Chapter VIII: Notanda (5)

Dr. Mansell was obliged to leave Oxford in 1643, owing to “the sad newes of his Brother S^{r} Anthony’s decease, who fell with all the circumstances of signall Piety and Vallor in the first Newbury fight; where he commanded as field-Officer under Lord Herbert of Ragland.” He had to remain in Wales to settle his brother’s affairs, and look after his orphan children for some time; but “the Garrison of Oxon being surrendered in 1646, and the Visitation upon the University coming on, in July 1647, he hastened away from Wales to his station there; and though the Earle of Pembroke (who was chiefe in the Action) owned our Principall as his near Kinsman and had a Favour to the College as the naturall Visitor thereof by Charter, and though the Earles Two younger Sons who had lived severall years Commoners in the College under our Principall’s charge, offered him their Service with all Affection possible, yet neither the Propensions of the Earle, nor the Kind offices of his Sons could bring our Principall to fframe himself to any the least evasion, much less to the direct owneing of that Power. Being ejected out of the Headship, which was not actually done by order of the Visitors till the one and twentieth day of May 1648, he Applyed himself to state all Accompts between him and the College; And having delivered the muniments and Goods that belong to it to the hands of the Intruders, he withdrew into Wales and took up his Residence att Llantrythyd, a House of his Kinsman’s, Sir John Auberey’s K^{nt} and Baronett, which house Sequestration having made desolate, while Sir John was in prison for his Adherence to the King, afforded him the Conveniency of a more private retirement and of having severall young Gentlemen of Quality, his Kindred under his eye, while they were taught and Bread up by a young man[293] of his College that he had chosen for that employment.”

Here he suffered many persecutions and indignities, “for the Doctor’s very Grave and Pious aspect, which should have been a protection to him among Salvages, was no other than a Temptation to those (who reputed themselves Saints) to Act their Insolencies upon him.” At last, driven from his retirement, he returned to Oxford, where, “when our Principall came first to Towne, he took up at Mr. Newmans,[294] a Baker in Holy-well; but the good Offices he dayly rendered to the College disposed the then Society so farr to comply with his Inclinations (which had been allway to live and dye in the College) as to invite him to accept of one Chamber for accommodating himself, where he built severall faire ones for the Benefitt of the College. This motion was accepted, and he Lived in the College, near the stoney staires near the Gate, for eight years where he had Leisure to observe many Changes and Revolutions within those Walls, as without them till that happy one of his majestie’s Restauration by God’s infinite Mercy to the College as well as to the Nation happily came on.”

He was restored to his Headship on the 1st of August 1660, but owing to “the decayes of Age, especially dimness of Sight,” he resolved to resign once more. His first wish was that Dr. William Bassett, Fellow of All Souls, should succeed him, “who would have added to the Reputation of the College by his Government, and to the Revenew of it in all Probability, by his generous minde and ample Fortune; But Dr. Bassett’s want of health not allowing him to accept of the Burthen, it was (by the Unanimous Consent of all the Fellowes at a ffree-election the first of March, 1660,[295] and with the good Liking of Our Common Father) devolved upon Dr. Jenkins.[296] This being done he had no other thought but for Heaven, nor Leasure but for Prayer; he came by degrees to be confined to his chamber and at last to his Bed and upon the first day of May 1665 he changed this Life for a better of Blisse and Immortality.”

The following items from the _Book of Receipts and Disbursements_, in Dr. Mansell’s own handwriting, are of interest as showing some of the charges to which a College was put during the Civil War--

“Other various and Extraordinary Expenses, most of them peculiar to the time.

Put uppon Domus by M^{r} _Evans_ for Bread and
Beere to the Kinges Souldiers at their
first Cominge to _Oxon_ from _Edgehill_ 01 : 02 : 6

Payd by him the Taxe layd uppon the Coll:
towards the works from the beginninge of
it to the 28^{th} of _Jan:_ ’43 03 : 16 : 6

More by him for Musquets, Pikes and the like 03 : 14 : 3

Given by him to the Prince his Trumpetters 00 : 10 : 00

Payd by Pole after 12^{d} a head every weeke
for all of the Coll. towards the fortifications
in _Xst Church_ Meade from the 17^{th}
of _June_ to the end of _July_ 02 : 11 : 00

More towards the same in _Aug._ & _Sept._ 02 : 7 : 00

For a little Peece of Plate of another man’s,
which was in my Study, and by mistake
taken out with the Coll. Plate,[297] and lent
to his Ma^{tie}, which weighed some what
more than 8 ounces 02 : 00 : 00

Pay’d uppon his Maj^{ties} Motion towards the
Maintenance of his Foote Souldiers for
one Monthe after fower Pounds by the
Weeke 16 : 00 : 00

The Totall of Receipts 95 : 2 : 5

The Totall of Disbursments 341 : 6 : 3

And so the Disbursments doe exceede the
Receipts by the Summe of 246 : 3 : 10

Which I the Principall have lay’d out of the
Coll. Money remayninge in my hands,
mine owne, or what I borrowed of others.

