Information on Captain Sir Thomas Danby, an ancestor of Lt Col Ernest D. Danby. Captain Thomas Danby, the first Mayor of Leeds, was born on 17 August 1631 , and was a member of one of Yorkshire's oldest families. He was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Danby, who was made High Sheriff of York in 1638 and was a colonel in the Royalist Army. Thomas followed his father into a military career. He married Margaret, granddaughter of William., Lord Eure,of the distinguished family of 1Yorkshire soldiers. · Leeds was granted its second Royal Charter in 1661. This empowered the town to appoint a Mayor, and Captain Danby was the first to fill this office. In his honour "a chief sable beating three mullets argent: part of the Danby arms was incorporated in the Leeds arms. Thomas Danby died in 1667: according to one source he was murdered by a hired assassin in a London tavern.