Merchant and Mayor of London. He was born in Willesley, which at the time was in Derbyshire but is now in Leicestershire. He was the son of James Abney and his wife Jane Mainwaring. His mother died during his infancy, and he was sent to school at Loughborough, in Leicestershire, in order that he might be under the observation and control of Lady Bromley, the widow of Sir Edward Bromley, knight; one of the barons of the exchequer in the reigns of James I and Charles I. As the youngest son he moved to London to establish himself in trade, and quickly enjoyed a considerable increase in fortune. He was apprenticed to a London Fishmonger and became a freeman. Members of Livery Companies or trade guilds generally fell into two categories: freemen and liverymen. One might become a freeman, or acquire "the freedom of the company", upon fulfilling the company's criteria: traditionally you could be admitted by patrimony, if either parent was a liveryman of the company; or by servitude if one has served as an apprentice in the trade for the requisite number of years; or by redemption, if one paid a fee. Freemen generally advance to become liverymen by the vote of the company. From early times the Aldermen have been members of one of the craft guilds represented in the later centuries by the Livery Companies. From the time of Edward II to the end of the 14th century, the Aldermen, with rare exceptions, have belonged to one of the seven great Companies: Mercers, Grocers, Drapers, Fishmongers, Goldsmiths, Skinners and Vintners. Thomas Abney was elected a member of the Fishmonger Company in 1666, and was elected Lord Mayor of London in 1700, and was knighted by King William III. It was Mary Abney who gave his name to Abney Park in Stoke Newington. He had a nephew also named Thomas Abney, who was a judge.