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Authority record

Thames Conservancy Office

  • GB-1859-SJCA-CI246
  • Corporate body
  • 1857-1974

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.

Tithe Commission

  • GB-1859-SJCA-CI248
  • Corporate body
  • 1836-1960

The Tithe Commission was established in 1836 under the Tithe Commutation Act. It was set up in order to establish exactly what tithes were due in each area of the country and to whom, and to formalise the commutation of tithes from payment in kind to cash payments.
Tithes were payments made from early times for the support of the parish church and its clergy. Originally these payments were made in kind (crops, wool, milk, young stock, etc.) and usually represented a tenth (tithe) of the yearly production of cultivation or stock rearing. The tithes were often stored in a tithe barn attached to the parish.
The ownership of the tithe was a property right that could be bought and sold, leased or mortgaged, or assigned to others. This resulted in many of the rectorial tithes passing into lay hands - particularly after the dissolution of the monasteries. These tithes then became the personal property of the new owners.
From early times money payments had begun to be substituted for payments in kind. Fixed sums (moduses) were substituted for some categories of production, particularly for livestock and perishable produce; while adjustable payments known as compositions, which were sometimes assessed annually, were increasingly being substituted in local arrangements in latter years.
Tithe commutation was the process by which the payment in kind was substituted for a cash payment. By the time of the Tithe Commutation Act there was considerable discontent over payment of tithes. The Tithe Commutation Act of 1836 was designed to ensure that commutation was achieved smoothly and quickly throughout the country. It required tithes in kind to be converted to more convenient monetary payments called tithe rentcharge. There had been an increasing demand for the Commutation of Tithe during the 18th century (some reformers campaigned for the abolition of tithe) and in 1836 the government of the day successfully steered the Tithe Commutation Bill through Parliament. The Act received the Royal Assent on 13 August 1836.
The Act substituted a variable monetary payment (referred to as the "corn rent") for any existing tithe in kind. This payment was originally calculated on the basis of seven-year average prices of wheat, barley, and oats, with each type of grain contributing an equal part to the total. Prices were determined nationally. Some land was free of tithe obligation, due to barrenness, custom, or prior arrangement.
The 1836 Act set up the Tithe Commission which was established to identify all affected properties and to resolve boundary issues arising from their survey. It was headed by three commissioners sitting in London who were William Balmire (chairman), Thomas Wentworth Buller and the Rev. Richard Jones. Valuation of current tithes could be negotiated by the parties; in the absence of an agreement, they were determined by the commission.
The first tasks of the Commissioners were to find out where commutation had already taken place, and also to establish the boundaries of every unit in which tithes were paid separately. This unit was mapped and named as a tithe district to distinguish it from a parish or township. Enquiries were directed to every parish or township listed in the census returns. The results of these enquiries are found in the Tithe Files at The National Archives. Tithe districts are usually parishes, but a minority are townships, and some are chapelries, hamlets, or extra-parochial places, many of which enjoyed separate status solely for tithe commutation purposes. Areas in which tithes had already been commuted were not mapped, so that coverage varied widely from county to county. The maps indicated parcels of land and buildings, assigning each a number. The initial intent was to produce maps of the highest possible quality, but the expense (incurred by the landowners) led to the provision that the accuracy of the maps would be testified by the seal of the commissioners, and only maps of suitable quality would be so sealed. In the end, about one-sixth of the maps had seals.
There were two distinct stages to the commutation process, first, the fixing of a global assessment for the tithe district and second, the apportioning of the tithe rent-charge on the individual properties.
The apportionment was recorded on a map and in a written schedule. These maps and schedules together constitute what is usually termed by historians ‘the parish tithe survey’. The essential purpose of a survey was to provide an accurate measurement of the acreage of each parcel of land, or tithe area, and record its observed state of cultivation. Associated with each map was an apportionment schedule, which listed each map item by number. For each entry the owner, tenant, area, name or description, state of cultivation, rent charge payable, and the tithe owner was listed. A preamble gave the name of the tithe owner, the circumstances under which tithes were owed, and whether the apportionment was agreed by the parties or was being imposed by the Crown. Assistant tithe commissioners travelled to all the non-commuted tithe districts to hold meetings with parishioners about valuations, and to settle the terms of the commutation of their tithes.
The surveying was carried out expeditiously, with the majority of the work performed by 1841, and largely completed by 1851. In some cases, amendments had to be filed when properties were divided or other circumstances intervened. The work was also complicated by numerous inconsistencies in how tithes were assessed. For example, timber might or might not include standing trees, branches, acorns, mast, and even charcoal. Variations as to the circumstances of tithe-paying were also considerable. The terms of the commutation were formalized in a document called a tithe agreement, if all parties concurred, or a tithe award, if the assistant commissioner had to arbitrate in a dispute. The agreement or award formed the basis of the tithe apportionment, which was the legal document setting out landowners’ individual liabilities. Each apportionment was accompanied by a map; both were signed by the Tithe Commissioners. Tithe rentcharge then became payable.
The Tithe Act provided for the making of an original and 2 copies of every confirmed instrument of apportionment; all were sealed and signed by the Commissioners. The originals were retained in the custody of the Commissioners and are now in a complete set in The National Archives. The other two copies were deposited one with the Diocesan Registrar and the other with the incumbent and churchwardens of the parish. Some of these copies remain in the parish churches but many are now deposited in the local record offices. Most record offices also have photocopies of the maps and schedules for their district.
This commutation process reduced problems by effectively folding tithes in with rents. Rent charges in lieu of abolished English tithes paid by landowners were converted by a public outlay of money under the Tithe Act 1936 into annuities paid to the state through the Tithe Redemption Commission. The Commission ceased to exist when such payments were transferred in 1960 to the Board of Inland Revenue, and those remaining were terminated by the Finance Act in 1977.

