Blogetty Blog 19: Fortune’s Favourite.

My great-grandfather Charles Thomas Lucas (CTL 1820-1895) is a pivotal figure in my family’s history. For he was able to make the leap from his modest origins as the son of a small scale London builder, to become one of the leading contractors of his time and a notable country gentleman.

A success which was signified by the purchase of a handsome estate in Sussex called Warnham Court, where I was fortunate to spend the early years of my childhood. He did so through a combination of good fortune, tremendous talent and extraordinary hard work.

As is so often the case, given the fickle nature of life, his first stroke of good luck came about through the misfortune of someone else, for CTL received privileges and responsibilities which would normally have gone to his elder brother James, but for James’ sickness with tuberculosis from an early age.

It was through his own merit however that Charles Thomas won a place at the free Bishopsgate Ward School founded and endowed in 1604 by the will of Edward Alleyn, an actor, theatrical manager and Master of the Royal Bear Garden. Originally for 12 poor scholars its enrollment had grown by Charles’ time to 280 pupils. Still in existence today the school enrolls 1200 girls and 870 boys, and has a distinguished record in educating refugee as well as local children.

CTL showed early promise as a student at the age of 8. I have a hallmarked silver medal, clearly an annual award, engraved “Bishopsgate Ward School 1828” on the face and “For General Good Conduct” on the reverse. It measures an inch and a half in diameter, is almost paper thin, and is so greatly worn that the inscriptions are barely legible. Its condition suggests that it was much treasured and handled frequently rather than hidden away and forgotten in some drawer.

I like to conjecture that CTL carried it in a waistcoat pocket as a talisman or fetish, touching it for good luck as occasion required throughout his life. What harm can a little fantasy do? In any case the prize was no small achievement and his early education was critically important to a family soon to fall in danger of losing their home under a threat of bankruptcy – an event which thankfully did not in the end transpire.

But it must have been terrifying to be faced at the age of 10 with the loss of his home and all its possessions down to the most trivial items – from the hearth rug to the window curtains – listed in the sales advertisement (see Blogetty Blog 17), and to be forced to grapple with the adult complexities of inimical commercial law. What would become of his parents and his siblings, some of them sick with tuberculosis? And what would become of him? He had anticipated a career working with his father in his building business: now there would be no business to employ either of them.

To solve that problem Charles Thomas was indentured for ten years to George Stokes, a well-established architect and friend/associate of his father. Strict laws regulated Victorian professional indenture, including consent of both parties to the contract or in the case of minors the consent of their legal guardian.

It may have meant that CTL was lodged and kept by his Master away from home in exchange for full instruction in his trade. Whatever the circumstances – which of course could vary from excellent to dreadful – there is no doubt that CTL drew immeasurable benefit from the training he received from Stokes. With this assistance and the good fortune which continued to attend his endeavors, he emerged from his training ready to begin a stellar career.

During his indenture Charles Thomas made friends with Charles Barry Jr., the son of the leading architect Sir Charles Barry, who would soon design the new Houses of Parliament.

Charles Jnr. was also an apprentice of Stokes and their friendship proved immensely important to CTL – possibly the most fortuitous event of his life. In November 1841 as his indenture was ending, CTL received a letter from Charles Jr. headed 32 Great George Street:

“My dear Charles, I have heard from Mr. Peto and he says he will appoint either next Wednesday or Thursday. Which he will let me know beforehand and I will write to you. I have asked him, if he appoints Thursday evening, to make it before 8 o’clock, as this is the lecture night. I remain yours till Thursday, Charles Barry Jr. I hope to hear of your success with Mr. Peto.”

It was followed by a letter dated December 1st::
“My Dear Charles, Enclosed is a letter to Mr. Peto who will see you at 7 o’clock this evening. If you do not know the place, any of the neighbors will tell you which is his house and which is his office. I do not know at which he expects you. Mind you are punctual. Hoping on Thursday to hear of your success, I remain in haste yours very truly, Charles Barry.’

The meeting led to hugely propitious consequences. “Mr. Peto” was none other than Samuel Morton Peto (1809-1889), whose success as a contractor would eventually result in a knighthood.

Like my great-grandfather, Peto came from humble beginnings. He was the son of a tenant farmer near Woking, Surrey and was educated at the village school in Cobham and then at Jardine’s private boarding school. In 1823, at age 14, he was apprenticed to and sent to live with his uncle Henry Peto, a public works contractor to learn the business. When his uncle died in 1830 he and his cousin Thomas Grissell each inherited a half share.

Peto had an exceptional talent for organization and aggressive initiative in fixed contract bidding, and an understanding of the whole range of building trades, including the operation of his own quarries, which allowed him to compete profitably in the rapidly growing Victorian building boom. Peto and Grissel, now business partners, quickly became leaders in the industry.

Their successful tenders for a series of Charles Barry’s and other leading architects’ designs during 1832 to 1839 included Birmingham Grammar School; the Reform, Conservative, and Oxford & Cambridge Clubs; the Lyceum theatre in London and Studley Castle in Warwickshire.

In 1840 they had progressed to major participation in Barry’s Houses of Parliament and in 1841 bid for and won the contract for the construction of Trafalgar Square and Nelson’s Column. It made them both very wealthy.

Peto was the perfect business role model, as well as social tutor, for the ambitious but unsophisticated CTL, in whom he saw promise at their immensely significant interview. He engaged CTL immediately, and sent him to Norwich to survey his Norfolk railway project.

Charles Thomas was thrilled: spurred on by his father’s business problems he set out to prove his own and the family’s talent and capability. With his younger brother Thomas, CTL would go on to form a contractor company called Lucas Brothers and lead it to spectacular prominence. But that remarkable story will have to wait for a future post!

Family friendship with the Barry family continued to my day. One of my godmothers was Mary Wolfe Barry who was most kind to me when I spent two months during WWII as an officer cadet at Pirbright, a bus ride from her home as a widow near Woking. On Sunday exit leaves she invited me to lunch and fed me up on home cooking and her small chocolate ration. A generous gift much appreciated.

*****

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