olo THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF.CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID SIGN COLLEGE AND LIBRARY CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Hontroii: FETTER LANE, E.G. C. F. CLAY, MANAGER 100, PRINCES STREET Berlin: A. ASHER AND CO. lap>tg: F. A. BROCKHAUS ifiefaj $orfe : G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 8ambag anti ffialnttta: MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD. All rights reserved The Founder. From the portrait in the College Hall. SIGN COLLEGE AND LIBRARY BY E. H. PEARCE, M.A. CANON OF WESTMINSTER A TRUSTEE OF SIGN HOSPITAL AND FORMERLY PRESIDENT OF SION COLLEGE Cambridge : at the University Press 19*3 CambriOge : PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS A u I - COLLECTS MEIS TAM DILECTIS QUAM DESIDERATIS PRAESIDENTI DECANIS ADSISTENTIBUS BIBLIOTHECARIO COLLEGII DE SIGN Ambulauimus cum consensu. Ps. Iv. 14. By the same Author Annals of Christ's Hospital. (2nd edition, 1908.) The Sons of the Clergy, 1655 1904. (1904.) Robert Henry Hadden. A Memoir. (1911.) PREFACE MY acknowledgments are due to my late colleagues on the Court of Sion College for their confidence in asking me to compile some account of the Foundation and in entrusting me with their registers and documents. The account which here results is probably more elaborate than they expected, but my excuse is that Sion College is far fuller of interest than any of us realised. I am specially indebted to the Rev. C. O. Becker, the Librarian, for reading the book in proof, a task rendered less difficult through the admirable workmanship of the University Press ; to Mr C. H. Limbrick and the rest of the Library staff for much patience towards my many importunities ; to Mr H. Pearce, of Clapham, a former member of the same staff, for three ex- cellent negatives; to Mr Herbert Welch for his care in preparing the index ; to Mr H. M c Clintock Harris for the loan of the picture of the Almshouses (facing p. 232) ; and to my friend the Rev. the Hon. Arthur Gordon, of the Church of Scotland, for some valuable information. It was my hope to have served the College for a full year in the President's office, and in the normal course of things that year would now be closing. I can only trust that this volume, which has occupied the scanty leisure of several years, will be accepted as a reasonable substitute and will, perhaps, reveal to the outside world that the Fellows of Sion have a goodly heritage. E. H. PEARCE. 3, LITTLE CLOISTERS, WESTMINSTER ABBEY, Lady Day, 1913. ERRATA P. 51, 1. 5, for "Thomas" read "Richard P. 107, 1. 10, omit "Wage" CONTENTS THE COLLEGE CHAP. PAGE PREFACE vii I. THE FOUNDER AND His FRIENDS . i II. THE VISITOR .... . . 18 III. THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT . 35 IV. THE STAFF .... 67 V. THE COLLEGE BUILDINGS . " 89 VI. THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE GREAT FIRE . 108 VII. THE COLLEGE AS LANDOWNER .... . 127 VIII. DR WHITE'S ALMSFOLK 149 IX. THE LATIN SERMONS . . 169 X. THE PARISH CHURCH . 180 XI THE ANNIVERSARY 189 XII. ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS . 207 THE LIBRARY XIII. JOHN SPENCER . ... . 232 XIV. GREAT BENEFACTIONS . . 256 XV. WILLIAM READING .... . 268 XVI. ROBERT WATTS . . . 298 XVII. HENRY CHRISTMAS AND MILMAN . . 3i6 XVIII. THE COLLEGE AND THE LIBRARY TO-DAY . 33i APPENDIX A. List of Presidents 343 APPENDIX B. List of Librarians 357 APPENDIX C. List of Clerks or Registers or Secretaries . 358 ILLUSTRATIONS THE FOUNDER. FROM THE PORTRAIT IN THE COLLEGE HALL . . . Frontispiece FROM THE GRANT OF THE COLLEGE PREMISES UNDER THE GREAT SEAL, DATED 20 MARCH 1630 .... facing 35 THE ALMSHOUSES (LOOKING EAST) 149 OLD SIGN COLLEGE, LONDON WALL 232 CHAPTER I THE FOUNDER AND HIS FRIENDS Justus autem quasi fundamentum sempiternum. Prov. x. 25. THERE are few institutions which can be said to have originated so entirely in the thought and in the action of one man as Sion College. No obvious reasons led up to it. No consensus of public or ecclesiastical opinion called for it. No one knows how it came by its name. The times in which the founder lived carried within them, it is true, the seeds of coming; dissension in the Reformed Church, and his public utterances r of which more hereafter, show him to have been a plain and provocative speaker. But there is no firm ground for classing him as a Puritan 1 , and it was a period when there was little chance for doubtfulness or equivocation. Richard Hooker went up to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, when Thomas White was a