BELL-FOUNDERS (fn. 1)
The earliest bell-founders of the metropolis
are met with towards the end of the 13th
century, and the trade was located near the
City's eastern boundary, being chiefly connected with the parishes of St. Andrew
Cornhill (now Undershaft), and St. Botolph
Aldga'e. The Reformation brought disaster to the craft of the bell-founders, but
it is not until after the great change of religion
that foundries are met with in Middlesex.
From Aldgate the trade extended to the
neighbouring district of Whitechapel, where
Robert Mot established a business on the north
side of the High Street where Tewkesbury
Court now is, which after nearly three and a
half centuries still exists in a flourishing state.
The earliest known bell from his foundry is
one bearing his name and the date 1575,
formerly at Danbury in Essex. Other bells
cast by him still exist at Banstead, Chertsey,
Merstham, and elsewhere; and in London the
sanctus bells at St. Andrew's Holborn, and
St. Clement Danes, and four of the six bells
of St. Andrew Undershaft, three of which are
dated 1597, and the fourth 1600. Two of
the fine bells at Westminster Abbey, the third
and fifth, are also Mot's work, and bear the
inscription in black letter:—
Campanis Patrem Laudate Sonantirus Altum
Gabriell Good Man Westmon' Decanus
Both are dated, one 1598 and the other 1583,
and their lettering is very elaborate. Mot
was in business for about thirty years; many
of his bells have been recast, but eighty still
remain. They frequently bear his circular
stamp containing the letters I.H.S., his own
initials, a crown, and three bells, and are
almost always dated. Most of the bells bear
the inscription in black letter, 'Robertus mot
me fecit,' in which he invariably spells his
surname with a small m.
There are two petitions (fn. 2) from Mot in November 1577 to Lord Burghley, praying for
the payment of debts of £10 10s. and £5 5s.
due to him for eight years past from Henry
Howard, esq. He complains (fn. 3) that 'your said
poor orator is greatly impoverished and come
into decay, and is likely every day to be
arrested for such debts as he oweth.' His
petition for payment of the larger sum was
repeated on 7 June 1578, and again on the
same date in conjunction with two other
creditors of Howard. The petition was apparently hopeless; Howard, who was the son
of Viscount Bindon, was overwhelmed with
debt, and abundant evidence of his ill-conduct
exists in the State Papers of this period.
Mot died in 1608, (fn. 4) and was succeeded in
business by Joseph Carter, who was a bellfounder at Reading from 1579 to 1610. He
was in business in London in 1606, apparently
at the Whitechapel Foundry, of which his son
William became manager. The elder Carter
died in 1610, and very few of his bells are
known; there is one at Walton on Thames
dated 1608, (fn. 5) and one formerly belonged to
Allhallows Staining, but is now melted down.
William Carter succeeded his father in business, but only lived to carry it on for nine
years. The inscriptions on his bells are in
Gothic capitals, the alphabet being regarded
by some as identical with that used by the
Brasyers, Norwich founders of the 15th century. (fn. 6) Some of the younger Carter's bells
have the private mark (a trefoil) of his foreman,
Thomas Bartlett, who succeeded him as
proprietor in 1619.
