College to take in hand the question of rebuilding the fabric in a
manner suitable to the new requirements. The buildings then existing
had been erected at different times, and had gradually been brought
into the form of a quadrangle, occupying the site of the older part
of the present College. These are shown in Neale’s drawing, made in
1566. The chapel on the south side was that built by Richard, Earl of
Arundel, about 1373. The Hall on the north side had been rebuilt about
the year 1535, partly by the contributions of former Fellows. Provost
Blencowe died in 1618, and was succeeded by Mr. William Lewis, Chaplain
to Lord Bacon, and afterwards Master of St. Cross, and Prebendary of
Winchester. Lewis’ election was not unanimous, and though he was duly
presented to the Bishop of Lincoln and confirmed by him, he thought
it necessary to obtain a further ratification of his title from his
patron. This proceeding is remarkable, as it is almost the solitary
instance in which the original statutes of January 1326, superseded
almost immediately after their issue by the Lincoln statutes of May
in the same year, were quoted or acted upon. The Chancellor, assuming
cognizance of the case as of an election in discord, pronounced in
favour of Lewis, and by an order entered in the College Register and
authenticated by his own hand, confirmed Lewis in his place. Lewis
held the office for three years only, during which time, however,
the design of the new building was determined upon, and the first
part completed. Blencowe had left the sum of £1300 to be applied in
the first instance to the west side--“the primaria pars Collegii.”
This was undertaken in 1619, and in the following year the south side
was also taken down and rebuilt. Besides Blencowe’s legacy, £300 was
forthcoming from a College fund, and plate was sold to the value of
£90. The College groves at Stowford and Bartlemas supplied some of the
timber; the stone came from the College quarry at Headington. Timber
was also sold from other College estates. But it was in obtaining
contributions from former members, and from great people connected
with Oriel, that Provost Lewis’ talent was most remarkable. His skill
in writing letters--“elegant, in a winning, persuasive way”--was long
quoted as an example to other heads of Colleges. This “art, in which
he excelled,” had recommended him to Lord Bacon, and it was by his
patron’s advice that he employed it in the service of the College.
Among those whom he laid under contribution were the Earl of Kingston
and Sir Robert Harley, whose arms are still to be seen in the windows
of the Hall. Lewis resigned the Provostship in 1621, and was succeeded
by John Tolson. The completion of the new quadrangle was postponed for
some years, though the design had probably been determined on from the
first. In 1636 large sums of money were again raised by contributions
from present and former members, and the north and east sides of the
quadrangle were erected.
The plan of the new College is in its main features similar to that of
Wadham, erected 1613, and of University, which was built some years
after Oriel. In all of these the chapel and hall stand together
opposite to the gateway, and form one side of a quadrangle. The other
three sides are of uniform height, consisting of three stories,
containing chambers for the Fellows and other members. In Oriel the
library occupied a part of the upper story on the north side. The hall
is approached by a flight of steps under a portico on the centre of the
east side; above this portico are the figures of the Virgin and Child,
to whom the College is dedicated, and of King Edward II., the founder,
and King Charles I. in whose reign it was set up. Round the portico ran
the legend in stone--“Regnante Carolo.” By an unaccountable blunder,
this last figure has been described in all accounts of the College as
being that of King Edward III.; but there can be no doubt, both from
the dress and from the features, that it represents King Charles, and
no one else. Over the doorways round the quadrangle were stone shields
bearing the arms of the four great benefactors--Frank, Carpenter,
Smyth, and Dudley, and of the three Provosts--Blencowe, Lewis,
and Tolson--under whom the new building was planned and executed.
Blencowe’s are also to be seen in the treasury in the tower, and upon
the College gate. The whole building was completed in 1642, when the
chapel was first used for divine service.
This great work had scarcely been completed when the Civil War broke
out. In January 1642-3, the King being at Oxford, the College plate
was demanded: 29 lbs. 0 oz. 5 dwt. of gilt, and 52 lbs. 7 oz. 14 dwt.