third-year man, and in the following year Thomas Cart- wright became Lady Margaret Professor at Cambridge. The important Act of I57I 2 "for the Ministers to be of Sound Religion " and the anonymous publication of the " First Ad- monition " (1572) filled the interval between White's B.A. and M.A. degrees and set the Orthodox and the Puritan positions before him in terms which could not be mistaken or evaded. The latter meant that it was no longer enough for the " pre- cisians " to scruple the square-cap and the surplice ; they must henceforth strive for the administration of ecclesiastical affairs 1 W. H. Milman, Sion College, p. 14. Unless his choice of John Vicars and John Downham as two of his literary executors be taken to signify his own views. 2 13 Elizabeth, c. 12. P. 2 THE FOUNDER AND HIS FRIENDS on the exact lines of the Geneva consistory. Indeed, White's ordination must have taken place in the very midst of the fierce game of battledore and shuttlecock between Whitgift and Cartwright, when Replies and Defences of Replies and Answers to Defences of Replies followed one another in quick succession (15721577). What, however, seems perfecly clear is that at the end of a life that had witnessed such controversies he did not intend to set up a society which should add to the strife of tongues ; and his will shows that he cared more for the philanthropic than for the ecclesiastical side of the institution. In fact, if it had not been for the action of those who added a theological library to the substructure of Dr White's Almshouse, it is likely enough that the Clerus Londinensis might have found but little in Sion Hospital by itself to interest them and to keep them together. The known details about Thomas White's life are meagre and by no means heroic. With him it was a case of finis coronat opus. Nothing in life became him so well as the leaving of his last will and testament. His father, John White, who claimed kinship with " the Whites of Bedfordshire," was " a Gloucestershire clothier 1 /' who settled in Temple Street, Bristol, where his son Thomas was born in or about the year I55O 2 . In 1566 he matriculated at Oxford as a student of Magdalen Hall (now Hertford College); graduated B.A. 25 June 1570, M.A. 12 October 1573, B.D. 11 December 1581, and D.D. 8 March 1585 ; and was ordained, presumably in or about the year 1573. Preferment came to him with great rapidity. He is stated to have been for a short time rector of St Gregory by St Paul 3 , a benefice now united with St Martin, Ludgate, formerly and to some extent to this day an appanage of the " Petty Canons " of St Paul's. What is more certain is that on 23 November, 1 On this and some other biographical points the reader is referred to Mr H. R. Tedder's account, Diet. Nat. Biog. LXI. p. 78. 2 In his will (bearing several dates in 1622 and 1623) he describes himself as being "about the Age of Threescore and twelve." 3 It is to be noted that Hennessy, Novum Repertorium* p. 321, dates White's appointment as in 1588, but his list of the rectors is obviously incomplete. THE FOUNDER AND HIS FRIENDS 3 1575, being then about 25 years of age, White became vicar of St Dunstan-in-the-West, Fleet Street, and retained the benefice, along with other preferments 1 to be mentioned presently, till his death nearly half a century later. His patron in this case was Thomas Sackville, first Earl of Dorset, poet and politician, whose favour may be taken as some indication of White's powers of mind and strictness of protestant attitude. But, under whatever patronage, the young vicar of St Dunstan's was soon recognised as a popular preacher of those political and argumentative discourses at Paul's Cross and elsewhere, which represent the " leading articles " of Elizabethan daily life. In his will he gave directions that three friends should examine and complete his sermons on the Epistle to the Hebrews and print them, and also should extract out of his other manuscripts " one great Book of Miscellanea, such as they in their best Judgment shall think most profitable for God's Church," and publish it. But neither of these recommendations came to any result. Thus his contributions to English literature consist of two or three sermons, and the smallness of the material enables us to concentrate upon it with a view to a closer knowledge of the man. The first is " A Sermon Preached at Pawles Crosse on Sunday the ninth of December 1576 by T. W. Imprinted at London by Francis Coldock, 15781" The second is "A Sermon Preached at Paules Crosse the 17 of Nouember An. 1589 In ioyfull remembrance and thanksgiving unto God, for the peace- able yeres of her Maiesties most gratious Raigne over us, now 32. By Thomas White, Professor in Diuinitie. Printed by Robert Robinson and Thomas Newman. 