Tobias Rustat

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Rustat, engraved by W. N. Gardiner
(after Kneller, 1682)

Tobias Rustat (bapt. 17 September 1608 – 15 March 1694 N. S.) was a courtier to King Charles II and a benefactor of the University of Cambridge. He is remembered for creating the first fund for the purchase of books at the Cambridge University Library. He was an investor in and Assistant of the Royal African Company, an English mercantile company which held a monopoly over the slave trade.

Life[]

Rustat was born at Barrow upon Soar, Leicestershire, where his father Robert was vicar.[1] His mother Alice was a sister of Robert Snoden, bishop of Carlisle, 1616–1621. He was baptised at Barrow on 17 September 1608.[2]

After an apprenticeship to a barber-surgeon in London, Rustat entered the service of Basil Feilding, 2nd Earl of Denbigh and attended him in his embassy to Venice, before becoming a servant to his nephew George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham. An ardent Royalist, he acted as a courier between England and the exiled court. During the Second English Civil War, Rustat joined Buckingham in an uprising in Kent, where he saved the Duke's life. In 1648 he escaped to the continent with Buckingham. He was present following the Battle of Worcester (1651) and aided the escape of Charles II.[3]

In 1650 Rustat was made Yeoman of the Robes to Charles II, remaining in the position until the king's death in 1685. Rustat's personal wealth came from his career as a courtier and his loyalty to the king. He became an investor, alongside the king and his brother the Duke of York, in a series of trading companies including the Royal African Company and the Gambia Adventurers. Rustat took an active role in running the Royal African Company, being elected for three one-year terms as an Assistant (equivalent of a company director) in 1676, 1679 and 1680.[4] The Members of the Court of Assistants can be considered equivalent to a modern-day board of directors.[5][6] Historian William Pettigrew has stated that this company “shipped more enslaved African women, men and children to the Americas than any other single institution during the entire period of the transatlantic slave trade” and that investors in the company were fully aware of its activities and intended to profit from this exploitation.[7]

In 1675, the University of Cambridge awarded Rustat a Master of Arts degree per literas regias.[8][9]

John Evelyn wrote of Rustat "He is a very simple, ignorant, but honest and loyal creature."[10]

Rustat is buried in the chapel of Jesus College, Cambridge where there is a monument to him by the studio of Grinling Gibbons. This bears an inscription to Rustat's belief that giving away as much as one is able in life can bring one closer to God in death, and records that he died at the age of 87 on 15 March 1693 (Old Style).[11]

Benefactions and legacy[]

Statue of Charles II, Royal Hospital Chelsea, executed around 1680–1682

In later life Rustat became an important benefactor to a number of colleges of the University of Cambridge, in particular to Jesus College where his father had been a student.[12] In January 1667 he created the first fund for the purchase of books at the Cambridge University Library with a donation of £1000.[13] The books purchased from the fund were to be bound in the same way with Rustat's arms stamped in gold on the cover,[14] kept in one place in the library, and recorded in a vellum book.[2]

Rustat created a scholarship at Jesus College for the orphan sons of Anglican clergymen. Among the Rustat scholars was Samuel Taylor Coleridge.[12] The Tobias Rustat's Charity supports vicars in Leicestershire.[15]

Rustat commissioned three statues of Stuart kings from the workshop of Grinling Gibbons in the 1670s and '80s. These were the standing statue of Charles II at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, an equestrian statue of Charles II in Windsor Castle and the statue of James II, now in Trafalgar Square. The last was commissioned for the Palace of Whitehall, apparently at the same time as the standing Charles II, and the two works might have been intended as pendant pieces.[16]

Jesus College, Cambridge owns a portrait of Rustat painted by Godfrey Kneller (previously attributed to Lely).[17] This used to hang in the dining hall above high table but has been placed in storage. The college commemorated him in the naming of Rustat Road in Cambridge.[18] Rustat Conferences, founded in 2009, were named after him; in 2020 they were renamed the Jesus College Conferences.

Rustat is memorialised by a small, late 19th-century stone statue at the Old Schools, the original site of the University Library.[19]

Rustat monument[]

A white marble memorial monument to Rustat in the chapel of Jesus College is attributed to the studio of Grinling Gibbons, with parts carved by Arnold Quellin and others less certainly by John Nost.[11] The college has proposed that this memorial should be removed from the chapel,[20] and a faculty application to permit this was made to the Diocese of Ely in December 2020.[21][22] However, the removal of the monument from the chapel is facing opposition. An objection by a group of alumni states that the character of the chapel would be altered, that the college is trying to alter that character, and that its arguments oppose the whole idea of heritage. The objectors state that Rustat’s involvement with the slave trade was marginal in his life and not unusual in the culture of his time.[23][24] Evidence has been filed with the University of Cambridge Advisory Group on Legacies of Enslavement which attempts to exonerate Rustat from any significant links to the 17th-century slave trade, as his RAC holdings constituted only 1.7 per cent of his total worth measured by his lifetime giving and his estate at death.[23]

