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Thomas Sutton: Tudor-Stuart Moneylender

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Neal R. Shipley
Neal R. Shipley
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of History, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
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Abstract

Medieval strictures against usury were a long time dying, and the dynamic society of the English Renaissance could not afford to wait. Inflation, the growth of commerce, and the increasing splendor of the royal court created a strong demand for cash, especially among the landed gentry. Professor Shipley describes how one of the greatest of the moneylenders legalized the interest rates he charged, secured his loans against default, and (with limited success) maintained his reputation for respectability while engaged in a dubious occupation. Thomas Sutton and his like filled the gap that old church doctrine made in the social fabric of sixteenth-century England and smoothed the way for their successors who, after the ethical revolution of the seventeenth century, would he legitimized as private bankers.

Type
Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 50 , Issue 4 , Winter 1976 , pp. 456 - 476
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1976

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References

1 These papers are still preserved in Charterhouse. They will hereafter be referred to as Charterhouse Muniments (C. M.).

2 Accounts of Sutton written before the 1940s are, as a rule, wildly inaccurate. His father, Richard Sutton, a man of impenetrably obscure origins, was clerk of the courts in Lincoln until his death in 1558. Thomas Sutton's mother was born Elizabeth Mering, not Stapleton as is generally alleged. During his lifetime, Sutton used the arms of the Staffordshire Suttons, but those of the Lincolnshire branch were awarded him posthumously and are still employed by Charterhouse. Adlard, George, The Sutton-Dudleys of England (New York, 1862), 5–6Google Scholar; Trevor-Roper, H. R., “Thomas Sutton,” The Carthusian, XV (1948), 2.Google Scholar

3 For Sutton's official duties, see British Museum, Lansdowne MSS, volume 9, number 11; Public Record Office, State papers 52/25; Smythe, Robert, Historical Account of Charter-House (London, 1808), 58Google Scholar; Sharp, Cuthbert, Memorials of the Rebellion of 1569 (London, 1840), 95.Google Scholar

4 Sharp, Memorials, 34; Historical Manuscripts Commission Report … Hastings (London, 1928–1940), II, 12.

5 Dendy, F. M., ed. Extracts from the Records of the Company of Hostmen of New-castle-upon-Tyne (Surtees Society, Durham, 1901), xxx-xxxiGoogle Scholar; Trevor-Roper, H. R., “The Bishopric of Durham and the Capitalist Reformation,” The Durham University Journal, new series, VII (1946), 55.Google Scholar

The traditional price of the lease is £ 12,000, an error based on a claim that a one-twelfth share was worth £1000 in 1587. There is no evidence that Sutton received anything more than the £4,750 specified in the conveyance of 1583, which, in light of subsequent developments in the coal trade, was not quite the bargain it has generally been represented.

6 Sutton acquired the lease of the Manors of Hadstock and Littlebury from the Bishop of Ely in about 1570, probably with help from the Earl of Warwick. See C. M. D2/1, D3/198, F2/164; and Richard Newcourt, Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense (1708–1710), II, 292.

7 Information on Dudley's estate is derived from evidence taken during his heirs' attempts to break Sutton's will. Copies of these depositions are catalogued as C. M. L/3.

8 For the Lord Mayor's charge, see British Museum, Lansdowne MSS, volume 65, number 11; and C. M. L3/66, 68.

9 For Philip II's frustrated loan, see Stone, Lawrence, An Elizabethan: Sir Horatio Palavicino (Oxford, 1956), 321–322.Google Scholar

10 The sermon, preached by Percival Burrell, was published as Sutton's Synagogue, or the English Centurion (London, 1629). It was widely believed in the seventeenth century that Sutton served as the prototype for Volpone, but claims that Sutton pensioned Jonson are false. See Herne, Samuel, Domus Carthusiana (London, 1677)Google Scholar, a truly fabulous work, on which all accounts down till the 1940s were based. The first attempt to consider Sutton seriously was made by Lawrence Stone, in “The Anatomy of the Elizabethan Aristocracy,” Economic History Review, XVIII (1948), 1–53 and H. R. Trevor-Roper, “The Elizabethan Aristocracy: An Anatomy Anatomized,” ibid., 2nd series III (1951), 279–298, although differing opinions of his activities were expressed.