And I disbursed the money lent by Common
Consent to his Ma^{tie} 100 : 00 : 00”

In the interval between Dr. Mansell’s ejection in 1648 by the Parliamentary Visitors and his restoration in 1660 by Charles II.’s Commissioners, two Principals ruled the College. Of the first of these, Michael Roberts, Sir Leoline Jenkins uses the words “infamous and corrupt.” Perhaps the words are not to be taken literally; but nothing of the kind is said of his successor, Francis Howell, though he also was a Puritan. It is also on record that in 1656 the Fellows deposed Roberts on charges of embezzling the College funds and corrupt dealing in elections; and that although for the time the Parliamentary Visitors refused to endorse the action of the Fellows, he did vacate his Principalship that year or the next, presumably to avoid expulsion. Afterwards he “lived obscurely” in Oxford, dying on 3rd May, 1670, “with a girdle[298] lined with broad gold pieces about him (100£ they say),” and was buried in St. Peter’s in the East churchyard. The appointment in his place of Francis Howell, Fellow of Exeter, on 24th October, 1657, marks the ascendancy of the Independents over the Presbyterians in Puritan Oxford. The Fellows of the College had elected Seth Ward (afterwards Bishop of Salisbury), but the Independents persuaded Oliverus Protector to appoint Howell, after the fashion already set in Oxford by Elizabetha Regina, and afterwards followed by Jacobus Rex.

In the _Familiar Letters_ of James Howell are some interesting notices of Oxford and of Jesus College during the times of Mansell, Thelwall, and Jenkins. The writer, James Howell, son of Thomas Howell, minister of Abernant in Carmarthenshire, was born about 1594; and entered Jesus College, where he took his B.A. degree, in 1613. During his absence abroad in the diplomatic service he was chosen on the Foundation of his College by Sir Eubule Thelwall; but whether he was actually admitted is not recorded. Space forbids extracting from his letters the entertaining passages about Oxford; but this is the less to be regretted since the letters are found in many editions, the last being issued in 1890.

Some years after Howell had left College, viz. in 1638, Henry Vaughan, “The Silurist,” entered. In early life he does not seem to have written much; it was owing to illness and trouble that he was led to imitate and often to excel the devotional poetry of George Herbert. This is not the place to dwell upon his merits. His works have been little read, but have gradually asserted their claim to an enduring place in English literature.

Soon afterwards his twin brother, Thomas Vaughan (Eugenius Philalethes), an eminent writer, philosopher, and chemist, was educated in the College. In 1644, James Usher, Archbishop of Armagh, was resident in and a member of the College. At a still earlier period (1602), Rees Prichard was a member of the College. He was afterwards Vicar of Llandovery, and became an eminent poet. His book _Canwyll y Cymru_, is the best known and most highly valued collection of devotional and religious poetry in the Welsh language.

The above were all Anglican Churchmen and Royalists, but there was at this period some Puritanism in the College. “The growth of Puritan feeling in the city of Oxford is shown by the formation of the first Baptist Society under Vavasour Powell of Jesus College, in 1618. He made many converts in Wales, and in 1657 we hear of John Bunyan accompanying him to Oxford. Powell died at last in the Fleet Prison.”[299]

Among other distinguished members of the College during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries may be briefly mentioned Dr. John Davies (1573), a Welsh scholar and grammarian; John Ellis (1628), author of _Clavis Fidei_; Edward Lhwyd (1682), a celebrated antiquary, and keeper of the Ashmolean Museum; Henry Maurice (1664), a learned divine and Margaret Professor of Divinity; David Powel (1571), a learned divine and eminent antiquary; his son Gabriel Powel (1592), considered “a prodigy of learning”; John White, M.P. (1607), a well-known character during the Commonwealth; John Williams (1569), Margaret Professor of Divinity, Dean of Bangor, and author; Sir William Williams, a very eminent lawyer and statesman, Speaker of the House of Commons, Solicitor-and Attorney-General (1688); Owen Wood (1584), Dean of Armagh, a considerable benefactor to the College; with many Bishops, a list of whom is here given:--

_Bishops educated in Jesus College._

1. Richard Meredith Leighlin and Ferns (1589)
2. John Rider Killaloe (1612)
3. Lewis Bayley Bangor (1616)
4. Edmund Griffith Bangor (1633)
5. Morgan Owen Llandaff (1639)
6. Thomas Howell Bristol (1644)
7. Hugh Lloyd Llandaff (1660)
8. Francis Davies Llandaff (1667)
9. Humphrey Lloyd Bangor (1673)
10. William Thomas St. Davids (1677), Worcester (1683)
11. William Lloyd St. Asaph (1680), Lichfield (1698),
Worcester (1699)
12. Humphrey Humphreys Bangor (1689)
13. John Parry Ossory (1689)
14. John Lloyd St. Davids (1686)
15. John Evans Bangor (1701), Meath (1715)
16. John Wynne[300] St. Asaph (1714), Bath and Wells (1729)

_Bishops not educated in Jesus College, but who have been members of the Society._[301]

Lancelot Andrews Chichester, Ely, Winchester
Thomas Dove Peterborough.

Leoline Jenkins, who succeeded Dr. Mansell in 1661, has been well termed the second founder of the College. He almost completed the buildings, restored discipline, fostered study, augmented the revenues, and at his death left his whole estate to the College. He therefore deserves a somewhat fuller record of his life than any of his predecessors or successors. His charges as a Judge and Commissary of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and his correspondence as an Ambassador were published by William Wynne, Esq., of the Middle Temple, in 1734, in two large folio volumes; to this is prefixed a memoir from which we gather the following facts--

“He was born in the year 1625, in the parish of Llanblithian, in the county of Glamorgan, and was the son of Leoline Jenkins, or Jenkins Llewelyn, of the same place, a man of about £40 a year, and who left behind him in that neighbourhood the character of a very honest, prudent, and industrious man. The first Essays and Foundation of his son’s future Learning were laid at Cowbridge School, very near the place of his birth and even then no inconsiderable School, which, as a grateful Acknowledgement of benefits there received, he afterwards liberally endowed.