Watt, George Fiddes

  • GB-1859-SJCA-PN252
  • Person
  • 1873-1960

George Fiddes Watt was a portrait painter and engraver. He was born in Aberdeen on 15 February 1873, the only son and the eldest of the five children of George Watt and his wife, Jean Frost. On leaving school at fourteen, he was apprenticed to a firm of lithographic printers in Aberdeen. During these next seven years he also attended evening classes at Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen.
At the age of twenty-one Watt went to Edinburgh to study in the life class of the Royal Scottish Academy. For a time he struggled to make ends meet, but through exhibiting his paintings at the academy from 1897 he soon obtained small commissions, particularly for portraits of local dignitaries such as Provost Smith of Peterhead (1901) and Provost Wallace of Tain (1908). When commissions continued to come in steadily, he began renting a large studio at 178 Cromwell Road and exhibiting at the Royal Academy and the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.
In 1903 Watt married Jean Willox, art teacher at Peterhead Academy, and youngest daughter of William Willox of Park, a farmer in the Buchan area of Aberdeenshire. They had three sons and a daughter.
He first began to attract attention with a number of portraits of women, including one of his wife which was his first exhibit at the Royal Academy in 1906. A portrait of his mother painted in 1910 was later bought out of the Chantrey bequest for the Tate Gallery in 1930.
Watt's later reputation, however, rests on his portraits of men. He was interested in strong character, expressed with vigour and freedom of handling. His most vital works probably date from before the First World War and he is seen at his best, for example, in the series of senior legal figures at the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh: Lord Salvesen (1911), Lord Kingsburgh (1912), and Lord Dundas (1916).
Watt's work is regarded as being in the Scottish tradition stemming from Henry Raeburn, with its unaffected simplicity and robust directness of handling. He was much in demand in both Scotland and England for official portraits and painted, among others, Herbert Henry Asquith and Lord Loreburn (both 1912) for Balliol College, Oxford; Cosmo Gordon Lang (1914) for All Souls, Oxford; Arthur James Balfour (1919) for Eton College; Lord Ullswater (1922) for the House of Commons; Sir Joseph Thomson (1923) for Trinity College, Cambridge and Robert Forsyth Scott (1913) for St. John’s College, Cambridge.
After 1930 he ceased exhibiting at the Royal Academy and painted less and less as his eyesight had started to fail. He had been elected an associate (1910) and a full member (1924) of the Royal Scottish Academy and his last exhibit there was in 1941.
In 1940, when the bombing of London became severe, Watt retired to Cults, near Aberdeen. In 1955 the University of Aberdeen awarded him the honorary degree of LLD and late in life he was granted a civil-list pension. His wife died in 1956 and her death was a severe blow to him. In his later years, he became a well-known figure in Aberdeen, with his Vandyke beard, wearing a deer stalking cap, and carrying a long shepherd's crook. Fiddes Watt died at his home in Aberdeen, on 22 November 1960. His work is represented in most Scottish collections, including the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, which has four paintings. A bronze statue of Watt by Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones, made in 1942, is in Aberdeen.

Whitworth, William Allen

  • GB-1859-SJCA-PN250
  • Person
  • 1840 – 1905

William Allen Whitworth was a mathematician and Church of England clergyman. He was born in Runcorn on 1 February 1840. He was the eldest son in the family of four sons and two daughters of William Whitworth and his wife, Susanna Coyne.
He was educated at Sandicroft School, Northwich from 1851-57 and then at St John's College, Cambridge, matriculating in 1858. In 1862 he graduated BA as sixteenth wrangler, he obtained his MA in 1865, and he was fellow of St. John’s College from 1867 to 1884. He was successively chief mathematics master at Portarlington School and Rossall School and professor of mathematics at Queen's College, Liverpool.
Whilst he was an undergraduate he was principal editor, along with Charles Taylor and others, of the Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin Messenger of Mathematics, which was started at Cambridge in November 1861. Whitworth remained one of the editors until 1880, and was a frequent contributor. Whitworth's best-known mathematical work, Choice and Chance, an Elementary Treatise on Permutations, Combinations and Probability (1867), developed from lectures delivered to women at Queen's College, Liverpool, in 1866. A model of clear and simple exposition, it presented a very ample collection of problems on probability and kindred subjects.
Whitworth was ordained deacon in 1865 and priest in 1866, and won high repute in his clerical career. He was the curate at St Anne's, Birkenhead (1865), and of St Luke's, Liverpool (1866–70), and perpetual curate of Christ Church, Liverpool (1870–75). He was vicar of St John the Evangelist, Hammersmith (1875–86), and from November 1886 until his death, vicar of All Saints, Marylebone. He also held a college living from 1885 in the diocese of Bangor, and was in the 1891–2 commissary of the South African diocese of Bloemfontein. Whitworth was select preacher at Cambridge five times and the Hulsean lecturer there in 1903–4. He was made a prebendary of St Paul's Cathedral in 1900. On 10 June 1885 he married Sarah Louisa Elwes. The couple had four sons, all graduates of Trinity College, Cambridge.
Whitworth, though he had been brought up an evangelical, was influenced at Cambridge by the scholarship of J. B. Lightfoot and B. F. Westcott, and he later studied the German rationalizing school of theology. He was considered to be a good and original preacher. His sympathies lay mainly with the high-church party, and in 1875 he joined the English Church Union. His ecclesiastical publications included an almanac of dates of Easter (1882), a description of All Saints Church, Margaret Street (1891); Worship in the Christian Church (1899), and two posthumous volumes of sermons (1906, 1908).
Whitworth died on 12 March 1905 at Home Hospital, Fitzroy Square, London after a serious operation on 28 February. He was buried at on 16 March in ground belonging to St Alban the Martyr, Holborn. There is a slab to his memory in the floor of All Saints Church, Margaret Street.

Selwyn, William

  • GB-1859-SJCA-PN236
  • Person
  • 1806 - 1875

William Selwyn was born on 19th February 1806. He was a Church of England clergyman, canon of Ely Cathedral, Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University, and an amateur astronomer.
Selwyn was the eldest surviving son of William Selwyn and his wife Laetitia Kynaston.
He was educated at Eton College from 1823 and St John's College, Cambridge, matriculating in 1824. In 1826 he won all the Browne medals and he was also Craven scholar. He graduated in 1828 as sixth wrangler, and also senior classic and first chancellor's medallist. His subsequent degrees were MA in 1831, BD in 1850, and DD in 1864.
In March 1829 Selwyn was made a fellow of St John's, and in the same year gained the Norrisian prize. He was ordained deacon by the bishop of Ely in 1829 and priest by the bishop of Rochester in 1831. In 1831 he became the rector of Branstone, Leicestershire. He married Juliana Elizabeth Cooke in 1832.
In 1846 he became vicar of Melbourne, Cambridgeshire, in the chapter of Ely and he remained in that post until 1853. In 1833 he was made a canon residentiary of Ely, an office which he retained until his death. He was also elected to the Lady Margaret’s professorship of divinity at the University of Cambridge in 1855.
He insisted on setting apart out of his own income the yearly sum of £700 for the endowment of the Norrisian professorship and after that for furthering the study of theology in Cambridge.
In 1857 he was appointed Ramsden preacher and in 1859 was chaplain-in-ordinary to the queen. He served on the committee to revise the Authorized Version of the Old Testament. He was honorary joint curator of Lambeth Library from 1872, and president of the Cambridge Philosophical Society in 1867. Selwyn published letters, speeches, sermons, and works on Old Testament criticism.
One of Selwyn’s major concerns was the position of the cathedral in the church. He questioned the centralizing tendency of the ecclesiastical commission, and its emphasis upon the parish, publishing a pamphlet in 1840 entitled 'An Attempt to investigate the True Principles of Cathedral Reform'. He believed in the capability of the church to reform itself through its councils. In 1852 he was named a member of the cathedrals commission, and the report of 1854 was understood to be largely his work. He was also the moving cause of the rebuilding of his own college chapel at St. John’s, for which purpose funds had been accumulating under the bequest of a late master.
Selwyn was also a keen astronomer and whilst at Ely he established an observatory in an area of the cathedral precincts. In collaboration with John Persehouse Titterton, a local photographer, he prepared a series of photographs of the solar disc over an entire sunspot cycle from 1863 to 1874 using a six-inch achromatic lens. The prints were donated to the Royal Greenwich Observatory and Selwyn was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1866. He was also an elected Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.
In Michaelmas term 1866, when riding along the Trumpington Road, he was thrown from his horse. He never wholly recovered from the effects of the fall and died at Vine Cottage, Cambridge, on 24 April 1875. He was buried at Ely cathedral and has a monument there.

