Chelsea College (17th century)

This establishment was intended to centralize controversial writing against Catholicism, and was the idea of Matthew Sutcliffe, Dean of Exeter, who was the first Provost.

In consequence of a letter addressed by the king to Archbishop George Abbot, collections in aid of the institution were made in all the dioceses of England, but the amount raised was small, and hardly covered fees due to the collectors.

[11] An engraving representing the building project, which was only very partially carried through, is in the second volume of Francis Grose's Military Antiquities (1788).

[3] John Dury in 1651 advocated that Parliament should renew the charter, and create a centre in the College for intelligencer work; his close colleague Samuel Hartlib also agitated that the revenue should be better spent.

[17] After proposals including an observatory, supported by John Flamsteed but vetoed by Christopher Wren in favour of Greenwich,[18] the site was devoted to Chelsea Hospital later in the reign of Charles II, with the old name still used in the following years.

The situation was resolved only when Stephen Fox, the major benefactor to the Hospital, put up £1,300 of his own money for its purchase, and made a deal with the Royal Society through the good offices of John Evelyn.