William Longforth was Fellow and President of St. John’s College, and Vicar of Ospringe in Kent from September 1527. He also appears to have held positions as Vicar of St. James’s Church, Isle of Grain, Kent, between 1528 and 1530, and Vicar of St. Mary’s Church in Gillingham, Kent, from 1530. Prior to his ordination, Longforth was a student at Cambridge, graduating B.A. 1514-15; MA 1518. He died sometime in or during the years soon after 1530.
Alan Percy was the second Master of the College. He was Prebendary of Dunnington in York Cathedral to which he was admitted 1 May 1513. He was admitted Master of St John's 29 July 1516, at the formal opening of the College, though he seems to have been perfoming the duties for about a month before that date. He vacated his Prebend at York in 1517 and Robert Shorton, his predecessor as Master of St John's, succeeded him there, 1 November 1517.
Percy had been appointed Rector of St Anne with St Agnes in the City of London by the Abbot and Convent of Westminster, and was instituted 6 May 1515. He resigned both his Rectory and his Mastership in 1518. The pension assigned to him by the College (£10/year) was a liberal one at the time, for the stipend of the Master was only £12. However, Percy did not claim the pension long as King Henry VIII in 1520 gave him an estate in Middlesex, whereupon, he surrendered his claim upon College revenues.
George Day was the third son of Richard Day of Newport, Shropshire and Agnes Osborne. In 1521, he graduated BA from St John's and in 1522 he was elected to the Fellowship. He became first Linacre professor of medicine in 1525, and then college praelector in Greek. In 1528 he became public orator of the university.
He was ordained deacon at Lincoln on 7 March 1528 and became John Fisher's chaplain. As orator he wrote the university's decree in support of the royal supremacy and despite his connections with Fisher as appointed royal chaplain. He was appointed master of the College 27 July 1537 (with some royal support) and 5 June 1538 he was made provost of King's College, Cambridge.
On 15 April 1543 he was nominated as bishop of Chichester, Day resigned all his benefices, but kept the provostship of King's by royal dispensation.
Day survived Henry VIII's reign, with a spell in prison during Edward VI's and was released from prison with Mary's accession on 4 August 1553. He was popular with the Queen and preached at the funeral of Edward VI. He became Mary's almoner and preached at her coronoation.
He died in London 2 August 1556 and was buried in Chichester Cathedral.
Ashton was a member of Lady Margaret Beaufort’s household and served as her receiver-general from around 1502, before rising to the position of comptroller from late 1508. He began an MA at Oxford in 1507, but was quickly granted permission to transfer to Cambridge in order to study canon law. Among his various subsequent appointments, Ashton served as canon and prebendary of St. Stephen’s, Westminster from 1509; Archdeacon of Winchester, 1511-1519; Archdeacon of Cornwall from 1515; Rector of Grasmere to 1511; and Archdeacon of York from 1516.
Ashton was an early fellow of and benefactor to St. John’s College. His tomb and effigy were transferred from their chantry in the old College chapel to the new chapel in 1868 and are still visible in the north transept today.
Thomas Thirlby (or Thirleby; c. 1506–1570), was the first and only bishop of Westminster (1540–50), and afterwards successively bishop of Norwich (1550–54) and bishop of Ely (1554–59). While he acquiesced in the Henrician schism, with its rejection in principle of the Roman papacy, he remained otherwise loyal to the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church during the English Reformation.
For more information see: https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/thomas-thirlby
Ken North first came to College in 1923 as a chorister. He remained a member of the Choir until 1926. He worked at Eaden Lilley's grocery department until he was appointed Kitchen Clerk in October 1935.
Edward Leigh, Cambridge (Photographer)
Edward Leigh was born in 1913 and died in 1998. Edward Leigh was one of the few professional photographers to obtain a prestigious Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society as well as a Fellowship of the professional photographer's own body, then entitled the Institute of British Photographers.His photographic career spanned over 50 years. Before the Second World War he worked as a fashion photographer and a stills cameraman for Fox Film Studios, later 20th Century Fox. During the war his printing skills were employed by RAF Oakington to process aerial recognizance photographs which were assembled into the mosaic maps used by Bomber Command.
Following the war Leigh open his own studio on Kings Parade in Cambridge. He did a great deal of work for the Colleges and the University. Leigh was also recognised as a skilled architectural and industrial photographer. In the 1960s, Leigh also worked as a 'stringer' for the Times Newspaper providing photographs for local news stories.
When he retired in 1983, his son John Edward Leigh continued the business until 1985 when the studio closed.
For more information see: http://www.fadingimages.uk/photoLe.asp
Photography studio opened by Hazel Carter in 1984 at Cobble Yard, Napier St., Cambridge. By 1990 the studio had moved to 37 Highfields Ave., Cambridge. Hazel Carter's father, John Carter, was also a photographer who worked between 1950 and 1983.
W. Eaden Lilley & Co. was a portrait studio on Market St., Cambridge. In 1990, Lilley had a studio at Mercers Row Cambridge and Green St, Cambridge. The company is still in business, now part of Lafayette Photography (https://www.lafayettephotography.com/) specialists in academic photography.
Eaden Lilley was department store based in Cambridge, tracing its history back to a haberdasher's shop in 1760. The photographic department undertook portraiture and other commercial photography. (For more information see: http://www.fadingimages.uk/photoLe.asp and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eaden_Lilley)
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.
William Bill was Master of St John's (1546/7 to 1551), Vice-Chancellor of the University (1548) and twice Master of Trinity College (1551-1553, 1558-1561), Provost of Eton College (1558-1561) and Dean of Westminster (1560-1561).