1589." Let us look more closely at the former. It is a small octavo 1 St Dunstan-in-the-West was not then for the first or the last time in the tenure of a pluralist. In 1561, when Archbishop Parker investigated the condition of his Province, it was found that one clergyman " was Vicar of St Dunstan's West, and had Whiston and Doncaster in Yorkshire, Rugby in Warwickshire, and Barnet in Middlesex" [i.e. Anthony Blake, vicar 1556-70]; cf. Strype, Life of Parker, Bk n. ch. 5. Dr White, though holding many preferments, was at least true to, and content with, one parish. His successor, John Donne, was already Dean of St Paul's when appointed to St Dunstan's. 2 There is a fine copy in the Library of the British Museum (4453. aaa. 10. (i)). I 2 4 THE FOUNDER AND HIS FRIENDS pamphlet of ninety-six pages, with some two hundred words on each page, and at a modest computation it would occupy about eleven columns of the Times newspaper. The preacher is a young man, about twenty-six years of age, who had become vicar of St Dunstan-in-the-West about twelve months before the preaching of the sermon, the delivery of which in the open air must have taxed even his youthful vigour, especially as he had occupied the same pulpit on the previous Sunday. But a curious point arises. There is another copy in the British Museum 1 of this same sermon, word for word and page for page, with this only difference (apart from a few cross-headings) that the date of preaching is altered to " Sunday the thirde of Nouember 1577 in the time of the Plague." The change is not concerned with the incidence of the Plague, for the reference to that scourge stands in each copy. Thus we are probably in presence of a by no means isolated instance of sermons being repeated at Paul's Cross within a few months, just as Bishop Jewel's "Challenge Sermon" had been delivered from the same civic pulpit on 26 November 1559 and 31 March 1560 (as well as at Court on 17 March). In neither copy is there either a title or a text printed at the beginning, but each page is headed " A godly Sermon." He starts like the Bishop of London's Registrar at the con- secration of a church " In the name of God, Amen " ; he addresses his audience as " Right Honorable and dearly be- loued, &c.," from which we may conclude that the Lord Mayor was in his gallery 2 ; and he occupies seven pages in explaining his difficulties about the choice of a text. "While I thought to fytte a plaister for the feete, I saw the head diseased, and finding the whole body in the same pickle, I knew not what to doe... so that whylest I soughte a texte, I founde a Sermon, a Sermon of the Prophete Sophonye 3 to Israeli. I praye God make it a profitable Sermon to London. Amen." This text, he says, offers him four points for consideration, which he will take in their order as they stand, " and not seeke to be wyser 1 4474- a. 33. 2 Cf. E. H. Pearce, Annals of Christ's Hospital, 2nd ed. 1908, p. 218. 3 Zephaniah iii. i, "Wo to that abhominable, filthie, and cruell Citie," &c. &c. THE FOUNDER AND HIS FRJENDS 5 than the holy Ghost." First, we are to " looke uppon the Epithetons & tearmes here... he calles Hierusalem an abhomin- able & fylthye citie." Manasseh and Amon had "troubled Israeli so, as 3 1 yeares of good Josias coulde not roote it out againe ; and as perhaps, or rather without all doubt, for it is good to be plaine, Queene Maries fyve yeares doth shrewdly hinder 19 yeares of our princes proceedings in religion." From this it is but a step to a fierce denunciation of Papistry and of any relics of it that remained in the land. " Churches," he complains, " keepe their olde colours still though the images have lost their countenance, and though their heads be off, yet they can make somewhat of their bodies." Too much has been done, he insists, to conciliate the Papists " in retaynyng diuers ceremonies to turne them, and it will not be." To him it seemed grievous even that " Gentlemen travelers " should visit Rome and be tempted to " hold in good sadnesse this divelish opinion Cu fueris Romae Romano vivito more. Let such remember another saying Roma recipil bonos reddit malos" But we are soon brought to the point that London is in some respects as bad as Rome. On cure Sabbothes all manner of games and playes, banketings, and surfeitings, are very rife... some rowyng on the water, some routing in the field, some idle at home, some worse occupyed....Look but