William Hay Fea

Despite being Master for over 20 years, William Hay Fea is one of the least known modern holders of the post.  He was born in Hull in
in 1850, the son of a local businessman.  After ordination he became curate of St. Bride's in
Stretford, Lancashire, and was Chaplain of Trinity House and incumbent of the Mariners' Church, Hull, when he was appointed as Master in 1898.  It seemed like a precarious job.  The Aldermen who still ran the Charterhouse were still in a prolonged wrangle with the Charity Commissioners over the nature of the job and the whole governance of the place, and Fea had to agree to the prospect of his salary being halved to £150 pa and his duties reduced to a strictly pastoral role if they got their way.  It was more than a year before the Aldermen received the Charity Commission’s verdict; they agreed that a new scheme was desirable and enclosed copies of a draft scheme of their own. The Committee’s meeting on 5 December 1900 was somewhat bad-tempered. Fea had his own opinions on the proposed scheme, but was told that he would be expected to support whatever the Council decided to do. Fea said that in supporting the Advisers’ scheme he had done everything that he was obliged to do, and could not now be expected to support different proposals. The Councillors replied that in that case he ought not to attend their meetings; Fea agreed and left.  In 1901 the new scheme of governance was imposed.  Fea was to get £250 pa.   

The only glimpses we get of Fea's early years in charge are intriguing.  Very quickly he insisted that the old harmonium in the chapel was not fit for purpose and got the new trustees to agree to a new organ.  This was to be a splendid instrument, enhanced by a stop paid for by the Hull Cycling Club of which Fea was president.  In 1903 a curious little piece appeared in the local paper; "The Master of the Hull Charterhouse keeps a banking account for the inmates, and pays them 5 per cent interest."  One wonders whether that was even legal.  But relationships with the trustees seem to have been fractious at times.  In 1908 the paper reported an exchange about a drunken visitor:

Fea stopped attending meetings of the trustees, communicating with them when necessary by letter.  This became evident in 1911 when an influential trustee, Francis Askew, complained.  He had tried to visit an inmate, who was a friend of his, on a Sunday morning and found the doors and gates of the Charterhouse locked.  Fea was in the habit of locking the place up during services and claimed that it was "for the safety and comfort of the sick and infirm" (who were the only ones not obliged to be in chapel) and because local youths made a nuisance of themselves by disturbing the services.  The trustees ordered that the practice must stop.  Never one to accept defeat easily, Fea wrote to the Charity Commissioners.  They took the side of the trustees, who pointed out that it could all have been sorted out quickly if Fea attended their meetings.

Fea did his best for the inmates.  He bought a magic lantern and put on shows for them in the chapel.  (He left it at the Charterhouse when he retired but asked the trustees for £15 for it.  They agreed.)  He arranged an outing for all of them to his mother's house in Cottingham to celebrate her 90th birthday.  He secured an increase in their allowances during the war and had to sort out the complications arising from Old Age Pensions and then war pensions.  On the downside, he also secured a ban on residents whistling and playing musical instruments.

Fea never married.  By March 1919 he decided to retire because of "age and ill-health", but asked for a pension.  The trustees agreed to £100 pa.  The residents presented him with a smoking cabinet and a silk umbrella.  William Hay Fea died on 3 January 1921.

The right to vote

On 22  May 1780 the Master of the Charterhouse, John Bourne, was ordered by the Aldermen "to leave them [the inmates] to their own free election of members to serve in Parliament".  The timing is rather odd; the general election was not held until the Autumn of 1780.  But most interesting is the fact that there were any residents who were entitled to vote.
Hull, in common with only a few constituencies around the country, had a "freemen" electorate rather than using the usual property qualification.  One could become a freeman in a number of ways, including inheriting or buying the privilege, or gaining status as a tradesman - the route presumably taken by a few Charterhouse brethren.  It meant that, in Hull, around 1,200 men had the vote.  That made it very expensive for the candidates, who had to pay to transport their potential voters to York, where the poll was held, and to bribe them (illegally, of course).  The vote was public.  The 1780 election resulted in William Wilberforce becoming Hull's MP.

Sir William St Quintin

The first reference to Charterhouse voters comes as early as a report by Matthew Bolton in 1716.