“He was admitted into Jesus College in the year 1641, not quite 16 years of age. Mr. Jenkins’ behaviour from his first appearance in College was so regular and exact that a good Opinion was soon taken of him. But the Troubles of the Nation soon after coming on, Mr. Jenkins took Arms for the Royal Cause. Thus were his tender years seasoned and exercised not only with Learning and Diligence, but also with an equal Mixture of Adversities, the best Preparatives for the succeeding Varieties of his Life. For the Society into which Mr. Jenkins had been admitted, was not only obliged to give way to Strangers, but also the College itself was dismantled, and became Part of a Garrison by Order from Court; and for some time continued to be the Quarters of the Lord Herbert afterwards Marquiss of Worcester, and of other persons of Quality, that came out of Wales on the King’s Service. The Garrison of Oxford being surrendred in the year 1646, and the Visitation of the University by the two Houses coming on in the following year, this College, among others, soon felt the fatal Effects of it, for of 16 Fellows and as many Scholars, there remained but one Fellow and one Scholar that was not ousted of their Subsistance. Mr. Jenkins retired to Wales and settled not far from Llantrythyd where Dr. Mansell was living at the House of Sir John Auberey who was an adherent of the Royal Cause. The first employment found for Mr. Jenkins was the tuition of Sir John’s eldest son. Being indicted for keeping a Seminary of Rebellion and Sedition, he was forced to leave that Countrey and removed with his Charge to Oxford in May 1651, and settled there in a Town-house belonging to Mr. Alderman White[302] in the High-street, which from him was then commonly called and known by the Name of the Little Welsh-Hall. Mr. Jenkins’s regular and orthodox Behaviour at Oxford was not quite so close and reserved, as to escape all Observation, but he began to give Offence to some of the inquisitive schismatical Members of the University and was obliged to retire from thence, with his Pupils as it were in his Arms, and go beyond Sea, for fear of Imprisonment, or of some worse Disaster. Even this was no unlucky Accident, for it helped to add to his former Acquirements the Knowledge of Men as well as Letters. It gave him an Acquaintance with some eminent and learned Men, particularly Messieurs Spanheim and Courtin; it was the Means of acquiring a great Accuracy in the French and other Languages. It appears by a little Diary that he made a Tour over a great part of France, Holland and Germany, and resided at their famous Seats of Learning, especially at Leyden. He returned to England in 1658, and was invited by Sir William Whitmore, a great Patron of the distress’d Cavaliers, to live with him at Appley in Shropshire, where he continued till the year 1660 enjoying the Opportunities of Study, and a well-furnished Library. As soon as the King was restored to his Kingdom and the University to its just rights, Mr. Jenkins returned to Jesus College, about the 35th Year of his Age, and his Reputation among his Countrymen was so considerable that upon his first Appearance and Settlement of the Society, he was chose one of the Fellows, and his Behaviour gained so fast upon them that he was very soon after, upon the Resignation of Dr. Mansell, unanimously chose Principal of the College, and thereupon commenced Doctor of the Civil Law.

“And indeed the College had never more Occasion of such a Ruler than at this Time, when the former Discipline of it had been so long interrupted by the late distracted and licentious Times, and had suffered so much by the Management of his ‘infamous and corrupt’ Predecessor.[303] Dr. Jenkins did abundantly satisfie the Hopes conceived of him; he made it his first Concern to restore the Exercises, Disputations and Habits, and to review and consider the Body of Statutes. By these prudent Methods he retrieved the Reputation and advanced the Discipline of the College. He busied himself in adding to the Buildings of the College, and completed the Library and part of the western side of the Inner Quadrangle. He was made Assessor to the Chancellor and Deputy Professor of Civil Law. He was also of singular use to the University in maintaining their Foreign Correspondences by his skill in the French and other Languages. He was also very instrumental to his Friend and Patron Archbishop Sheldon in the Settlement of his Theatre and Printing-House. He not only framed the Draught of that Grant with his own Hand, but also the Statute ‘de Vesperiis and Comitiis a B. Virginis Mariæ templo transferendis ad Theatrum,’ that the House of God might be kept free for its own proper and pious Uses.

“The University now became too narrow a Field for such an active Mind and too scanty an Employment for those high and encreasing Abilities which exerted themselves in him. He was therefore encouraged by his Friend the Archbishop to remove to London in Order to apply himself to the publick Practice of the Civil Law. So he resigned his Principality in 1673, and was succeeded by Mr. (afterwards Dr.) John Lloyd. The after career of the great Lawyer was successful and distinguished, but it does not lie within the scope of the present work, so it must be very briefly described. He rose to be Judge of the High Court of Admiralty and Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Ambassador and Plenipotentiary for the General Peace at Cologne and Nimeguen, and Secretary of State to King Charles II. He was also made a Knight, and became Member of Parliament for Hythe, one of the Cinque Ports, and afterwards Burgess for his own University. It may, however, be excusable to give the description of his last return to the College he loved so much, when his body was brought to be buried by the side of ‘his dear Friend Dr. Mansell in Jesus College Chappel.’