uppon the common playes in London, and see the multitude that flocketh to them, and followeth them : beholde the sumptuous Theatre houses, a continuall monument of Londons prodigality and folly 1 . There follow some twenty pages on the cruelty of London, which Dr White illustrates at great length "as briefly as I can," he says, " for I have bene long, and I am afrayde of the tyme " by an attack on covetousness and usury. This some- what florid passage, which has its parallel in his subsequent discourse on Queen Elizabeth's accession, is of interest to us because of " the aspersion of his being a great usurer," which Fuller 2 relates as having been cast upon him. At last " Zophony's" denunciation of Jerusalem brings our preacher to the words : " And her Judges are as Wolves in the 1 Too much has been made of his reference to theatres, which he only regards as one of many signs of falling away. 2 Fuller, Worthies (1811), II. 299. 6 THE FOUNDER AND HIS FRIENDS evening," and the clause is felt by him to offer an admirable opportunity of dealing faithfully with his chief hearers. You which are our honorable Gouernour and Maior of this Citie, you must remember that you are chosen in the time of a plague, and there- fore in the time of sinne... thrust diligently your sword of justice in, to launce out all corruption and bagage which is gathered in the bowels. We stop not our nose so at the plague, as the Lord doth stoppe hys nose at our sinne : the stincke of London is come up before hym. The Doctor's sermon on the anniversary of the Virgin Queen's Accession (17 November 1589) spent so much space (about 28 printed pages or 9000 words) on opening his text, St Luke iii. 10 14, denouncing usury 1 and covetousness, and bewailing the continuance of the factions of Anabaptists and Papists 2 , that the preacher finds that he has " ouershot " himself and has only a further 3000 words say 25 minutes to devote to the Queen. But he atones for the delay. Elizabeth has been like David in her early trials " he afraid of Saule, and shee of hir Sister"; and like Hezekiah "witnes that Prowde and Peerles Inuasion, made by the Popish Senacherib...who openly pretended the cause of his quarrell to be our Religion." But " Hee that is mightie has magnified hir, and Holie is his Name." Therefore " let Hir Posie bee from henceforth for euer : Eloi-Sabaoth ; Elizabeth, Alleluia." White's devotion to his Fleet Street parish did not prevent him from accumulating other offices. In 1575, during the episcopate of Edmund Gheast, he was made chancellor of Salisbury Cathedral, where he was appointed treasurer in 1590, the see enjoying at that time a three years' interregnum. On 12 December 1588 he was admitted by Bishop Aylmer to the prebend of Mora in St Paul's Cathedral, and, if in this matter White was that truculent Bishop's choice, we get a further hint as to the personality of our founder. But there is no repro- duction of the Bishop's methods in W 7 hite's dealings with the 1 "Whereby you do not onely fleece your sheepe but slay men, and directlie Cut the throat e of the Common welth," p. 38. 2 "Wherefore I exhort both the one, and the other, (for what haue I to doe with sides) that they play not in the Church, as men doe that are fallen out in the Common welth, where both will be talking of right, but neither will cease from doing of wrong." p. 46. THE FOUNDER AND HIS FRIENDS 7 not inconsiderable property of his stall. The records of the Merchant Taylors' Company contain evidence of much amicable negotiation between them and our Doctor as to the leasing of some gardens that were part of the corpus of his prebend, and the friendship thus formed, together with the nature of his father's trade, may well account for the honourable place assigned to the company by the provisions of his will. His emoluments became further enlarged by his admission in 1591 to a canonry of Christ Church, Oxford, and in 1593 to a canonry of Windsor. In the enjoyment of these not inconsiderable revenues he lived on for over thirty years, dying on I March 1624. He was twice married ; the name of his first wife was, appropriately enough, Fortune (1576), the name of the second Elizabeth, daughter of William Bovey, a London barber-surgeon (1580); both predeceased him 1 , and he left no seed. Therefore in his old age he was faced with the necessity of disposing of his wealth. His will is dated 4 October 1623, just five months before his death, and its contents must now be briefly indicated. After remembering the poor of St Dunstan's and St Gregory's, who among other things were to have " reasonable Diet, be