Scott, George Gilbert

  • GB-1859-SJCA-PN235
  • Person
  • 1811-1878

George Gilbert Scott was a British architect in the Victorian era, famous for his revival of an English Gothic style and for his prodigious output and work ethic. By his death in 1878 he had been involved with over 879 architectural projects.
Scott was born on 13 July 1811 in Gawcott, Buckinghamshire. He was the third son of the Revd Thomas Scott (1780–1835) and Euphemia Lynch (1785–1853).
Scott was educated first at home and then, for a year, at Latimers, near Chesham, Buckinghamshire. Scott's father recognized in his son's love of sketching medieval churches a predilection for architecture and encouraged his son in that direction.
Scott finished an architectural pupillage with James Edmeston in 1831 and then worked for the contractors Grissell and Peto, gaining practical experience. In 1832 Scott entered the office of the architect Henry Roberts (1803–1876), who was then working on the Fishmongers' Hall by London Bridge.
The sudden death of his father at the beginning of 1835 prompted Scott to set up in practice on his own. He invited William Bonython Moffatt (1812–1887) whom he had met in Edmeston's office, to assist him and between them, they secured a considerable number of commissions in the local competitions for workhouses. Scott entered into a formal partnership with Moffatt in 1838, and the firm of Scott and Moffatt built a considerable number of workhouses and asylums. They also won competitions to design Reading gaol and the Infant Orphan Asylum at Wanstead, Essex.
In 1838 Scott married his cousin Caroline Oldrid (1811–1872), with whom he had five sons. Mrs Scott soon became anxious to end her husband's partnership with Moffatt who was irresponsible, extravagant and dangerously involved in railway speculation. The partnership was eventually terminated at the end of 1846.
Scott was heavily influenced by the Gothic revivalist ideals of Cambridge Camden Society in its journal, The Ecclesiologist, and by the architect A. W. N. Pugin. This was demonstrated in his design for the martyrs' memorial at Oxford and in that for the rebuilding of the church of St Giles's, Camberwell, London and of the St Nikolaikirche in Hamburg in 1845.
Other significant churches by Scott include: All Souls', Haley Hill, Halifax, which was built in 1856–9; All Saints', Sherbourne, Warwickshire (1859–64); All Saints', Ryde, Isle of Wight (1866–82); St Mary Abbots, Kensington, London (1868–79); and St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh, begun in 1874 and completed by his son J. O. Scott. Scott also worked in universities and was responsible for the chapels at Exeter College, Oxford (1854–60), King’s College, London (1861-2) and St John's College, Cambridge (1862–9).
Scott was appointed architect for the Foreign Office in November 1858 but Scott's new Gothic design was rejected. He was forced, after a long drawn out negotiations and disagreements to produce an Italian classical design with a picturesque front facing St James's Park. The new design was accepted by parliament in July 1861 and the work was completed in 1874.
Scott was able to use the horizontally composed secular Gothic manner he had originally proposed for the Foreign Office in his winning design of 1865–6 for the Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras Station. Other important secular works carried out during the decade included the Albert Institute in Dundee, Leeds Infirmary, and new buildings for the University of Glasgow and the University of Bombay.
Scott was chosen to design the Albert monument in Hyde Park. By uniting sculpture and architecture and by combining marble, stone, bronze, enamel, and metal, Scott succeeded in realizing the widest ideals of the Gothic revival. Upon completion of the monument in 1872, Scott was knighted by Queen Victoria —styling himself Sir Gilbert Scott.
Much of Scott's practice consisted of the restoration of old churches, both medieval and of later date. Scott's first restoration was of Chesterfield church, which was soon followed by that of St Mary's, Stafford. Scott's first cathedral restoration was Ely, where he was appointed surveyor in 1847. Others soon followed, and eventually Scott was involved with almost every medieval cathedral in England and Wales, whether advising on restoration or designing new furnishings. In 1849 he succeeded Edward Blore as surveyor to Westminster Abbey. He published the results of his enthusiastic researches in 1861 in 'Gleanings from Westminster Abbey' which he edited.
Scott wrote a number of books including 'Plea for the Faithful Restoration of our Ancient Churches', published in 1850 and 'Personal and Professional Recollections' which was one of the first autobiographies of an architect to be published. In 1857 Scott published his 'Remarks on Secular and Domestic Architecture, Present and Future', which argued that a Gothic Renaissance need could encompass modern improvements such as plate glass and cast iron.
In addition to his books, Scott wrote lengthy reports on the ancient cathedrals and churches he was invited to restore as well as numerous published letters, articles, and lectures. From 1857 until 1873 he gave lectures at the Royal Academy, where he was appointed professor of architecture in 1868. Scott was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1855 and Royal Academician in 1860.
Scott fell dangerously ill in 1870 with heart disease and bronchitis, and he increasingly relied on his second son, John Oldrid to complete his work. He was still capable of fine things in such works as the Hook Memorial Church at Leeds (1876–1880) and St Mary's Homes at Godstone, Surrey (1872). Scott served as president of the RIBA from 1873 until 1876; he had been awarded the institute's royal gold medal in 1859. Sir Gilbert Scott died of heart failure on 27 March 1878 at Courtfield House. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Royal Institute of British Architects

  • GB-1859-SJCA-CI233
  • Corporate body
  • Founded 1834 -

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects and the advancement of architecture primarily in the United Kingdom. The early work of the RIBA focused on fees, practice standards and ethics for architects. The RIBA is still concerned with these areas, but its activities have widened to include training, architecture prizes, publishing and the promotion of excellence in architecture. It is also lobbies the British government on architectural issues. It does not receive any government funding but relies on its members, sponsors and on charitable trading operations to fund its work.
Originally named the Institute of British Architects in London, it was founded in 1834 by several prominent architects. The Royal Charter for the institute was granted in 1837 by the Privy Council during the reign of King William IV. After the grant of the royal charter the name was altered to Royal Institute of British Architects in London, eventually dropping the reference to London in 1892. The purpose of the Royal Institute was set out in the Royal Charter and stated as being ‘the general advancement of Architecture, and for promoting and facilitating the acquirement of the knowledge of the various arts and sciences connected therewith’.
In 1848, the Royal Gold Medal award was created. The original idea for the medal was that the medal would be a prize given for an architectural competition for the institute’s new headquarters. Though the office of Queen Victoria gave royal approval for the medal, only 11 entries were received for the competition, none of which were deemed good enough for the prize. After consultation with Prince Albert, it was decided to repurpose the medal and award it to distinguished architects for work of high merit, or for some distinguished person whose work has promoted the advancement of architecture.
In 1894, the first RIBA journal was published. It is widely regarded as the UK’s leading magazine on architecture and it is still available today in print and online.
In 1934 RIBA moved to its current purpose-built headquarters at Portland Place in central London.
In the 1960s the RIBA began to develop as a regional organisation and the Eastern Region office in Cambridge was the first to open in 1966.
In 1996, the RIBA instigated the Stirling Prize for outstanding architecture. Recognised as the most prestigious architecture award in Britain, the award has been televised since 2015.
In 2014, the RIBA opened its architectural gallery. The gallery is a public exhibition space featuring the best of British architecture. The gallery has a permanent exhibition created in conjunction with the Victoria & Albert Museum that tells the story of world architecture over 2,500 years.
The RIBA publishes its own books on architecture and buildings and it has its own bookshop. The RIBA is also a big supporter of quality training and offers a varied program of CPD courses for architects. Students studying architecture at degree level must complete courses that follow the RIBA levels 1 & 2 training and are provided at university by RIBA validated trainers.