The Bartlett family remained at the head
of the Whitechapel foundry to the close of
the 17th century, and worthily maintained
its reputation. Many of Thomas Bartlett's
bells remain, although most of those which
he cast for City churches must have perished
in the Great Fire. One, however—that of
St. Margaret Pattens, set up in 1624—survived
even that catastrophe, although the church
lay within the doomed district. Another of
his bells, a very fine specimen, which has survived is the Curfew bell, still rung nightly in
the chapel of the Charterhouse. This was
cast in 1631, and bears the arms and initials
of Thomas Sutton, the famous founder of that
institution. Thomas Bartlett died in or
before the year 1632, and his son Anthony
being apparently only a child the business
was carried on during the next eight years by
John Clifton, whose bells are chiefly found
in south-west Essex. They did not bear the
trade mark of the Whitechapel foundry until
1640; a bell at Lambourne, Essex, marked
with that date and the initials A. B., seems to
show that young Anthony had then advanced
in age sufficiently to take charge of the business. He began his career at an unfortunate
time, when the church was laid low and
church requisites were destroyed instead of
being purchased or renewed. But he survived this gloomy period in spite of the vigorous
competition of a famous City firm. The revival of Church life at the Restoration, and
the repair of the ravages caused by the terrible
conflagration, brought a welcome change to
the fortunes of the head of the Whitechapel
foundry, and examples of Anthony Bartlett's
work remain at St. Edmund Lombard Street,
St. George Botolph Lane (recently united
with St. Mary at Hill), and St. Olave Hart
Street. The bells at the latter church, which
escaped the Fire, are dated 1662. Anthony
died in 1676 and was succeeded by his son
James, who was a member of the Founders'
Company, becoming a liveryman in 1677,
and serving as under-warden in 1691 and
upper-warden in 1695. He supplied many
of the bells required for Wren's new churches,
four at Christ Church Southwark, dated
1700, and four at Richmond, Surrey, dated
1680. One of the latter has the following
somewhat boastful inscription:—
Lambert Made Me Weak, Not Fit To Ring,
But Bartlet Amongst The Rest Hath Made Me Sing.
On the death of James Bartlett in January
1700–1 the Whitechapel foundry passed into
the hands of Richard Phelps, who was born at
Avebury, Wiltshire. He continued at the
head of the firm for thirty-seven years, during
which time the business grew to be the most
successful in the kingdom. His bells are
met with in many different localities, and
among his best work are the peals at
St. Michael Cornhill, St. Magnus, Allhallows Lombard Street, and St. Andrew Holborn. His inscriptions are much longer, if
not more intelligent, than those of his predecessors. The following appears on the
tenth bell of St. Michael Cornhill:—
To Prayer We Do Call St. Michael's People All
We Honour To The King And Ioy To Brides Do Sing
Triumphs We Loudly Tell And Ring The Dead
Man's Knell.
Phelps is chiefly known as the founder of
the great hour-bell of St. Paul's, which now
hangs in the south-west tower of the cathedral
and bears the inscription: 'Richard Phelps
Made Me 1716.' It weighs 5 tons 4 cwt.,
and its diameter is 6ft. 105/8 in.; this bell is
only used for tolling the hour, and for tolling
at the death and funeral of a member of the
royal family, the Bishop of London, the Dean
of the Cathedral, or the Lord Mayor. The
larger part of the metal of which it is made
belonged to the bell formerly hanging in the
clock-tower opposite Westminster Hall and
known first as 'Edward,' after the Confessor,
and afterwards as 'Great Tom'; the price
paid for it was £3,025 17s. 6d. (fn. 7) St. Paul's
received in 1877 the gift of a new ring of
twelve bells cast by Messrs. Taylor of Loughborough, and 'Great Paul' by the same firm,
weighing 17 tons, was safely hung in the
north-west tower in May 1882.
The latest bell bearing Phelps's name is
the priests' bell at St. George's Southwark,
inscribed: R. Phelps 1738 T. Lester Fecit.
Phelps died in 1738, and the order for this
bell was completed by his foreman Thomas
Lester, to whom he bequeathed his business
and the lease of the foundry. Lester removed
the business from Essex Street to the premises
which it has continued to occupy until now
at 32 and 34, Whitechapel Road. His first peal
was cast for Shoreditch parish church in 1739
and the commission greatly pleased him. The
tenor bell of St. Mary-le-Bow, which weighs
53 cwt. 24 lb., was cast by Phelps and Lester
in 1738, nine others by Lester and Pack in
1762, and two trebles (increasing the peal to
twelve) by the successors of the firm in 1881. (fn. 8)
In the same year (1738) the tenor at Westminster Abbey, which once belonged to
St. Michael's Cornhill, was recast by the firm.
