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 Rh was not admitted until 25 May 1710. His date of entry into the livery of the company was the 29 August 1719. Many of the members of his faith had settled in the neighbourhood of Drury Lane and Roger Metcalfe, first as apothecary and then as "collegiate physician" practised among them during the whole of his life-time. He was an intimate friend of Dryden and when James Radcliffe, third earl of Derwentwater was executed at Tower Hill for his share in the rebellion of 1715, the body wrapped in black baize was conveyed by his friends to Metcalfe's house and embalmed by him. Late in life, it was in 1731, when he was 51 years old, he married Jemima, the elder daughter of sir Philip Astley, of Melton Constable, baronet, a lady 23 years younger than himself. They had three sons, Christopher, Philip and Roger.

Christopher the eldest son, was born in 1732 and died at Hawstead near Bury St. Edmunds on 24 June 1794. This estate, which originally consisted of a house known as the "Walnut Tree" adjoining Fillet's manor on the parish green and some lands, came to him through his marriage with Ellen, the only child of Christopher Barton of West Ham and Bromley St. Leonard, who had purchased it from Mr. Pytches and other small owners in the parish. He greatly improved, almost rebuilding in 1783 with the white-brick made at Woolpit in Suffolk, the old house to which he gave the new name of "Hawstead farm" and he also added to the landed property. His wife died on the 6th March 1775, aged 41 on which day her newly-born son, Philip was christened (he died 1809), but her mother, Margaret Barton, survived until 19 June 1780 aged 88. Four of the daughters of Christopher Metcalfe died before him; another Frederica Sophia, baptised 20 Nov. 1763 married James Mure of Great Saxham, Suffolk on 8 Nov. 1790. His eldest son, Christopher Barton Metcalfe, distiller at West Ham, died on 15 August