Sir John Cass (February 1661 – 5 July 1718) was an English merchant,

Tory A Tory () is an individual who supports a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalist conservatism which upholds the established social order as it has evolved through the history of Great Britain. The To ...

Member of

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

and philanthropist. He was also a key figure in the Royal African Company, which was involved in the

Atlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of Slavery in Africa, enslaved African people to the Americas. European slave ships regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Pass ...

Biography

Early life

He was born in Rosemary Lane, in the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

, son of Thomas Cass, carpenter to the Royal Ordnance. He was baptised on 28 February 1661 at St Botolph's Aldgate. In 1665, the family moved to Grove Street, in South Hackney, to escape the plague.''Sir John Cass, Statue, Sir John Cass School, Duke's Place / Mitre St''
(Public Monument and Sculpture Association). Retrieved 29 May 2009 On 7 January 1684 he married Elizabeth Franklin.

Career

Cass was a merchant, builder and politician. In 1705 Cass became a member of the Court of Assistants (equivalent to the board of directors) of the Royal African Company which since 1662 had held the monopoly in England on trading along the

West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...

coast in gold, silver,

ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and Tooth, teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mamm ...

and

slaves Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

. The company had been set up by King Charles II and his brother the Duke of York (later King James II), who was the governor of the company, together with

merchants. The slaves were sold for labour on

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

, and, increasingly,

sugar plantations Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tobac ...

. He held shares in the Royal African Company until his death. During the years that Cass held the position of Court of Assistants (1705–1708), the company undertook and documented fifty-five voyages, mostly journeying from London, of over 14,000 enslaved Africans for the Americas. Cass was elected as one of the

MPs for the

City A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

in 1710. He was re-elected in

1713 Events January–March * January 17 – Tuscarora War: Colonel James Moore leads the Carolina militia out of Albemarle County, North Carolina, in a second offensive against the Tuscarora. Heavy snows force the troops to take ...

but lost to the Whig faction in

1715 Events For dates within Great Britain and the British Empire, as well as in the Russian Empire, the "old style" Julian calendar was used in 1715, and can be converted to the "new style" Gregorian calendar (adopted in the British Empire in ...

. He served as

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

for the ward of Portsoken from January 1711 and in June 1711 was elected as one of the

sheriffs of London Two Sheriffs of the City of London are elected annually by the members of the City livery companies. Today's Sheriffs have only ceremonial duties, but the historical officeholders held important judicial responsibilities. They have attended the ...

. As sheriff, he was knighted in June 1712. He was appointed a commissioner of the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches in 1711; this was a scheme to provide new churches for the rapidly expanding population of the metropolis. Cass was Master of the

Worshipful Company of Carpenters The Worshipful Company of Carpenters is a livery company of the City of London. The Carpenters were traditionally different from a fellow wood-crafting company, the Worshipful Company of Joiners and Ceilers, in that carpenters utilised nails whi ...

in 1711–12, concurrent with his shrievalty; but in 1714 he transferred to the Skinners' Company, and became their Master. Between 1709 and 1715 he was treasurer to the Bridewell and Bethlehem Hospitals.

Investment in the Royal African Company

On 5 December 1704 Cass bought £1000 worth of Royal African Company stock. In January 1705, resulting from investment Cass had made the year earlier enabled him to be elected as an 'assistant' to the company. In 1705 Cass increased his holding to £6000 worth of stock. Two years later in 1707, Cass sold £1000 of his stock to another noteworthy stock holder Thomas Martin. From 1713 to 1716 Cass held £1700 of Royal African Company stock. The initial £6000 Cass had invested in the Company between 1705 and 1707 would be the equivalent of at least £1 million today. It is also estimated that £6000 is what a cargo of approximately 300 enslaved people would be sold for in early eighteenth-century Jamaica.

Death

He died on 5 July 1718, aged 57, of a brain haemorrhage and was buried in the churchyard of St Mary Matfelon, in

Whitechapel Whitechapel () is an area in London, England, and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in east London and part of the East End of London, East End. It is the location of Tower Hamlets Town Hall and therefore the borough tow ...

, now the Altab Ali Park. His widow Elizabeth née Franklin died on 7 July 1732. They had no children.

Legacy

Philanthropy

Cass founded a school for 50 boys and 40 girls in buildings in the churchyard of St Botolph's Aldgate in 1709. He had made a will at this time, but when his health failed in 1718, he planned to make a new version taking account of the extra property he had acquired in the intervening years. Cass began a new will, but by the time of his death only two pages had been initialled. The will – with an estate worth £2,000 – was contested by his heirs at law in the

Court of Chancery The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid a slow pace of change and possible harshness (or "inequity") of the Common law#History, common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over ...

. Lady Cass continued as patroness of the schools, but died in 1732. The school continued for a few more years under the aegis of Valentine Brewis, one of the trustees Cass had named, but was closed down after his death in 1738. In the early 1740s the remaining trustees petitioned Parliament for the permanent endowment of the school, and the will was finally upheld 30 years after Cass's death. This enabled the Sir John Cass's Foundation to be established in 1748.

