Rustat, Tobias (1606 -1694)
Tobias Rustat was the second son of Robert Rustat, Vicar of Barrow on Soar in Leicestershire, and his wife, a daughter of Ralph Snoden, of Mansfield Nottinghamshire, and a sister of Robert Snoden, Bishop of Carlisle. Apprenticed to a barber surgeon, he soon left and became a servant in the household of the Duke of Buckingham, and afterwards in that of Charles, Prince of Wales [afterwards Charles II], whom he accompanied into exile. At the Restoration he was made Under housekeeper of Hampton Court and Yeoman of the Robes, and a page of the back stairs. The emoluments attached to these offices were not very great, but by frugality he became rich. A great benefactor of Cambridge University Library, on the 1 June 1666, he gave the University £1,000 to be laid out in lands, the rent to be applied in the purchase of the best and most useful books for the library. On the 13 October 1674, the University, passed a grace to bestow the degree of M.A. on Rustat, and he received the degree on 20 October. The stamps were cut to mark the books bought out of the proceeds of his fund. The arms were confirmed to him by Charles II in 1678. He was a benefactor of Jesus College Cambridge, in the chapel of which he is buried, and gave generously to many other causes.