This reminded me of a thread I've been meaning to make for while about another aspect of @QMUL /East End history that doesn't get enough attention, namely QMUL's links to 17th Century Irish and Virginian colonies /1 https://twitter.com/qmulrentstrike/status/1347596282492289031

QMUL grew out of four East London educational institutions, St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College, London Hospital Medical College, Westfield College and Queen Mary College. It's Queen Mary College that I'm going to delve into here /2

Ever wondered why QMUL has a Frances Bancroft building? I mean, who even was Frances Bancroft? And what is the the relationship between Frances Bancroft and the the @QMSU Drapers bar? /3

Part of the answers to these questions can be found in the Peoples' Palace, which currently operates as a venue and series of lecture theatres at QMUL /4

The Peoples' Palace was opened by Queen Victoria in 1887, offering technical evening classes to local w/c communities. In 1897 it became the East London Technical College, in 1906 the East London College (now a centre for higher education) and then in 1934 Queen Mary College /5

One of the major donors that contributed to the costs of erecting the Peoples' Palace was one of London's original and biggest livery companies, incorporated by Royal Charter, the Drapers' Company. It contributed nearly £100,000 to the costs of the building. /6

Livery companies began as losse knit 12th and 13th Century trade associations. By the 14th Century the biggest ones were being given royal charters, which gave them land rights in London, and made them accountable to the crown. /7

What we today know as 'The City of London' has its roots in these companies, and until the 18th Century, Lord Mayors were chosen from the ranks of the bigger companies, like the Drapers'. /8

Originally, to belong to one of the companies you had to practice the trade that they were named after. Today we might think of a draper as someone who makes curtains. But in medieval London a draper was someone who made sails. I'll come back to this. /9

The livery companies amassed wealth. They had a monopoly over their particular trades, and could negotiate discounts for their members. But in return the Crown often relied on the companies to fund its foriegn wars and 'adventures' /10

And so it was that in 1609 the Drapers' Company were one of the biggest investors in one of (then pre act of union) England's earliest colonial projects, the pacification of Ireland. In return for £5000 the company would collect rent on a 99 year lease (later extended) /11

Original inhabitants were displaced from company land. Rents collected in the 1620s by the Drapers amounted to £60-90 a year. The arrangement only expired in 1900, 14 yrs after the Peoples' Palace opened. Today, there is still a Draperstown marking the former land allotment. /12

1609 was an important year for English colonial expansion and consolidation. With the pacification of Ireland ongoing with livery company support, the Crown turned to the livery companies once again to try to prop up its flailing colony in Virginia. /13

The Crown seeks less for its Virginia colony. There is real doubt that it will survive. In this case, Drapers contribute a far smaller sum, £150, but it is still the 5th largest investment out of all the livery companies, a testament to the status of the Drapers' Company /14

In 1616 all investors with more than £12 10s were given 100 acres of land, plus another 50 acres for every individual that settled it. I'm still looking for information on if and how many Drapers' members were involved with this. /15

It's true that like the other companies, Drapers' were largely unenthusiastic investors, leant on by the Crown. Then again, legacies of colonialism are not about intention, but effect, and gain. /16

Over time, as drapers with investments in the colonies died, many without heirs, their investments and shares reverted to the Drapers' Company, often in the form of bequests. Initially, company members had to be drapers, and as I said above, this meant they were sailmakers/17

The height of bequests came in the 16th-18th centuries. This of course correlates with the growth and expansion of British maritime trade, naval power, imperial expansion, and transatlantic slavery. Many drapers were cloth traders too /18

Cloth traders in this period were importing their wears from the new Spanish and Dutch colonies. Important bequests were left by merchants including Thomas Howell (d1540) and John Kendrick (d1624). The sailmaker John Edmanson (1695) willed a row of cottages in Tottenham /19

Laundering the proceeds of slavery and colonisation in 'good works' back in the metropole was very common. Think Colston. This brings us back to Frances Bancroft, and his building. Pretty isn't it? /20

Frances Bancroft (d1728) was a middle man. He put people together and took commissions. By the 18th Century livery companies had liberalised their membership criteria. With prestige, or a fee, anyone could join. /21

Notable members of the Drapers' Company included the imperialist Horatio Nelson, and in a probable nod to their shared interests in Irish pacification, William of Orange. Frances Bancroft made most of his money during the 1720 South Sea bubble /22

The South Sea bubble was an investment binge predicated on British dominance of the South Atlantic slave trade, only partly fulfilled, & which left many investors broke. Not Bancroft however. When he died 8 years later he left a huge bequest of £28,000 to the Drapers' Company /23

The company built the Bancroft school in 1737, on, you guessed it, what is today the site of QMUL's campus. It moved to Woodford Green at the end of the 19th Century, and the site eventually became part of QMUL. /24

So QMUL is an institution whose original founding rests on wealth accrued through colonial investment and indigenous genocide/displacement, and a building named after someone whose wealth accrued in part through slavery. But what of QMUL and Drapers' today? /25

Well, firstly, even though it was a small investment, Drapers' continues to honour its Virginia relationship. In 1992 it established a law exchange programme between QMUL and the College of William (yes, the orange one again) and Mary./26

In 2015 a Draper's delegation visited William and Mary to receive an award in honour of their contribution in the form of a statue of Norborbe Berkeley, Governor of colonial Virginia (1768-1770) and owner of 8 slaves /27

Drapers' funds various other programmes at QMUL, and two Drapers' appointees sit on the 21 strong QMUL Council, the "pinnacle of Queen Mary's corporate governance structure" /28

End!