A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



Mot died in i6o8, 4 and was succeeded in 

 business by Joseph Carter, who was a bell- 

 founder 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 1 6 1 o, and very few of his bells are 

 known ; there is one at Walton on Thames 

 dated 1608,* and one formerly belonged to 

 Allhallows Staining, but is now melted down. 

 William Carter succeeded his father in busi- 

 ness, 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 I5th cen- 

 tury. 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 1 7th 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 1 624 survived 

 even that catastrophe, although the church 

 lay within the doomed district. Another of 

 his bells, a very fine specimen, which has sur- 

 vived 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 busi- 

 ness. 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 sur- 

 vived this gloomy period in spite of the vigorous 

 competition of a famous City firm. The re- 

 vival of Church life at the Restoration, and 

 the repair of the ravages caused by the terrible 

 conflagration, brought a welcome change to 



4 A. D. Tyssen, Ch. Bells o/Suss. (1864), 35. 

 6 J. C. L. Stahlschmidt, Surr. Bells and Lend. 

 Bell-founders (1884), 94-5. 



* Ibid. 95 ; cf. Tyssen, op. cit. 36. 



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 South wark, 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, Allhal- 

 lows Lombard Street, and St. Andrew Hoi- 

 born. His inscriptions are much longer, if 

 not more intelligent, than those of his pre- 

 decessors. 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. lof 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 ijs. 6d. 1 St. Paul's 



' Harl. MS. 6824, fol. 31. An engraving with 

 particulars of this bell is in the jintiq. Repertory, i, 

 II; ii, 162. 



1 66 



