280 Dr. J. M. Hobson’s Historical and Descriptive 
publicly flogged in Common Hall, and then set in the college 
stocks ! 
At the age of forty-three Whitgift was made Dean of Lincoln, 
as a reward for answering the Puritan ‘“‘ Admonition to Parlia- 
ment’? in 1572. His controversial zeal was further rewarded 
by his elevation to the See of Worcester in 1577. In 1583 he 
succeeded Grindal in the Primacy of all England. This position 
he occupied till his death, in the reign of James I., February 
29th, 1604. 
Whitgift was not in advance of his time in the matter of 
toleration. He was evidently a fighter, and did not fail to use 
his great powers of nature and position to overcome, if he might, 
opinions which he no doubt sincerely believed to be dangerous 
and damnable. It is not fair to judge a man acting in the light 
of three centuries ago by the spirit of our ownage. That he was 
fundamentally generous and pitiful is shown, as to the first 
quality, by his refusal to accept the Primacy from Elizabeth 
while Grindal—who was suspended by the Star Chamber—was 
living; and as to the second quality, by his foundation in our 
town. 
What put the idea into Whitgift’s head to build a hospital or 
college for the poor, with a school for poor children attached. 
I know not; but that several such colleges were at that time 
ancient institutions we know, as witness the Hospital of St. 
Cross, Winchester, founded in 1132. 
Moreover, Whitgift gives his reason for founding his charity 
in his lifetime, rather than leaving it to others to do it for him 
at his death, for the chronicler Stow writes :—‘‘I have heard 
him say he would not be to his executors a cause of their 
damnation, remembering the good advice that an ancient father 
hath left written to all posteritie. . . . It is a way far more 
safe for a man to doe good and charitable deeds by himself, 
whilest he liveth, than to hope that others will do the same for 
him after his death.”’ 
Well, then, Whitgift, having determined to build, first of all 
acquired a site on what is now the high road between London 
and Brighton. His own statement, publicly made not long after, 
when certain persons accused him of enriching himself out of his 
office, shows what parcels of land and buildings he acquired, and 
what he gave for them :— 
“Lands purchased by me, John Whitgift, Archbishop of 
Canterbury, since my first being bishop, to this November, 1599, 
which is twenty-three years at the least... .. 
‘‘These following are for my Hospital. The Checker in 
Croydon cost £200, a tenement joining to it cost £30. Another 
tenement in Croydon, called Stay-Cross, with one acre and a 
half, cost £80. 
