III.—The Hospital, 1611-1908
Of the early life and ancestry of Thomas Sutton little is recorded. He was born in 1532, the son of Richard Sutton, a native of Knaith, in Lincolnshire. His father died in 1558. Thomas Sutton went to Eton, but there seems little reason to believe, as Bearcroft endeavours to prove, that he proceeded to Cambridge. It is certain that he entered as a student at Lincoln's Inn, but did not complete his studies. Shortly afterwards he went abroad and travelled extensively, visiting Holland, France, Italy, and Spain. He had inherited a modest competence from his father.
On returning home Sutton entered the service of Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, and later engaged himself in the capacity of secretary to the Earl of Warwick. The Earl was Master of the Ordnance, and made Sutton assistant to himself in this capacity for the district of Berwick-on-Tweed. Sutton was active during the Popish reaction then taking place in the north. He showed loyalty, valour, and wisdom, and was for this rewarded by being made Master General of the Ordnance in the north in 1569. Two cannons carved over the mantelpiece in the great hall still commemorate Sutton's work in this capacity. When the country became quiet Sutton embarked upon mercantile pursuits. He leased lands from the Bishop of Durham and from the Crown, on which were rich and undeveloped coal mines. In this way he laid the foundation of his subsequent fortune; so that when he moved to London, in 1580, he was reputed worth £50,000, and his purse, it was said, was fuller than Elizabeth's exchequer. In 1582 Sutton married Elizabeth, widow of John Dudley, of Stoke Newington. He continued to amass wealth as his mercantile operations extended, and he carried on a large trade with the Continent, where at one time he had as many as thirty agents. He is reported to have fitted out a privateer at his own charges to meet the navy of Philip, King of Spain. In 1594 Sutton resigned his post as Master General of the Ordnance, and there is evidence to show that the question of a proper disposal of his wealth began to occupy his mind. In 1602 Mrs. Sutton died, and the loss of his wife no doubt tended to turn his thoughts in the same direction. Fuller[68] says:—
"This I can confidently report from the mouth of a creditable witness, who heard it himself and told it to me, that Mr. Sutton used often to repair into a private garden, where he poured forth his prayers to God, and amongst other passages was frequently overheard to use this expression, 'Lord, Thou hast given me a large and liberal estate, give me also a heart to make use thereof.'"
He was at all times charitable and generous with his money, and many begging letters are extant from those who desired to profit by his liberality. There were others with wider ambitions, and amongst these Sir John Harrington appears to have conceived the idea of inducing Sutton to leave his large fortune to Charles, Duke of York, the King's second son, afterwards Charles I. No doubt he thought that this scheme, if successful, would further his interests at court.
Harrington hinted to the King that Sutton was contemplating this disposal of his property, and suggested that a barony should be conferred upon him. Sutton, however, had no ambitions in this direction, and when he heard of the matter wrote to the Lord Chancellor and the Earl of Salisbury declining the honour. He says: "My mynde in my younger times hath been ever free from ambition and now I am going to my grave, to gape for such a thing were mere dotage in me." Further, he prayed for "free liberty to dispose of myne owne as other of his Majesty's loyal subjects."
Sutton had already formed the intention of founding a hospital at Hallingbury, in Essex, and had conveyed all his estates in Essex to the Lord Chief Justice, Sir John Popham, the Master of the Rolls, and others for this purpose.
Charterhouse Hall.
In 1609 an Act was passed in the legislature for the creation of a hospital at Hallingbury. Shortly after, however, Sutton changed his mind with regard to the locality of the hospital, and determined to acquire Howard House for the purpose. On June 22nd, 1611, he obtained letters patent from King James, with license of mortmain, which set aside the Act of 1609 and enabled him to carry out his altered intentions, and found his hospital on the Charterhouse site. The letters patent set out, at length, the purpose of the founder to establish a hospital for old people, and a free school, and schedules the lands given for this purpose, as well as the names of the sixteen original governors of the institution. Amongst these were Launcelot Andrewes and Dean Overall. Fuller says:—
"This is the masterpiece of Protestant English charity designed (by the founder) in his life; completed after his death, begun, continued and finished with buildings and endowments, solely at his own charges, wherein Mr Sutton appears peerless in all Christendom on an equal standard of valuation of revenue."
Sutton had hoped to become himself the first master of the new establishment, to the foundation of which his latter years had been devoted. This, however, was not to be, and the munificent donor died at his house in Hackney on December 12th, 1611, at the age of seventy-nine years.
The foundation of the hospital thus initiated was not carried through without a legal struggle. Shortly after his death Sutton's nephew, Simon Baxter, laid claim to the estates as next-of-kin to the founder, and in this design obtained the support of Sir Francis Bacon, who acted as his counsel. While the suit was still pending, this eminent but corrupt lawyer wrote a lengthy and specious letter to King James, setting forth objections to the proposed scheme, and hinting in effect that if the will were set aside the King might himself obtain considerable influence in the disposal of the property. The Courts decided against Baxter, though this decision was not arrived at until after the governors had made largesse to the King. They handed over to James the large sum of £10,000, setting out that the grant was for the purpose of repairing Berwick Bridge, then "much ruinated or rather utterly decayed." The King received this offering, says Smythe, in a very delicate way.[69] It was, in point of fact, nothing more nor less than a bribe, though entered by the Treasury among "Sums of money extraordinarily raised since the coming of His Majesty to the Crown." The whole transaction sheds a sinister light on the customs of the period, for it is not likely that Sutton's executors would have parted with so large a sum had they not been apprehensive of losing the whole, a fear which no doubt quickened their solicitude for the safety of Berwick Bridge. After this, the organization of the foundation proceeded without further trouble, and on December 12th, 1614, the body of Sutton was transferred from Christ Church, Newgate Street, where it had rested since his death, to the elaborate tomb prepared for it in the chapel of the new house where it still rests.
