William Richard Sutton (1833 – 20 May 1900) was the founder of the UK's first door-to-door long distance parcel service and founder of the William Sutton housing trust.

Early life

William Richard Sutton was born in 1833 at London's

Cheapside Cheapside is a street in the City of London, the historic and modern financial centre of London, which forms part of the A40 London to Fishguard road. It links St. Martin's Le Grand with Poultry. Near its eastern end at Bank junction, where ...

Career

Sutton founded the business of Sutton and Co., general carriers in 1861. He noted that the Royal Mail could carry letters from door to door, but they did not carry parcels; instead the sender had to arrange for delivery to a railway station, goods freight to a station near the destination, and then make separate arrangements for delivery to the final destination. Sutton Carriers would take care of all those stages. The railway companies obstructed this and Sutton took them to court with a case that lasted over seven years; the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...

ruled to break the railway companies' monopoly on pricing and allowed him to deliver packages door-to-door. At his death in 1900 his business had grown to 600 branches. Sutton Carriers was eventually nationalised in the 1950s. Sutton also had a partnership in Sutton, Carden and Co. which was a brewer, bottler, distiller, hotelier and merchant of wines, tea, coffee, and tobacco.

Death and legacy

Sutton died at his home in

Adelaide Crescent Adelaide Crescent is a mid-19th-century residential development in Hove, part of the English city and seaside resort of Brighton and Hove. Conceived as an ambitious attempt to rival the large, high-class Kemp Town estate east of Brighton, the c ...

Hove Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th c ...

, and was buried in

West Norwood Cemetery West Norwood Cemetery is a rural cemetery in West Norwood in London, England. It was also known as the South Metropolitan Cemetery. One of the first private landscaped cemeteries in London, it is one of the " Magnificent Seven" cemeteries of ...

. His will bequeathed almost all of his considerable wealth into philanthropic trusts for housing of the poor, although during his life he had held no public office and did no charity work. His will was disputed by his family and by existing large landlords, among them the

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...

, who were worried that these cheap and desirable dwellings would lead to lower rents. Nonetheless, his will was proved and The Sutton Model Dwellings Trust (now known as Clarion Housing Group) built estates for the poor across England, beginning in

Bethnal Green Bethnal Green is an area in the East End of London northeast of Charing Cross. The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the Green, much of which survives today as Bethnal Green Gardens, beside Cambridge Heath Road. By ...

, then

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, Islington,

Rotherhithe Rotherhithe () is a district of south-east London, England, and part of the London Borough of Southwark. It is on a peninsula on the south bank of the Thames, facing Wapping, Shadwell and Limehouse on the north bank, as well as the Isle of D ...

, Plymouth and

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

References

The story of William Sutton
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sutton, William Richard 1833 births 1900 deaths People from the City of London Businesspeople from London Burials at West Norwood Cemetery 19th-century English businesspeople