Reyner, George Fearns

  • GB-1859-SJCA-PN231
  • Person
  • 1817-1892

Born on 12th November 1817 in Ashton under Lyne, Lancashire to William and Sarah Reyner. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and in 1835 he entered St. John’s College Cambridge. He was a 4th Wrangler in 1839 and became a Fellow of the College in 1840. He then held the position of Sadlerian Lecturer in Mathematics from 1847-57. He was Junior Dean of St. John’s from 1848-1851 and then Senior Bursar from 1857-1876.
Whilst he was Senior Bursar he was one of the people who oversaw the development of the Platt estates in Kentish Town into the general estates of the College. From 1862-1885 more than 700 house leases were granted on the estate, plus shops, a school and All Saints Church. The rents from these estates helped sustain the College through the agricultural depression.
He was also one of the team of people who agreed to the appointment of Gilbert Scott in 1862 to design and construct the new college chapel. The death of Henry Hoare in 1866 caused considerable problems for financing the chapel as Hoare had offered to pay for the chapel tower in installments over his lifetime and he died with only £2,000 paid of the £6,000 the tower was due to cost. Hoare’s son told the College that he would only pay for the tower if the College gave him the living of Staplehurst, where his family lived, to enable his brother to become rector there. The College refused, with the result that they themselves paid for the tower, keeping the Staplehurst living, which Reyner himself took up in 1876. The chapel was consecrated in 1869, coming in vastly over budget.
Reyner was criticised as Bursar by his successors as having allowed the College to engage in reckless expenditure and by inflating the College revenues by doing one-off things (such as the sale of timber from Brookfield Wood) that were not sustainable.
Reyner died in Staplehurst on 16th September 1892, having been the rector of Staplehurst parish for 16 years. He was buried in Staplehurst cemetery.

Katherine of Aragon, queen consort of King Henry VIII

  • GB-1859-SJCA-PN220
  • Person
  • 1485-1536

Katherine of Aragon was Queen Consort of England from June 1509 until May 1533 as the first wife of King Henry VIII. She was previously Princess of Wales as the wife of Henry's elder brother, Arthur.
She was born Catalina in Alcalá de Henares, Spain on 16 December 1485. She was the youngest daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon (1452–1516) and Isabella of Castile (1451–1504).
Along with her older sisters, she received an education fitting for one who was intended for marriage with foreign rulers. In addition to her acquisition of the domestic arts, Catalina's skill in Latin, and knowledge of classical and vernacular literature, brought her the admiration of the Spanish humanist Juan Luis Vives and of Erasmus of Rotterdam.
The notion of a marriage between Catalina and the heir to the English throne Prince Arthur (born 19 September 1486), seems to have originated when the princess was only two. In 1487 ambassadors were sent to England to negotiate the marriage. The negotiations were protracted and complicated by events and alliances in Europe and also by the fact that both Arthur and Catalina were children. The marriage was formalised in a treaty agreed at Medina in 1489, where it was agreed that it should be deferred until the two children came of age. A proxy marriage ceremony took place in 1499 and it was then solemnized in London in 1501. Arthur died, still aged only fifteen, on 2 April 1502.
After Arthur’s death, Katherine was quickly betrothed to Arthur's younger brother Henry (later Henry VIII) and a formal treaty to this effect was concluded in June 1503, but again it was necessary for Henry to be of a suitable age before the marriage could take place so they were not married until 1509. The first years of her marriage saw Katherine's hold on her husband, and her political influence, at their height. She was frequently pregnant but suffered a long series of miscarriages and stillbirths. In 1511 she gave birth to Prince Henry (known as the 'New Year's Prince') but he only lived for a few weeks before dying of unknown causes. In February 1516 she did have a child who lived – the princess Mary - who later became Mary I (Mary Tudor).
Katherine had already been fluent in French and Latin when she arrived in England, and she now became proficient in English. She defended the interests of Queens' College, Cambridge, and interceded with Henry to protect Lady Margaret Beaufort's benefaction to St John's College. She provided exhibitions for poor scholars and supported lectureships at both Oxford and Cambridge. She may have been involved in trying to persuade Erasmus to prolong his stay in England beyond 1514, and was habitually praised by him; he dedicated his Christiani matrimonii institutio (1526) to her.
The first moves in the procedure to annul Katherine's marriage took place in 1527. The specific problem was not merely that Henry and Katherine were related in the first degree of affinity, but that sexual relations with a brother's wife were among those specifically forbidden in the Bible (Leviticus).
On 22 June Henry demanded formal separation. Katherine contended that her marriage to Arthur had never been consummated, that her marriage to Henry was therefore valid in the sight of God and man, and, moreover, that Henry knew this. She stuck to this unalterably thereafter. The case went on for many years. Following the announcement in February 1531 that Henry was 'Supreme Head' of the English church 'as far as the law of Christ allowed', Pope Clement offered Henry a compromise to allow a trial to take place. The council saw Katherine in May 1531, but she refused any compromise and spiritedly defended both the papal supremacy and her marriage.
On 11 July 1531 Henry and Katherine saw each other for the last time. The queen and her daughter were also separated. Katherine was ordered to The More in Hertfordshire, and Mary remained at Windsor. Mother and daughter never met again.
In 1532 the death of Archbishop Warham opened the way to a settlement. On 8 May Thomas Cranmer, the new archbishop of Canterbury, summoned Katherine to his court at Dunstable but she refused to appear. On 23 May Cranmer pronounced her marriage null, finding that her marriage to Arthur had been consummated, and that no dispensation could remove an impediment resulting from divine law.
On 23 March 1534 Rome at last pronounced on Katherine's marriage, decisively in her favour, but too late to influence events in England. In May 1534 she was removed to a secure house at Kimbolton, in Huntingdonshire. She died there on 7 January 1536. Katherine was buried at Peterborough Abbey on 29 January 1536. No monument was ever erected.

