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St John's Hospital originated as a small building erected towards the end of the 12th century by Hugh Eldcorn, with the agreement of the town of Cambridge and on land probably donated by Henry Frost, burgess of Cambridge, as a shelter for the poor. It was granted an oratory and burial ground, as well as income from the church of Horningsea, by the Bishop of Ely, and the bishops of Ely were recognised as its patron. The right to appoint the Master of the Hospital was contentious. Various grants of rights and privileges, as well as small grants of land, in the first decade of the 13th century, indicate that it was formally established then. In 1228, Pope Gregory IX took it into papal protection. In 1250, Pope Innocent IV confirmed the rule drawn up for the brethren by the Bishop of Ely. In c 1266 it was damaged by fire and by rioters rebelling against the King. In 1280 the Bishop of Ely obtained letters patent establishing scholars in the Hospital alongside the brethren, with the scholars living according to the statutes of Merton College, Oxford. The arrangement was unsuccessful and the two communities separated in 1284, with the scholars leaving and being given a share of the Hospital's endowments. These included St Peter's Church (now Little St Mary's), which was a significant loss for the brethren, and hostels which formed the basis of Peterhouse College, founded in 1284. The Hospital continued to be supported by the townspeople and to acquire small amounts of land and property throughout the 14th and 15th centuries, ownership of which was transferred to St John's College when the Hospital was dissolved in 1511.

The Charity Commission regulates and registers charities in England and Wales. It produces guidance for trustees on how they should meet their legal duties and responsibilities.
There were several attempts at charitable trust reform and legislation during the 1840s, all of which foundered on the powerful opposition of the Church, the courts, the companies, and the universities. In 1849 a special commission was set up by royal warrant and recommended the establishment of a permanent board of charity commissioners. A bill introduced in 1851 was unsuccessful, but following a change of government in 1852 a less comprehensive measure was introduced which resulted in the establishment of a permanent Charity Commission in October 1853.
Unlike earlier commissions, the Board of Charity Commissioners for England and Wales, constituted under the Charitable Trusts Act 1853, was a permanent body. Under this Act the commissioners were empowered to inquire into the management of charitable trusts, although certain specified charities were excepted (e.g. those of universities, churches, friendly societies, etc). The Board was enabled to appoint officers of the Charity Commission as official trustees of charitable funds, subject to Treasury approval. The Board's secretary was designated a corporation sole for the purpose of holding charitable lands and given the title of Treasurer of Public Charities (changed in 1855 to Official Trustee of Charity Lands).
The commissioners' powers were strengthened by the Charitable Trusts Amendment Act 1855 which required charitable trusts to render annual accounts of their endowments. Further strengthening resulted from the Charitable Trusts Act 1860 which enabled the commissioners to exercise certain powers regarding the removal and appointment of trustees, the vesting of property and the establishment of schemes for the administration of charitable trusts. The jurisdiction of the commissioners did not, however, extend to cases of a contentious character or those that might be dealt with more appropriately by the court. There was also a right of appeal to the court from their proposals. Section 60 of the 1853 Act provided for annual reports to the sovereign, to be laid before Parliament.
The powers of the commissioners, whereby they interpreted the administration of charities as closely as possible to the testator's intentions, were held by the Schools Inquiry Commission (1864 - 1867) to stand in the way of the methodical reorganisation of the grammar schools. Their recommendations resulted in the Endowed Schools Act 1869, which allowed obsolete endowments to be diverted to educational purposes and transferred the administrative control of educational charities to an Endowed Schools Commission. In 1874, however, control of such charities returned to the Charity Commission when the Endowed Schools Commission was abolished under the Endowed Schools Act 1874. Both sets of commissioners had to have the consent of the Committee of Council on Education to any scheme made by them. Subsequently, the powers of the Charity Commission in respect of endowments held solely for educational purposes passed by Order in Council to the Board of Education under the Board of Education Act 1899. These powers passed, in turn, to the Ministry of Education under the Education Act 1944 and were extended to quasi-educational trusts by the Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1948.
In 1950 the Prime Minister appointed a committee under the chairmanship of Lord Nathan, to consider and report on the law and practice relating to charitable trusts. The committee's report in 1952 was broadly accepted by the government and formed the basis of the Charities Act 1960. The records of the Charity Commission from 1853 to 1960 are available to view in the National Archives.
The Commission is currently part of the civil service and is an independent, non-ministerial government department, accountable to Parliament. It runs an online register of charities, which provides full information – including financial – about all registered charities. This includes deciding whether organisations are charitable and should be registered. We also remove charities that are not considered to be charitable, no longer exist or do not operate. Charities with an income of more than £5,000 need to register. Charities with less income still need to abide by charity law (under the Charities Act 2011) and in almost all cases, the Commission still acts as regulator.
The Commission investigates accusations of wrongdoing. The vast majority of errors are simple mistakes, and help and advice from the Commission to trustees is enough to rectify things. However, in some rare cases, a statutory inquiry is necessary to find out what has gone wrong and how it can be fixed.
If a serious problem is uncovered, the Commission has powers to restrict transactions a charity may enter into; appoint additional trustees; ‘freeze’ a charity’s bank account; suspend or remove a trustee; appoint an interim manager or make a referral for investigation to the police and other law enforcement agencies.
The Charity Commission works across four sites in Liverpool, London, Newport and Taunton, employing approximately 350 people. The Commission also ensures charities meet their legal requirements, including providing information on their activities each year. It makes appropriate information about each registered charity widely available to the public and it provides guidance to help charities run as effectively as possible.

