In the year 1569 Norfolk was committed to the Tower for contemplating marriage with Mary, Queen of Scots, and of being implicated in a plot against the throne and life of Elizabeth. He was released after some months' imprisonment upon pledging himself to abandon all thoughts of the contemplated union. This promise, however, he did not keep. A cypher correspondence was discovered under the tiles of the roof of the house, and other papers were found concealed under the mat outside his bed chamber. For this he was arraigned on a charge of high treason, and executed in 1571.
As the Duke was executed for high treason his land escheated to the Crown. The Charterhouse, however, continued in the possession of his sons. It was first held by the Earl of Arundel, and on his death it passed to Lord Thomas Howard, his younger brother, when it became known as Howard House. Whether this arose from the favour with which Elizabeth was always disposed to treat her great nobility, or whether it was that the Duke had granted leases to his sons, which leases protected the property from "escheat," is not very clear. Certainly, however, the Howards held the property until the younger son sold it for £13,000 to Mr. Thomas Sutton in 1611, for the purpose of founding his "Hospital."
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.
