Richard Platt (brewer)

Richard Platt (c. 1525 – 28 November 1600) was an English brewer

of the City of London, who served as Sheriff of London, and founded
Aldenham School and almshouses in his home village in
Hertfordshire.

Contents
Life
Wife and descendants
Arms
Notes
External links Platt in 1600

Life
Little is known of Platt’s early life, except that he was the son of Hugh Platt, of Aldenham, and was
apprenticed to a London brewer.[1] His date of birth can be inferred from his portrait, which says he was in his
76th year in 1600.[2] He became a master brewer of the Worshipful Company of Brewers[3] and the owner of
the Old Swan brewery in James Street, London. In 1576 and 1581 he served as Master of the Worshipful
Company of Brewers.[4] He also became an Alderman of London.[5]

In 1591, Platt was appointed as a governor of Queen Elizabeth's

School, Barnet, at Tudor Hall, and was then a citizen of London who
had served as Sheriff of London.[1]

In 1596, Queen Elizabeth I gave Platt letters patent to build at

Aldenham a "Free Grammar School and Almshouses", and a
foundation stone was laid in 1597,[6] at Boyden’s Hill, Aldenham.[7]
By a deed dated 18 January 1599, Platt endowed two charities, the
grammar school and six almshouses,[1] with land at Aldenham and
some twenty acres of pasture at St Pancras, and woodland there,
placing the endowments in the care of the Worshipful Company of Tudor Hall, little changed since the
Brewers.[7] time of Platt

Platt’s son Hugh Platt had been educated at St John's College,

Cambridge, and Platt gave instructions that when there was a vacancy for a Master of the grammar school, the
college was to nominate three Masters of Arts, from whom the Brewers' Company would appoint one. He also
provided a house, with a garden and orchard, and a salary to go with the position of £20 a year,[5] equivalent
to £4,492 in 2019.

Platt died on 28 November 1600[1] and was buried on 4 December at St James Garlickhythe, London.[8]
In his will, Platt provided for the Brewers’ Company to pay the boys of his new grammar school beer money,
as the water was not safe to drink.[3] Pupils at Aldenham School continue to visit Brewers' Hall once a year to
receive £5.[3]

Wife and descendants

Platt married Alice, a daughter of John Birchells, of Birchells,
Leicestershire. His children included Sir Hugh Platt, an author of
Kirby Castle, Bethnal Green,[4] whose son William Platt (died 1637)
of Highgate, was the founder of fellowships at St John's College,
Cambridge.[1]

Arms
Platt's coat of arms was blazoned "or fretty sable plattée", with a crest
of "a demi-lion rampant proper holding in the paws a plate".[1]

Notes
1. "PLATT, Richard, gent." in Transactions of the London and
Middlesex Archæological Society, Vol. 5 (Bishopsgate
Institute, 1881), p. 74 (https://books.google.co.uk/books?id Hugh Platt
=9mxIAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA74)
2. Thomas Allen, The History and Antiquities of London,
Westminster, Southwark, and parts adjacent, Vol. 3 (1828),
p. 491
3. Emma Hutchings "The school of beer drinking" (https://ww
w.borehamwoodtimes.co.uk/news/765400.the-school-of-be
er-drinking/), Borehamwood & Elstree Times, 18 May
2006, accessed 4 February 2021
4. Malcolm Thick, Sir Hugh Plat: the Search for Useful
Knowledge in Early Modern London (Prospect Books,
2010, ISBN 9781903018651), p. 5
5. "Richard Platt, Alderman" in Alfred Freer Torry, Founders
and benefactors of St. John's college, Cambridge
(Cambridge: W. Metcalfe & Son, 1888), p. 14 (https://books.
google.co.uk/books?id=nzEBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA14)
6. "Aldenham" (http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?co
mpid=43264) in William Page (ed.), A History of the County
of Hertford, Vol. 2 (Victoria County History, 1908), pp. 149–
161, archived (https://web.archive.org/web/200902020833
03/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/source.aspx?pubid=305) Arms of Platt, now used by
2 February 2009 at archive.org Aldenham School
7. Nicholas Carlisle, "ALDENHAM near Watford" in A
Concise Description of the Endowed Grammar Schools in
England, Vol. 1 (Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1818), p. 528 (https://books.google.co.uk/books?id
=GwsJRFnvUIAC&pg=PA528)
8. Parish Register of St James Garlickhythe, p. 96 (https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collec
tions/1624/images/31281_a101761-00099) ancestry.co.uk, accessed 4 February 2021
(subscription required)
External links
Aldenham Richard Platt (https://www.hertsmemories.org.uk/content/herts-history/towns-and-vill
ages/aldenham/aldenham-richard-platt), hertsmemories.org.uk

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This page was last edited on 28 February 2021, at 14:51 (UTC).

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