See also[]

  • Okukor, a Benin bronze at Jesus College

References[]

  1. ^ "Rustat, Robert (RSTT581R)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b "Rustat, Tobias". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/24358. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. ^ "Rustat, Tobias" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  4. ^ "Tobias Rustat". Jesus.cam.ac.uk/. Jesus College, Cambridge. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  5. ^ Evans, Chris, 1961- (2010). Slave Wales : the Welsh and Atlantic slavery, 1660-1850. University of Wales Press. ISBN 978-0-7083-2303-8. OCLC 653083564.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ Dresser, Madge (1 October 2007). "Set in Stone? Statues and Slavery in London". History Workshop Journal. 64 (1): 162–199. doi:10.1093/hwj/dbm032. ISSN 1363-3554. S2CID 194951026.
  7. ^ "Legacy of Slavery Working Party recommendations". Jesus.cam.ac.uk. Jesus College, Cambridge. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  8. ^ "Rustat, Tobias (RSTT675T)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  9. ^ John Venn, J. A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, Vol. III Kaile – Ryves (Cambridge University Press, 1924), p. 500
  10. ^ John Evelyn, ed. William Bray, Memoirs, Volume 1 (1819), p. 520
  11. ^ Jump up to: a b Renfrew, Jane M.; Robbins, Michael (September 1990). "Tobias Rustat and his Monument in Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge". The Antiquaries Journal. 70 (2): 416–423. doi:10.1017/S0003581500070852. Retrieved 16 February 2021. "TOBIAS RUSTAT, YEOMAN OF THE ROBES TO KING CHARLES THE SECOND, WHOM HE SERVED WITH ALL DUTY AND FAITHFULLNESS, IN HIS ADVERSITY AS WELL AS PROSPERITY. THE GREATEST PART OF THE ESTATE HE GATHERED BY GOD'S BLESSING, THE KING'S FAVOUR, AND HIS INDUSTRY, HE DISPOSED IN HIS LIFETIME IN WORKES OF CHARITY; AND FOUND THE MORE HE BESTOWED UPON CHURCHES, HOSPITALLS, UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES AND UPON POOR WIDOWS AND ORPHANS OF ORTHODOX MINISTERS, THE MORE HE HAD AT THE YEAR'S END. NEITHER WAS HE UNMINDFUL OF HIS KINDRED & RELATIONS, IN MAKING THEM PROVISIONS OUT OF WHAT REMAINED. HE DIED A BACHELOUR THE 15TH DAY OF MARCH, IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1693. AGED 87 YEARS."
  12. ^ Jump up to: a b Garrett, Martin (2004). Cambridge: A Cultural and Literary History. ISBN 1-902669-79-7.
  13. ^ Oates, J. C. T. "The seventeenth century". A brief history of the collection. Cambridge University Library. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  14. ^ "Binding stamp of Tobias Rustat". St John's College, Cambridge.
  15. ^ "Tobias Rustat's Charity, registered charity no. 219784". Charity Commission for England and Wales.
  16. ^ Ward-Jackson, Philip (2011), Public Sculpture of Historic Westminster: Volume 1, Public Sculpture of Britain, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, pp. 291–3, ISBN 9781846316913
  17. ^ Oates, J. C. T.; McKitterick, David (1986). Cambridge University Library: A History: From the Beginnings to the Copyright Act of Queen Anne. Cambridge University Press. p. 372]. ISBN 0521306566. "the oil-portrait at Jesus College (attributed to Lely but actually by Kneller with his signature dated 1682)"
  18. ^ Gray, Ronald (2000). Cambridge Street Names. Cambridge University Press. p. 46. ISBN 0-521-78956-7.
  19. ^ "Statement on the University's Historical Involvement with Tobias Rustat". Lib.cam.ac.uk. Cambridge University Library. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
  20. ^ "Legacy of Slavery Inquiry update: proposed relocation of Rustat's memorial". Jesus.cam.ac.uk. Jesus College, Cambridge. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  21. ^ "Faculty Application Notice" (PDF). Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  22. ^ "Memorial planning application". jesus.cam.ac.uk. Jesus College, Cambridge. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
  23. ^ Jump up to: a b Moore, Charles (30 January 2021). "Will Samuel Pepys be cancelled next?". The Spectator. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  24. ^ "JUSTIN GAU INSTRUCTED TO OBJECT TO THE REMOVAL OF THE TOBIAS RUSTAT MEMORIAL FROM JESUS COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE". Pumpcourtchambers.com. Pump Court Chambers. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
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