of white plate was given, the College retaining only its founder’s
cup, and two other small articles--a mazer bowl and a cocoa-nut
cup, believed to have been the gift of Bishop Carpenter. A few days
afterwards a weekly contribution of £40 was assessed upon the Colleges
and Halls for the expenses of fortifying the city; the charge upon
Oriel was fixed at £1. This charge was joyfully acquiesced in by
the College, “ita quod faxit Deus Musae una cum Rege suo contra
ingrassantes hostium turmas tutius agant ac felicius.” But these hopes
were not to be realised; and the hardships of the siege soon came to
tell heavily on the College finances. The high price of provisions,
the difficulty of getting in rents, the debts incurred for the
College building, must have seriously crippled their resources; and
grievous complaints of their inability to complete the October audit
occur in the years 1643, 1644, and 1645. In the last of these years
extraordinary expedients had to be resorted to in order to maintain
even the common table; leases were renewed or promised in reversion
on almost any terms; the Oxford tenants were solicited to pay their
rents in advance, on the promise of considerate treatment at their
next renewal; all the timber at Bartlemas was felled at one stroke and
converted into money. Even these heroic remedies were inadequate; and
in March 1645-6 the commons’ allowance was reduced to one-half, and
the elections to vacant Fellowships suspended. The surrender of the
city to the Parliament in the summer of 1646 must have been felt as a
great relief. From that time, although the times were not altogether
prosperous, the distress of the years of siege never reappeared with
the same acuteness. The numbers of the undergraduate members, which
had sunk to almost nothing, soon revived; and the College was able
to build a Ball Court for their diversion in the back part of their
premises. The Hospital of St. Bartholomew was rebuilt in 1651. Although
now converted to other uses, this good gray stone house, with its eight
chambers for the eight almsmen, still stands and bears its history
on its face. On the several doorways, and also on the chapel, which,
though not rebuilt, was refitted and beautified, are the date of the
work, and the initials of the College,[137] the Provost, and the
Treasurers.
The Parliamentary Visitation which descended upon Oxford in the year
following the siege dealt on the whole very tenderly with Oriel. It is
possible that Prynne, an old Oriel man, who was an active member of
the London Committee, may have stood its friend. The answers of the
Provost and Fellows to the Visitors’ questions were in almost every
case such as merited expulsion; but in the result only five Fellows
were removed, and of these two were soon afterwards allowed to return
to their place. Two Fellowships were suspended by the Visitors’ order,
in order to pay off the debts under which the College lay. Others were
filled up by the Visitors or the London Committee during the years 1648
and 1652. After the latter year no further interference seems to have
taken place, and on the death of Saunders, in 1652-3, Robert Say was
elected in the accustomed form, and admitted without any confirmation
from external authority. He held office till 1691, when he died after a
long but uneventful reign of nearly forty years.
Of the Fellows of the College during the seventeenth century, not
many achieved any distinction. Humphrey Lloyd, elected Fellow in
1631, and removed by the Visitors in 1648, became Bishop of Bangor.
William Talbot, successively Bishop of Oxford, Salisbury, and Durham;
Sir John Holt, who, after the Revolution, became Lord Chief Justice
of England; and Sir William Scroggs, one of his predecessors, who
gained an unenviable reputation in the political trials which arose
out of the Popish Plot, were educated at Oriel, but were not Fellows.
The most eminent name among the Fellows is undoubtedly John Robinson,
Bishop of Bristol and afterwards of London, Lord Privy Seal, and the
chief negotiator of the Peace of Utrecht. Soon after his election in
1675, he obtained leave to reside abroad, as chaplain to the English
Minister at Stockholm. His benefactions to the College will be more
conveniently mentioned later. With these exceptions the list of
Fellows contains very few eminent names; and the same remark continues
to be true in the main throughout the eighteenth century. The truth
probably is that the system of election to Fellowships was tainted
with corruption. Buying and selling of places was a common practice
in the age of the Restoration, and it has survived to our own time in
the army. In many Colleges this evil was to some extent kept in check
by the establishment of a regular succession from Scholars to Fellows;
but at Oriel, as has been already observed, the choice of the electors
was absolutely free, and, valuable as this freedom may be when honestly
exercised, it is capable of leading to corruption of the worst kind. In
1673 a complaint was made to the Bishop of Lincoln, the Visitor, by
James Davenant, Fellow, against the conduct of the Provost at a recent
election. The Bishop issued a commission to the Vice-Chancellor (Peter
Mews, Bishop of Bath and Wells), Dr. Fell (Dean of Christ Church), and
Dr. Yates (Principal of Brasenose), to visit the College. The conduct
of the business seems to have been chiefly in Fell’s hands; and in his
letters to the Bishop he expresses in strong terms his opinion of the
state of things he found in Oriel. He writes, 1st Aug. 1673--“When
this Devil of buying & selling is once cast out your Lordship will I
hope take care that he return not again lest he bring seven worse than
himself into the house after ’tis swept and garnisht.” He recommends
various regulations for checking the evil; among them that the election
be by the major part of the whole Society, “else ’twill always be
in the Provost’s power to watch his opportunity & when the house is
thin strike up an election”; also that the successor be immediately
admitted, “for there is a cheat in some houses by keeping the successor
out for a good while after the election.” The Bishop on this report
issued a decree, 24th Jan., 1673-4, prescribing the proceeding in
elections. Not to be baffled, the Provost, Say, hit upon the ingenious
device of obtaining a Royal letter of recommendation for the candidate
whose election he desired, and a letter was sent in favour of Thomas
Twitty for the next vacancy. He was probably elected and admitted upon
this recommendation; though the Vice-Chancellor refused to allow him to
subscribe as Fellow. The Bishop made his remonstrances at Court, and
obtained the withdrawal of the King’s letter, and Twitty’s election
was annulled before it had been entered in the College Register. The
Provost seems to have written an insolent letter to the Bishop, such
(says Fell) “as in another age a valianter man would not have written
to a Visitor.” Fell goes on--“Though I am afraid that with a very
little diligence the being a party to Twitty’s proceedings may be
made out, yet it will not be safe to animadvert on that act, however
criminal, as a fault, for notwithstanding the present concession, the
Court will never endure to have the prerogative of laying laws asleep
called in question. As to the letter I think ’twill be much the best
way not to answer it. It is below the dignity of a Visitor to contest
in empty words. If the Provost goes on with his Hectoring ’tis possible
he may run himself so in the briers that ’twill not be easy for him to
get out.”
