Matthew Martin

Matthew Martin (1748–1838) was an English merchant, known as a naturalist and philanthropist. He was also known for his work identifying the circumstances of beggars in the metropolis as a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Life Born in Somerset, Martin was engaged in trade at Exeter. He was a member of the Bath Philosophical Society, and in 1794 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Later he obtained the post of secretary to a commission for adjusting St. Domingo claims, and settled in a house adjoining Poets' Corner, Westminster.

To Martin's efforts, with others, was due the institution, in January 1805, of the Bath Society for the Investigation and Relief of Occasional Distress. He died at Blackheath, aged 90, on 20 November 1838. His wife died 9 August 1827, aged 73. He proposed a plan for a systematic inquiry into the nature and extent of begging in London, and in 1800 obtained a grant of £1,000 from the treasury in two instalments. His report, in the form of a Letter to Lord Pelham on the State of Mendicity in the Metropolis, was published in 1803, and reissued by the society in 1811. He saw the workhouse as contributing to professional begging.

In 1812 Martin apparently undertook a further inquiry, supported in part by a government grant and in part by subscriptions. He issued An Appeal to Public benevolence for the Relief of Beggars, 1812.