“The Pomp and Manner of his Reception there and of his Interment is thus described by one that was an Eyewitness. When the Corps came near the City, several Doctors, and the principal Members and Officers of the University, the Mayor, Aldermen and Citizens, some in Coaches, some on Horseback, went out to meet it and conducted it to the Publick Schools, where the Vice-Chancellor, Bishop of the Diocese and the whole Body of the University were ready to receive it and placed it in the Divinity-School, which was fitted and prepared for that Purpose, with all convenient Ornaments and Decorations. Two Days after, the Vice-Chancellor, several Bishops, Noblemen, Doctors, Proctors and Masters met there again in their Formalities, as well as many others that came to pay their last Respects to him; and the memory of the Deceased being solemnized in a Latin Oration by the University Orator, the Corps was removed to the Chappel of Jesus College. Where the Vice-Chancellor (who happened to be the Principal thereof) read the Offices of Burial; and another Latin Oration was made by one of the Fellows of the College, which was accompanied with Musick, Anthems and other Performances suitable to the occasion. After which it was interr’d in the area of the said Chappel, with a Marble Stone over his Grave and a Latin Inscription on it, supposed to be made by his old Friend Dr. Fell Lord Bishop of Oxford and Dean of Christ Church.”

Among other benefactions Sir Leoline left his valuable library to the College, only reserving forty law-books to begin the library at Doctors’ Commons in London.

His portrait, painted by Tuer, at Nimeguen, hangs in the College Hall; of this painting there are two replicas, one in the Principal’s Lodgings, the other in the Bursary, both so well executed as hardly to be distinguished from the original. He is represented sitting by the council-table in a chair[304] covered with red velvet and holding a memorial in his hand. His dress is plain, but decorated with rich lace at the neck and wrists; his hair is long and flowing; his features strongly marked and melancholy in expression.

The last Principal of the seventeenth century was Jonathan Edwards, who seems to have been an able man, and was a benefactor to the College. He contributed £1000 to the improvement and decoration of the chapel.

A long list of benefactions might be written down for the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; but space allows individual mention of one only. King Charles I. gave (1636) divers lands and tenements in trust to the University, that they with the profits of them maintain a Fellow in Jesus College (as also in Exeter and Pembroke Colleges) born in the Isle of Jersey or Guernsey. To these benefactions conditions were generally annexed, the profits to be paid to Fellows or scholars, frequently with preference for the kindred of the donor, or for natives of particular places and counties, or for certain schools in Wales.

The eighteenth century presents a great contrast in interest to its predecessor. In Jesus College it was exceptionally uneventful. The buildings of the College were complete, the north-west corner of the inner quadrangle being finished in 1713. Since then the College has not been altered in form nor enlarged. Several valuable benefactions were received, but there was none of the vigour or enthusiasm of the sixteenth century. The most considerable endowment was what is now called the Meyricke Fund, left in trust to the College by the Rev. Edmund Meyricke. Meyricke was, like the original founder of the College, treasurer of the cathedral church of St. Davids. He was one of the Ucheldre family, a branch of that of Bodorgan, in Anglesey. He declares in his Will--“as for my worldly estate, which God Almighty hath blessed me with above my merits or expectation, I dispose of in manner following: Imprimis, whereas I always intended to bestow a good part of what God should please to bless me withall for the encouragement of learning in Jesus College, in Oxford, and for the better maintenance of six of the junior scholars of the foundation of the said College out of the six counties of North Wales; I doe give devise and bequeath all my real and personal estate,” &c. The property thus left became very valuable, and a number of Exhibitions were established, strictly confined to Welshmen, with a preference for natives of North Wales. It has been questioned by some whether this fund has been beneficial to the College. There is no doubt it made a University education possible to many Welshmen who would otherwise not have thought of an Oxford Degree. These new students, drawn from the middle and lower classes in Wales, soon formed a majority of the undergraduates. It therefore became customary for the sons of Welsh gentry to resort to other Colleges in Oxford, and to some extent the old connection was broken. This was a decided loss to the social status and prestige of the College; but it is probable that the compensating gain was greater. The young squires who resorted to the University in the eighteenth century were not as a rule students, and formed an element in a College requiring much discipline and toleration. On the other hand, the students, encouraged by the new endowment, if not intellectually very distinguished, owing to lack of early advantages, generally made good use of the privileges afforded by the University, and did solid work for the Principality in after life. When the endowments of the College were strictly and by statute confined to Welshmen, it is in Wales that we must look for educational results. And it must be confessed that when we do look, we are not disappointed. In every department of civil life, but especially in the Church, we find sons of the College occupying posts of usefulness and dignity. Even for the highest posts in the Church there was no deficiency of native talent, but it was the mistaken policy of the Government under the Georges to make use of the Welsh Bishoprics as rewards for English ecclesiastics, who were ignorant of the language and characteristics of the people whom they were supposed to guide--a policy which is now admitted to have inflicted serious, and it is to be feared permanent, injury on the Church in Wales. Thus in the eighteenth century the College was debarred from furnishing occupants of the four Welsh sees, though many of her sons may be pointed out as worthy of the mitre. Soon after the mistaken policy was discontinued we have seen half the Welsh sees occupied by ex-scholars of the College.[305]

Among the distinguished men of this period may be mentioned Thomas Charles, B.A., 1779, commonly called Charles of Bala, founder of the sect of Calvinistic Methodists, and author of the _Geiriadur_, a book still much used. He was a man of great piety and learning, and did not secede, but was driven out of the Church by the injudicious treatment of his ecclesiastical superiors. His name is still a “household word” in Wales. David Richards (Dafydd Ionawr), an eminent Welsh poet, author of _Cywydd y Drindod_; Thomas Jones, 1760, a painter of considerable merit, a favourite pupil of Wilson; Evan Lloyd, 1755, a poet, and friend of Churchill, Garrick, Wilkes, &c.; Goronwy Owen, a celebrated Welsh poet and scholar, one of the great names in Welsh literature; John Walters, Master of Ruthin School, 1750; James Bandinel, the first Bampton Lecturer (1780); and William Wynne, 1704, a Welsh poet. We may also mention as a contrast to the above, who are chiefly ecclesiastics, Richard Nash, best known as “Beau Nash,” for fifty years the celebrated Master of the Ceremonies at Bath, whose smile or frown proclaimed social success or ostracism in fashionable life.

