Sir Richard Sutton

Sir Richard Sutton

Co-founder of Brasenose College, Oxford, date of birth unknown; d. September or October, 1524. He was the younger son of Sir William Sutton, of Sutton, Leicestershire. It is not known where he was educated, but he devoted himself to the legal profession, became a member of the Inner Temple, and achieved considerable success. In 1498 he was a privy councillor and held the valuable position of steward of the monastery of Sion, near London, to which house he gave benefactions of land. The chief work of his life was the building and endowment of Brasenose College, which he carried out in conjunction with Bishop Smyth of Lincoln. Their plans were laid in 1508, and during the following years Sutton bought for its endowment estates in Middlesex, Leicestershire, Oxfordshire, and Essex. These he formally made over to Brasenose in 1519, and in May, 1523, Brasenose Hall and Little University Hall, which he had leased from the university, were conveyed to the new college. His other benefactions during life or at death included the foundation of a chantry at Macclesfield or Sutton, the making of a highway at St. Giles-in- the-Fields, London, and donations or legacies to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, the Temple (wherein he held high office) and Clement's Inn, London, the monastery of Sion, and Macclesfield Grammar School. He was knighted by Henry VIII between May, 1522, and March, 1524. From his will it would seem that in earlier life he had been of strong Yorkist sympathies.

CHURTON, Lives of William Smyth and Sir Richard Sutton (Oxford, 1800); INDERWICK, Calendar of the Inner Temple Records (London, 1896); BUCHAN, Brasenose College (Oxford, 1898).

EDWIN BURTON