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Tobias Rustat and his Monument in Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2011

Jane M. Renfrew  and
Michael Robbins
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Extract

The marble monument of Tobias Rustat in Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge, has never been attributed to a designer or sculptor on documentary evidence. From a review of Rustat's career and connections, it can be concluded that Grinling Gibbons and his studio were responsible for it, with parts carved by Arnold Quellin and possibly John Nost.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 70 , Issue 2 , September 1990 , pp. 416 - 423
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1990

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References

NOTES

1 The entry of his baptism at Barrow-on-Soar is dated 17 September 1608. In his will he left £10 to the poor of Barrow.

2 Dictionary of National Biography, L, 2–3 entry by W. P. Courtney, citing earlier references; Hewitt, W. Jr, Memoirs of Tobias Rustat Esq. Yeoman of the Robes (London, 1849)Google Scholar; Lord, Braybrooke (ed.), The Autobiography of Sir John Bramston, K.B. Camden Society, old ser., 32 (London, 1845), 253Google Scholar cited; under an entry for Dievot, A. in Gunnis, R., Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660–1851 (London, 1953), 130Google Scholar; William, Bray (ed.), Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn F.R.S., 4vols. (London, 1850), 11Google Scholar, 142, 24 July 1680; Law, E., History of Hampton Court in Stuart Times, 3 vols. (London, 1888)Google Scholar, II, 246n., citing Harleian MSS 1656, fol. 218; Davies, G. (ed.), The Autobiography of Thomas Raymond and Memoirs of the Family of Guise of Elmore, Gloucestershire, Camden Society, 3rd ser., 27 (London, 1917), 10, 15, 46, 52–8.Google Scholar

3 Rustat's name is not in the index to the Register of Admissions to the Freedom of the Worshipful Company of Barber Surgeons 1522–1664 (City of London, Guildhall Library MSS 5265/1).

4 Thomas Raymond was the nephew of Sir William Boswell, ambassador at The Hague in the reign of Charles I, who ‘trained him up in the Low Countries’ (Hewitt, op. cit. (note 2), 13), and after the Restoration was made Keeper of the Papers of State in Whitehall. Lady Boswell endowed, in 1675, two scholarships at Jesus College, Cambridge, where her husband had been a fellow, for boys from Sevenoaks School.

5 The Duke of Buckingham's home was at Brooksby, Leicestershire, only five miles from Barrow-on-Soar.

6 Tobias Rustat (1716–93) wrote of his famous namesake and forebear in May 1743: ‘He was, it seems, one of the few servants of the king allowed to attend him when in Scotland where he remained by Buckingham's intercession … Tobias Rustat also fought at Worcester (September 1651) and took much delight in showing an old gilt sword which had been the king's and which he presented to him after the fight … After the king's escape from Worcester he, with great hazard, escaped with the Duke of Buckingham’. Notes written by Rustat in May 1743 while he was at Jesus College, Cambridge. Original owned by John Hemsted, Norwich, who has transcribed them. On 21 November 1651 a warrant of the Council of State issued a ‘Pass for Toby Rustill beyond seas’ (Green, Mary Anne Everett (ed.) Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, 1651–1652 (London, 1877), 545), where he rejoined the king in exile.Google Scholar

7 Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England (1659), IV, 404, 456.

8 Hewitt op. cit. (note 2) 34.

9 Ibid. 35.

10 Ibid., 42.

11 This post concerned the maintenance of the buildings and gardens. Rustat lived at Hampton Court, and as he grew older he was allowed a deputy, Mr English, to help him with the work. He continued to reside at Hampton Court until the reign of William III, when he moved to Chelsea and took much delight in watching the progress on building the Royal Hospital there.

12 William Bray (ed.) op. cit. (note 2) 24 July 1680.

13 Oates, J. C. T., Cambridge University Library, a History (Cambridge, 1988), 375, 376–80.Google Scholar

14 Hewitt op. cit. (note 2), 55–7. In 1672 John Holney was ejected from his scholarship, he not being the son of a deceased clergyman!

