ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½

Boulton’s business endeavours helped to improve ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½. His manufactory and mint brought high quality production to a town criticised for its poor and cheap goods. His campaign for the Assay Office made it easier for silversmiths to work in the city. Matthew Boulton was also a keen supporter of many of ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½’s institutions, and several of these involved the improvement of medical care in the city. In 1765 John Fothergill wrote to Matthew Boulton attaching a newspaper cutting calling for the consideration of a General Hospital in ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½:

“A general hospital, for the relief of the sick and lame, situated near the Town of ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½, is presumed would be greatly beneficial to the populous Country about it, as well as that place.” [Letter. John Fothergill to Matthew Boulton 5 November 1765. MS 3782/12/60/22]

A few weeks later Fothergill wrote again due to Boulton’s absence from ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ to subscribe a joint £50 to the new General Hospital appeal. [Letter. John Fothergill to Matthew Boulton 20 November 1765. MS 3782/12/60/30] The General Hospital also put on performances to raise money, and a letter from the Hospital to Matthew Boulton in 1803 was a plea to the subscribers to attend a performance being put on.

Samuel Garbett (1716 to 1803), who was elected to the Committee of the ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ General Hospital, wrote to Matthew Boulton about a ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ Dispensary in 1797 [Letter. Samuel Garbett to Matthew Boulton 8 February 1797. MS 3782/12/62/156] and by 1822 Mary Anne Boulton was a subscriber to the institution [Mrs Boulton’s Bills 1822. MS 3782/15/21/23a]. Whilst the General Hospital and Dispensary were not immediately the result of Matthew Boulton’s actions, ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ definitely benefited from him and his circle of friends’ generosity to such causes.