page_title: Matthew Decker
hierarchical_section_title: Matthew Decker
caption_attribution_description: English: St Mary Magdalene's Church, Richmond, Surrey. Memorial to Sir Matthew Decker, 1st Baronet (d. 1749), of Richmond Green, a merchant and writer on trade who was High Sheriff of Surrey in 1729 and to his grandson Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Viscount FitzWilliam (d. 1816), founder of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. Arms of Decker: Argent, a demi-buck gules between his forelegs an arrow erected in pale or ( Thomas Wotton, The English Baronetage Containing a Genealogical and Historical ..., Volume 4, 1741[1]) impaling Watkins Azure, a fess vair between three leopard's faces jessant-de-lys or, the arms of Rev. Richard Watkins, Rector of Whichford, Warwickshire, whose daughter Henrietta Watkins married Sir Matthew Decker, 1st Baronet. Listed in Burkes General Armory, 1884, as arms of Watkins of Badby House, Northamptonshire. Modern inscription on a tablet of stone superimposed on the base of the monument, possibly a restoration (perhaps placed here by the FitzWilliam Museum?): "In the vault beneath were interred the remains of Sir Matthew Decker Bart. on the 25th of March 1749 and of his relict Lady Decker on the 12th of May 1759. Also of Catherine their daughter and wife of Richard 6th Viscount FitzWilliam of Mount Merrion in the County of Dublin in the Kingdom of Ireland. She died on the 8th of March 1786. The remains of Richard Viscount FitzWilliam son of the above-named Richard and Catherine were also interred here. He died on the 4th of February 1816 in the 71st year of his age and by his will founded and endowed the museum at Cambridge that bears his name"
context_page_description: Sir Matthew Decker, 1st Baronet of Richmond Green in Surrey, was a Dutch-born English merchant and economist who served as a Member of Parliament for Bishop's Castle in Shropshire from 1719 to 1722. He was a governor of the South Sea Company from 1711 to 1712, and a Director of the East India Company from 1713 to 1743. His published works which show him as "such a strong supporter of the doctrine of free trade as to rank as one of the most important forerunners of Adam Smith", proposed amongst other measures, to abolish customs duties and replace them with a tax upon houses, to abolish the duty on tea replacing it with a licence duty on households wishing to consume it, and to repeal import duties and bounties in general. At his house in Richmond he amassed a large collection of art, including many Dutch paintings, which later formed the core of the collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum, founded by his grandson. He was a pioneer in the growing of exotic fruits in England, including pineapple and lemon, in his heated greenhouses at Richmond.
context_section_description: Sir Matthew Decker, 1st Baronet (1679 – 18 March 1749) (Dutch: Mattijs Decker) of Richmond Green in Surrey, was a Dutch-born English merchant and economist who served as a Member of Parliament for Bishop's Castle in Shropshire from 1719 to 1722. He was a governor of the South Sea Company from 1711 to 1712, and a Director of the East India Company from 1713 to 1743. His published works which show him as "such a strong supporter of the doctrine of free trade as to rank as one of the most important forerunners of Adam Smith", proposed amongst other measures, to abolish customs duties and replace them with a tax upon houses, to abolish the duty on tea replacing it with a licence duty on households wishing to consume it, and to repeal import duties and bounties in general. At his house in Richmond he amassed a large collection of art, including many Dutch paintings, which later formed the core of the collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum, founded by his grandson. He was a pioneer in the growing of exotic fruits in England, including pineapple and lemon, in his heated greenhouses at Richmond.
caption: Monument to Sir Matthew Decker, 1st Baronet, Church of St Mary Magdalene, Richmond, showing the arms of Decker impaling Watkins Azure, a fess vair between three leopard's faces jessant-de-lys or
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