Towards the middle of the eighteenth century the College became in a peculiar degree connected with the Bodleian Library. In 1747 Humphrey Owen, Fellow and afterwards Principal, was elected Librarian. After some years he made John Price, a Fellow of the College, Janitor, and in 1758 Adam Thomas, M.A., Sub-Librarian; when Thomas quitted the Library in 1761 his place was taken by Price, John Jones becoming Janitor. In 1768, on Owen’s death, Price was made Librarian, and held office for forty-five years. From 1758 to 1788 all the Sub-Librarians in succession were members of Jesus College, and nearly all the persons who are found otherwise employed in the Library--no full or official list exists--bear Welsh names.

Dr. Johnson in one of his frequent trips to Oxford made Jesus College his head-quarters. This fact has been recently ascertained by Dr. G. Birkbeck Hill, the well-known authority on Johnson and his times, in preparing for publication the great lexicographer’s letters. His host was his “convivial friend,” Dr. Edwards the Vice-Principal of the College, the editor of Xenophon’s _Memorabilia_, who gave up his rooms to his guest. These were, probably, situated in the south-western corner of the outer Quadrangle on the first-floor. It was early in June 1782 that Johnson came into residence in the College, at a time when he was broken in health. Nevertheless, as we learn from Miss Hannah More, who was at the time the guest of the Master of Pembroke College, he did what he could to spread cheerfulness around him. The Fellows of Jesus College were to give a banquet in his honour and hers, to which “they invited Thomas Warton and all that was famous in Oxford.” Unfortunately she does not give us any account of the banquet. Doubtless it was held and the old Hall rang with the sound of Johnson’s deep voice, but not an echo has been caught. The fact of his residence is curiously confirmed by the Battel-books, which show that at the time when he was in Oxford the Battels of Dr. Edwards and other members of the College were unusually high. In fact, everybody in the College seems to have indulged in hospitality, no doubt being anxious to let his friends see the great man whose sun was now supposed to be so rapidly setting.

Perhaps the first half of the nineteenth century is remote enough from our times to warrant the mention of a few names of distinguished men who have been removed by death. Here, as in the preceding century, we must look chiefly to Wales, where we find among Welsh poets, Daniel Evans (Daniel Ddu); John Jones (Ioan Tegid), a well-known writer and editor of Welsh books; John Blackwell (Alun), one of the most pleasing and attractive of Welsh poets; Morris Williams (Nicander), well known as poet, preacher, and writer in Welsh; and last, but not least, John Richard Green, the brilliant historian. We must not omit to mention the late Principal, Charles Williams, D.D., who was well known in the University for his love of his country, his hospitable social qualities, and his acute and elegant scholarship.

In 1857 the University Commission, which made such changes in Oxford, dealt with Jesus College, but forbore from adopting the sweeping measures at one time threatened. The chief change made was that half the Fellowships were declared for the future to be open to general competition. This declaration did not excite much opposition or remark in Wales, though great indignation was expressed when more than twenty years later another Commission dealt in the same way with the scholarships. It should be remembered that the principle was sacrificed in 1857, and that the opposers of the last Commission could only advance arguments of expediency, on which Commissioners are apt to have their own opinions. Whether the change is likely to be for the good of the College and of Wales is a point much disputed, and this is not a place where it can be discussed.

We have seen that the buildings of the College have not been enlarged in extent since 1713; many structural alterations have, however, taken place. The upper story throughout the College, except on its extreme western side, consisted of attics with dormer windows, which in old pictures gives the College a picturesque appearance. The roof has, however, been raised, and in the outer quadrangle battlements surmount the walls; in the inner quadrangle gables mark the points where the dormer windows formerly existed. The dining-hall, which once had a fine open oak roof, was, in the time of Principal Hoare, fitted with a plaster ceiling, in order that the space above might form attics to increase the accommodation of the Lodgings. Since the enlargement of the Principal’s house in 1886 the accommodation is no longer needed, and it is to be hoped that the hall may soon regain its original proportions.

The chapel, which was consecrated in 1621, has been frequently altered, and at least once (in 1636) enlarged. The doorway, with its picturesque porch, bearing the scroll, “Ascendat Oratio, Descendat Gratia,” is not the original entrance. When the south wall was being re-faced some years ago, another doorway of older workmanship than the present one, was discovered. The change was probably made when the massive Jacobean screen was put up, which now separates the chapel from the ante-chapel. In 1864 the whole interior was restored. Of the success of the restoration there may be two opinions; but there is no doubt that the widening of the chancel-arch was a mistake, as it has permanently dwarfed the proportions of the building. The woodwork substituted for what existed previously, though good of its kind, presents too violent a contrast with the screen already mentioned. The east window is a painted one of some interest, though not of high artistic merit. In the ante-chapel is an excellent copy of Guido’s picture of “St. Michael triumphing over the Fallen Angel.” The original is in the Capucini Church at Rome. The picture was presented by Lord Bulkeley of Baron Hill in Anglesey.