it Dinner or Supper," on the day of his funeral, and assigning twenty marks apiece for two chalices with covers for St Werburgh's, Bristol, and St Dunstan's, " praying God they may long use them well to their Comfort," he goes on to make such provision for the College and the Almshouse as will appear in the course of this volume. Being uncertain whether " the said Corporacon," i.e. the College apart from the Almshouse, could " be procured," he left contingent directions that " the Forty Pounds formerly intended for the College shall be converted to a Reader... to read every Sunday after- noon a Lecture," to which the poor prisoners in Newgate should be brought, "manacled and sparred in Iron Chains... ranged into a Docket made of Purpose against the Wall... so as they may hear the Sermon and be seen of the People without Annoyance unto any " ; and he added some quaint provisions for the decent burial of executed felons. 1 They were both buried in the church of St Dunstan-in-the-West. 8 THE FOUNDER AND HIS FRIENDS Having thus remembered the most wretched of his fellow- citizens, he turned to St Paul's Cathedral, of which he was a Prebendary, and bequeathed to the Dean and Chapter 40 a year for the maintenance of three lectures weekly " in the Term Time" on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, "never mentioning my Name," and 100 in order to make a pulpit " of Stone or Wainscot, fair and strong," under the east or rose window, and accommodation for the Bishop, the Cathedral clergy, the Lord Mayor and the Aldermen, "when for the Extremity of Weather they cannot use Paul's Churchyard." To St George's Chapel, Windsor,, of which he was Canon, and where he drew up his will, which was witnessed by one of the Canons and by the vicar of New Windsor, he left all his books in folio and in Latin. Oxford had already benefited in 1621 by his foundation of " Whyte's " professorship of Moral Philosophy, for which he charged his Essex estates with a stipend of ;ioo. His action in this case has only borne much fruit in recent years, for in and after 1673 the chair became a kind of perquisite of the Senior Proctor, who received the stipend and omitted the lectures. But new statutes recovered it of its inefficiency in 1877 and it was at once rendered illustrious by the election of Thomas Hill Green 1 . The executors of White's elaborate testament were his kinsman, Mr Jorm Simson, of St Olave, Hart Street, and his " loving friend," Mr John Keeling, of the Temple ; and he appointed as overseers Sir George Croke, his "very dear and kind friend," afterwards a Justice of the King's Bench, and Mr John Downham, " preacher," and his " good neighbour in London," afterwards for many years rector of All Hallows the Great, who was elected Senior Dean of our College in 1643. Sir George Croke became in due course a benefactor to our Library and himself endowed almshouses on his estate at Studley. Downham is probably described as " preacher " because at this time he was unbeneficed. His residence was at Bunhill in the parish of St Giles, Cripplegate, and if we knew how much the testator meant to imply by the word 1 Oxford Historical Register (1900), pp. 55 f. THE FOUNDER AND HIS FRIENDS 9 " neighbour," we might get some indication of White's own place of abode. The Library became indebted to Downham in 1630 for " A Guide unto true Godlinesse, written by himselfe. Lond. Printed 1622." Dr White was buried at his own request in the church of his beloved parish of St Dunstan-in-the-West. It is one of the ironies of executorship that, though he left instructions for a gravestone 1 in the church, no such memorial was provided till the year 1877, when the authorities of Sion College and of the Bristol Municipal Charities combined to erect in the chancel of St Dunstan's a mural tablet with a medallion portrait, from the design of Sir Arthur Blomfield, who was after- wards the architect of the new Sion College on the Embank- ment. But, if there was for long years no presentment of White's features in his church, the College was not equally devoid of a memorial, for a portrait of him adorned the Hall up to the time of the Great Fire, though there is no record of its origin or acquisition. Eighteen months before the Fire there was an order of the Court " that the ffounder Dr Whites Picture in the Governors hall bee carefully revived." Why it should afterwards have been allowed to perish in the great conflagration, when so many of the books were saved, it is idle to conjecture. And it is equally strange that not till the year 1818 was there any project for repairing