THE THIRD CENTURY
1716-1815
The third century of the College history coincides roughly with the
eighteenth century. It was not a period of very high ideals, and
"privilege" was in full force. For the first time in the College
registers men are entered as "Noblemen." These were allowed to proceed
to the M.A. degree direct in two years without passing through the
intermediate stage of B.A. The College was also full of Fellow
Commoners, who sat with the Fellows at the High Table in Hall; until the
close of the century these do not seem to have proceeded to any degree.
The other two classes were the pensioners, who paid their way, and the
sizars. A sizar was definitely attached to a Fellow or Fellow Commoner,
and in return for duties of a somewhat menial character passed through
his College course on reduced terms. Among other duties, a sizar had,
with some of the scholars, to wait at table, a service not abolished
until 6th May 1786.
[Illustration: THE CHAPEL TOWER FROM THE RIVER.]
Speaking in general terms, the College seems gradually to have
acquired the reputation of being the Tory College in the Whig
University; it became exceedingly fashionable, and towards the end of
the century had more students in residence than any other College. At
the same time its reputation for efficiency was very high. This was due
to the policy of Dr. William Samuel Powell, Master from 1765 to 1775. He
introduced various administrative changes on the financial side of
College management, and also started annual examinations in the College,
then a novelty in the University. These examinations were not very
severe, and to the somewhat overtaxed undergraduate of the present day
might seem almost trivial. They were not competitive, there was no order
of merit, but no one seems to have been exempt; their object was simply
to test the knowledge of the students. The success of the plan attracted
much attention; it was proposed to institute similar examinations for
the University at large, but Powell opposed this on the ground that
candidates ought to be examined by those who taught them. From this date
it would appear that Fellow Commoners, at St. John's at least, began to
take degrees in the University.
During Powell's mastership an observatory was established on the top of
the western gateway of the Second Court, and regular astronomical
observations taken. Two sets of observations there made by Fellows of
the College have been published; one set made by William Ludlam in 1767
and 1768, the other by Thomas Catton between 1796 and 1826, the latter
being published by the Royal Astronomical Society in 1854.
We find members of the College taking part in all the movements of the
time. In the rebellion of 1745, James Dawson, a captain in the
Manchester Regiment, was taken prisoner at Carlisle, and executed in
July 1746 on Kennington Common; while Robert Ganton, afterwards a
clergyman, was excused one term's residence in the University, during
which, as one of "his majesty's Royal Hunters," he was fighting the
rebels.
Charles Churchill, satirist, was for a short time a member of the
College in 1748. William Wordsworth, afterwards Poet Laureate, entered
the College as a sizar, and was admitted a foundress' scholar 6th
November 1787. Many adopted military careers; of these we may mention
George, first Marquis Townshend, who joined the College in 1741,
afterwards entered the army, and was present at Fontenoy and Culloden;
he went with Wolfe to Canada, and took over the command when Wolfe fell.
Daniel Hoghton entered in 1787, he also became a soldier, and was one of
Wellington's men in the Peninsular War; he was killed at the battle of
Albuera, being then a major-general.
Of another type were William Wilberforce (entered 1776) and Thomas
Clarkson (1779), whose names will always be associated in connection
with the abolition of slavery. The saintly Henry Martyn, Senior Wrangler
in 1801 and Fellow of the College, went out as a missionary to India in
1805, and died at Tokat in Persia in 1812. There have been many
missionary sons of the College since his day, but his self-denial
greatly impressed his contemporaries, and Sir James Stephen speaks of
him as "the one heroic name which adorns the annals of the Church of
England from the days of Elizabeth to our own." With Martyn curiously
enough is associated in College annals another name, that of Henry John
Temple, third Viscount Palmerston, sometime Prime Minister of England;
for Martyn and Temple appear as officers of the College company of
volunteers in the year 1803.
Thomas Denman, afterwards Lord Chief Justice, entered the College in
1796; he resided in the Second Court, staircase G, at the top. When he
brought up his son, the Hon. George Denman, to Trinity he pointed the
rooms out to him, and the latter pointed them out to the present writer,
"in order that the oral tradition might be preserved."
Alexander John Scott, who, as private secretary and interpreter to Lord
Nelson, was present on the _Victory_ at Trafalgar, entered the College
in 1786, and became a scholar of the College 3rd November 1789. Fletcher
Norton, Speaker of the House of Commons from 1770 to 1780, and first
Lord Grantley, entered the College in 1734. With him, in a way, was
connected John Horne (afterwards Horne Tooke), who entered in 1754; for
Horne, for purposes of his own, libelled Fletcher Norton when Speaker.
Horne Tooke's stormy career belongs rather to political than College
history; but it is worth noting that when he presented himself at
Cambridge for the M.A. degree, and the granting of this was opposed in
the senate on the ground that he had traduced the clergy in his
writings, the members of St. John's, headed by Dr. Richard Beadon, then
Public Orator, afterwards Bishop of Bath and Wells, carried the grace
for the degree. Horne and Beadon entered the College in the same year.
We have already mentioned Charles Churchill. Another Johnian poet of
this period was William Mason, who entered the College in 1742. Mason
afterwards became a Fellow of Pembroke, where he was the intimate friend
of Thomas Gray. As the biographer of Gray he is perhaps better
remembered than for his own poetry, though during his lifetime he
enjoyed considerable fame.
A somewhat unusual career was that of William Smith, who entered the
College from Eton in 1747, but left without taking a degree. He is
reported to have snapped an unloaded pistol at one of the Proctors, and
rather than submit to the punishment which the College authorities
thought proper to inflict, left the University. He became an actor, and
was very popular in his day, being known as "Gentleman Smith." He was
associated with David Garrick, and Smith's admirers held that he fell
little short of his master in the art.
The reputation of the College as a medical school was maintained by Dr.
William Heberden, who entered in 1724. Heberden attended Samuel Johnson
in his last illness, and Johnson described him as "_ultimus Romanorum_,
the last of our learned physicians." A description which may be
amplified by saying that Heberden was in a way the first of the modern
physicians.