl of Holland, and John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton, by whom she was ancestress of the succeeding Lords.
Career
Riccard became an Alderman of the City of London and was Sheriff of London in 1651. He was at various times Governor of the East India Company and of the Turkey Company. Following the Restoration, he was knighted by Charles II on 10 July 1660.
The inscription reads as follows.
"Sacred be the statue here raised by gratitude and respect to eternize the memory of Sir Andrew Riccard, knight, a citizen, and opulent merchant of London. Whose active piety, inflexible integrity, and extensive abilities, alike distinguished and exalted him in the opinion of the wise and good.
Adverse to his wish, he was frequently chosen chairman of the Honourable East India Company, and filled, with equal cr, for eighteen successive years, the same eminent station in the Turkey Company. Among many instances of his love to God and liberal spirit towards man, one, as it demands peculiar praise, deserves to be distinctly recorded.
He nobly left the perpetual advowson of this parish in trust to five of its senior inhabitants.
He died 6th September, in the year of our Lord, 1672, of his age, 68. "Manet post funera virtus.".
Membership
In 1654 he was elected Member of Parliament for City of London in the First Protectorate Parliament. Riccard died at the age of 68 and a Monument including a full size statue was erected at the church of Street Olave"s after his death by members of the Turkey Company.