634
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
discount, and afterwards sabscribed in the South Sea company, which was established in 1710, for the purpose of discharging those tickets, and giving a large interest. Here Mr. Guy was so ex- tensirely, as well as cautiously concerned, that in the year 1720, he was possessed of £45,500 stock, by disposing of which when it bore an extremely advanced price, he realized a considerable sum. While we are compelled, in this brief notice of Mr. Guy's life, to associate his name with one of the most infamous transactions in the com- mercial history of our country, it is due to his memory, as well as to the cause of Christian charity, to add, that no dishonourable imputation ever attached to him on this score, notwithstand- ing the flippant and unfair remarks of Pennant, in his History of London.* Be it remembered, that much of his money was acquired by labour and perseverance, as well as by that practice of self-denial, which probably was necessary at the outset of life, and afterwards became a habit. To his relations he was attentive while he lived ; and his actions prove that he did not hoard up his means until they could no longer be of use to himself. He kindly lent money to some of his connexions, and granted annuities to others. In 1707, he built and furnished three wards on the north side of the outer court of St. Thomas's hospital, in Southwark ; and gave JCIOO to it annually for eleven years preceding the erection of his own hospital. Sometime before his death, he erected the stately iron gate, with the large houses on each side, at the expense of about £3000. On August 5, 1717, he offered to the stationers' company, through the medium of his friend Mr. Richard Mount, £1000, " to enable them to add £50 a-year,by quarterly payments, to the poor members and widows, in augmenta- tion of the quarterly charity ;" also £1100, "to be paid quarterly to such charitable uses as he should appoint by his will, in writing ;" and a further sum of £1500 " to have £75 a-year paid quarterly for another charitable purpose, to be appointed in like manner ;" in default of such appointments the sum of £125 to be paid annu- ally by the company of St. Thomas's hospital. And, no appointments having been made, the same is now regularly paid by the hospital. He was seventy -six years of age when he formed the design of building the hospital which bears his name.f The charge of erecting this vast pile
- 17S0, June. Atttais time, the wbole nation, dergy and
laity, whIgs and tories, ctmrchmen and diasentcrs, states- men and even ladies, who had, or could inrocore money for the purpose, turned stock jobbers, and entirely neg- lected their several professions and employments, to attend to some bubble or other. — Salmon** Chronological Histo- rian, — Gay, who, under the form of a fable, often couched lost and bitine satire. Blinding to the large fortunes sud- denly made, by means of the " south sea bobble," remarks.
How many saucy airs we meet, From Temple-bai to Aldgate-street I Proud rogues who shared the South Sea prey. And sprung, like mushrooms, in a day.
t To ibew what great events spring from trivial canses, it may be observed, that the public are indebted to a most trilling incident for the greatest part of his immense for.
amounted to £18,793, besides £319,499, whicii he left to endow it : and he just lived to see it roofed in. He erected an almshouse with a library at Tamworth,in Staffordshire, (the place of his mother's nativity, and which he repre- sented in parliament) for fourteen poor men and women ; and for their pensions, a.s well as for the putting out of poor children apprentices, be- queathed £135 a-year. To Christ's hospital lie gave £400 a-year for ever; and the residue of his estate, amounting to about £80,000, among those who could prove themselves in any degree related to him. This truly eminent philanthropist dedicated to charitable purposes more than aoy one private person upon record in this kingdom. In the chapel of his hospital a beautiful mo- nument was erected in 1779, executed by Mr. Bacon, and is said to have cost £ 1 000. Mr. Guy is represented in his livery gown, holding out one hand to raise a poor invalid lying on the earth, and pointing with the other to a distressed object, carried on a litter into one of the wards, the hospital being in the back-ground. On tiie pedestal is this inscription :
T7ndemeath are deposited the remains of
Thomas Gut,
Citizen of London, Member of Parliament, and the nit
founder of this hospital in his life-time.
It is peculiar to this beneficent roan to have preserral,
during a long course of prosperity and industry, is
pouring forth to the wants of others, all that he
had earned by labour, or withheld from
self-indulgence.
Warm withphilanthiopy, and exalted by charity, his mini
expanded to those noble affections which grow but
too rarely from the most elevated pursuits.
After administering with extensive bounty to the daisucf
consanguinity, he established this uy Imn for that
stage of languor and disease, to which the
charity of others had not reached:
be provided a retreat for hopeless
insanity, and rivalled the
endowments of kings.
He died the 27th of December, 1724, in the soth year of his
age.
As Mr. Guy printed only for profit, very little can be expected from him of excellence. The best of his bibles is the small 8vo. 1681. His4to. bibles have the advantage of a very broad-faced letter.
1724, Jan. 1. ProUttant Intelligenee, No. I. This paper begins with good portraits of "The GloriousRoyalGuardof the Protestant Religion; King George I., Geo^^ Prince of Wales, and Prince Frederick."
1724, Feb. 21. Tea Table, No. 1.
1724, Feb. 21. Honest True Briton, No. 1.
tunes being applied to charitable uses. Mr. Oayhads maid servant whom he agreed to marry, and prepantdry to his nuptnals he had ordered the pavement bnbra ^ door to be mended so far as a particular stone, whJcb K marked. The maid, while her master was out, loDOCesUr looked on the pavlers at work, saw a broken place Ihjr had not repaired, and mentioned it to them, bat tfcer tat her Mr. Guy had dhrected them not to go so far. " W«J. says she, " do you mend it, tell him I bade yoo, sM ' know he will not be angry." It happened, howcrtr, Uw the poor girl presumed too much on her inflneoce ortf her wary lover, with whom the charge of a few •billlW' extraordinary turned the scale entirely agslnst litfj >^ Guy, enraged to find his orders exceeded. lenoanceolM matrimonial scheme, and built hospitals in hii old sp'
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