In 1856 the whole eastern front of the College was re-faced, and a tower built. The work was carried out under the superintendence of Mr. Buckler, architect, Oxford, and is admitted to be very well done. There are, however, some who think that the old Jacobean gateway was more in harmony with the domestic architecture of the College, and more suitable to its position in a narrow street.

The library contains a considerable number of volumes which are not of great interest to the student of the present day, but is exceptionally rich in pamphlets of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and in works on Canon Law. A valuable and numerous collection of manuscripts has been removed to the Bodleian Library for safety. The best known of these is the _Llyfr Coch_, the famous Red Book of Hergest, containing a collection of Welsh legends and poetry, which is gradually being edited by Professor Rhys and Mr. Evans.

The College is not exceptionally rich in portraits, but possesses two of great merit--a portrait of Charles I. by Vandyke, and of Queen Elizabeth by F. Zucchero.

Like many other Colleges, Jesus College sacrificed its original plate, of which a goodly inventory exists, to the needs of the Royalist cause in 1641; but has since been presented with a fair collection, of which the most remarkable piece is a very large silver-gilt bowl,[306] given by Sir Watkin Williams Wynn in 1732.

Nothing has been said above of the Church patronage of the College, which is considerable, advowsons being a favourite form of bequest with the donors already mentioned, and with others. Unfortunately, few of the livings are situated in Wales. Thus many able Welshmen have been withdrawn from the service of their national Church to their own loss and that of their country.

It is to be remarked that no considerable benefaction has been given to the College during the present century. The history of Jesus College has thus been brought down to living memory, which is the limit of this work. Perhaps more space has been taken up than an existence of little over three hundred years deserves. But the College holds a unique position in Oxford as having a strong connection, notwithstanding much alienation, with a Principality which is not yet English in language or feeling. Such a connection has many advantages, and perhaps some drawbacks. It is to be hoped that the College will be left undisturbed long enough to prove that the latter are altogether outweighed by the former.

XVII.

WADHAM COLLEGE.

BY J. WELLS, M.A., FELLOW OF WADHAM.

Wadham College occupies an interesting position in the history of the University, as having been the last College founded until quite recent times, for both Pembroke and Worcester were but expansions of older foundations. Though actually dating from the reign of James I., it may be said to share with Jesus College the honour of belonging to the days of Elizabeth, as its founder and foundress were well advanced in years at the time when they carried out their long meditated plans, and both in the spirit which animates its statutes and in the architecture of its fabric, Wadham College belongs rather to the sixteenth than to the seventeenth century.

The founder of the College, Nicholas Wadham, of Merifeild, in the county of Somerset, belonged to one of the oldest and wealthiest of the untitled families of the West of England. He married Dorothy, daughter of Sir William Petre, the well known benefactor of Exeter College, but having no children, he resolved to devote his great wealth to some pious use. Antony à Wood tells us that his original intention had been to found a College at Venice for English Romanists, but that he was persuaded to change his plans; the story[307] seems doubtful, and Nicholas Wadham at all events died in the Anglican communion. All his patrimonial estates went to his three sisters, who had married into some of the chief families of the West of England; but he had for some time past been accumulating money for his new foundation; and in two conversations held with his nephew and executor, Sir John Wyndham, very shortly before his death, he had given full directions as to many points in the College. Of these two were especially notable: he desired that the Warden as well as the Fellows should be unmarried; and also that each of them should be “left free to profess what he listed, as it should please God to direct him;” he did not wish them to “live thro’ all their time like idle drones, but put themselves into the world, whereby others may grow up under them.” He also arranged that the College should be called after his own name, and that the Bishop of Bath and Wells should be perpetual Visitor.

His widow and executors set to work at once to carry out his wishes, and the present site of the College was purchased from the city of Oxford for £600. It had formerly been occupied by the Augustinian Friars, whose name survived in the old phrase for degree exercises,[308] “doing Austins,” down to the beginning of this century. The foundation stone was laid with great ceremony on July 31st, 1610, and two years later the foundress, having some time previously obtained a charter from James I., put forth her statutes (August 16th, 1612). In these her husband’s wish was carried out by the provision that Fellows should resign their posts eighteen years after they had ceased to be regent masters: this provision remained in force down to the commission of 1854. Originally the Warden was not required to be in orders, but was allowed to proceed to his Doctorate in Law or Medicine as well as in Divinity; but the foundress was persuaded to alter her arrangements on this point, and the two former alternatives were struck out.

There were to be fifteen Fellows and fifteen scholars, the former being elected from among the latter; of these three scholars were to be from Somerset, and three from Essex, while three Fellowships and three scholarships were restricted to “founder’s kin.” These were originally intended for the children and descendants of the sisters above-mentioned, but in course of time it became frequent to trace kinship with the founder through collateral branches of the Wadham family. The buildings erected by the foundress are remarkable in more ways than one. Their architect, who is supposed to have been Holt[309] of York, the architect of the New Schools, was employed at several other Colleges in Oxford, _e. g._ at Merton, Exeter, Jesus, University, and Oriel. The resemblance between the inner quadrangle at the first of these and that of Wadham is very marked. Owing to the extent of the original design and the excellence of the building material employed, Wadham has the unique honour among the Colleges of Oxford of having remained practically unaltered since it left its foundress’ hands.