The regulations of Bishop Fuller were more fully established by a
statute made by the College with the Visitor’s approval in 1721,
when the day of election was fixed to the Friday in Easter week, and
the examination on the Thursday before. But new disputes had already
begun which led to unexpected but most important consequences. At the
Fellowship election in July 1721, Henry Edmunds, of Jesus, the hero of
the ensuing struggle, received the votes of nine Fellows against those
of three other Fellows and the Provost. The Provost rejected Edmunds
and admitted his own candidate. Edmunds appealed to the Visitor, who
upheld the Provost. On the Friday after Easter, 1723, Edmunds stood
again, and he and four other candidates were chosen by a majority of
the electors into the five vacant Fellowships. The Provost refused to
admit them, and was again upheld by the Visitor, who claimed that the
right of filling up the vacancies had devolved upon himself. Three
places he proceeded to fill up at once; as to the other two he seems
to have been in consultation with the Provost as to his choice, but
not to have made any nomination. At the election in the following
April 1724, two candidates received the votes of eight of the Fellows,
against the votes of the Provost and of one other Fellow only, Mr.
Joseph Bowles. The Provost as before refused to admit them. Edmunds now
brought his action in the Common Pleas on behalf of himself and his
four companions, claiming to have been legally elected. He took his
stand on the original Foundation Statutes of January 1326, and claimed
that the Crown and not the Bishop of Lincoln was the true and lawful
Visitor of the College. These statutes, as has been already mentioned,
were superseded within six months of their issue, and although in a
few rare instances, questions had been brought before the King or his
Chancellor, the Visitatorial authority of the Bishop had never before
been disputed, but had been repeatedly exercised and acquiesced in for
four hundred years. The case was tried at bar, before Chief Justice
Eyre, and the three puisne judges, and a special jury; and on the 14th
May, 1726, judgment was given in Edmunds’ favour. The authority of the
statutes of Jan. 1326 was established, and the Crown declared to be
the sole Visitor. Edmunds and his four co-plaintiffs, as also the two
candidates chosen in 1724, were admitted to their Fellowships in July
1726 by the Dean, the Provost refusing, on the ingenious plea that if
the Crown was Visitor, it was for the Crown and not for the Common
Pleas to decide on the validity of the election.
Dr. Carter died in September 1727, and notwithstanding his disagreement
with the Fellows, he showed his affection for the College by leaving
to it his whole residuary estate. He had already, by the help of
Bishop Robinson, obtained the annexation to his office of a prebend at
Rochester, and he provided for its further endowment by leaving £1000
for the purchase of a living to be held by the Provost. With this
money the living of Purleigh, in Essex, was bought in 1730. Hitherto
the Provostship had been but scantily endowed. The Parliamentary
Visitors in 1648 had scheduled it as one of the Headships that required
augmentation. The fixed stipend and the allowances prescribed by the
statutes had, with the change in the value of money, shrunk to small
proportions; the principal part of his income was derived from the
dividend and the fines.
Both these sources of income were of modern growth. By the Act 18
Eliz., leases of College estates were limited to twenty-one years, and
one-third of the old rent was to be reserved in corn. House property
might be let for not longer than forty years. The beneficial effect of
these Acts on the corporate revenue was not immediate; in many cases
long terms had been granted shortly before, which did not expire for
many years. Notably the College estate at Wadley had been let in 1539
for 208 years; and in 1736, when this long period was approaching its
end, the lessees petitioned Parliament to interfere and prevent them
being deprived of what they had so long treated as their own property.