Coulton, George Gordon

  • GB-1859-SJCA-PN216
  • Person
  • 1858-1947

George Gordon Coulton was was a British historian, known for numerous works on medieval history. He was born in King's Lynn on 15th October 1858 and attended Lynn Grammar School and then Felsted School. In 1877 he won a scholarship to St Catharine's College, Cambridge, but a severe case of blood poisoning meant he was awarded an aegrotat degree.
After leaving Cambridge, Coulton was briefly a master at a school in Malvern before being ordained deacon in 1883. By 1885 his beliefs led him to forsake his entry into the priesthood and he instead turned to teaching, holding a number of posts in various public schools.
In 1896 his employment at a coaching establishment in Eastbourne allowed him time to develop his medieval studies, and he became an expert on the primary sources of the period. From 1900 Coulton began to publish works on the medieval period, probably the most important being two anthologies of medieval sources: 'A Medieval Garner' (1910) and 'Social Britain from the Conquest to the Reformation' (1918).
In 1911 Coulton returned to Cambridge to become Birkbeck Lecturer in Ecclesiastical History at Trinity College, and in 1919 he was elected to a lectureship in the English faculty and to a Fellowship at St John's College. He retired from his faculty position in 1934, and devoted himself to research and writing. He published a number of important works during this period, among them 'The Medieval Village' (1925), 'Art and the Reformation' (1928), 'Inquisition and Liberty' (1938), 'Medieval Panorama' (1938), and 'Five Centuries of Religion', published in four volumes between 1923 and 1950, the last appearing posthumously. He spent the majority of the war years (1940-1944) in Canada, as a guest lecturer at the University of Toronto. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1929.
Coulton was something of a controversialist and much of his work was directed at Roman Catholic historians, whom he accused of having a flagrant disregard for historical accuracy. As an historian, Coulton was most noted for his attention to primary sources, particularly those illuminating religious, social and economic topics. For Coulton, historical truth, which he placed in those sources, accurately cited, was the cornerstone of historical study. Something of a modernist, he considered it his duty as an historian to confront those who proffered what he believed to be a less than accurate view of the past.
Coulton, though, is remembered for more than this confrontational reputation. His extensive scholarship, which extended much further than many historical works at the turn of the century, is rightly seen as important. He contributed to a widening of the range of medieval studies by his attention to social and economic issues. He was also a strong advocate for compulsory military service and an active member of the National Service League who wrote and spoke publicly on the subject. Coulton was keen to extend his learning to a much wider audience than just those in academic circles, being a fine public speaker and a clear and lucid writer.
In 1904 Coulton married Rose Dorothy Ilbert, and together they had two daughters. Coulton died on March 4th 1947.

Haggett, Peter

  • GB-1859-SJCA-PN214
  • Person
  • 1933-

Peter Haggett is a British geographer and academic, holding geographical research and teaching posts at universities around the world for sixty years. He is currently Professor Emeritus and Senior Research Fellow in Urban and Regional Geography at the School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol.
Peter Haggett was born in Pawlett, Somerset on 24th January 1933 and he was educated at Dr Morgan's Grammar School in Bridgwater. He read geography at St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, graduating with a double-first in 1954. He started teaching at University College London (1955-57) and then at Cambridge University where he was University Demonstrator in Geography (1957-62); University Lecturer in Geography (1962-66); Director of Studies for Magdalene, Pembroke, and Trinity College (1957-66) and a tutor and Fellow at Fitzwilliam College (1963-66). He then took up a teaching position at the University of Bristol in 1966 and has remained based there for the rest of his career.
A gold medallist of both the Royal Geographical Society and the American Geographical Society, he has also been awarded the Anders Retzius medal (Sweden), the Vautrid Lud prize (France) and the Lauréat d’Honneur (International Geographical Union). He holds seven honorary degrees in Law and in Science from universities on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1994 he became an honorary Fellow at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge and in 1993 he was awarded the CBE for services to geography.
Peter Haggett has researched and written on three main scientific areas. First, on the nature of geography as a discipline and its contribution to human understanding of the earth. Secondly, on quantitative methods in human geography and locational analysis. The third area has been on applying geographical ideas, especially diffusion waves, to understanding the changing geography of infectious diseases. This has been the focus of his sustained research over the last quarter-century.
He has served as a visiting scientist at both the Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, and the World Health Organisation, Geneva. He has written and edited over 20 books, covering all three of his areas of expertise. With three Cambridge colleagues, he has also established two journals reviewing developments in the field: Progress in physical geography and Progress in human geography.
In addition to his geographic interests, Professor Haggett has acted as Vice Chancellor of Bristol University. He also served as Vice President of the British Academy and as a member of the National Radiological Protection Board. For seven years he chaired the Wellcome Trust’s History of Medicine panel. He was one of the two geographers amongst the founding members of the European Academy, and he is currently the only European geographer to hold honorary foreign membership of both the American Academy of Arts and Science and the US National Academy of Sciences.
Now retired, but continuing his research actively, he lives in a small Somerset village with his wife, Brenda. They have four children and six grand-children in Australia and England.

Colinvaux, Paul Alfred

  • GB-1859-SJCA-PN212
  • Person
  • 1930-2016

Paul Colinvaux was an ecologist, zoologist and professor emeritus at Ohio State University. He was among the last generation of "explorer" scientists, exploring the Alaskan and Siberian Arctic, the Galapagos Islands, and the Amazonian jungle on a mission to discover the history of the climate.
Colinvaux was born on September 22, 1930 in St. Albans, England. He grew up in London during the Battle of Britain, studying, even as a boy, the ecology of plant regrowth in the craters left by German bombs. He attended University College School in London, where his activities included rowing in the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta.
After graduating from UCS, Colinvaux served in the British Army of the Rhine in occupied Germany as a Second Lieutenant, Royal Artillery, 42nd Regiment. After leaving the army, Colinvaux studied at Jesus College, Cambridge completing his BA in 1956 and his MA in 1960.
After graduating, he emigrated to New Brunswick, Canada, where he was employed by a government soil survey and where he met his wife, Llewellya Hillis. Hillis and Colinvaux emigrated to the United States where Colinvaux earned his Ph.D. as a paleoecologist in 1962 from Duke University.
Colinvaux extracted fossilized pollen from the bottom of ancient lakes as a tool to investigate climate conditions at the end of the last glacial maximum. The pollen buried in the mud could then be dated and used to identify pre-historic climate conditions. In a pre-Google Earth era, without benefit of GPS technology, Colinvaux explored in the old ways, quizzing tribal fishermen and local traders, interviewing bush pilots, and poring over aerial maps to identify sectors of jungle to search for tiny, unmapped lakes undisturbed by streams or human activity. His research was instrumental in laying the foundation for modern thinking and research on Amazonian species diversity. In 1966, he discovered a new species of flower in the Galapagos, which was subsequently named for him (Passiflora colinvauxii), as was the Galapagos diatom, Amphora paulii.
After completing post-doctoral studies at Yale University, Colinvaux and Hillis both took up appointments in the Department of Botany & Zoology at Ohio State University in 1964. He became Professor Emeritus in zoology there from 1964 until 1991. In 1971 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. His skill as an orator was renowned. During his years at Ohio State University, Colinvaux won every teaching prize that could then be awarded for undergraduate teaching and he was the recipient of the Ohio State University Distinguished Scholar Award in 1985. During the Vietnam-era student uprising and occupation of Ohio State in May 1970, Colinvaux addressed, impromptu, a throng of demonstrating students, using the power of his voice and words to disperse the crowd. In 1991 Colinvaux and Hillis left Ohio State University to take positions with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. They then moved to Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where they were affiliated with the Marine Biological Laboratory.
Colinvaux was the author of several books. His most famous 1979 book 'Why Big Fierce Animals are Rare' uses the second law of thermodynamics to argue that big meat-eating animals are rare because the available energy in each step in the food chain is degraded. In 1973 he authored the first undergraduate textbook in Ecology, which was used, in various editions, to educate generations of students He is also the author of 'The Fates of Nations: A Biological Theory of History' (1980) and a scientific memoir 'Amazon Expeditions: My Quest for the Ice Age Equator' (2008).
In 2013, he received a lifetime achievement award from the American Quaternary Association. He died on February 28, 2016 on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, leaving two children (Catherine and Roger) and four grandchildren.

