William Fellowes of Shotesham Park

William Fellowes (1706–1775) of Shotesham Park was an English landowner, a founder of Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1731.[1]

William Fellowes

F.R.S.
Standing painted half-lenth portrait of William Fellowes, wearing a wig and brown jacket, with right elbow on a table
Portrait from 1748 of William Fellowes of Shotesham Park by Joseph Highmore
Born1706
Died1775
Occupationlandowner
Known forNorfolk and Norwich Hospital
ChildrenRobert Fellowes
Parent

Life

He was the third son of the barrister William Fellowes.[2] He acquired Shotesham Park and associated land in 1731;[3] or was given property there amounting to 871 acres (352 ha) in the early 1720s by his father.[4] It has been suggested that William Fellowes the elder was at the point using profit from South Sea Company investment to acquire land.[5]

When his father died in 1724, under his will his son William received only investments, the bulk of the estate going to his elder brother Coulson Fellowes.[6] The three brothers Coulson, Martin and William Fellowes all appear on the subscription list for Miscellanea Analytica de Seriebus et Quadraturis (1730), a mathematical work by Abraham de Moivre. Bellhouse, Renouf, Raut and Bauer deduce that, probably, their father had engaged de Moivre as a tutor to his sons.[7]

In the years 1731 to 1754, Fellowes developed a cottage hospital in Shotesham village. Thomas Hayter, bishop of Norwich, was interested in setting up a hospital in Norwich on the London model, and consulted the physician Benjamin Gooch. Hayter died in 1761. Gooch lived in Shotesham, and he and Fellowes revived the idea in 1770. Fellowes laid a foundation stone for the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital in 1771. Notable early medical staff were Edward Rigby and Philip Meadows Martineau.[8]

Family

With his wife Elizabeth, Fellowes had two sons:

  • William Fellowes (1740–1778), married Elizabeth Harris, daughter of the barrister Samuel Harris, resided at Gay Bowers, Danbury, and had two sons and two daughters. William, the elder son, died in 1835 at age 69, unmarried. The younger son was Robert Fellowes.[9][10]
  • Robert Fellowes, second son, inherited Shotisham Park and was a Member of Parliament.[11]

Notes
  1. Royal Society (Great Britain) (1999). List of Fellows of the Royal Society 1660-1998: A Complete Listing of All Fellows and Foreign Members Since the Foundation of the Society, Taken from the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Archive Resource. Royal Society. p. 53.
  2. Burke, Bernard (1879). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland. Harrison. p. 551.
  3. Norfolk Archaeology. Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society. 1973. p. 184.
  4. Wilson, Richard; Mackley, Alan (1 January 2000). Creating Paradise: The Building of the English Country House, 1660-1880. A&C Black. p. 233. ISBN 978-1-85285-252-8.
  5. Turner, Olivia Horsfall (25 January 2019). 1720. Machine Books. p. 8.
  6. "Copy of the Probate and the Will and Codicils of William Fellowes of Eggesford, Devon, Esq., Senior Master of the High Court of Chancery and one of the Masters of the Bench of the Honourable Society of Lincolns Inn". TNA. 4 February 1724.
  7. Bellhouse, D. R.; Renouf, E. M.; Raut, R.; Bauer, M. A. (2009). "De Moivre's Knowledge Community: An Analysis of the Subscription List to the Miscellanea Analytica". Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London. 63 (2): 137–162. ISSN 0035-9149.
  8. Shaw, A. Batty (1971). "The Norfolk And Norwich Hospital". The British Medical Journal. 3 (5776): 697–699. ISSN 0007-1447.
  9. Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Fellowes, William (2)" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
  10. Crisp, Frederick Arthur (1911). Visitation of England and Wales : Howard, Joseph Jackson, 1827-1902 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. Vol. 17. p. 1.
  11. "Fellowes, Robert (1742-1829), of Shotesham Park, Norf., History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org.
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