Bill was born in Ashwell, Hertfordshire and had two brothers and two sisters. His brother, Thomas became physician to Henry VIII. William was educated at St John's and was elected a Fellow in 1534. He received his B.D. 1544-1546.
George Bullock was an English Roman Catholic theologian. He studied at Cambridge and had become a College fellow by 1538. He was one of the appellants who challenged the governance of John Taylor. Although many of his fellow appellants left the College, Bullock remained. Uncomfortable with the protestant leanings of Edward VI, Bullock fled to the Netherlands. Bulllock returned to England after Mary's accession to the throne. He returned to Cambridge and took a degree of BTh in 1554 and on 12 May was elected Master of St John's.
He became Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity in 1556 and graduated Doctor of Divinity in 1557. He was appointed vicar of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate in 1556, and later the same year rector of Great Munden. On the accession of Elizabeth I he was deprived of all his positions, when he refused to take the Oath of Supremacy.
Bullock once again left for the continent and travelled to Paris where he was invited to take refuge in the monastery at Ninove in the Netherlands. He remained at Ninove for eight years before moving to Antwerp where he printed Oeconomia methodica concordantiarum scripturae sacrae.
Bullock died in 1572 a few months after the publication of his book.
Nicholas Shepherd, college head, matriculated as a sizar from St John's College, Cambridge, in 1549, and was admitted a scholar there on the foundation of Sir Marmaduke Constable on 4 July. He graduated BA in 1553 and was elected a fellow on the foundation of William Fell on 25 March, but was ejected in 1554. Shepherd graduated MA in 1559, and was reinstated as a fellow in 1559–60. On 15 January 1561 he was elected a senior fellow. He served as junior bursar of the college in 1561–2, and on 4 July 1562 was elected a fellow of Trinity College. At Trinity Shepherd held office as junior dean (1562–3), senior bursar (1562–4), and vice-master (1564–9). He was university preacher in 1561 and 1566, and graduated BTh in 1568.
On 17 December 1569, Shepherd was elected Master of St John's. Shepherd vacated the the Mastership in 1574. He held the prebendary of Peterborough from 1560 and of Lincoln from 1572, retaining both of these posts along with the rectory of Houghham, Lincolnshire until his death in July 1587.
For more information see The Eagle, 29 (1907-08) pp. 29-33 and The Eagle, 31 (1909-10) pp. 281-316.
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.
Richard Howland was admitted as a pensioner at Christ's College on 18 March 1558 but migrated to SJC. He graduated B.A. in 1561. He was elected to the felllowship of Peterhouse in 1562 and proceeded to M.A. in 1564. In 1569, he was presented to the rectory of Stathern, Leicestershire by the Master and fellows of Peterhouse. He was appointed Master of Magdalene College by Lord Burghley in 1576. Howland was tipped to replace John Whitgift as master of Trinity upon Whitgift's resignation but the crown had already selected John Still to replace Whitgift. Howland was chosen to take Still's place as the head of St John's.
He was admitted Master 20 July 1577, finding a college full of religious dissensions but with new statutes. The choice of a successor threatened to involve the college in a fierce internal struggle and it was arranged that Howland should continue to hold the mastership with his bishopric (Peterborough); he resigned in February 1586.
Henry VII, born Henry Tudor, was King of England from August 1485 to April 1509. He was the only son of Lady Margaret Beaufort and Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond, born at Pembroke Castle in Wales in 1457.
Henry never met his father, who died several months prior to Henry’s birth. Henry and his newly-widowed mother, thirteen years old at the time, were therefore initially protected by Henry’s uncle, Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke. In 1561, guardianship of Lady Margaret and Henry passed to William Herbert, who assumed the Earldom of Pembroke after Jasper’s exile abroad. Henry lived in the Herbert household until Herbert’s death in 1469.
When Edward IV of England regained control of the crown in 1471, Henry was one of a number of Lancastrians who fled to Brittany. Henry’s main claim to the English crown and challenge to the Yorkist king was through Lady Margaret, who was the great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. During most of the next fourteen years, Henry was protected by Francis II, Duke of Brittany. By 1483, he held the strongest claim to sovereignty on the Lancastrian side.
In August 1485, Henry finally defeated the incumbent Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth in order to become King of England. His coronation was held in Westminster Abbey on 30 October 1485. When Henry married Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, in early 1486, he not only reinforced his existing claim to the English throne, but also brought an end to the long-standing conflict known as the Wars of the Roses, fought between the two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet.
Henry’s reign of almost twenty-four years was characterised by relative stability and fiscal prudence. He was father to four children by Elizabeth: Arthur, Margaret, Henry and Mary. In April 1509, Henry died of tuberculosis at Richmond Palace. He is buried alongside his wife, Elizabeth, in a specially-commissioned chapel at Westminster Abbey.
Chamberer and companion to Lady Margaret Beaufort.
Likely to be Edward Stanhope, born at Rampton in or around the early 1470s, son of Sir Thomas Stanhope, and a member of the prominent Nottinghamshire Stanhope family. Edward fought both at the Battle of Stoke in 1487 and at the Battle of Blackheath in 1497, whereupon he was knighted for his valour. He served as Sheriff of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire; Steward of Wakefield; and Constable of Sandale Castle, West Yorkshire. He was married first to Avelina Clifton, daughter of Sir Gervas Clifton, and second, to Elizabeth Bourchier, daughter of Foulk Bourchier, Lord Fitz-Waren.
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.
Daughter of John Flygh, yeoman of the wardrobe to Henry VII. Alice was married to Edmund Stanhope, son of Henry Stanhope.