Skip navigation

If you would like to write a summary for this topic, email phil [at] gyford [dot] com

1893 text

Citizen and grocer of London; most severely handled by Pope. Two statues were erected to his memory—one in the College of Physicians, and the other in the Grocers’ Hall. They were erected and one removed (that in the College of Physicians) before Pope stigmatized “sage Cutler.” Pope says that Sir John Cutler had an only daughter; in fact, he had two: one married to Lord Radnor; the other, mentioned afterwards by Pepys, the wife of Sir William Portman.—B.

This text was written as a footnote in the 1893 Wheatley transcription of the diary, the same one that is used for the diary entries on this site.

Annotations

  • Warrington adds that he was stigmatized by Pope for his avarice.

  • A little about Cutler (No relation)

    The Grocer’s Company of the city of London.

    The Great Fire in 1666 nearly ruined the Company, destroying not only its Hall, but its property in the City. The generosity of some of its members, notably Sir John Moore and Sir John Cutler, permitted the renovation of the Hall. The Hall was then let as a residence for the Lord Mayor.

    http://www.grocershall.co.uk/comphistory.html

    Robert Hooke

    In 1664 Sir John Cutler instituted for his benefit a mechanical lectureship of £50 annually, and in the following year he was nominated professor of geometry in Gresham College, where he subsequently resided.

    (Book of Days)…The College of Physicians…
    We must, however, take a glance at the statues of Charles II. and Sir John Cutler, within the court; especially as the latter assists to expose an act of public meanness. It appears by the College books that, in 1674, Sir John Cutler promised to bear the expense of a specified part of the new building: the committee thanked him, and in 1680, statues of the King and Sir John were voted by the members: nine years afterwards, when the College was completed, it was resolved to borrow money of Sir John, to discharge the College debt; what the sum was is not specified; it appears, however, that in 1699, Sir John’s executors made a demand on the College for £7,000, supposed to include money actually lent, money pretended to be given, and interest on both. The executors accepted £2,000, and dropped their claim for the other five. The statue was allowed to stand; but the inscription, ‘Omnis Cutleri cedat Labor Amphitheatre,’ was very properly obliterated.

  • Sir John Cutler.

    Financer of six Cutlerian lectures, which were founded for Hooke in 1664 and were used by Hooke to announce some of his most important discoveries. True to form it appears that Cutler claimed that Hooke had given insufficient time to the “History of Trades” concerned with one of the Lectures, but he was able to show that he had fulfilled the terms of the endownment.

Post an annotation

Before posting an annotation please read the annotation guidelines.
If your comment isn't directly relevant to this page, try the discussion group for other Pepys-related topics or the social group for general chat.

(required)

(required)

(optional)


No HTML in annotations. URLs will be turned into links. About copyright

References in the diary

1663
Jan: 23
Mar: 2
Apr: 10
Jul: 31
Nov: 6
Dec: 22