Adrian VI, Pope

  • GB-1859-SJCA-PN206
  • Person
  • 1459-1523

Adrian Boeyens was born on March 2, 1459, in Utrecht. He was the only Dutch pope there has been, elected in 1522. He was the last non-Italian pope until the election of John Paul II in 1978. He lost his pious father, Florentius Dedel, at an early age, and was kept at school by the fortitude of his widowed mother Geertruid, first at home and then at Zwolle with the Brothers of the Common Life.
He then studied at the Catholic University of Leuven (Louvain). After a thorough course in philosophy, theology, and jurisprudence he was created Doctor of Divinity in 1491. His two chief works were Quaestiones quodlibeticae (1521), and his Commentarius in Lib. IV Sententiarum Petri Lombardi (1512), which was published without his knowledge from notes of students, and saw many editions. The great Humanist Erasmus was one of his pupils. As dean of the collegiate church of St. Peter in Louvain, and vice-chancellor of the university, he laboured to advance the arts and sciences and live a life of singular piety and severe asceticism.
In 1506 the Holy Roman emperor Maximilian I appointed Adrian tutor of his grandson Charles (the future Charles V), who afterwards entrusted him to perform many of the highest offices. Transferred from the academic shades into public life, the humble professor rose to eminence. Within a decade he became Bishop of Tortosa (1516), Grand Inquisitor of Aragon (1517) and Castile (1518), Cardinal of the Roman Church in 1517, and finally Regent of Spain.
He was elected pope on January 9, 1522, succeeding Pope Leo X and was crowned at Rome on August 31. Adrian came to the papacy in the midst of one of its greatest crises, threatened not only by Lutheranism to the north but also by the advance of the Ottoman Turks to the east. He had a difficult job before him – to clean up abuses, reform the corrupt court, calm the princes who demanded war, stem the rising tide of revolt in Germany and to defend Christendom from the Turks. He took up the tasks with great earnestness, starting with reforming the Curia, but could accomplish little in the face of opposition by the Italian cardinals, the German Protestants, and the Turkish armies. Through the reckless extravagances of his predecessor, the papal finances were in a sad state. Adrian's efforts to retrench expenses only gained for him from his needy courtiers the epithet of miser. Vested rights were quoted against his attempts to reform the curia. His nuncio to Germany, Chierigati, received but scant courtesy. His urgent appeals to the princes of Christendom to hasten to the defence of Rhodes from the Turks failed and on 24 October 1522 the city was taken.
His unrelaxing activity and Rome's unhealthy climate combined to shatter his health. He died on September 14, 1523 in Rome. He bequeathed property in the Low Countries for the foundation of a college at the University of Leuven that became known as Pope's College.

Brandon, Charles, 1st Duke of Suffolk

  • GB-1859-SJCA-PN202
  • Person
  • c. 1484-1545

Charles Brandon was a magnate, courtier, and soldier, and a member of King Henry VIII's privy council.
He was the only surviving son of Sir William Brandon (d. 1485) and his wife, Elizabeth Bruyn (d. 1494) of South Ockendon.
By about 1503 Charles Brandon waited on King Henry VII at table and became well-known for his skill at jousting. He became close to the young Prince Henry (who succeeded Henry VII as King of England), and although he was some seven years older than Henry VIII, and eventually predeceased him, he remained his lifelong intimate.
At Brandon's uncle's death in January 1510 he became marshal of the king's bench and in November 1511 he added the parallel post of marshal of the king's household. In October 1512 he became master of the horse. He was knighted on 30 March 1512, elected a knight of the Garter on 23 April 1513, created Viscount Lisle on 15 May 1513. Then, on 1 February 1514 he was named Duke of Suffolk.
As Cardinal Wolsey fell from power in 1529, Suffolk was appointed president of the king's council. But as the new regime settled down from 1530, his attendance in council and parliament was erratic, his influence limited, and his position uncomfortable. He did, however, serve on the increasingly well-defined privy council. In the household reforms of 1539 he was appointed to the great mastership of the household, an upgraded version of the lord stewardship. He led both the party which met Anne of Cleves on her arrival in 1539 and the team which negotiated with her the terms of her divorce from the king in 1540.

He had a varied military career, including leading a successful assault in the siege of Tournai (1513). He was also instrumental in suppressing the Lincolnshire Revolt and the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536. The king commanded him to move his home to Lincolnshire, and Suffolk eventually became the greatest landowner in Lincolnshire, with a dense belt of estates spread across the centre of the county.
In the 1540s he took a major part in Henry's last wars against France and Scotland, while between campaigns he sat more regularly in the privy council, as a senior statesman and military expert. In October and November 1542 he guarded the northern English border while Norfolk and others invaded Scotland. From January 1543 to March 1544 he was the king's lieutenant in the north. Based mostly at Darlington, from there he supervised regional government and border warfare and planned for a major invasion which he never had the chance to command. Nevertheless, his work laid the basis for the capture of Edinburgh by Edward Seymour, in May 1544. By then Suffolk had been called away to France, where he led the siege of Boulogne with conspicuous bravery and skill, from July to November 1544 commanding the king's ward in the huge army which eventually captured the town.
Charles Brandon was married four times. Firstly to Dame Margaret Mortimer in 1507 and her niece Anne Brown in 1508 who died in 1510. He then married in secret (later in public) Henry VIII’s sister Mary (1496–1533) who had been recently widowed by the death of Louis XII of France. Mary died on 25 June 1533 and Suffolk married again in September 1533: his fourth wife was the fourteen-year-old Katherine Willoughby, originally intended as his son's bride. His son Henry, earl of Lincoln, died on 8 March 1534.
When Charles Brandon died of unknown causes at Guildford, on 22 August 1545, the king decreed that he should be buried at St George's Chapel, Windsor. Charles Brandon left two sons, Henry Brandon (1535–1551) and Charles Brandon (1537/8–1551), successively second and third dukes of Suffolk.

