Frederick James Quick (22 October 1836 — 21 December 1902) was a wholesale dealer in tea and coffee in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

, chairman of the firm Quick, Reek, and Smith. He left most of his fortune to the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

to promote the interests of

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

and

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

, which led to the establishment in 1906 of the Quick Chair in Biology.

Early life

Quick was born in London in 1836, the second son of James Carthew Quick, a wholesale coffee dealer, and was baptized at St Giles's, Camberwell, on 18 November. He was educated at

Harrow School (The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God) , established = (Royal Charter) , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school , religion = Church of E ...

, from 1851 to 1855, and then at

Trinity Hall, Cambridge Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is the fifth-oldest surviving college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by ...

, where he arrived in October 1855 and graduated

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

on 29 January 1859. He then studied for the Bar at the

Inns of Court The Inns of Court in London are the professional associations for barristers in England and Wales. There are four Inns of Court – Gray's Inn, Lincoln's Inn, Inner Temple and Middle Temple. All barristers must belong to one of them. They have ...

and was admitted as a barrister. Finally, he learned farming at

St Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fou ...

, and his father bought land for him at

Woodmancote Woodmancote may refer to more than one place in England: Gloucestershire * Woodmancote, Dursley, a village * Woodmancote, Cirencester, a village * Woodmancote, Tewkesbury Borough, a village and civil parish West Sussex * Woodmancote, Chichester ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...

George Nuttall George Henry Falkiner Nuttall FRS (5 July 1862 – 16 December 1937) was an American-British bacteriologist who contributed much to the knowledge of parasites and of insect carriers of diseases. He made significant innovative discoveries in immu ...

, "Frederick James QUICK (1836–1902), a Biographical Note, with portrait" in ''Parasitology'' (1922), p. 100 Quick's older brother,

Robert Hebert Quick Robert Hebert Quick (30 September 1831 – 1891) was an English educator and writer on education. Political history was the usual venue for Whig history of the sort that presented the past as a story of achievements accumulating to the present st ...

(1832–1891), was also educated at Harrow and Cambridge. In 1855, he was ordained as a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

clergyman and became a

schoolmaster The word schoolmaster, or simply master, refers to a male school teacher. This usage survives in British independent schools, both secondary and preparatory, and a few Indian boarding schools (such as The Doon School) that were modelled after B ...

,"QUICK, Robert Hebert" in Venn (1953), p. 227 leaving his younger brother to follow the path of trade.

Career

Quick was briefly a partner in a wholesale tea business. In 1869, he was made a partner in the firm of Quick, Reek, and Smith, which had been founded by his father. In 1881, he was occupying a room at 10 Beaufort Buildings,

St Clement Danes St Clement Danes is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London. It is situated outside the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand. Although the first church on the site was reputedly founded in the 9th century by the Danes, the current ...

, a set of barristers’ rooms known as Beaufort chambers. By that year, James Carthew Quick had been widowed and had retired to

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

, where he was joined by a number of cousins and by his unmarried younger son, who in that year stated his occupation as wholesale coffee dealer. J. C. Quick died in 1884 and left an estate valued at £48,548, with his two sons acting as his Executors. Becoming senior partner in the family firm, Quick remained in office until his death in 1902. In his business affairs, Quick was far-seeing and shrewd and a good judge of character. Quick was a friend of the artist and architect

James Edward Rogers James Edward Rogers (1838 – 18 February 1896) was an Irish artist, architect, and book-illustrator whose early career was in Dublin. In 1876 he moved to London, where he is believed to have worked only as an artist. Early life Born in Dublin ...

and in 1896 acted as an executor of his friend's will.

Private life, death, and bequests

Quick never married, and his brother died before him. At the time of the

1901 United Kingdom census The United Kingdom Census 1901 was the 11th nationwide census conducted in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and was done on 31st March 1901 "relating to the persons returned as living at midnight on Sunday, March 31st". The total p ...

, he was living at

Eltham Eltham ( ) is a district of southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is east-southeast of Charing Cross, and is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. The three wards of Elt ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, now part of the

Royal Borough of Greenwich The Royal Borough of Greenwich (, , or ) is a London borough in southeast Greater London. The London Borough of Greenwich was formed in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. The new borough covered the former area of the Metropolitan Borough ...

, with two servants, a housekeeper and a housemaid, and stated his occupation as

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

. In 1902, Quick died at home in Eltham, leaving an estate valued for

probate Probate is the judicial process whereby a will is "proved" in a court of law and accepted as a valid public document that is the true last testament of the deceased, or whereby the estate is settled according to the laws of intestacy in the sta ...

at £70,453, . He had suffered from a horror of being buried alive, and not long before his death he had asked one of the Executors of his will, J. W. Williams, to arrange for a surgeon to probe his heart and make sure he was dead. He also left instructions for his remains to be cremated, and these wishes were carried out, with his ashes being buried at the Broadwood Cemetery. Quick had been greatly interested in biology and botany, and this led him to decide to use his wealth to endow the Frederick James Quick Fund, as "a permanent fund for the promotion of Study and Research in the Sciences of Vegetable and Animal Biology" in the

. Inheriting the residue of Quick's estate, the Fund gained about £50,000 when the estate was settled early in 1903. The university used the Fund to establish a new Quick Professorship of Biology, with a focus on the field of

protozoology Protozoology is the study of protozoa, the "animal-like" (i.e., motile and heterotrophic) protists. The Protozoa are considered to be a subkingdom of Protista. They are free-living organisms that are found in almost every habitat. All humans have pr ...

, and with

being appointed as the first professor in 1906. The full benefit of the bequest was delayed until some life-interests had expired, and at first Nuttall found temporary rooms in the new Cambridge Medical School building, where he established a Quick Laboratory. Later, a purpose-built laboratory was provided. Quick’s brother married Bertha Parr, a daughter of Thomas Chase Parr. Their children included

Oliver Chase Quick Oliver Chase Quick (21 June 1885 – 21 January 1944) was an English theologian, philosopher, and Anglican priest. Early life and education Oliver Quick was born on 21 June 1885 in Sedbergh, Yorkshire, the son of the educationist Robert Hebert ...

, (1885–1944), a theologian who became Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford.C. E. Lindgren, "Quick, Robert Hebert", in ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'' (Oxford University Press, 2007), online edition

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quick Frederick James 1836 births 1902 deaths Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge Businesspeople in coffee Businesspeople in tea People educated at Harrow School