SIR

See also:

• RICHARD
• RICHARD (d. 1184)
• RICHARD, FRANCOIS MARIE BENJAMIN (18,9-1908)
• RICHARD, HENRY (1812-1888)
• RICHARD, ST

RICHARD

See also:

• SUTTON
• SIR RICHARD SUTTON (d. c. 1524)
• SUTTON, THOMAS (c. 1532—1611)

SUTTON (d. c. 1524)  , the founder, with William Smyth, bishop of Lincoln, of Brasenose College, Oxford, and the first lay founder of any college, is said to have come of a good north-country family, the Suttons of that ilk, near Macclesfield, Cheshire . Little is known of his life, but he was a barrister, and in 1499 a member of the privy council . In 1513 he became steward of the monastery of Sion, a house of Brigittine nuns at Isleworth . How Smyth and Sutton came to plan a college is not known, but in 1508 we find Edmund Croston, or Crofton, bequeathing £6, 13S . 4d. towards the building of " a college of Brasynnose " if the projects of " the bishop of Lincoln and master Sotton " were carried into effect within a stipulated period . In the same year Sutton obtained a ninety-two year lease of Brasenose Hall and Little University Hall for £3 per annum, and from that time until the end of his life was occupied in purchasing estates with which he might endow the new college . He is thought to have contributed to the funds of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, as well . He was knighted some years before his death, which occurred about 1524 .