Humphrey Chetham, 1580-1653

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Humphrey Chetham, 1580-1653: fortune, politics and mercantile culture in seventeenth-century England
Manchester: Chetham Society, 2003. (Remains historical and literary
connected with the Palatine counties of Lancaster and Chester, 3rd ser., v. 45)

Steve Guscott draws on his doctoral thesis to produce this, the first reassessment of the life and work of the enormously successful and influential seventeenth-century businessman and merchant Humphrey Chetham.

This publication continues the Chetham Society's third series. The blurb explains:
"This study explores the colourful life and career of the seventeenth-century merchant, Humphrey Chetham. The founder of the famous school and library in Manchester, Chetham is generally remembered as a selfless wealthy philanthropist. Dr Guscott reassesses this interpretation. He describes how Humphrey Chetham established a fortune from the cloth trade and the shadowy world of moneylending. The complicated process of becoming a landed figure is explored, and how Chetham's new wealth and status were affected by political and religious change in Lancashire during the 1630s. Chetham's zealous Parliamentarianism during the civil wars is also examined, and how the experience of that conflict helped fashion his charitable schemes.
"This book illustrates the growing influence of merchants in pre-industrial England. It demonstrates in detail the importance of family and kinship connections in wealth creation, and how commercial moneylending and credit affected social relations. Dr Guscott also asserts that there was distinctive mercantile culture in England that was independent of the worlds of both the 'middling sort' and the gentry. Chetham's career, it is argued, alongside that of other merchants and communities, can help to explain how seventeenth-century mercantile England gave birth to the polite and genteel commercial leviathan of the eighteenth century."

This book is available direct from Chetham's Library at £20.00 to callers, or at £23.50 including p&p if you would like it posted to you. We can accept payment by cash or cheque, but not by plastic. You can contact us here.

For all other Chetham Society publications, please see the list of Chetham Society publications, and please note that all other in-print items need to be obtained through the publisher, not via the Library.

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