The Thames Conservancy was founded in 1857 by the passing of the Thames Conservancy Act. It was eventually responsible for the management of the whole of the River Thames from its source in Cricklade, Gloucestershire to the Thames Estuary where the river becomes tidal.
It originally comprised a board of 12 members: the Lord Mayor, two aldermen, four nominees of the common council, the Deputy Master of Trinity House, two nominees of the Lord Admiral, one nominee of the Privy Council and one by the Trinity House Deptford Strand.
The Corporation of London had administered the lower river from Staines to the estuary for 660 years, but in the 1850's, a financial crisis arose. Income fell as railways became established and took over the transport of many goods. The river was becoming heavily polluted from the increase in industry, and the wash from the modern steamboats was eroding the banks of the river. The corporation was failing to raise enough income to properly fund its responsibilities. In 1857 the Corporation of London handed over the management of the river from Staines to the estuary to the newly formed Thames Conservancy.
The Thames Commission was also in financial difficulties due to the competition of transport by rail. It was believed that under single management with the upper river maintained properly and with lower tolls overall the traffic would increase. Under an Act of 6 August 1866, the Thames Conservancy took over management of the river, resulting in responsibility for the whole of the river Thames from its source to the estuary at Yantlet Creek.
The Conservancy had far-reaching powers concerning the navigation of the river. It undertook dredging; built and maintained locks and weirs; was responsible for water supplies taken from the river; and licensed various activities undertaken on the river. The Thames Conservancy was largely responsible for many of the facets of the Thames that are still in place today - full-time lock keepers, river patrols, well-maintained locks, weirs, and cottages, dredged channels, stabilised banks and public moorings.
They were influential in passing the Thames Preservation Act in 1885 which was to enshrine the preservation of river for public recreation. It prohibited shooting on the river which had become a cause of concern. The act noted "It is lawful for all persons for pleasure or profit to travel or to loiter upon any and every part or the river". The river had become exceedingly popular for sport and leisure and events on the river were very well-attended with prominent examples being the Henley Regatta and the Oxford Cambridge Boat Race.
By the end of the 19th century the advance in the size of ships and the growth of the Port of London raised questions of management and a Royal Commission reported in 1900 recommending that a single body take responsibility for the Port. In 1908, the Port of London Act transferred responsibility for the Tideway including Richmond Lock to the Port of London Authority, which began its duties on 31 March 1909.
In the 1960s modernisation of the locks began under the Conservancy with the first hydraulic system introduced at Shiplake Lock in 1961.
On 1 April 1974, the Thames Conservancy was subsumed into the new Thames Water Authority, although much of the organisation remained intact as the authority's Thames Conservancy Division. However when Thames Water was privatised in 1990 the river management functions passed to the new National Rivers Authority and in 1996 to the Environment Agency.

