Whitechapel Foundry Owner
Little is known of Phelps before he became owner of Whitechapel. He took over the foundry on the death of the former foundry owner James Bartlett in January, 1701. Phelps remained as the head of the foundry for thirty-seven years, during which time the business grew to be the most successful in the kingdom. The bells that the foundry made were installed in many locations across England. Among his most well-known bells used to be hung in the steeples of St Michael-upon-Cornhill; St Magnus the Martyr, All Hallows, Lombard Street; St Andrew, Holborn, Cambridge (Great St Mary's) and there is still a bell at St Paul's Cathedral. It was customary for bell-founders to add an inscription to their bells. Phelps' inscriptions were typically much longer than his predecessors. For example, the following inscription used to appear on the tenth bell of St Michael-upon-Cornhill until it was recast in 2011:
TO PRAYERS WE DO CALL ST MICHAEL'S PEOPLE ALL WE HONOUR TO THE KIND AND JOY TO BRIDES DO SING / TRIUMPHS WE LOUDLY TELL AND RING THE DEAD MANS KNELLThe Whitechapel foundry was very prosperous under the ownership of Richard Phelps. Lukis cites the inscription on the tenor bell at Avebury, Wilts, Richard Phelps, London, Nat. par. hujus 1719 as indicating Phelps was born there.
Read more about this topic: Richard Phelps (bell-founder)
Famous quotes containing the words whitechapel and/or owner:
“If the street life, not the Whitechapel street life, but that of the common but so-called respectable part of town is in any city more gloomy, more ugly, more grimy, more cruel than in London, I certainly don’t care to see it. Sometimes it occurs to one that possibly all the failures of this generation, the world over, have been suddenly swept into London, for the streets are a restless, breathing, malodorous pageant of the seedy of all nations.”
—Willa Cather (1876–1947)
“Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’”
—Bible: New Testament, Luke 14:21.