Cambridge Papers. W. W. Rouse Ball
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medieval colleges were founded for poor students. That is not universally true. No condition of poverty was imposed on the scholars of King’s Hall, nor was their life here penurious: they had a dining-hall, library, common room, chapel, kitchens, a brewery, a vineyard, a garden, and a staff of servants maintained by the Society, while a good many of them also kept their own private servants: they received a liberal allowance for daily commons, clothes and bedding were supplied from the royal wardrobe, and pocket-money was given to buy other things. They were appointed by the crown largely from among the families of court officials, nominations being restricted to those who knew Latin. After completing their course many of these students entered what we may call the higher civil service of the time in church or state.
In the report of the commissioners, the annual income of King’s Hall was returned as £214. 0s. 3d. and the expenses as £263. 16s. 7d.; and it was stated that at the time there were on its boards, a master, twenty-five graduate fellows, and seven [11] undergraduate fellows, besides servants. The Society owned the patronage of the livings of Arrington, Bottisham, St. Mary’s Cambridge, Chesterton, Fakenham, Felmersham, and Grendon. According to the return, the normal annual expenditure of King’s Hall, if all the scholars resided, required £182. 18s. 4d. for the emoluments of the warden and fellows (namely, £8. 13s. 4d. for the warden, £5. 10s. 0d. for each of twenty-five graduate fellows, and £5. 5s. 0d. for each of seven undergraduate fellows); £32. 2s. 0d. for the college servants (namely, the butler, barber, baker, brewer, laundress, cook, under-cook, and the warden’s servant); £3. 1s. 4d. for the estate officers and quit-rents; £3. 19s. 4d. for the expenses of the chapel services and the bible-clerk; £5. 0s. 0d. for firing for the hall and kitchen; £5. 0s. 0d. for rushes for the hall; £5. 10s. 4d. for the exequies of the founder and the following refections; £29. 1s. 4d. for repairs and renewals; and £10 for extraordinary expenses.
The other College (Michael-House) whose buildings were transferred to Trinity was of a different type. It was founded by Hervey de Stanton in 1324 for a master and six secular clergy who wished to study in the University. Their original home was a large house on the site of the present combination room and the land round it; later they acquired all the property between Foul Lane and the river. At first the Society’s means were barely [12] sufficient for its needs, but in time it received many gifts, and the foundation was increased to a master and eight priests with chaplains and bible-clerks. It had an oratory in its House but did not need a chapel as it owned St. Michael’s Church; traces of this ownership will be noticed in the arrangement for stalls (to be occupied by members of the Society) in the choir, which is sunk below the level of the nave and chancel.
In the report of the commissioners, the annual income of Michael-House was returned as £141. 13s. 1¾d. and its expenses as £143. 18s. 0d.; and it was stated that there were on its boards a master, eight fellows, and three chaplains, besides servants. Besides St. Michael’s Cambridge, the Society owned the patronage of the livings of Barrington, Boxworth, Cheadle, Grundisburgh, and Orwell. According to the return, the normal annual expenditure of Michael-House required a sum of £91. 10s. 8d. for the emoluments of the Society (namely, £7. 6s. 8d. for the master, £47. 17s. 4d. for the six fellows on the original foundation, £11. 6s. 8d. for the two Illegh fellows, £15 for three chaplains, one of whom served Barrington, and £10 for four bible-clerks), £1 for the auditor, £6. 6s. 8d. for college servants (namely, the cook, butler, barber, and laundress), rather more than £17 for the exequies of benefactors, £1. 13s. 4d. for the commemoration [13] refection, £20 for repairs, and £6. 6s. 8d. for extraordinary expenses. A clerical society like Michael-House had no difficulty in providing for due celebration of the exequies of its friends, and in fact more than twenty benefactors are mentioned by name as being thus commemorated every year. In 1544, the House, presumably with the object of averting its destruction, began to admit students resident elsewhere in the University, and in a couple of years no less than forty-eight students matriculated from it; the number of admissions must have exceeded this, but what was involved in such cases by admission is uncertain.
A scheme containing a “first plott or proportion” for the new College was prepared for the king by the Court of Augmentations in London; it seems certain that this was worked out in collaboration with Redman. The clerk who drew it up was Thomas Ansill. The College, after its foundation, recognized its obligation to him in the matter and presented him to the vicarage of Barford which was and is in its gift. He preserved a copy of his scheme; this was purchased from his son by one of the fellows in 1611, and given to the College.
The manuscript of the suggested scheme, to which Mr. Bird first called my attention, is endorsed Distribucio Collegii and headed “the proporcon diuised for Trinite College.” It is undated, [14] but in a later hand it is added that it was made Anno 37 Hen. 8, and therefore before 22 April 1546. From internal evidence it must have been composed in or after March in that year, since those who graduated in that Lent term are described as being of the standing of the degrees then taken. Of those who graduated afterwards some are described correctly, others not so: doubtless Redman knew about the standing of the members of King’s Hall and Michael-House, but he may well have made mistakes about the standing of some of the junior students of other colleges. If however we accept the endorsement as correct, we may fix the date of the composition of the plan as being in the early half of April, 1546. This manuscript has not been printed, and I proceed to describe it.
The object of the compilers of this scheme was to see what income would be required for the suggested new College, and to arrange how the income should be used; incidentally it reveals the general organization proposed. The constitution of the College, the various offices to be created, and the stipends intended are specified. In most cases the names of the proposed fellows, scholars, bedesmen, and servants are given, but generally the allocation of the proposed principal offices is not indicated and probably had not been then arranged. The names of the proposed fellows and scholars [15] agree with those appointed later, though the order is not always the same, but the provisional list of bedesmen differs from that of those ultimately nominated.
The Distribucio begins with a statement of the names and suggested stipends of the master and fellows. The stipend of the master was to be £100 a year: that of each of the next fifteen fellows (one of those proposed being a doctor of divinity, ten bachelors of divinity, and four masters of arts) was to be £10 a year and £1 a year for livery: that of each of the next twenty-five fellows (twenty-two of those nominated being masters of arts and three bachelors of arts) was to be £8 a year; that of each of the next twenty fellows and scholars (seven of the nominees being bachelors of arts and thirteen junior scholars) was to be £6. 13s. 4d. a year. The names are given and agree with those in the letters patent of 19 December.
There was to be a schoolmaster (Richard Harman) who was to have £20 a year, an usher of grammar (William Boude) who was to have £10 a year, and provision was made for forty childer grammarians, whose names are given, each of whom was to have £4 a year. This shows that it was intended that the foundation should include students in grammar, and the two teachers specially responsible for them were to be a schoolmaster and usher.
[16] The question arises whether it was intended to found a grammar-school connected with the College or whether these grammarians were what we should call undergraduate scholars or exhibitioners. The former view is the correct one, for the royal commissioners in May 1549 definitely asked11