SJC Matric. 1697; B.A. 1700-1; M.A. 1710. Third Master at Shrewsbury School, 1702-1715; and Master 1715-1728.

Taylor served as bursar then proctor of Queens' College, Cambridge from 1523 to 1537, and master of St John's College, Cambridge from 1538 to 1546. He was rector of St Peter upon Cornhill, London, of Tatenhill, Staffordshire, Dean of Lincoln Cathedral, a Reformer and Commissioner for the first Prayer Book.
His government of SJC was not felicitous and he was involved in continual disputes with the fellows. These occasioned a visitation by the bishop of Ely in May 1543, and subsequently the formation of a new code of statutes for the government of the College. In 1546, Taylor resigned his mastership of the College.
He died at the home of his friend in Buckinghamshire in 1554.

Born 24 May 1840 in Westminster, Charles Taylor was the son of William and Catherine Taylor. After losing his father aged 5, Taylor moved to live in Hampstead. He was educated at St Marylebone and All Souls Grammar School, London (in union with King's College), and afterwards at King's College itself. He won prizes at both of these schools, and it was at King's College that he began his lifelong friendship with Ingram Bywater (later Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford).

Taylor entered St John's College in October 1858, where initially he devoted most of his attention to mathematics. In 1860 he was elected to one of the new foundation scholarships, and in 1862 he obtained his BA as 9th Wrangler and was also placed in the second class of the classical tripos. In 1863, he obtained a First in the theological exam, and in 1864 he won the Crosse scholarship and the first Tyrwhitt scholarship. He was elected to a fellowship in 1864; obtaining his MA in 1865, the Kaye Prize in 1867, and his DD in 1881. Taylor also had interests in the Church, and was ordained deacon in 1866, priest in 1867, and was Curate of St Andrew the Great 1887-8. He was also Select Preacher at Cambridge 1887, 1893, and 1899, and 1873 he was appointed as College Lecturer in Theology; a position from which he soon made his mark as a Hebrew scholar.

In 1877-8, Taylor took an active part in the revision of the statutes of the College, and in 1879 he was chosen as one of three commissioners to represent the College in conferring with the University Commission. Before these new statutes could come into force, the College Master, W. H. Bateson, died, and Taylor was elected as his successor on 12 April 1881. From November 1880 Taylor was a member of the Council of the University. He represented the university at the 250th anniversary of the founding of Harvard, where he received an honorary degree on 8 November 1886. He served in the office of Vice-Chancellor of the university 1887-9, and in 1889 he was one of two university aldermen who were chosen as members of the borough of Cambridge; an office he retained until 1895. He made important donations to both the University Library and to St John's College (including the Lady Margaret Boat Club), and published many works from 1863 onwards. He was also President of the University Theological Society 1902-3, and of the Philological Society 1900-1.

As a student at St John's, Taylor was fond of sculling and rowed in the college boat races from 1863-6. He was always a great walker, and proved to be an energetic mountaineer during the period 1870-8; writing for the Alpine Journal in 1872, and being a member of the Alpine Club from 1873 until his death. In October 1907, Taylor married Margaret Sophia (1877-1962), daughter of the Hon. Conrad Adderly Dillon, but he then died suddenly less than a year later on 12 August 1908 whilst on a foreign tour at the Goldner Adler, Nuremberg. After a funeral service in St John's College, his body was buried in St Giles's cemetery, Cambridge, on the 17th. A stained-glass window was placed in the College Chapel by his widow to commemorate him.