One candidate in the 1713 election was Sir William St Quintin . -------- "A poor old man - more than 80 years - residing in a miserable room, two pair back in a House in Munk Gate Ally, was ask'd by St Quintin and Maister's partie for his Vote. which he would not Promise to give; and on St Quintin being tould that his Personal appliemente might be of service, he took the opportune of going to see him. On finding the old man St Quintin said, "Well, my worthie friend, I want your Vote." The man looked at St Quintin thro' his Specktackle glasses and said, "You want my Vote, is that the ways you come to ask a Favor, I shan't give you it - that's flat." "Why not?" said St Quintin, "it would be better for you if you did, and I will tell you why. A Vacance is verie likelie to take place, I hear, in the Charter-House; now if you choose to do me a Favor I'll do one for you, for I'll get you the Room when the Inmate dies." The old man looked at Sir William thro' his Spectacles and said, "Mayster Quintum, I'm an aude man, and I feelit will be verie likelie the last Vote I shall iver give; I ha beene of opsit Principels to yours all the days of my Life, and what little Time itte plesith God for me to Live, so I shall Remain. A Charter House room to me would be a great Boon ------ " But he refused to give St Quintin his vote. The candidate was so impressed that he gave him a guinea and told him that he would send his carriage to take him to the poll so that he could vote for the other candidate, Daniel Hoare; and on polling day he did just that. The story concludes: ------ Let me give Sir William St Quintin credit for the following; a Room in the Charter-House became Vacant in about 2 months after the Election, and the poor old man became its Inmate, but onlie for a verie shorte Time, as in about another Month he entered that Bourne from which no Traveller returns!!!" 

The Reform Act of 1832 changed the situation.  No more freemen were created, but those who remained kept their entitlement.  As they died off one would expect that Charterhouse men would be ineligible to vote.  There were still freemen, however, by the middle of the century.  The 1852 election which saw the Liberals James Clay and Lord Goderich returned for Hull was so blatantly corrupt that an enquiry was launched.  Among those giving evidence were freemen of the Charterhouse.  The Hull Advertiser, reporting on the process in April 1853, included the testimony of Anne Loft, wife of Benjamin Loft: "My husband is too infirm to come.  He is in the Charter-house.  He is a freeman.  He voted Clay and Thompson and I received 30s for him.  At the last election he voted Clay and Goderich, but did not get any money."  Incidentally, the Conservative agent in the 1852 election was Richard Mitchell, a hairdresser, who, 15 years later, became a resident of the Charterhouse himself.  Politics seem to have played a part in a number of admissions.

 When there were no more freemen it was successfully argued, through two more Reform Acts in 1867 and 1881, that the men of the Charterhouse fulfilled the property qualification.  The lands with which the founder had endowed the hospital were still owned in the name of "the Master, Brethren and Sisters of the Charterhouse" and it was accepted that this made the men property owners.  This lasted until 1896, when a legal objection was raised by the Liberals.  These men were, it was argued, disqualified on the basis that they were paupers.  If this was accepted, the men of the Charterhouse would, at a stroke, have lost their right to vote.  The decision would also affect the residents of Trinity House.  One resident, John Cowen, refused to accept this.  He had been involved in politics all his life, as an agent and organiser, and he knew his way round the system.  He took his case to the Revision of Voters' Lists hearing - but the barrister ruled against him.  Cowen appealed, but a year later, after an initial decision to confirm the ruling, it was overturned and voting rights were restored.  Cowen died in February 1897.  Later that year the original decision, disenfranchising the Charterhouse men, was confirmed and they had to wait until 1918.  The women, of course, did not fulfil the property qualification in the 1918 Act and had to wait until 1928.

On 26 November 1923 there was a by-election in the Hull Central constituency where the Charterhouse was situated.  The sitting MP, Joseph Kenworthy, had been a Liberal but crossed the floor to join Labour and resigned to fight a by-election.  The Hull Daily Mail ran a story about "The 'Father' of the Charterhouse":

"By half past ten between six and seven hundred people had polled at Scott Street station, representing what one official described as 'a hundred per cent poll'.  The Scott Street station was also the centre for members of the Charterhouse where election enthusiasm has been more than usually keen.  During the campaign the old people have had an opportunity of hearing all three candidates, and there have been some keen debates on the merits and de-merits of the various parties.  The majority of the old people support either the Liberals or Conservatives, but a few of the younger men and women have expressed themselves in favour of the Socialists.  Arrangements had been made for the old people who were able to votes to be conveyed to Scott Street by motor-car, and as early as half past nine, some of them had made the trip to the polling booth.  The oldest member of the Charterhouse to register his vote was Mr William Hakney [should be Hakeney] who is ninety years of age."

Kenworthy won.

The right to vote was hard-won, and residents still cherish that right.