But few leases were of this extravagant duration; and in the course of
the seventeenth century the College income was considerably increased.
The Provost, however, received no more than one Fellow’s share and a
half in the dividend, _i. e._ the surplus income of the year, and one
share only of the fines. The ecclesiastical preferment which Provost
Carter secured to the Headship resulted in making it one of the best
endowed places in Oxford, without imposing any additional charge on the
College.
Bishop Robinson, who obtained the Rochester stall for the Provost, was
also a benefactor in other ways. He founded three Exhibitions, to be
held by bachelor students; and he also erected at his own expense an
additional building on the east side of the College garden, containing
six sets of chambers, three of which were to be occupied by his
Exhibitioners. Dr. Carter erected at the same time a similar building
on the west side.
The effect of the decision given in the Court of Common Pleas, was to
restore the authority of the Foundation Statutes of January 1326. Under
these Statutes only an actual Fellow could be chosen Provost, and the
election must be unanimous. On Dr. Carter’s death, Mr. Walter Hodges
was chosen by a majority of votes only, but he was confirmed by the
Lord Chancellor, Lord King, upon whom, under these circumstances, the
election had devolved. Henceforward, the Fellows agreed to make the
formal election unanimous in every case, and no further instance of a
disputed election occurred.
The history of the College during the remainder of the eighteenth
century was quiet, decorous and uneventful. Its undergraduate members
were drawn from all classes, but always included many young men of rank
and family. Some of these showed their affection for the College in
after life by benefactions more or less important. Henry, fourth Duke
of Beaufort, founded four exhibitions for the counties of Gloucester,
Monmouth and Glamorgan. Mrs. Ludwell, a sister of Dr. Carter, gave an
estate in Kent for the support of two exhibitioners from that county.
Edward, Lord Leigh, who died in 1786, bequeathed to the College
the entire collection of books in his house at Stoneleigh. For the
reception of this bequest, the new Library was built in the following
year at the north end of the College garden.
Of the few eminent names connected with the College in the last
century, that of Bishop Butler is the greatest. He entered Oriel in
1715, and his early rise in his profession was in a great measure due
to the acquaintance he there made with Charles Talbot, afterwards Lord
Chancellor, who recommended him to the patronage of his father, the
Bishop of Durham, also an old member of the College. William Hawkins,
elected Fellow in 1700, was an eminent lawyer, whose treatise of the
Pleas of the Crown still keeps its place as a standard legal work.
William Gerrard Hamilton, admitted in 1745, is still remembered as an
early patron of Burke, and for his speech in the great debate in Nov.
1755, by which he gained his nickname. Gilbert White, of Selborne,
among all the Fellows of Oriel of this period, has left the most
lasting name. Yet his College history is in curious contrast to the
reputation which is popularly attached to him. Instead of being, as
is often supposed, the model clergyman, residing on his cure, and
interested in all the concerns of the parish in which his duty lay,
he was, from a College point of view, a rich, sinecure, pluralist
non-resident. He held his Fellowship for fifty years, 1743-1793, during
which period he was out of residence except for the year 1752-3, when
the Proctorship fell to the College turn, and he came up to claim it.
In 1757 he similarly asserted his right to take and hold with his
Fellowship the small College living of Moreton Pinkney, Northants,
with the avowed intention of not residing. Even at that time the
conscience of the College was shocked at this proposal, and the claim
was only reluctantly admitted. White continued to enjoy the emoluments
of his Fellowship and of his College living, while he resided on his
patrimonial estate at Selborne; and although it was much doubted
whether his fortune did not exceed the amount which was allowed by the
Statutes, he acted on the maxim that anything can be held by a man who
can hold his tongue, and he continued to enjoy his Fellowship and his
living till his death.
It was not till near the close of the century that the College took
the decisive step which at once lifted it above its old level of
respectable mediocrity, and gave it the first place in Oxford. As has
been already shown, the election to Fellowships was singularly free
from restriction; for most of them there was no limitation of birth,
locality, or kindred; and no class of junior members had any title to
succession or preference. When in 1795 Edward Copleston was invited
from Corpus to stand for the vacant Fellowship, the first precedent
was set for making the Oriel Fellowship the highest prize of an Oxford
career. The old habit of giving weight to personal recommendations was
not at once immediately laid aside. Even when Thomas Arnold was elected
in 1815, it was still necessary for the Fellows to be lectured against
allowing themselves to be prejudiced by the reports in Oxford that
the candidate was a forward and conceited young man. But the better
principle had the victory: the last election in which the older motives
were allowed to prevail was in 1798, and from that time the College
continued year after year to renew itself without fear or favour out of
the most brilliant and promising of the younger students.
