Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/53

Firmin pension of one hundred crowns was granted by Cromwell to the banished man.

Sympathy with the oppressed had something to do with Firmin's religious leanings. He expressed himself as hating popery ‘more for its persecuting than for its priestcraft.’ In 1662 he raised money partly by ‘collections in churches’ for the exiled anti-trinitarians of Poland; but when (1681) the Polish Calvinists met the same fate Firmin was foremost in efforts for their relief, collecting about 680l. His acquaintance with religious controversies was gained in conversation, for he was never a student. There was scarcely a divine of note whom he did not know. He helped young clergymen to preferment, and it is said that Tillotson, after becoming dean of Canterbury (1672), when obliged to leave town, ‘generally left it to Mr. Firmin to provide preachers’ for his Tuesday lecture at St. Lawrence, Jewry. Tillotson was aware that Firmin's freedom of opinion did not bias his judgment of men.

Firmin's first philanthropic experiment was occasioned by the trade disorganisation of the plague year (1665). He provided employment at making up clothing for hands thrown out of work. It was the only one of his enterprises by which he suffered no pecuniary loss. During the great fire (1666) his Lombard Street premises were burned. He secured temporary accommodation in Leadenhall Street, and in a few years was able to rebuild in Lombard Street, and to carry on his business with increased success. In 1676 he left the management of the concern in the hands of his nephew and partner, Jonathan James (son of his sister Prudence), who had been his apprentice; he was then worth about 9,000l. Henceforth he devoted his time and great part of his means to works of public benefit. He had been elected about 1673 a governor of Christ's Hospital, the first public recognition of his worth.

He had two schemes already in operation. About 1670 he had erected a building by the river for the storage of corn and coals, to be retailed to the poor in hard times at cost price; how this plan worked is not stated. Early in 1676 he had started a ‘workhouse in Little Britain, for the employment of the poor in the linen manufacture;’ he built new premises expressly for it. Tillotson suggests that the hint of this ‘larger design’ was taken from the example of Thomas Gouge [q. v.], who was one of the frequenters of Firmin's table. Firmin employed as many as seventeen hundred spinners, besides flax-dressers, weavers, &c. He paid them for their work at the current rate, but, finding that they must work sixteen hours a day to earn sixpence, he added to their earnings in various ways, giving a sort of bonus in coal to good workers. His arrangements for the comfort and cleanliness of his hands, and for the industrial training of children rescued from the streets, were admirable. Nothing is said of his directly fostering the education of the children, but he printed large editions of a ‘Scripture Catechism’ (probably by Bishop Edward Fowler [q. v.]), and gave rewards to such as learned it.

The scheme never paid its way. Firmin sold his linens at cost price, but the sale flagged; for the first five years the annual loss was 200l. He invoked the aid of the press, in the hope of getting the corporation of London to take the matter up as a public enterprise, but in vain. The scale of production was diminished, yet the loss increased. Two or three friends helped to make it good, but the main burden rested on Firmin. In 1690 the patentees of the linen manufacture took over the scheme, retaining Firmin as its manager at a salary of 100l. a year, and reducing the rate of wages. The new arrangement was unsuccessful, Firmin's honorarium was not paid, and the enterprise was once more thrown on his hands. He kept it up to the day of his death, and nominally contrived to make it pay, only however by keeping the wages low, and supplementing them by private doles to his workers. His last wish was for two months more of life, in order that he might remodel his ‘workhouse.’ This was done after his death by James, his partner, a prudent man, who had saved Firmin from ruining himself by drawing too largely on the ready money of the firm. He had put down his coach rather than drop some of his spinners. The higher rate of wages obtainable at the woollen manufacture led Firmin to attempt its introduction as a London industry. He took for this purpose a house in Artillery Lane; but wool was too dear; his hands were too slow; after losing money for two years and a quarter he abandoned the trial.

Firmin deserves notice as a prison philanthropist. From about 1676 he interested himself in the condition of prisoners for debt, freeing several hundreds who were detained for small sums, and successfully promoting acts of grace for the liberation of others. He visited prisons, inquired into the treatment pursued, and prosecuted harsh and extortionate gaolers. His biographer relates that one of these incriminated officials hanged himself rather than face a trial.

Firmin was a strong patriot as regards English manufactures, strenuously opposing the importation of French silks. But when the protestant refugees came over from France in 1680 and following years he was the first