Robert Aske (merchant)

Robert Aske (24 February 1619 – 27 January 1689) was a merchant in the City of London. He is chiefly remembered from the charitable foundation created from his estate, which operates two schools in Hertfordshire, Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School and Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls.

Aske was the son of an affluent draper. Aske was apprenticed to John Trott, a haberdasher (dealer in raw silk) and East India Company merchant. Aske became a of the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers in 1643 and an alderman of the City of London Corporation in 1666. He became Master of the Haberdashers Company, but was removed from that position by James II in 1687 when the Catholic king lost faith in Aske, a Protestant.

Despite marrying twice, Aske had no children and left the bulk of his sizable estate, £32,000, to the Company for charitable purposes. He directed that £20,000 was to be used to buy a piece of land within one mile of London upon which was to be built a "hospital" (almshouses) for 20 poor members of the Company and a school for 20 sons of poor freemen of the Company. The remaining £12,000 was left to form the Haberdashers' Aske's Foundation, of which the Company is trustee. The charity was incorporated by a private Act of Parliament in 1690.

An almshouse and school, Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, were built on 21 acres in Hoxton in 1690 to a design by Robert Hooke. A further 1,500 acres (6 km²) in Kent were acquired to provide an annual income of over £700. The buildings were demolished in 1824 and reconstructed in 1825 to a design by D. R. Roper. The almshouses closed to allow the school to expand in 1874 to take 300 boys and 300 girls, and a second and third school were opened in Hatcham in 1875. The Hoxton school move to two sites, in Hampstead for the boys and Acton for the girls, in 1898, and both schools are now reunited in Elstree. The Hatcham schools are now merged as a single state school, an Academy known as Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College.

Aske shares his name with another Robert Aske, who was executed for treason in 1537. The first Robert Aske was unmarried and is unlikely to be a direct ancestor of the second, although they are likely to be a member of the same family from Yorkshire.

References

* [http://www.oldhabs.com/WebArchive/RobertAske.html Robert Aske I and II]
* [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=22132 History of the schools]