Born c. 1778 in Barton, Whittingham, Northumberland, Ralph Tatham was the eldest son of Rev. Ralph Tatham (BA 1776). He was baptised there on 6 November 1778, and was educated at Durham School before being admitted as pensioner to St John's. He matriculated Michaelmas Term 1796, and was then admitted as Scholar. He graduated as 12th Wrangler in 1800, and achieved his MA 1803, BD 1811, and DD (per Lit. Reg.) 1839. Both his brothers, Thomas Tatham (BA 1806) and William Tatham (BA 1810) also attended St John's College. Ralph Tatham became a Fellow of the College in 1802; was a tutor 1814-30; was President 1827-39; and on the death of James Wood he was unanimously elected Master in May 1839, a position he held until his death in 1857. He was also Junior Proctor 1809-10, and Public Orator for the University of Cambridge 1809-36. For the years 1839-40, and 1845-6 he also served the office of University Vice-Chancellor.

He also had interests in the Church, and was first ordained Deacon by the Bishop of Rochester on 8 July 1804, followed by Priest on 30 September that same year. He was Curate of Longstowe with Croxton, Cambridgeshire, in 1807, and Chaplain of Horningsea in 1809. In 1816 he was instituted Rector of St Mary Colkirk with Stibbard, Norfolk, and he held this position until his death. He died on 19 January 1857, at St John's Lodge, aged 79, and was buried beside his brother, Thomas Tatham, in the old Ante-chapel. The slab covering his grave can be seen on the site of the old Chapel.

Joseph Robson Tanner was born on the 28th July 1860, the son of Joseph Tanner, who headed a printing firm in Somerset. He was educated at Mill Hill School, before coming up to St John’s in 1879. There, he placed in the First Class of the Historical Tripos, and was both Treasurer and President of the Union Society. Tanner became a Fellow of the College in 1886; from there, he also held posts as College Lecturer in History (1883-1912), Director of Historical Studies (1905-1920), Assistant Tutor (1895-1900), Tutor (1900-1912) and Tutorial Bursar (1900-1921). He was also a member of the Council of the Senate, the Press Syndicate, and edited the Historical Register of the University of Cambridge.
Tanner continued to write frequently after his post-war retirement from College services, producing and editing works such as the Cambridge Medieval History, Samuel Pepys and the Royal Navy, and English Constitutional Conflicts of the Seventeenth Century.
Tanner was married in 1888, to Charlotte Maria Larkman. He died on the 16th January 1931, and his funeral was held in the College Chapel the following week.

Obituary in the Eagle: Vol. 46, Easter 1931, p. 184

Lady Elizabeth Talbot was a daughter of John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, and Lady Margaret Beauchamp. She was married to John de Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk.