The governors found much work ready to their hand. The buildings had to be rendered suitable for the habitation of pensioners and scholars, and a constitution for the institution had to be prepared. The buildings, as we have seen, had been erected for an entirely different purpose. The Duke of Norfolk's house, with the outbuildings, stables and farmyard, were the materials which the governors had to utilise. It is a matter for which the antiquary must be grateful, that in dealing with this mass of sixteenth century building they did their best to preserve it, and succeeded so well that it remains to the present day. Twenty-one pensioners or "Pore Bretheren" were elected as the first recipients of the charity, but in 1613 the number was raised to eighty, as contemplated by Sutton. Forty scholars were also selected and placed under the care of a schoolmaster and an usher. Those elected pensioners were to be
"no rogues or common beggars, but such poor persons as could bring good testimony of their good behaviour and soundness in religion, and such as had been servants to the king's Majesty, either decrepit or old; captains either at sea or land; soldiers maimed or impotent; decayed merchants; men fallen into decay through shipwreck, casualty of fire, or such evil accident; those that had been captives under the Turks."
The hospital did not escape its share of the troubles attendant upon the Civil War. Some of the governors were deposed from the government of the foundation, the internal management of which was interfered with by the Parliament. In 1643 an order was made for the "sequestering of the minister's and preacher's and organist's place of the Charterhouse; and that the master of the Charterhouse do permit such as the House shall appoint to execute the said places; and that the receiver do pay the profits belonging to the said places to such as this House shall appoint to receive the same." About the same time Mr. Brooke, the schoolmaster, was ejected from his office. It is alleged that he flogged some boys who favoured the parliamentary cause.[70] With the restoration of the monarchy some of the governors were restored to their positions, and Mr. Brooke, though not reappointed schoolmaster, was given lodging and commons in the house, and a pension of £30 per annum, to be paid by his successor.
The history of the succeeding years is uneventful. From time to time necessary reforms have been introduced into the management of the institution, but the intentions of the founder have been faithfully carried out. The wisdom of Sutton in entrusting his institution to the management of governors, who have always been men of eminence in church and state, rather than in attempting to lay down hard and fast rules for its guidance, has been abundantly vindicated.
In the early part of the nineteenth century, Mr. Hale, who was first preacher, and then master for more than thirty years, introduced various necessary reforms, and abolished abuses which in course of time had crept in. Archdeacon Hale, besides devoting his attention to the general care and management of the institution, was responsible for much rebuilding and alteration in the house itself. Between the years 1825 and 1830 the preacher's court and pensioners' court, now occupied by the brothers' rooms and official residences, were built.
What the labours of Archdeacon Hale were to one Part of the institution, the work of Dr. Haig Brown was to the school. In course of time the locality, once outside the boundaries of the town and surrounded by pleasant fields, had become built over and entirely changed in character. In 1864 the Public School Commissioners recommended that the school should be removed into the country. It was not easy, however, to get those in authority to consent to so great a change. Sentiment was aroused against a plan which broke long years of tradition, and it was not till 1872 that the school was moved to its present site at Godalming. The credit of this step, and the subsequent success which attended it, must be given to Dr. Haig Brown, for thirty-four years the headmaster, and subsequently, upon his retirement, master of the Charterhouse. Dr. Haig Brown was appointed headmaster in 1863, and it was owing to his clear-sightedness and energy that this migration was accomplished. He had to struggle against the prejudices of officials, the fears of the governing body, and the feeling which he himself could not altogether dismiss—that a great experiment was being made, and a serious risk run. A touch of comedy was not wanting, for the boys themselves were strongly against the move, and complained loudly that they were being badly treated in being forcibly removed from the somewhat dingy habitation, which they loved so well, to the breezy uplands of Godalming. By this time, no doubt, they are reconciled to the change.
That part of the London site which was vacated by the removal of the school was sold for £90,000 to the Merchant Taylors' Company, who utilize it now for their school, for which purpose it is well adapted, being intended for day scholars only. Charterhouse at Godalming rapidly increased in numbers, and continues to be one of the leading public schools in the country.
Thus, though now unavoidably severed, the two separate parts of Sutton's foundation are still fulfilling the purposes of the founder. The London Charterhouse remains—as Thackeray, in The Newcomes, depicts it—a peaceful haven for those whose reverses in the struggle of life have made them fit pensioners on Sutton's bounty; and the school equips, year by year, scholars of a younger generation, who frequently attain to posts of distinction in church and state.
"Floreat aeternum Carthusiana Domus."
GLIMPSES OF MEDIÆVAL LONDON
By George Clinch, F.G.S.
Everything connected with mediæval life in London offers a peculiarly fascinating field for the author, the student, and the reader. It reflects and epitomizes all that is most important and really worthy of notice in the story of England during what one may properly call its most picturesque period.
The story of mediæval London presents much romance and poetry, as well as strenuous activity; much religion and genuine piety, as well as superstition and narrowness of vision. It would not, indeed, be difficult to write lengthy volumes on such a subject, but it will of course be quite understood that in the present brief chapter anything of the nature of minute detail will be impossible. All that can be attempted is to give one or two glimpses of mediæval life in London from points of view which may possibly be novel, or, at any rate, worthy of the consideration of those who desire to study the past in its human interests, and as something more than mere bricks and mortar.