Elizabeth I, Queen of England and Ireland

  • GB-1859-SJCA-PN200
  • Person
  • 1533-1603

Queen of England (1558–1603) during a period, often called the Elizabethan Age, when England asserted itself as a major European power in politics, commerce, and the arts.
Elizabeth was born on 7 September 1533 at Greenwich Palace, the only child of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.
She was proclaimed to be heiress presumptive to the throne, displacing her seventeen-year-old half-sister Mary (1516–1558), now deemed illegitimate.
Elizabeth received the rigorous education normally reserved for male heirs, consisting of a course of studies centring on classical languages, history, rhetoric, and moral philosophy. Elizabeth's education came through her tutor William Grindal, a favourite pupil of the greatest educationist of the age, Roger Ascham, who had himself been taught by John Cheke, now tutor to Prince Edward. These men were all products of St John's College, Cambridge, which was a leading centre of humanist erudition. As queen, Elizabeth appointed as her secretary and leading counsellor William Cecil, whose mind and rhetorical skills, the essence of his statesmanship, had been formed at the same Cambridge college.
Mary's accession on 19 July 1553 soon proved bad news for Elizabeth. Mary made a decision to marry her Spanish cousin, Philip of Spain. It was an unpopular choice, and by late January 1554 provoked a rebellion led by Sir Thomas Wyatt the younger. It was in her name that Wyatt rebelled and Elizabeth was taken to the Tower and only narrowly escaped execution. Two months later, she was released from the Tower and placed in close custody for a year at Woodstock.
From 1555, when Mary's health began to break down and on 6 November 1558 Mary acknowledged Elizabeth as her heir. After the death of Mary on November 17, 1558, Elizabeth came to the throne. Her great coronation procession was a masterpiece of political courtship. As queen, Elizabeth reduced the size of the Privy Council and restructured the royal household. She carefully balanced the need for substantial administrative and judicial continuity with the desire for change; and she assembled a core of experienced and trustworthy advisers, including William Cecil, Nicholas Bacon, Francis Walsingham, and Nicholas Throckmorton.
Through the 1559 Act of Supremacy and the Act of Uniformity she began to restore England to Protestantism. Elizabeth’s government moved cautiously but steadily to transfer these structural and liturgical reforms from the statute books to the local parishes throughout the kingdom. Her religious settlement was under threat throughout her reign from both Protestant dissidents and from English Catholics. The Catholic threat took the form of a number of plots against her life, the most serious of which were in 1569, 1571 and 1586. Both earlier threats were linked at least indirectly to Mary, Queen of Scots, who had been driven from her own kingdom in 1568 and had taken refuge in England. However, In the Babington plot of 1586 Mary’s involvement was clearly proved and she was tried and sentenced to death. She was executed in 1588.
Elizabeth never married and many scholars think it unlikely that Elizabeth ever seriously intended to marry, for the dangers always outweighed the possible benefits, but she skilfully played one off against another and kept the marriage negotiations going for months, even years.
She also cannily played a complex diplomatic game with the rival interests of France and Spain. State-sanctioned raids, led by Sir Francis Drake and others, on Spanish shipping and ports alternated with conciliatory gestures and peace talks. But by the mid-1580s it became clear that England could not avoid a direct military confrontation with Spain. Word reached London that the Spanish king, Philip II, had begun to assemble an enormous fleet that would sail to the Netherlands, join forces with a waiting Spanish army led by the duke of Parma, and then proceed to an invasion and conquest of Protestant England. When in July 1588 the Invincible Armada reached English waters, the queen’s ships, in one of the most famous naval encounters of history, defeated the enemy fleet.
In the last decade of Elizabeth’s reign, her control over her country’s political, religious, and economic forces and over her representation of herself began to show severe strains. Bad harvests, persistent inflation, and unemployment caused hardship and a loss of public morale. Charges of corruption and greed led to widespread popular hatred of many of the queen’s favourites to whom she had given lucrative and much-resented monopolies. A series of disastrous military attempts to subjugate the Irish culminated in a crisis of authority with her last great favourite, Robert Devereux, when he returned from Ireland against the queen’s orders and then made an attempt to raise an insurrection. He was tried for treason and executed on February 25, 1601.
By 1603 Elizabeth was suffering from a chronic melancholy. She was refusing food and unable to sleep, not even going to bed, and not speaking much. In this condition she died a slow death, succumbing to bronchitis and, perhaps, pneumonia on 24 March 1603 at Richmond Palace, Surrey. The throne was handed to James I whose path of succession was smoothed by Cecil, but it is not known for certain whether Elizabeth actually named James as her successor. Elizabeth's funeral took place in Westminster Abbey on 28 April.

Thurbon, William Thomas

  • GB-1859-SJCA-PN196
  • Person
  • 1903-

William Thomas (Bill) Thurbon began working in the College in 1920 as a clerk under Ned Lockhart, chief clerk and college butler. Thurbon became the bursary assistant in 1931 and bursar’s clerk from 1955 to 1970. For another twenty years Bill assisted in organizing the records of the College. Bill Thurbon began working in the College in 1920 and was Bursar’s Clerk from 1955 to 1970. For another twenty years Bill assisted in organizing the records of the College. He was married to Alice Zillah Thurbon.

Devereux, Robert, 2nd Earl of Essex

  • GB-1859-SJCA-PN192
  • Person
  • 1565-1601

Robert Devereux was an English soldier and courtier famous for his charm and his position as royal favourite in the court of Elizabeth I. He was born on 10th November 1565 to Walter Devereux, first Earl of Essex, and Lettice Knollys. He inherited the title of Earl of Essex after his father died when he was nine. His earliest known teacher was Thomas Ashton, headmaster of Shrewsbury School, fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, and a trusted family servant. Ashton was succeeded as Devereux's 'scolemaster' by Robert Wright, who was a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Robert Devereux himself was admitted as a fellow-commoner at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1577 and in 1581 he graduated as a Master of Arts. In 1578 Essex's mother married Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, favourite of Elizabeth I. Young Essex first attained military prominence by fighting bravely under his stepfather as a Governor-General against the Spanish in the Netherlands in 1586. Shortly before his death in 1588, the Earl of Leicester introduced Devereux to the Elizabethan court. Elizabeth gave him the position of Master of the Horse and he became a favourite of the queen, becoming a privy councillor in 1593. He took part in the English operation against Lisbon in 1589 and secretly married Frances Walsingham, widow of the poet Sir Philip Sidney, in 1590. They went on to have three children (Robert, Dorothy and Frances) who survived into adulthood. In 1591-2 he commanded an English force sent to assist the Protestant Henry of Navarre in France. Essex became a national hero in 1596 when he shared command of the expedition that captured Cadiz from the Spanish. The following year, he failed in an expedition to intercept the Spanish treasure fleet off the Azores. Thanks to various contacts at Cambridge, such as William Whitaker, Essex had a very high reputation at the universities and was a regular recruiter of promising students and dons. In 1598 he was chosen to replace Lord Burghley as chancellor of Cambridge University. In 1599, at his own request, Essex was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and sent to put down a rebellion by the earl of Tyrone. After an unsuccessful campaign Essex concluded an unauthorised truce with Tyrone and then returned to England to try and explain his conduct to the queen. She deprived him of his offices and placed him under house arrest in 1600. Politically and financially ruined, Essex attempted, with 200-300 followers, to raise the people of London in revolt against the government in 1601. The poorly planned attempt failed, and Essex surrendered. He was executed at the Tower of London on 25th February 1601 after being found guilty of treason.

