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Thomas Guy

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Thomas Guy, 1706

Thomas Guy (1644 – 27 December 1724) was a British bookseller, investor, member of Parliament, and the founder of Guy's Hospital, London.

Early life

Thomas Guy was the eldest child of a lighterman, coalmonger, and carpenter, born in Southwark, in south London. In 1668, after eight years as the apprentice of a bookseller, he was admitted into the Stationers' Company and made a freeman of the City of London. The same year, he opened a bookstore in Lombard Street. Guy illegally imported Dutch bibles into England, as they were of higher quality than English bibles. In 1679, he was contracted by the University of Oxford to produce bibles under their licence, having successfully challenged the monopoly of the King's printers. While he later had a reputation as a miser, in 1678 he gave money to build almshouses and a town hall at Tamworth, his mother's birthplace and where he had grown up. He represented Tamworth in parliament from 1695 to 1707.[1][2]

Investment in the South Sea Company

By the late 1670s, Guy had begun purchasing seamen's pay-tickets at a large discount, as well as making large loans to landowners. In 1711, these tickets, part of the short-term 'floating' national debt, were converted into shares of the South Sea Company in a debt-for-equity swap. The South Sea Company was a government-debt holding company, and while there was a brief attempt to sell slaves in Spanish America, this was completely unprofitable in Guy's lifetime.[3] Therefore, while he is sometimes erroneously portrayed as having profited from slavery, this is incorrect.[citation needed] In 1720, the year when the South Sea Bubble burst, he sold 54,040 stock for £234,428, making a profit of about £175,000.[4] He then re-invested this money in £179,566 4% government annuities, £8,000 of 5% government annuities, and £1,500 East India Company shares.[5]

Foundation plaque, Guy's Hospital, London
Memorial to Guy in the Chapel at Guy's Hospital

"Guy observed the most rigid parsimony; but he never allowed his love of saving to render him forgetful of his duties as a Christian."[6] In 1704 Guy became a governor of St Thomas' Hospital. In 1707 he built three wards and supported the hospital afterwards. After selling his South Sea stock, and guided by his friend Richard Mead, Guy devoted his fortune to the building of a new hospital opposite St Thomas's.[2]

Thomas Guy died unmarried on 27 December 1724 and was buried in the crypt beneath the chapel at the hospital which bears his name. His will left £219,499 to the Guy's Hospital. He also gave an annuity of £400 to Christ's Hospital, which at that time was in London. In his will, he bequeathed financial support for the releasing and discharging of poor prisoners for debt out of prisons in London, Middlesex and Surrey and made various provisions for the homeless as well as sick. The rest of his estate went to cousins, friends and more distant relatives or acquaintances, many of whom were left up to £1,000 each.

The will had been signed and sealed in the presence of John Oldfield, William Pepys, John Adlam and Samuel Adlam.

In 1995, 271 years after his death, a new dual carriageway by-passing Tamworth was named Thomas Guy Way in his honour.


Monuments

Thomas Guy is depicted in two statues at Guy's hospital London:[7] These are being reviewed by Guy's hospital trust in connection with the commission set up by London mayor Sadiq Khan to review statues and street names linked to slavery and the trust has said they will be removed.[8][9][10] In 2012 these featured in a walking tour that focused on the central role slavery has played in the development of the City of London[11]

Brass statue 1731–4 by Thomas Scheemakers (1691–1781). In the centre of the main entrance forecourt, Guy’s Hospital, St Thomas Street, SE1.

Thomas Guy monument, marble, by John Bacon, 1774. Guy’s Hospital, St Thomas Street, SE1.

Bibliography

  • A True Copy of the Last Will and Testament of Thomas Guy, Esq. (London, 1725)
  • John Noorthouck, A New History of London, vol. iii. ch. i. p. 684 (1773)
  • Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, iii. 599 (1812)
  • Charles Knight, Shadows of the Old Booksellers, pp. 3–23 (1865)
  • S. Wilkes and G. T. Bettany A Biographical History of Guy's Hospital, (1892).
  • Copy of the Last Will and Testament of Thomas Guy Esq. with an ACT for incorporating the Executors of the said Will (London, printed for the Governors of Guy's Hospital, 1815)
  • Jane Bowden-Dan – Mr Guy's Hospital and the Caribbean (History Today June 2006)

References

  1. ^ "Guy, Thomas (1644/5?–1724), philanthropist and founder of Guy's Hospital". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-11800. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  2. ^ a b Gardiner, Juliet (2000). The History Today Who's Who In British History. London: Collins & Brown Limited and Cima Books. p. 376. ISBN 1-85585-876-2.
  3. ^ Donnan, Elizabeth (1930). "The Early History of the South Sea Company, 1711-1718". Journal of Economic and Business History. 2.
  4. ^ Odlyzko, Andrew (29 August 2018). [doi:10.1098/rsnr.2018.0018 "Newton's Financial Misadventures in the South Sea Bubble"]. The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science. 73: 29–59. {{cite journal}}: Check |url= value (help)
  5. ^ Jones, T. Roy (1 January 1938). "The Holdings of Thomas Guy in the South Sea Company". Baptist Quarterly. 9 (3): 170–183. doi:10.1080/0005576X.1938.11750464. ISSN 0005-576X.
  6. ^ CHAPTER VII: LIFE OF THOMAS GUY THE BOOKSELLER.
  7. ^ Dresser, Madge. "Set in Stone? Statues and Slavery in London" (PDF). Oxford Academic.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. ^ "Guy's Hospital considers taking down controversial statue of businessman who profited from slavery". ITV News. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  9. ^ "London slavery statue removed from outside museum". BBC News. 9 June 2020. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  10. ^ "Guy's and St Thomas' hospitals to remove statues linked to slavery after protests". Sky News. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  11. ^ "London's secret slavery shame exposed by new walking tour". Anti-Slavery International. 20 March 2012. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
Parliament of England
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Tamworth
1695–1708
With: Sir Henry Gough 1695–98
John Chetwynd 1698–99
Sir Henry Gough 1699–1701
Henry Thynne 1701–02
Henry Girdler 1702–08 		Succeeded by
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