and politicians of his era, including Lord Burghley, Sir Edward Coke, Sir Percival Willoughby, Lord Compton, and the Earl of Sussex, among others, generally at the standard rate of ten percent per annum. Sutton died on 12 December 1611 at his house in Homerton. He was then considered one of the richest individuals in England, with an estate worth approximately £4,836 per annum; and his accounts showed that he was personally worth over £50,000, mostly in the form of outstanding obligations and recognizances from the many people in debt to him. This immense wealth earned Sutton the nicknames among his contemporaries of "Croesus" and "Riche Sutton". Legacy Sutton left part of his fortune to be invested in establishing an almshouse for 80 impoverished gentlemen, combined with a school for 40 boys, on the site of his house off Charterhouse Square, on the outskirts of the City of London. This institution was to be named the Hospital of King James in Charterhouse, although it later became known as Sutton's Hospital in Charterhouse. The almshouse survives on the original site; while the school, now Charterhouse School, relocated to Godalming, Surrey, in 1872. The London buildings were badly damaged by bombs during the Second World War, but were restored during the 1950s. Sutton's personal arms, blazoned Or, on a chevron between three annulets gules three crescents of the field, are still used by the school. John Aubrey is responsible for the almost certainly spurious legend that Sutton was the original of Volpone the fox in Ben Jonson's play Volpone. See also Case of Sutton's Hospital Notes Sources 1532 births 1611 deaths People educated at Eton College Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge English philanthropists English civil servants Founders of English schools and colleges 16th-century English businesspeople 17th-century English businesspeople English knights