15 Ibid. 59. Francis Peck, Desiderata Curiosa (1732 and 1779) Lib. XIV no. IX, 50.

16 Hewitt op. cit. (note 2), 49.

17 Oates, J. C. T., Cambridge University Library, a History, 2 vols. (Cambridge, 1986), I, 379.Google Scholar

18 Cooper, C. H., Annals of Cambridge, 4 vols. (Cambridge, 1842), III, 549.Google Scholar

19 Oates, op. cit. (note 17) 165–6.

20 Hope, W. H. St John, Windsor Castle: an Architectural History, 2 vols., (London, 1913) II, 552, 555.Google Scholar

21 Ibid., 551–2.

22 Hamper, W., Life, Diary and Correspondence of Sir William Dugdale (London, 1827), 40.Google Scholar

23 Luttrell, Narcissus, A Brief Historical Relation of State Affairs from September 1678 to April 1714, 6 vols. (Oxford, 1857) III, 285.Google Scholar

24 Gunnis, op. cit. (note 2), 167–70.

25 Vertue Note Books I, Walpole Society XVIII (Oxford, 1930) 125, quoted in R. Gunnis op. cit. (note 2), 167.Google Scholar

26 Esdaile, K. A., English Church Monuments 1510–1840 (London, 1946), 75. Mr R. C. Yorke, Archivist, kindly investigated for us at the College of Arms.Google Scholar

27 Pevsner, N., Buildings of England: Cambridgeshire (Harmondsworth, 1954), 72–3Google Scholar; Staffordshire (Harmondsworth, 1974), 276; Gunnis, op. cit. (note 2), 89. Catterns was suggested by Mrs Esdaile as the author of the Rustat monument (pers. comm. Dr John Physick). The Buildings of England files do not throw any light on a possible change of mind by Pevsner (pers. comm. Bridget Cherry).Google Scholar

28 Whinney, M., Sculpture in Britain 1530–1830, revised by J. Physick (Harmondsworth, 1988), 127–9, 444 n., 60, 61, comparing the Ferrers monument at Tamworth.Google Scholar

24 Arnold Quellin (1653–86) was the son of Artus Quellin (II, 1625–1700), cousin of Artus Quellin (I, 1609–68), under whom Gibbons had worked at Amsterdam (Beard, G., The Work ofGrinling Gibbons (London, 1989), 9–10).Google Scholar Gibbons was in partnership with Arnold Quellin from 1681 until the beginning of legal proceedings between them in May 1683; but the two were working together again in the mid-1680s (Beard, Ibid. 52–3).

30 Green, D., Grinling Gibbons, His Work as Carver and Statuary 1648–1721 (London, 1964), 157; M. Whinney, op. cit. (note 28), 80; information on the Bird and Rysbrack sales from Dr John Physick, to whom we are indebted for discussion on this point.Google Scholar

31 It was not always there; originally it was in the north transept and ‘lately’ (1849) was removed to the west wall of the south transept (Hewitt, op. cit. (note 2), 86; , I. and Morgan, G., Stones and Story of Jesus College Chapel (Cambridge, 1914), 330); it was again removed in 1922 and set up on the west wall of the nave, where it now is.Google Scholar

32 Green, op. cit. (note 30), 157. On Nost (or van Ost), Quellin's foreman who later married his widow, see Gunnis, op. cit. (note 2), 279–82. His earliest independent work seems to have been the monument to Sir Hugh Wyndham at Stilton, Dorset, set up in 1692.

33 Green, op. cit. (note 30), 173, 183; Beard, op. cit. (note 29), 65 and pl. 94.

34 Whinney, M., Grinling Gibbons in Cambridge (Cambridge, 1948), in which the Rustat monument is not mentioned.Google Scholar