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.