Of the various parts of the building the hall and the chapel are the most remarkable; the latter in the shape of its ante-chapel is a combination of the short nave found at New College and of transepts such as are found at Merton; while in the tracery of the windows of its choir it furnishes a continual puzzle to architectural theorists; for though undoubtedly every stone of it was built at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and though the wood-work is pure Jacobean, the windows both in their tracery and in their mouldings belong to a period one hundred and fifty years earlier. In fact the chapel is exactly one of the magnificent choirs with which the churches of Somerset abound, and it is difficult to believe that the resemblance is not more than accidental; for in the building documents of the College we have clear evidence of both materials and workmen coming from the county of the founder. The cost of the whole building was £11,360.

Even before it was finished, the new Foundation received a munificent present in the shape of the library of Dr. Philip Bisse, Archdeacon of Taunton, who dying about 1612 left some two thousand books (valued at £1700?); these books are all distinguished by having their titles carefully inscribed in black letter characters on the sides of their pages, near the top, and may be not unworthily compared to the famous library, the cataloguing of which made Dominie Sampson so happy a man. The foundress made Dr. Bisse’s nephew an original Fellow of her College, though he had not yet taken a degree, “Ob singularem amorem avunculi ejus,” and also had painted the portrait of the Archdeacon in full doctor’s robes, which still adorns the library.

On April 20th, 1613, the first Warden, Robert Wright, formerly Fellow of Trinity College and Canon of Wells, was admitted at St. Mary’s, and in the afternoon of the same day he in turn admitted the Fellows and scholars nominated by the foundress. Wright, however, very shortly resigned his position, because (says Wood) he was not allowed to marry.

The foundation of the College seems to have attracted considerable attention elsewhere than in Oxford. Among the State Papers in the year 1613 is calendared (somewhat incongruously) a parody of the statutes of Gotam College, founded by Sir Thomas à Cuniculis,[310] with a license from the Emperor of Morea; and from the first the number of men matriculated was very large, and the class from which they were drawn a wealthy one. This is most clearly proved by the fact that although the College had been in existence less than thirty years when the Civil War broke out, the amount of plate surrendered by it to the King was only surpassed by one other Foundation. The College still possesses an inventory of articles given, which make up “100 lbs. of white plate and 23 lbs. of gilt plate.” As might have been expected, a large proportion of the members of the College at this period, and for long after, came from the West country; two-thirds, probably, were from Dorset, Somerset, or Devon; and this connection has happily never been entirely broken. Among these West countrymen was the famous Admiral, Robert Blake, who graduated from Wadham in 1617 at the age of twenty, and was still in residence six years later. His portrait now hangs in the hall.

During this first period of College life, down to the outbreak of the rebellion, two events deserve a passing notice. The first of these was the fierce controversy[311] waged between James Harrington, one of the original Fellows, and the rest of the Foundation, as to his right to retain his place, although he possessed an annual pension of £40 a year. There are numerous references to this in the Calendar of State Papers; and Laud, as Bishop of Bath and Wells, was put to no small trouble to decide it. In the end Harrington apologized for “having behaved himself in gesture and speeches very uncivilly”; but the quarrel only ended with the expiration of his Fellowship in 1631. Much more important was the attempt of King James, in 1618, to obtain a Fellowship for William Durham of St. Andrews, “notwithstanding anie thing in your statutes to the contrarie.” Unfortunately we know very little about this early parallel to James II.’s attempt at Magdalen; but the College clearly was successful in upholding its rights.

It is perhaps not altogether fanciful to trace the feelings of the College as to James I. in the register next year (1619), when its usual dry formality is given up, and Carew Ralegh the son of the King’s late victim, is entered as “fortissimi doctissimique equitis Gualteri Ralegh filius.”

Wadham, during this same period, completed its material fabric by receiving the gift of the large east window of the chapel from Sir John Strangways, the founder’s nephew; it was made on the premises by Bernard van Ling, and the total cost was £113 17_s._ 5_d._ (including the maker’s battels for ten months and a week--£2 17_s._ 8_d._).

The Civil War affected Wadham as it did the rest of the University. Its plate disappeared as has been said, only the Communion plate (“donum fundatricis”) being spared; its students were largely displaced to make room for the King’s supporters, among whom the Attorney-General, Sir Edward Herbert, seems to have made Wadham a kind of family residence. After the final defeat of the King, the Warden, Pytt, and the great majority of the Foundation were deprived by the Parliamentary Commissioners. But it may be fairly said that the changes made did far more good than harm to the College. The man appointed to the vacant Wardenship was the famous John Wilkins, divine, philosopher, and mathematician, who enjoyed the almost unique honour of being promoted by the Parliament, by Richard Cromwell, and by Charles II., and to whom the College owes the honour of being the cradle of the Royal Society. Evelyn records in his _Diary_ (July 13th, 1654), how “we all dined at that most obliging and universally-curious Dr. Wilkins’s, at Wadham Coll.”--and speaks of the wonderful contrivances and curiosities, scientific and mechanical, which he saw there. Round Wilkins gathered the society of learned men who had previously begun to meet in London, and who were afterwards incorporated as the Royal Society. The historian of that famous body, Dr. Sprat, afterwards Bishop of Rochester and himself a member of the Foundation of Wadham College, records[312] how “the first meetings were made in Dr. Wilkins his lodgings, in Wadham College, which was then the place of resort for virtuous and learned men,” and that from their meetings came the great advantage, that “there was a race of young men provided against the next age, whose minds receiving their first impressions of sober and generous knowledge were invincibly armed against all the encroachments of enthusiasm.” The traditional place of these meetings is the great room over the gateway, though this is more than doubtful. Of the original members, there belonged to Wadham College, besides Wilkins--Richard Napier, Seth Ward, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, the famous mathematician; and last but not least, that “prodigious young scholar, Mr. Christopher Wren,” who after being a Fellow Commoner at Wadham College, was elected Fellow of All Souls, and who showed his affection for his original College by the present of the College clock and a beautiful sugar-castor, of which the latter is still in daily use, while the face, at any rate, of the former remains in its old place. The works of the clock are preserved in the ante-chapel as a curiosity.

