Thomas Britton, the Small-Coals Polymath

Thomas Britton

Thomas Britton was a man of extraordinary talent with a deep interest in learning.  He was born in Rushden on January 14^th 1644, but subsequent biographers detailing his life placed his birth in Higham Ferrers, this being an early example of what later became known as fake news.  The Northampton Mercury on December 2^nd 1776 reported that Thomas hailed from Higham, and was followed by others including John Cole in his History of Higham Ferrers (1838) who scoured the parish registers looking for evidence of Thomas’ christening, and was unwilling to let Thomas be owned by any other village, “But we will not positively conclude that this town [Higham Ferrers] was not the place of his nativity” ^(1). Others who placed him in Higham included Sir John Hawkins in his Review of the Development of Music, (both editions)^(2).  Despite literary efforts to the contrary, Rushden was where he was born and remained for the first twelve years of his life before travelling to Clerkenwell, London to become an apprentice to a small coals merchant.  Small coals were a coke type of coal used for domestic cooking. He served an apprenticeship for “several years” ⁽³⁾ at the small coal merchant in St John Street, before being given a sum of money by his then master to leave and go elsewhere to set up a business, thereby hoping to ensure that any competition to his own enterprise was negated. Thomas came back to Rushden where, according to the Northampton Mercury⁽³⁾ he spent all his money, and having done so, then returned to Clerkenwell, London, where he remained for the rest of his life.

Map

To set up his business Thomas bought a stable at the corner of Aylesbury Street and Jerusalem passage.  This property stood next to the Gate of St John of Jerusalem, by Clerkenwell Green. The stable, which he turned into a home, was a stones throw away from St John’s Street, where he had served his apprenticeship. The property had one long narrow room at ground level where he kept the coals, and above a similar shaped room, accessed via an outside set of steps, where he lived. His interests were varied. “Britton, besides being a musician was a bibliomaniac, and a collector of rare old books and manuscripts” ^(4).   One of his first noted achievements was developing a love of chemistry. His near neighbour, Dr. Garenciers was a proficient chemist, and Thomas Britton an eager learner.  Thomas built himself a “moving laboratory, …which was much admired by all of that faculty who happened to see it” ^(5).  Thomas’ love of chemistry may have been his greatest fortune as a “certain gentleman of Wales took a strong liking to it [the laboratory]” ⁽⁵⁾ and hired Britton to create a replica for him in Wales, which Thomas did, “to the gentleman’s very great satisfaction and for which he received a very handsome and generous gratuity” ⁽⁵⁾.  This may have been the reason why Thomas Britton had the resources to indulge his love of collecting.

Thomas became widely known to the public around his area of London because of his trade and his musical ability.  Thomas never gave up being a small coal man, and in this he may have been exceeding astute.  His background would never have allowed him access to the wealthy levels of society. However as a very talented small coal man he did not threaten the established hierarchy but became an acceptable novelty.  He was an object of sociological speculation. His fame spread. Jonathan Swift wrote a poem in April 1709 “A Description of the Morning” which referenced him, “ The small-coal man was heard with cadence deep; / Till drown’d in shriller notes of ‘chimney sweep’”.  Whilst acknowledged as a polymath, it was the musical concerts he organised that contributed to his lasting fame.  In 1745 his neighbour and friend Edward Ward, wrote about the musical evenings as a tribute to Thomas, thirty years after his death. “The Prudence of his Deportment, among those who were his Betters, procured him great Respect from all that knew him, so that his Musick Meeting improved in a little Time to be very considerable, insomuch, that Men of the best Wit, as well as some of the best Quality, very often honoured his musical Society with their good Company, that in a few Years his harmonious Consort became as publickly noted as the Kit-Cat Club” ^(6).   His Thursday evening concerts became the gig to attend. Ladies of fashion clambered up the outside steps to squeeze into his upper room, their dresses sweeping the floor. It was not so much life at the coalface as listening to music facing the coals. Accomplished musicians played with Thomas and friends, including, it is thought, George Frederic Handel, prior to Handel being taken up by royalty.  Thomas’ preferred instruments were the viol de gamba and the recorder. His interest in the history of music was recognised by Samuel Pepys, who regarded Britton as an expert on Tudor music.

On the 9^th December 1673 when Thomas was 29 he married Allice Cleapte in St James Church, Clerkenwell.  There is no evidence that they had children but it could be suggested that Allice was a very calm and accommodating person as Thomas was a compulsive collector. Somewhere, stored in his home by the time of his death, he had collected over fourteen hundred books, vocal music sheets, musical scores including Purcell’s opera Psyche, and nearly forty musical instruments.  A sale was held after Thomas’ death and Sir Hans Sloane bought many of the items, and on whose own death the majority of the items were then bought by the government and formed the basis of the British Museum.  It is rather neat that the man whose surname was Britton in effect contributed so much to the British Museum.

As remarkable as Thomas’ life was, his death was equally individual. Thomas was known to be excessively superstitious. At one of his musical evenings a Justice of the Peace named Robe brought a ventriloquist called Honeywell to the meeting and this man threw his voice and stated in sonorous tones that unless Thomas fell to his knees and repeated the Lords Prayer immediately he would be endangering his soul and would die within a few hours.  Thomas complied, unaware that he was being the butt of a joke, but the effect on him was disastrous as he died a few days after the event from shock.  His wife survived him but one article seemed to suggest that this was bad form on her part.  “His wife lived for some years after his death, which was very singular and somewhat premature” ^(7).  Thomas was buried in the vault at St James, Clerkenwell on the 1^st October 1714.  His funeral procession was accompanied by a lot of mourners, and it is to be hoped that Justice Robe and Mr Honeywell were chief among them.  In the early twentieth century the vault was excavated and equipped to form a large hall.  Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein opened the new space in 1912. The three hundred coffins that had previously been placed in the vault were moved and stored under the main West entrance to St James, which presumably is where Thomas remains to this day. 

St. James in 1714

St. James today

References:

^{The picture of Thomas Britton is in the Handle Museum, Duke Street, London. It was painted by his friend, John Wollaston, in 1703, when Thomas was 59 years old.}

^{(1)      Cole, John. The History and Antiquities of Higham Ferrers 1838 p174.}

^{(2)      John Hawkins, Sir. A General History of the Science and Practice of Music 2nd Edition (1875) P788.}

^{(3)      Northampton Mercury, 02 December 1776.}

^{(4)      Thornbury, Walter. Old and New London, A Narrative Of Its History, Its People, And Its Places. Vol 11. 1880.  P 334}

^{(5)      Letter to The Gentleman’s Magazine, September 1773. P 437.}

^{(6)       Ward, Edward. A Compleat and Humorous Account of all the Remarkable Clubs and Societies in the Cities of London and Westminster, London 1745.} 

^{(7)      F F. Article in The Repository of Arts, Literature, Fashions, Manufactures etc Vol X. December 1820}