11 C. M. F1/102, 104, 115; F11/9.

12 C. M. D3/481; F3/295, 322, 336, 349; L3/14; L5/206.

13 P. R. O. Recognizances for Debt, Lc4/196, passim; C. M. F1/74, 99, 111; F4/33.

14 C. M. F11/9; L3/67.

15 C. M. F3/527.

16 C. M. F2/25, 33, 85, 133; F3/30; L11/11. There is no evidence that Sutton ever had difficulty with Archbishop Sandys, “the hammer of the usurers,” during his years in the North. See Ellis, J. P., “The Archbishop and the Usurers,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History, XXI (1970), 33–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Sutton certainly never had interest charges like those described by Sandys.

17 C. M. F1/54, 56, 58, 61, 64; F2/1, 13, 132; F3/35, 501.

18 C. M. L11/11.

19 C. M. F2/12; P. R. O., Recognizances for Debt, LC4/192, passim.

20 This refers to Sutton's acquisition of Castle Campes. See Shipley, N. R., “The History of a Manor; Castle Campes, 1580–1629,” Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, (October, 1975).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

21 On the Willoughby family, see Finch, Mary E., The Wealth of Five Northamptonshire Families, 1540–1640 (The Publications of the Northamptonshire Record Society, Oxford, 1956), 54.Google Scholar

22 C. M. D3/481; D4/287, 291A-C; F3/575; F4/17,21; P. R. O. Recognizances for Debt, LC4/193, f. 157.

23 C. M. F1/56,97,152; L11/11; P. R. O. Recognizances for Debt, LC4/192, ff. 6, 110.

24 C. M. F1/48,56, 61; F2/31.32; F3/37–40; P. R. O. Recognizances for Debt, LC4/193, f. 297.

25 P. R. O. Recognizances for Debt, LC4/195-LC4/197. Most of the surviving conditions concern Sutton, but Tyrwhitt was also heavily indebted to Thomas Dewhurst, to whom, by December of 1601, he was bound by recognizances totalling £16,000. By the following spring, Tyrwhitt was discussing the surrender of land to Dewhurst. On the Tyrwhitt family, see R. P. Tyrwhitt, Notices and Remains of the Family of Tyrwhitt (Printed but never published; corrected reprint, 1872).

26 C. M. D4/24; F2/144.145; F3/534–538; F4/2; F10/19,20,22,23,48,49; L11/11; P. R. O. Recognizances for Debt, LC4/194, F. 332; LC4/195, ff. 39,124,190,241,365; LC4/196, ff. 28, 48.

27 C. M. D1/13–15, D3/484–487; F1/56; F2/81; F3/499; P. R. O. LC4/22 (no pagination); LC4/193, ff. 36, 259; LC4/194, ff. 21, 50, 92; LC4/195, f.111; Close Rolls C54/1758, 1788.

Charterhouse, Sutton's most famous acquisition, was purchased from Lord Howard de Walden in the spring of 1611 for £13,000. C. M. D1/3,4,6–9,12–15,179–184,186,187.

28 P. R. O. Recognizances for Debt, LC4/192, f.367; LC4/194, f. 172; LC4/195, ff. 251, 284, 366; LC4/196, f.9; LC4/197, ff.133,146, 196, 197; and Ornsby, George, ed. Selections from the Household Books of the Lord William Howard of Naworth Castle (Surtees Society, Durham, 1878), viii-xxxv.Google Scholar

29 C. M. F4/22.24; D1/984; P. R. O. Recognizances for Debt, LC4/194, ff.294, 328; Close Rolls, C54/1664.

30 C. M. F/48; F2/46–49, 56–58; F3/92, 115, 407; F4/19; L11/11; P. R. O. Recognizances for Debt, LC4/193, f.9; LC4/194, ff. 134, 155, 208; LC4/197, ff. 87, 88, 96, 101, 103, 213.