Lester's management, however, was not successful, and the fortunes of the foundry were at
a low ebb until 1752, when he took into
partnership Thomas Pack, who appears to
have been his foreman. The partnership of
Lester and Pack was more prosperous, and
was marked by several changes in the style
of lettering on the bells and the extensive
use of rhyming couplets. One instance of
the latter will suffice, taken from the treble
at Ingatestone, Essex:—
The Founder He Has Play'd His Part Which Shews
Him Master Of His Art
So Hang Me Well And Ring Me True And I Will
Sing Your Praises Due.
In the decoration of their bells they used
various ornamental devices, one of which,
consisting of alternate loops and V-shaped
terminations, became known as the Whitechapel pattern and lasted till 1835. They
also introduced the practice of inscribing each
bell with its weight. Lester died in 1769,
when his nephew William Chapman was
taken into partnership, and the firm continued
as Pack and Chapman until the death of
Thomas Pack in 1781. Chapman then took
into partnership William Mears, whom, as a
young man, he had for some time employed
and taught the business, and who had afterwards set up in business for himself. (fn. 9) On
the death of Chapman in 1784 Mears remained sole partner until 1789, when he
retired, leaving the foundry in the hands of
his son Thomas Mears. (fn. 10) It is interesting to
note, as Mr. Walters points out, that the
name of Mears has been connected with the
firm for 125 years, although the last representative died in 1873.
The Whitechapel foundry became at this
time the most famous foundry in England, (fn. 11)
Dobson's foundry at Downham Market, Norfolk, having been fused into it, as well as the
Gloucester foundry, which was incorporated
in 1732. The old foundry at Gloucester had
existed for centuries. 'John of Gloster' was a
bell-founder there in the 13th century; but
it came chiefly into note under the Rudhall
family in the 18th century.
Thomas Mears was at the head of the
business until 1810, taking his son Thomas
into partnership in 1806. The fine peal
of bells at the parish church of St. Dunstan,
Stepney, was cast by this firm in 1806.
Thomas Mears the younger succeeded in
1810 and remained sole head until 1843,
when the firm became Charles and George
Mears and so continued until 1857. On
the death of Charles Mears in that year the
style of the firm was altered to George Mears
and Co. The famous Big Ben which strikes
the hours in the Clock Tower of the Houses
of Parliament was recast by George Mears
from a design by Mr. Denison (afterwards
Lord Grimthorpe) in 1858. The bell weighs
13 tons 10 cwt. 3 qrs. 15 lb. and took the
place of one weighing 16½ tons cast by John
Warner and Sons in 1856, which was unfortunately cracked whilst being exhibited to
the public before being mounted in the Clock
Tower. In 1863 George Mears took as his
partner Robert Stainbank, and the firm became
known as Mears and Stainbank. On the
death of Mears in 1873 Stainbank was the
sole proprietor. He died in 1883, and was
succeeded by Arthur Silva Lawson, on whose
death in 1904 the business passed into the
hands of Arthur Hughes, its present proprietor.
There were some minor Middlesex founders.
Thomas Swain, who was born at West Bedfont in the county, succeeded in 1739 as
executor and residuary legatee to the business
of Robert Catlin, a founder in St. Andrew's
Holborn. Swain removed the foundry to
Longford near West Drayton; besides the
peal at Thames Ditton, several bells cast by
him are to be found in Surrey and Sussex.
Another founder was Thomas Janeway, who
left the Whitechapel firm to set up in business for himself at Chelsea. He was fairly
successful, and his bells dating from 1763 to
1785 include those of old Chelsea Church,
Kensington, Edgware, and Hornsey, peals of
eight at Battersea and Blechingley, and many
other bells in Surrey and Sussex. (fn. 12) His business, like that of Thomas Swain, does not
appear to have continued after his death.
Robert Patrick married Sarah Oliver, granddaughter of Thomas Lester of the Whitechapel Foundry, (fn. 13) and started an opposition
business in Whitechapel, being some time in
partnership with one Osborn of Downham,
Norfolk. He cast the bells of St. John at
Hackney and St. Botolph Bishopsgate, and
the peal of eight at Reigate, which bear the
date 1784. C. Oliver, a bell-founder in
Bethnal Green, cast a peal of bells for the
church of Worth, Sussex, in 1844.