Warden Wilkins had for two hundred years the distinction of being the only married Warden of Wadham. His wife was a sister of the Lord Protector, with whom he had great influence, which he used for the benefit of the University as a whole, and of individual Royalists. Anthony Wood seems mistaken in saying that Wilkins owed his dispensation to marry to his connection with Cromwell. The original MS. in the possession of the College bears date January 20th, 1652 (four years before Wilkins actually married), and comes from the Visitors of the University of Oxford. Of both Wren and Wilkins there are portraits in the Hall.

The most distinguished undergraduates of this period were John, Lord Lovelace, who took a prominent part in the Revolution (a fine portrait of him by Laroon hangs in the College hall), William Lloyd, afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph, and one of the famous “Seven Bishops,” and the notorious Mr. Charles Sedley, a donor of plate to the College, all of whom matriculated in 1655. An even better known member of Wadham was John Wilmot, the wicked Earl of Rochester, who matriculated in 1659, immediately after Warden Wilkins had been promoted to the Mastership of Trinity College, Cambridge; but as he proceeded to his M.A. in September 1661, being then well under fourteen, he probably did not give much trouble to the disciplinary authorities. John Mayow too, the distinguished physician and chemist, who became scholar in 1659, continued the scientific traditions of the College.

Wilkins and three of his four successors all became Bishops; of these the most famous was Ironside, who, as Vice-Chancellor in 1688, ventured to oppose James II. in his arbitrary proceedings against Magdalen. The fall of James saved Ironside, who was made Bishop of Bristol (and afterwards of Hereford) by William III., and was succeeded by Warden Dunster, the object of Thomas Hearne’s hatred and contempt. He accuses him[313] of being “one of the violentest Whigs and most rascally Low Churchmen” of the time, and of various other defects, physical and moral, which may perhaps be conjectured to be in Hearne’s mind convertible terms with the above.

Wadham as a whole during this period was strongly Whig and Low Church; not improbably this was due to its close connection with the West country, where the suppression of Monmouth’s rebellion had taught men to hate the Stuarts; but whatever the reason, the fact is undoubted. Probably there is no other College hall in England which boasts of portraits both of the “Glorious Deliverer” and of George I.

As might be expected, Hearne’s account of the College is extremely black. He dwells on the blasphemies[314] for which a certain Mr. Bear of Wadham was refused his degree; and even the distinguished scholar, Dr. Hody, the Regius Professor of Greek and Archdeacon of Oxford, is continually attacked by him, though he admits “he was very useful.”[315] Hody, both in his life and by his will, showed himself a loyal son of his College. Dying at the early age of forty-six, he bequeathed the reversion of his property to Wadham, for the encouragement of Hebrew and Greek studies; and the ten exhibitions he founded (now made into four scholarships) have been especially successful in developing the study of the former language. A far greater scholar than Hody belongs in part to Wadham at the same period. In 1687 Richard Bentley was incorporated M.A. of Oxford from St. John’s College, Cambridge, and put his name on the books of Wadham. He was in Oxford as tutor to the son of Bishop Stillingfleet.

Almost to the same period belong the buildings erected on the south side of the College (No. IX. staircase), which were begun in 1693, and finished next year; it was intended to build a similar block on the north side, beyond the Warden’s lodgings, as is shown in some old prints, but this was never carried out. I am unable to assign a date to No. X. staircase. It certainly belonged to the College before the final purchase of the staircase next the King’s Arms (No. XI.), which was made early in the present century: there exists a drawing of it in a much earlier style of architecture than the present, or than that of No. IX.

The only other person worthy of special mention connected with the College at this period, was Arthur Onslow, Speaker of the House of Commons throughout the reign of George II., who matriculated in 1708; his affection for Wadham is illustrated by the splendid service-books presented by him to the chapel, while two excellent portraits show the pride which the College felt in him.

The fifty years which follow the promotion of Warden Baker to the see of Norwich in 1727 were an undistinguished period in the history of Wadham, as in that of the University generally. Of the four Wardens, only one, Lisle, became a bishop, and there is reason to think the College was in a bad state; very few of its members rose to distinction, though James Harris of Salisbury, the author of _Hermes_[316] (whose portrait by Reynolds hangs in the hall), Creech, the translator of Lucretius, and Kennicott, the Hebrew scholar, might be mentioned.

But in Warden Wills, who was appointed in 1783, the College found its most liberal benefactor since the death of the foundress. It was in his time that the present beautiful garden was laid out on the site of the old formal walks, with a mound in the centre, which appear in the prints of the last century. It has been conjectured with some probability that “Capability” Brown had a hand in the laying out of the garden as it now is. Whoever was the gardener, it may be confidently asserted that a finer result was never produced in so small a space. Warden Wills in another way increased the beauty of the College, by buying for the use of the Warden the lease of a large piece of land to the north of the College property; of this the College afterwards bought the freehold from Merton, and it was incorporated with the Warden’s garden.