Sir John Cass's Foundation

His charity continued to fund the Sir John Cass Foundation School as well as providing for the establishment of the Sir John Cass Technical Institute, which was founded in 1899 and moved into newly built premises at 31 Jewry Street, London, in 1902; becoming Sir John Cass College in 1950. In 1965, the college's Department of Fine and Applied art merged with the Department of Silversmithing and Allied Crafts from the Central School of Art to form the Sir John Cass School of Art, which moved into its own new premises at Central House, opposite the Whitechapel Art Gallery. The Sir John Cass College merged with the City of London College in 1970 to form the City of London Polytechnic; becoming

London Guildhall University London Guildhall University was a university in the United Kingdom from 1992 to 2002, established when the City of London Polytechnic was awarded university status. On 1 August 2002, it merged with the University of North London to form Londo ...

and merging to form the

London Metropolitan University London Metropolitan University, commonly known as London Met, is a public university, public research university in London, England. The University of North London and London Guildhall University merged in 2002 to create the university. The Un ...

in 2002. The modern foundation provides support to a primary school within the City – near to St Botolph's, ( The Aldgate School, formerly Sir John Cass's Foundation Primary School); a secondary school ( Stepney All Saints School, formerly Sir John Cass Redcoat School) in the

London Borough of Tower Hamlets The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London boroughs, borough in London, England. Situated on the north bank of the River Thames and immediately east of the City of London, the borough spans much of the traditional East End of London and ...

; the School of Art, Architecture and Design within

; and the Bayes Business School (formerly Cass Business School) within

City, University of London City, University of London was a public university from 1966 to 2024 in London, England. It merged with St George's, University of London to form City St George's, University of London in August 2024. The names "City, University of London" an ...

. The foundation has provided funding for the Sir John Cass School of Education at the

University of East London University of East London (UEL) is a public university located in the London Borough of Newham, London, England, based at three campuses in Stratford, London, Stratford and London Docklands, Docklands, following the opening of University Squar ...

campus in Stratford, London. Funding has also been provided for the Sir John Cass Hall, a hall of residence for students, in Well Street,

London Borough of Hackney The London Borough of Hackney ( ) is a London boroughs, London borough in Inner London, England. The historical and administrative heart of Hackney is Mare Street, which lies north-east of Charing Cross. The borough is named after Hackney, Lond ...

Reappraisal

In the United States in May 2020, George Floyd, a black man, was murdered by a white police officer, and in response there were protests in many cities around the world. In Bristol the statue of Edward Colston, a slave trader, was toppled. Thus, amongst a broader recognition of racial injustice, many institutions reviewed their historical associations with the slave trade. In the following months the Sir John Cass Foundation and many associated organisations changed, or committed to change, their names. London Metropolitan University removed Cass's name from their Art, Architecture and Design School. The foundation itself committed to change its name, later announcing that it would be called ''The Portal Trust'', taking effect in Spring 2021. The business school at

, removed its association with Cass, instead adopting the name of the 18th century mathematician

Thomas Bayes Thomas Bayes ( , ; 7 April 1761) was an English statistician, philosopher and Presbyterian minister who is known for formulating a specific case of the theorem that bears his name: Bayes' theorem. Bayes never published what would become his m ...

in September 2021. And the Sir John Cass Redcoat School changed its name to Stepney All Saints School.

Memorials

*The statue of John Cass is a 1751 lead figure designed by

Louis-François Roubiliac Louis-François Roubiliac (or Roubilliac, or Roubillac) (31 August 1702 – 11 January 1762) was a French sculpture, sculptor who worked in England. One of the four most prominent sculptors in London working in the rococo style, he was described ...

. Cass is shown wearing a long wig and the sheriff's gown. The original statue now stands in the

Guildhall A guildhall, also known as a guild hall or guild house, is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Europe, with many surviving today in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commo ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, and a number of copies stand in various places including outside the Sir John Cass School, at Duke's Place and Mitre Street. On 21 January 2021, the City of London Corporation announced it would remove the statue due to Cass's involvement in the Royal African Company. This decision was later overturned by a decision in the Court of Common Council on 7 October 2021, after accepting a recommendation from a Statues Working Group Report, to retain the statues, but to add accompanying information to the statue, contextualising John Cass' history and contributions. * Cassland Road in Hackney commemorates the landholdings of the Cass family, in the district. Until December 2020, the gardens on the road were named Cassland Road Gardens. * A row of almshouses (founded by William Monger) in 1669, were subsequently funded by land owned by Cass on Hackney Marshes. In 1849, they were rebuilt by Sir John Cass's Foundation. * A statute of Cass was on the facade of the Sir John Cass Foundation building in Jewry Street, in the City of London. It was removed in early July 2020. * At the University of East London, in Newham, the education and early years department is known as the Cass School of Learning. A statue of Sir John Cass which stood in the atrium of the Cass building was removed during the George Floyd protests on 11 June 2020. In a statement, the university said: "We have removed the statue of Sir John Cass from the school of education and communities and we will be instigating a university wide review of all sources of historical funding along with developing a new institutional naming policy that reflects our values of equality, diversity and inclusion." * A memorial bust in St Botolph's Aldgate was removed on 20 June 2020.

Notes

References

External links

Bayes Business SchoolSir John Cass's FoundationCass School of EducationSir John Cass Department of Art, Media and Design
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cass, John 1661 births 1718 deaths 18th-century English merchants 18th-century British philanthropists Councilmen and Aldermen of the City of London Sheriffs of the City of London Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for the City of London British MPs 1710–1713 British MPs 1713–1715 English Anglicans English businesspeople English philanthropists 17th-century English slave traders Knights Bachelor Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies Patrons of schools People from South Hackney Tory MPs (pre-1834)