A family photography firm, founded in Glasgow by Thomas Annan (1829-1887) in 1855.
Originally from Dairsie in Fife and after an apprenticeship as a lithographic writer, Thomas Annan took up employment in 1849 with Joseph Swan, owner of a lithographic printworks in Glasgow. He then set up business with a trainee chemist called Berwich in 1855 as photographers with a colotype studio at 86 Woodlands Road. Berwick soon left to pursue a medical career and in 1857 he set up business on his own at 116 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow.
Originally specialists in architectural photography, a lot of his business at that time came from photographing country houses and mansions around Glasgow, and also from photographing paintings whilst at the houses. He also created carte-de-visite portraits and produced scenic and stereoscopic views, but he became best known for his artistic portraits and landscapes.
By 1859, Thomas Annan was based at 200 Hope Street and had a printworks in the town of Hamilton, east of Glasgow. During the 1860’s he began to specialise in creating photographic reproductions of paintings, the skill for which he would be most celebrated during his lifetime. His first notable commission in this area was in 1862 for the Glasgow Art Union. The next came in 1865, from David Octavius Hill, when Annan photographed his enormous painting of the founding of the Free Church. Annan produced thousands of prints of the painting using the new permanent carbon process developed by his mentor Joseph Swan, for which he purchased the patent rights for Scotland a year later. On Hill's death in 1870, Thomas inherited many early calotype negatives from the studio, from which he made and exhibited carbon prints.
At this time Thomas Annan lived next door to David Livingstone and took a well known portrait of him. He also took a series of images documenting the new Glasgow Water Work Scheme including a view of Queen Victoria at the Official opening. In 1868, Annan undertook what is now his most famous work. He was commissioned by the Glasgow City Improvement Trust to document the slum dwellings of Glasgow's East End prior to demolition. This is claimed to be one of the first times photography was used as documentary evidence. Annan used the most sensitive technique available, the wet collodion process, to cope with the lack of light in the narrow streets. It was an inconvenient process and photographs required immediate development and fixing, necessitating the use of a portable darkroom. Thus, three years were required to take 35 photographs. Two editions of 'The Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow' were published in Annan's lifetime, in 1872 and 1877.
Thomas Annan's brother Robert joined the firm in 1869 to assist with administration, and in 1873, the studio moved to 153 Sauchiehall Street, where it also served as an art gallery. The Gallery side of the firm flourished in the late 1800s when a major new painting would be borrowed from an artist or collector, it then became a great social occasion to view this piece in a dimly lit room then purchase a photogravure print of it. During the 1880s, the firm established an autotype works in Lenzie and also an engraving works in South Lambeth, London. In 1881, the Annan firm employed eight men, seventeen women and four boys.
In 1887, at the age of 57, Thomas took his own life. Upon Thomas Annan’s death his elder son, John (1863-1947), took over the business which became 'Annan and Sons' in 1888. John specialised in architectural photography, and is thought to have been responsible for the firm's engineering photographs. Annan’s younger son James Craig (1864-1946) had set up a photo-engraving business with Donald Swan in London in 1885, but upon his father's death returned to Glasgow to become a partner in the family business.
Like his father, James created new prints from Adamson and Hill's original calotypes, this time employing the new technique of photogravure which he had learned alongside his father from its inventor Karl Klíc in Vienna. He printed etchings and engravings by Scottish artist Muirhead Bone among others, and photographed the leading figures in the Glasgow Style movement. James became friendly with the famous Glasgow Architect, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and took the definitive portrait of him with his distinctive "floppy bow tie" as well as many contemporary images of his works.
The Annans took numerous photographs of Glasgow streets and buildings; were official photographers to the Glasgow International Exhibitions of 1888, 1901, and 1911; and in 1889, were awarded a Royal Warrant from Queen Victoria as 'Photographers and Photographic Engravers to her Majesty in Glasgow'.
James began to do more personal work from around 1890. He was one of the first to use a hand-held camera and he would manipulate the plates before printing, achieving very different prints from the same plate. He travelled in Europe with Scottish artist David Young Cameron, an etcher, and their joint exhibition in 1892, where some works portrayed the same subject, invited comparisons between the two media.
In the early 1890s, James was admitted to Glasgow Art Club as a 'photographic artist' and to the Linked Ring Brotherhood, a society formed to promote photography as fine art.
From the mid-1890s, James became an influential, international figure with exhibitions and one-man shows across Europe and the USA, and his photography and writing was widely reproduced in journals. It was through his correspondence with James from 1895 onwards that the American photographer Alfred Stieglitz became interested in the early Scottish pioneers of photography, introducing them to the American public and photographers worldwide via his journal Camera Work. James convened the photographic committee for the 1901 Glasgow International Exhibition, and two years later, buoyed by the financial success of the Exhibition, the firm commissioned Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh to design new premises at 518 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow.
The gallery side of the firm gradually evolved into selling paintings and etchings rather than photographic prints of them. Many famous artists exhibited in Annan's over the years including a show by L.S. Lowry in 1946. In 2006, Douglas Annan, the fifth generation of the family, left the business to concentrate on the photographic archive, and the Annan Gallery in 164 Woodlands Road now bears no family connection.