It was the head of Oriel, Provost Eveleigh, who, backed by the growing
reputation of his College, induced the Hebdomadal Board to institute
the new system of examination for honours. Under this system Oriel
soon took and long retained the first place. It was an Oriel Fellow
who, as Headmaster of the Grammar School at Rugby, succeeded, as was
foretold of him, in changing the whole face of Public School Education
in this country. It was another Fellow who brought about that religious
movement which has worked a still greater change in the Church of
England.
_List of Provosts._
1326. Adam de Brome: first Provost under Charter of 21 Jan.
1325-6: died 16 June 1332.
1332. William de Leverton: instituted 27 June 1332: died 21
Nov. 1348.
1348. William de Hawkesworth: election confirmed 20 Dec. 1348:
died 8 April 1349.
1349. William de Daventre: elected 1349: died June 1373.
1373. John de Colyntre: elected 8 July 1373: died c. 1385.
1385. [Headship in dispute between Thomas Kirkton and John de
Middleton.]
1387. John de Middleton: confirmed 26 Feb. 1386-7: died 27 June
1394.
1394. John de Maldon: elected 3 July 1394: died Jan. 1401-2.
1402. [Headship in dispute between John Paxton and John
Possell.]
1402. John Possell: died Sept. 1414.
1414. [John Rote: elected and confirmed 17 Nov. 1414, but
resigned his claim 14 Feb. 1414-15.]
1415. William Corffe: confirmed 16 March 1414-15: died about
Sept. 1417.
1417. [Headship in dispute between Richard Garsdale and Thomas
Leyntwardyn.]
1419. Thomas Leyntwardyn: died 1421.
1421. Henry Kayle: confirmed 3 Dec. 1421: died 1422.
1422. [Headship in dispute between Nicholas Herry and another.]
1426. Nicholas Herry: first decision in his favour given 30 July
1424: final decision given 29 Jan. 1425-6: died 1427.
1427. John Carpenter: resigned 1435.
1435. Walter Lyhert: elected 3 June 1435: resigned 28 Feb.
1445-6.
1446. John Hals: elected 24 March 1445-6: resigned 4 March
1448-9.
1449. Henry Sampson: resigned 1475.
1475. Thomas Hawkyns: elected Nov. 1475: died Feb. 1477-8.
1478. John Taylor: elected 8 Feb. 1477-8: died 23 Dec. 1492.
1493. Thomas Cornysh: elected 5 Feb. 1492-3: resigned 26 Oct.
1507.
1507. Edmund Wylsford: elected 30 Oct. 1507: died 3 Oct. 1516.
1516. James More: elected 14 Oct. 1516: resigned 12 Nov. 1530.
1530. Thomas Ware: elected 16 Nov. 1530: resigned 6 Dec. 1538.
1538. Henry Mynne: elected 6 Dec. 1538: died 13 Oct. 1540.
1540. William Haynes: elected 18 Oct. 1540: resigned 17 June
1550.
1550. John Smyth: elected 17 June 1550: resigned 2 March 1564-5.
1565. Roger Marbeck: elected 9 March 1564-5: resigned 24 June
1566.
1566. John Belly: elected 25 June 1566: resigned 3 Feb. 1573-4.
1574. Antony Blencowe: elected 10 Feb. 1573-4: died 25 Jan.
1617-18.
1618. William Lewis: elected 28 March 1618: resigned 29 June
1621.
1621. John Tolson: elected 5 July 1621: died 16 Dec. 1644.
1644. John Saunders: elected 19 Dec. 1644: died 20 March 1652-3.
1653. Robert Say: elected 23 March 1652-3: died 24 Nov. 1691.
1691. George Royse: elected 1 Dec. 1691: died 23 April 1708.
1708. George Carter: elected 6 May 1708: died 30 Sept. 1727.
1727. Walter Hodges: elected 24 Oct. 1727: died 14 Jan. 1757.
1757. Chardin Musgrave: elected 27 Jan. 1757: died 29 Jan. 1768.
1768. John Clarke: elected 12 Feb. 1768: died 21 Nov. 1781.
1781. John Eveleigh: elected 5 Dec. 1781: died 10 Dec. 1814.
1814. Edward Copleston: elected 22 Dec. 1814: resigned 29 Jan.
1828.
1828. Edward Hawkins: elected 31 Jan. 1828: died 18 Nov. 1882.
1882. David Binning Monro: elected 20 Dec. 1882.
VI.
QUEEN’S COLLEGE.
BY J. R. MAGRATH, D.D., PROVOST OF QUEEN’S.