Memoirs of Tobias Rustat, Esq. Yeoman of the Robes to King Charles II., & c.; with notices of some eminent contemporaries
Reference Number
PP/2801
Level of Description
Item
Title
Memoirs of Tobias Rustat, Esq. Yeoman of the Robes to King Charles II., & c.; with notices of some eminent contemporaries
Creator(s) & Administrative History
Hewett, William: Author : Publisher
London
Date
1849``
Extent
Pages: 97
Description
An account of the life of Tobias Rustat, second son of Robert Rustat, vicar of Barrow-in-Sour, Leicestershire. Of modest origins, he rose to become a favourite of Charles II and was appointed Yeoman of the Robes in 1659 and then Under-Housekeeper at Hampden Court. In the 1660s he became involved in the affairs of St. John's Hospital and Bellott's Hospital (which had been built on a property of St. John's Hospital). This involved him in legal disputes with Bath Corporation but he was able to gain considerable financial advantage by arranging for his brother John to be appointed to the Mastership of St. John's and then getting John to lease to him all of the hospital's property except the chapel and almshouse. Having acquired the lease to Bellott's Hospital by his actions, he agreed with the Corporation (after they had agreed to make him a Freeman of the City!) to renew it at the old rent and there is a stone tablet relating to this act above the entrance to the hospital; see pp. 45-49. See also Jean Manco, 'The Spirit of Care: the eight-hundred-year story of St. John's Hospital, Bath', pp. 84-88 for an alternative view of Tobias Rustat. There are newspaper cuttings from the Bath and Cheltenham Gazette dated 1855 on the back pages and back inside cover relating to Tobias Rustat and St. John's Hospital.
Personal Name
Rustat, Tobias, 1608-1694, courtier at the court of Charles II and significant benefactor to Cambridge University
