Sir Baptist Hicks was the son of Michael Hicks, silk mercer in Cheapside, and the younger brother of Sir Michael Hicks, secretary to Lord Treasurer Burleigh. He was brought up to his father’s business, and had ‘great dealings with the Court for his rich silks and commodities from Italy and other foreign parts, by which he made a great estate. Upon the coming in of King James he was sworn one of his servants (anno 1603), and soon knighted.’[54] He is remarkable for having been the first citizen who kept shop after receiving knighthood, and for having built at his own expense, in the midst of the street called St. John Street, Clerkenwell, a building of brick and stone for the convenience of the meetings of the justices of the county of Middlesex, of whom he was one,[55] which had hitherto been held ‘at a common inn called the Castle in St. John’s Street, the resort of carriers and many other sorts of people.’[56] ‘On Wednesday, the 17th of Jany., 1612, the “Session House” being then nearly finished, there assembled twenty-six justices of the said county, being the first day of their meeting there, where the founder feasted them all; and then, after they had considered what name this structure should bear, they all with one consent gave it the name of Hicks’s Hall, in grateful memory of the builder, and he freely gave the House to them and their successors for ever.’[57] But previous to this his wealth, the King’s favour, and the honour bestowed upon him, and, above all, the contempt he had shown for civic dignities—having paid the fine of £500 to be discharged from the office of Alderman for Bread Street Ward, which was permitted at the King’s express desire—appears to have brought on him the ill-will of the Court of Aldermen, who disputed his right to continue in business after knighthood; and subsequently by standing on his knighthood for precedency, a right which a fellow-citizen, one Herrick, and his wife disputed, he involved himself in another contest with them. It proved a tedious, troublesome, and chargeable one, owing to the haughty deportment of both Hicks and Herrick and of their imperious wives, ‘who, at their own expense, maintained the suit against the Court of Aldermen.’