Simon Swaffield is a Professor of Landscape Architecture. He was admitted to St. John’s College, Cambridge in 1971, graduating in Geography in 1976. He is married to Jenny Moore.
Following experience as a landscape architect and landscape planner in the UK, Swaffield travelled with his wife to New Zealand in 1982 in response to a lecturing position advertised at Lincoln College. They stayed and became New Zealand citizens. He went on to become the programme leader, the foundation head of department, and then in 1988 Swaffield became New Zealand’s first Professor of Landscape Architecture at Lincoln University, eventually retiring in 2018.
He serves on several editorial boards of international landscape journals. He also has an affiliate role at the University of Copenhagen and he’s engaged in a number of writing projects with colleagues in New Zealand and internationally.
Swaffield’s research combines insights into the theoretical foundations of landscape architecture with analysis of landscape values, dynamics and governance in NZ production and urban landscapes. His work involves collaborations and comparative studies in both North America and Europe. Over the years his major focus has been helping landscape architecture develop from a scholarly profession into a full university discipline, and it is now an important part of Lincoln’s academic profile. In 2007 he received the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture award for outstanding research and communication. In 2010 he was a Velux Visiting Professor at the University of Copenhagen.
He continues to make a major contribution to research into landscape change and the globalisation of local landscapes. He has co-authored and had published a number of books on theory, research, and analysis, which have contributed to landscape education well beyond New Zealand. Swaffield’s publications include: ‘Theory in Landscape Architecture’ (2002); ‘Globalisation and Agricultural Landscapes’ (2010); ‘Landscape Architecture Research’, (2011) and ‘Landscape Analysis’ (2017). He was also the founding editor of the journal ‘Landscape Review’.

John Still was born 1543 at Grantham, Lincolnshire. After finishing his schooling at The King's School, Grantham he became a student at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a BA in 1562, MA in 1565, and DD degree in 1575. In 1561 he became a fellow of his college and took holy orders.

He was appointed in 1570 Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity, subsequently held livings in Suffolk (where he was Archdeacon of Sudbury from 1576 to 1593) and Yorkshire, and was master successively of St John's College (1574) and of Trinity College (1577). Still was vice-chancellor of the university in 1575/6 and again in 1592/3, and was raised to the bishopric of Bath and Wells in 1593. In 1604 he purchased the manor of Hutton, Somerset, east of Wells and to the west of the Mendip Hills, with its residence of Hutton Court. He died on 26 February 1608, leaving a large fortune from lead mines discovered in the Mendips. There is a fine monument to Still in the north transept of Wells Cathedral, erected by his son Nathaniel.

Hugh M. Stewart matriculated in 1947. He was the cox of the Lady Margaret crew at Henley Regatta when they beat the Thames Rowing Club in the Thames Club Cup and set a course record. The same year Lady Margaret broke the course record for all events at Henley during a Ladies' plate race. Races features include Fairburn Cup, Henley Royal Regatta and Marlow Regatta, as well as some mixed crew races.

A family photographic firm based in Cambridge. Thomas and Eliza Louise Stearn advertised their photography studio located in 72 Bridge St., Cambridge in 1867. They had 10 children, one of their sons, Frank became a photographic assistant in his parents' studio. For more information see http://www.fadingimages.uk/photoSte.asp.

Lord Stanley was an English nobleman and the third husband of Lady Margaret Beaufort. He married Lady Margaret in 1472, following the death of his first wife, Eleanor Neville, daughter of Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury.

A powerful magnate and politician, Stanley inherited a number of significant estates and offices, including the suzerain title King of Mann, by which he assumed certain authoritative powers and control over the Isle of Man. He was made 1st Earl of Derby by his stepson, Henry VII of England, in 1485, and also served as Lord High Constable of England (1483-1504) and High Steward of the Duchy of Lancaster.

Over the course of his life, Stanley advanced his influence both within the English royal court and in the north-west of England, where he held vast estates in Cheshire and Lancashire. He died at Lathom in Lancashire in 1504.

Likely to be Henry Stanhope, son of Sir John Stanhope (1412-1493) and Elizabeth Talbot. Henry Stanhope married Joan Rochford of Stoke Rochford around 1476. Their son, Edmund Stanhope, was buried in the chapel at Houghton.