The death of Mary and accession of Elizabeth made way for Lodge's election, with Roger Martyn, as Sheriff for 1559–60 in the Mayoralty of William Hewett. In 1559 he headed a commission to survey for the improvement of the river Lea for navigation and water supply between Ware and London (and was further consulted about his findings seven years later).D. Fairclough, 'A Tudor Canal Scheme for the River Lea', The London Journal Vol. 5 no. 2 (1978), pp. 218–27, at pp. 220–21, citing City of London Repertories, 14 fol. 365 and 16 fol 186 b. In the same period he served his second term as Master of the Grocers' Company. In 1561 he was Governor of the Muscovy Company, and on 8 May in that capacity signed a 'remembrance' to Anthony Jenkinson on his departure to Russia and Persia.'East Indies: May 1561', in W. Noel Sainsbury (ed.), Calendar of State Papers Colonial, East Indies, China and Japan, Vol. II: 1513-1616 (London 1864), p. 4 (British History Online). He also traded to Barbary, and on 14 August 1561 he offered, jointly with Sir William Chester and Sir William Garrard, to defray the charges of a Portuguese mariner for a voyage of discovery to that coast, and to present him with one hundred crowns.Cited in the (Old) Dictionary of National Biography (from which this statement derives) as 'cf Machyn, p. 183': but neither page-number nor date correspond to the events described.
