Difference between revisions of "Matthew Piper"
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Latest revision as of 19:16, 27 June 2024
Matthew Piper was born and lived in Whitehaven in about 1730 and went to sea as a young man. His family were involved in the merchant trade between the Virginia colonies and Whitehaven in the 18th century, likely in the tobacco trade. Having lived frugally all his life, Matthew Piper stipulated that the interest on his endowments should be paid to him during his life, but he died at his lodgings in Scotch Street, Whitehaven, on 25th October 1821 aged 91. His obituary (Cumberland Pacquet 22 October 1821) stated that he had 'amassed a considerable fortune by parsimonious economy'. He was a member of the Society of Friends.
According to a newspaper account published at the time of his death in 1821 aged 91 "when on aboard he descended to the most servile offices for the meanest sailor for the sake of a penny". In short, Matthew Piper was the very model of a miser. In later life he was reputedly even reluctant to pay his board and lodgings of eight shillings (40 pence) a week. "If he happened to dine or drink tea abroad (i.e. not at his lodgings) he carefully calculated the proportionate expense and deducted it from his board!" The article goes on to give details of his one long lasting suit and ragged shirts which the washerwoman was obliged to mend for which she was rewarded with a grudging halfpenny. "Being faint a few days before his dissolution (death) it was proposed to administer a little brandy, at which he faltered out: "What will it cost?" When a relative called, he saluted him with: "Have you brought the interest?" "It's not due yet." "No," added the sick man, "and I'm not dead yet.". It was said that his whole annual expenses never amounted to more than £40!
Despite his careful management in his personal life he left £1000 to set up a soup kitchen to help feed the poor of Whitehaven in Queen Street - the charity latterly operated from 1 Mill Street. He endowed a marine school (an early National School) and an educational charity in Whitehaven. The records of the charity form a fascinating record of charitable work and are held by Cumbria Archive Service
The Marine School was in Whitehaven High Street (now Piper's Court) and Rose Cottage nearby was purchased in 1864 to house the headmaster. It flourished for the remainder of the 19th century until overtaken by free primary education in 1891. Before being admitted boys had to be able to read the New Testament and be no more than eight years old. The maximum stay was five years. The complement of 60 poor boys were taught the three Rs as well as navigation - though there was no obligation to go to sea. The curriculum, as outlined in some of the surviving records seems to be in accord with the subjects studied in Whitehaven with a view to boys becoming seamen or apprentices on merchant ships and the trust deed talks about equipping the boys with ‘Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Guaging, Navigation and Bookkeeping’. On the school's closure in 1900 the proceeds were transferred to a fund which still survives in a modified form to provide educational scholarships to university for those in need who have attended one of the town centre primary schools. Whitehaven’s Marine School continued 'turning out ... well educated lads, whose reading, writing and 'rithmetic at Piper's School never cost their poor parents one penny' until 1908 when the school was sold and the money realised was used to purchase the site of the grammar school which was built in the same year. Piper’s Court, High Street, Whitehaven, is named after Matthew Piper’s Marine School which was on the site.
As well as endowing the Marine School and the soup kitchen, in 1817 he also endowed Beast Banks (boys) National elementary school at Kendal (later Central School) with £2,000 and another at Lancaster - also both early National Schools. The school was designed by Webster. His portrait hung over the master’s desk and the endowment in 1906 consisted of £2,159 (in five per cent annuities). The Boys' National School was built by subscription in 1818. The mayor and aldermen are the trustees, and Mr. Richard Roberts is the master of this large seminary, where upwards of 200 boys receive gratuitous instruction. Upwards of 200 females are educated by subscription, in the girls' school, which contains a separate room for the girls of the Blue Coal School. The mayor and aldermen are the trustees and Mr. Richard Roberts was the master.
The Kendal National School was established by a deed dated 21st November 1817, on a one acre site called Lower Spout Close in Beastbanks (SD 513 925). The foundation stone was laid on 16th December 1817 and the school opened two years later on the 11th August 1819. In 1974 it became an annex for Vicarage Park junior school after which, in 1985, it was converted into a housing complex.
Piper requested that his remains be buried under the centre of the floor of the National School in Kendal. As the school was being built, Piper’s ashes were interred in a vault there.
The Thursday following his death, 1st November, his hearse and funeral procession gathered at the end of Stricklandgate, Kendal at four o’clock, the 150 school boys having “been regaled with a large biscuit” beforehand followed by the vicar, the Aldermen and other dignitaries and six post-chaises full of relatives. Large crowds gathered to watch the impressive procession pass through the town to the school where, “without any religious service” the coffin was laid in a flagged and walled grave within the school in compliance with Piper’s wishes and the floor simply reflagged. The Westmorland Advertiser, however, commented, pointedly, that “matters were eventually so managed that the benefit intended by him for children of all religious sects was restricted to those belonging to the establishment only”. On 27th December 1825 “at the anniversary dinner of the governors, a portrait of Matthew Piper . . . was ordered to be placed within the establishment”.
His obituary in the Cumberland Pacquet of October 29 sums him up as follows. "Though he denied to himself the pleasure of being an eyewitness of the benefits he thus conferred on society, it would be injustice to his memory to say he disposed of a part of his wealth for posthumous praise, as he disregarded popularity."