Charles I, King of England, Scotland and Ireland

  • GB-1859-SJCA-PN190
  • Person
  • 1600-1649

King of Britain and Ireland whose authoritarian rule and quarrels with Parliament provoked a civil war that led to his execution.
Charles I was born in Dunfermline Castle, Scotland, on 19 November 1600. He was the third child of James VI of Scotland (subsequently James I of England; 1566–1625) and his Danish wife, Anne (1574–1619), having been preceded by Henry (1594–1612) and Elizabeth (1596–1662). He was created duke of Albany at his baptism and duke of York in 1605. In Scotland he was placed in the care of Lord and Lady Fyvie, who brought him up until the age of four; he then moved to England and the household of Sir Robert and Lady Carey. Thomas Murray, a Scottish presbyterian who later became provost of Eton, oversaw his education. After his brother Henry's death in 1612 he became the sole male heir to the kingdoms of Britain and Ireland.
From the age of twelve Charles was brought up to be a king and he was gradually instructed in every aspect of rule by his father. On 3 November 1616 he was created prince of Wales. He was made a member of the privy council and sat on the naval commission.
In 1623, before succeeding to the throne, Charles made an incognito visit to Spain in order to conclude a marriage treaty with the daughter of King Philip III. When the mission failed, he pressed his father for war against Spain. In the meantime a marriage treaty was arranged with Henrietta Maria, sister of the French king, Louis XIII.
In March 1625, Charles I became king and married Henrietta Maria soon afterward. The Spanish war was proving a failure and Charles offered Parliament no explanations of his foreign policy or its costs. Problems soon arose between the new king and the Commons, and Parliament refused to vote him the right to levy tonnage and poundage (customs duties) though this right had been granted to previous monarchs for life.
The country then became involved in a war with France as well as with Spain and, in desperate need of funds, the king imposed a forced loan, which his judges declared illegal. He then dismissed the chief justice and ordered the arrest of more than 70 knights and gentlemen who refused to contribute.
By the time Charles’s third Parliament met (March 1628), the king’s government was thoroughly discredited. The House of Commons set out its complaints in the Petition of Right. By the time the fourth Parliament met in January 1629, the king’s chief advisor Lord Buckingham had been assassinated. During that parliament the speaker was held down in his chair and three resolutions were passed condemning the king’s conduct. Charles realized that such behaviour was revolutionary. For the next 11 years he ruled his kingdom without calling a Parliament.
In order that he might no longer be dependent upon parliamentary grants, he now made peace with both France and Spain. But in 1639 Charles became involved in a war against the Scots.
Charles summoned a Parliament that met in April 1640—later known as the Short Parliament—in order to raise money for the war against Scotland. The House insisted first on discussing grievances against the government and showed itself opposed to a renewal of the war; so, on May 5, the king dissolved Parliament again. A Scottish army crossed the border in August and the king’s troops panicked before a cannonade at Newburn. Charles summoned another Parliament, the Long Parliament, which met at Westminster in November 1640.
Charles was then forced to agree to a measure whereby the existing Parliament could not be dissolved without its own consent. On November 22, 1641, the Commons passed by 159 to 148 votes the Grand Remonstrance to the king, setting out all that had gone wrong since his accession.
In April the king settled in York, where he ordered the courts of justice to assemble and where royalist members of both houses gradually joined him. In June the majority of the members remaining in London sent the king the Nineteen Propositions, which included demands that no ministers should be appointed without parliamentary approval, that the army should be put under parliamentary control, and that Parliament should decide about the future of the church.
But in July both sides were urgently making ready for war. The king formally raised the royal standard at Nottingham on August 22 and sporadic fighting soon broke out all over the kingdom. Charles moved his court and military headquarters to Christ Church College, Oxford. On June 14 1645 the highly disciplined New Model Army organised and commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax with Oliver Cromwell as his second in command, defeated the king at the Battle of Naseby. By the spring of 1646 Oxford was surrounded. Charles left the city in disguise. In June, however, he was seized and taken to the army headquarters at Newmarket and then to Hampton Court. He escaped on November 11, but his friends’ plans to take him to Jersey and thence to France went astray and instead Charles found himself in the Isle of Wight, where the governor was loyal to Parliament and kept him under surveillance at Carisbrooke Castle.
In August 1648 the last of Charles’s Scottish supporters were defeated at the Battle of Preston and the second Civil War ended. The army now began to demand that the king should be put on trial for treason. On January 20, 1649, he was brought before a specially constituted high court of justice in Westminster Hall.
Charles I was charged with high treason and “other high crimes against the realm of England.” He at once refused to recognise the legality of the court because “a king cannot be tried by any superior jurisdiction on earth.” He therefore refused to plead but maintained that he stood for “the liberty of the people of England.” The sentence of death was read on January 27; his execution was ordered as a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public enemy. The sentence was carried out in Whitehall on the morning of January 30, 1649. A week later he was buried at Windsor. Charles had nine children, two of whom eventually succeeded as king (Charles II and James II), and two of whom died at or shortly after birth.

Hawksmoor, Nicholas

  • GB-1859-SJCA-PN188
  • Person
  • c. 1662 –1736

Hawksmoor was an English architect whose importance lies in his representation of the English Baroque style. He was probably born in early 1662. It is not known where he received his schooling but it has been suggested it could have been at the grammar school in Dunham, Nottinghamshire. At 18 he left home to work as a clerk for architect Sir Christopher Wren. His first official post was as Deputy Surveyor to Wren at Winchester Palace from 1683 until 1685. Hawksmoor worked with Wren on all his major architectural projects, including Chelsea Hospital (1681 -1692), St. Paul's Cathedral (completed 1710), Hampton Court Palace (1689-1700), and Greenwich Hospital (1699-1702). By 1688 he was designing buildings, and by about 1690 executing them, both under Wren's continued direction and on independent commissions. In 1689 he was named Clerk of the Works at Kensington Palace, and in 1705 Deputy Surveyor of Works at Greenwich. On Wren’s death (1723), Hawksmoor became surveyor general of Westminster Abbey, the west towers of which were built (1734–45) to his design. Hawksmoor also worked with architect Sir John Vanbrugh. He was involved in the building of Blenheim Palace (1705–25) in Oxfordshire for John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, and Castle Howard (1699–1726) in Yorkshire for the 3rd Earl of Carlisle. John Vanbrugh made Hawksmoor his deputy as Comptroller of the Works in 1721. Hawksmoor also took on commissions on his own and it is mainly for these that he is most well-known. In 1702, he designed the baroque country house of Easton Neston (1695-1710) in Northamptonshire for Sir William Fermor. In 1713 he was commissioned to complete King's College, Cambridge but Hawksmoor's scheme was never executed. He conceived grand rebuilding schemes for central Oxford, most of which were not realised. However, he designed and completed the Clarendon Building at Oxford (1711-1715); the Codrington Library and new buildings at All Souls College, Oxford (1716-34); parts of Worcester College, Oxford with Sir George Clarke in 1720 and the High Street entrance gate at The Queen's College, Oxford (1733-36). In 1711 Hawksmoor was appointed one of two surveyors to a commission to build 50 new churches in the Cities of London and Westminster and their immediate environs. In this capacity he designed and completed the six churches for which he is most well known: St. Anne’s (1714–24; consecrated in 1730) in Limehouse, St. George-in-the-East (1714–29) in Wapping Stepney, Christ Church (1714–29) in Spitalfields; St. Mary Woolnoth (1716–24) in the City of London; St. Alphege’s (1712-1718) in Greenwich and St. George’s (1716-1731) in Bloomsbury. Hawksmoor died on 25 March 1736 in his house at Millbank, London.

Simpson, Johnnie

  • GB-1859-SJCA-PN240
  • Person

Simpson was a student at St. John’s College, matriculating in 1971. He was a contemporary and friend of Douglas Adams. Adams and Simpson shared rooms along with Nick Barton in Adams’ third year. The character of Zaphod Beeblebrox from 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' was based, according to Adams' own account on Simpson.

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