Middleton was the cousin of the playwright of the same name. He had been Lord Mayor in 1613 and oversaw the New River project.

Goare had been Lord Mayor in 1624.

Deane became Lord Mayor the following year. He was known as a puritan.

Cambell was an Ironmonger, alderman of Lion Street Ward (1625-), and Lord Mayor in 1629-30. His mayoral pageant was Dekker's London 's Tempe . It is less likely that this record refers to his brother Robert, who also became an alderman.

Ducy became Lord Mayor in 1630.

Moulson became Lord Mayor in 1633.

Heylyn was master of the Ironmongers' Company in 1614 and 1625, elected alderman for Cripplegate ward in 1624, and was sheriff of London in the same year. He published the Welsh Bible in 1630, and also promoted the publication of a Welsh dictionary.

Parkhurst was a clothworker, and became Lord Mayor in 1634: John Taylor's The Triumph of Fame and Honour marked the occasion. His elder brother John Parkhurst was Master of Balliol.

Fenn became Lord Mayor in 1638.

Acton became Lord Mayor in 1641.

Acton was a merchant, governor of the East India Co. and Lord Mayor of London in 1638-9, when Heywood's Porta Pietatis was his inaugural pageant. He became alderman of Bridge Without in 1626, sheriff of London in 1627, and was translated to Coleman Street in 1631. His brothers Robert and George were respectively bishop of Salisbury and archbishop of Canterbury.

Garraway was a draper and merchant, and became Lord Mayor in 1639: his inaugural pageant was Heywood's Londini Status Pacatus. He had become sheriff in 1627, and subsequently alderman for the Vintry ward.

Middleton was born and brought up in London, the son of a bricklayer who died when he was a young child. Although he matriculated at Queen 's College, Oxford in 1598, there is no evidence that he took a degree. By 1601 he was back in London , and associating with actors. By the time he went to Oxford he had already begun publishing his poetry: The Wisdom of Solomon Paraphrased appeared in 1597, followed by Microcynicon (1599) and The Ghost of Lucrece (1600). His first play, a collaboration with Webster, Munday, Drayton, and Dekker, Caesar's Fall , for Henslowe and the Admiral's Men, appeared in 1602. Middleton later collaborated extensively with Dekker on plays for the boys' companies; their most notable collaborations were The Roaring Girl (c . 1611) and A Chaste Maid in Cheapside (c . 1613). Like Dekker, he also produced some pamphlets. While Middleton was pre-eminently a writer of city comedy (including A Mad World, My Masters, perf. 1604 and The Puritan, Your Five Gallants, Michaelmas Term and A Trick to Catch the Old One, all published 1607-8), he also wrote a number of tragedies, notably The Changeling (1622, with Samuel Rowley), Women Beware Women (c . 1621) and The Revenger's Tragedy ( c. 1607). Between 1613 and 1626 he wrote many of the annual mayoral pageants, and in 1620 he was appointed to the official (and lucrative) post of 'chronologer' of London . His last (and most contentious) play, the anti-Spanish satire A Game at Chess, was performed in 1625. He was buried in St Mary 's, Newington on 4 July 1627.