Sutton, Richard

, the co-founder of Brasen-nose college, Oxford, descended from the ancient family of the Suttons of Sutton near Macciestield in the county palatine of Chester, was the younger son of sir William Sutton, knight. Of the time or place of his birth, we have no cer tain account, nor whether he was educated in the university to which he became so bountiful a benefactor. He practised as a barrister of the Inner Temple, and probably with success. In 1490 he purchased some estates in Leicestershire, and afterwards increased his landed property in different counties. In 1498, if not earlier, he was a member of Henry Vllth’s privy council, and attended the court for many years after. In 1505, he was one of the governors of the Inner Temple, and was in other years chosen to this annual office.

It is uncertain at what time he became steward of the monastery of Sion near Brentford in Middlesex, but he occurs in this office in 1513, and had chambers in the monastery, where he frequently resided. Besides bestowing estates and money on this religions house, he bore the exr pense of publishing a splendid, and now very rare book, in honour of the house, called “The Orcharde of Syon.” | In 1512, he was employed in purchasing the manor of Pinchepolles in Farringdon, Berkshire, with lands in Westbrook and Farnham in that county, which were given by Mrs. Morley, and constituted the first permanent benefaction bestowed on Brasen-nose college. He appears to have received the honour of knighthood in 152'J, about two years before his death, but the exact time of the latter event is not known. As an annual commemoration of him is observed by the society on the Sunday after Michaelmas, it may be inferred that he died about that time. His will, drawn up March 16, 1523-4, was proved November 7, 1524; and he is supposed to have been buried, either at Macclesfield, or in the monastery of Sion. His bequests are almost all of the religious or charitable kind. To these scanty memoirs we may add, in the grateful language of his biographer, that, “Unmarried himself, and not anxious to aggrandize his family, which had long ranked among the best in a county justly proud of its ancient gentry, sir Richard Sutton bestowed handsome benefactions and kind remembrances among his kinsmen; but he wedded the public, and made posterity his heir. An active coadjutor from the first to the bishop of Lincoln in laying the foundation of Brasen-nose college, he completed the building, revised the laws, and doubled.the revenues of the growing seminary, leaving it a perpetual monument of the consolidated wisdom and joint munificence of Smyth and of Sutton.”

The estates given by sir Richard Sutton were, the manor of Burgh or Borowe or Erdeborowe, in the parish of Somerby in the county of Leicester, and other estates in the same parish and neighbourhood; an estate in the parish of St. Mary, Strand, London, which in 1673 was sold to the commissioners for enlarging the streets after the great fire, for the sum of 1700l. and with this an estate was purchased at Burwardescot or Burscot in Oxfordshire, which has recently been exchanged for other lands at Stanford in the vale of White Horse. He gave also the manor of Cropredy in the county of Oxford, and certain lands there, and an estate in North Ockmgton or Wokyndon, in the county of Essex. All these sir Richard granted to the college by lease, July 18, 1519, and on Nov. 29th following, by a conveyance under his own hand and seal, he released them to the society for ever. ¹