the loss, though even then the hopes were doomed to pathetic and comical disappointment. For a clergy- man named Robert Nixon 2 opened communications with the Court about his desire to produce such a portrait, and followed this up with the information that the work would soon be ready. He suggested the name of a frame-maker, enclosed a "sketch pattern " for the frame, and asked what inscription should be put on it. The Court agreed to his design, and sent him these words: Thomae White S.T.P. Fundatoris munificentissimi Effigies. Soon afterwards he sent it to the College, with the accompanying missive : 1 "I would have a Gravestone about three Pounds Price, with a short Inscription &c., made and laid." 2 Of Burr Street, East Smithfield. 10 THE FOUNDER AND HIS FRIENDS My best thanks [he wrote] are due to the Rev d . A. Lloyd 1 , Vicar of St Dunstan's in the West, for his politeness in lending me a small Portrait of the Doctor, which is in the Vestry room of his Church. I have made several Additions to it, and particularly one, by intro- ducing in the background the grand Front of Christ Church College, Oxford, of which I am informed he was one of the Canons; hoping thereby to give it more the air of an original than of a mere servile copy On account of the Architecture in the back ground, which is minutely finished, it will appear to more advantage, if it hung a little above the level of the eye. In requesting your acceptance of this Picture I rely on that candour and liberality which are the genuine characteristics of the British Clergy of the Established Church, and whose learning as a body is alone ex- ceeded by their real and unaffected piety. But in spite of this appeal for candour there is a pencilled note, in the margin over against this letter, which runs : " N.B. This Picture is a copy of what now appears to be not the Founder's Picture ; tho' said to be so by some ignorant Persons at St Dunstan's in y e West"; while another similar note dismisses it curtly as the effigy " of some lawyer." No such doubt, however, applies to the picture now hanging high above the presidential cathedra* in the College Hall. It resulted from the kindness of the authorities of the sister foundation at Bristol, on whose behalf Thomas Garrard, the City Chamberlain, wrote to our Court, 24 May 1832, that "in pursuance of the resolution of the President and Governors of Dr White's Hospital" he had forwarded "by Mitchell's Fly Waggon " a copy of the portrait in their possession. But in other respects no charge of neglect can lie against White's executors. Within two years of his death they had made their preparations for the obtaining of a charter of in- corporation from King Charles I, which received the sign manual on 7 March 1626. But a delay arose from other causes, which are somewhat obscure. We are given a hint of what was amiss in the wording of Charles II's charter of 1664 (20 June), which says that the former letters patent were revoked " pro eo quod in se continebant nonnulla statui jurisdiction! et dignitati epis- copali Episcopi Londonensis (quod nolumus) repugnantia ac 1 He means Richard Lloyd, vicar 1805-34, the first appointed after the benefice came into the hands of Evangelical patrons. 2 Made of timber that formed part of the old College in London Wall. THE FOUNDER AND HIS FRIENDS II aliis de causis." We are therefore thrown back upon the original grant of incorporation 1 , which is preserved in the Public Record Office. It starts with some general reflections as to the purpose which such a College might serve ; indeed, it is throughout much more interested in the ecclesiastical than in the eleemosynary side of the foundation. No doubt, those who approached the Crown did so with Dr White's own fears in their mind that " the Corporacon " of City clergy, as being a new idea and fraught with all manner of conjectural risks, would be the most difficult part to get authorised ; and on this ground they probably addressed themselves to the reasons which could best be urged in support of it. However this may be, the patent gives leave to set up the corporation in terms which show a high appreciation of its potential useful- ness. An institution of this kind, it implies, is one by which " Ministri Evangelii melius adiuvarentur ad eorum unitatis, orthodoxae doctrinae, et probitatis morum Lumen reliquo populo clarius illustrandum," and is specially appropriate in the City of London where " non minus quam ducenti Rectores Vicarii Lectores publici et Curati quotidie sacris ministrandis incumbunt." But the Crown is also mindful of Dr White's jealous regard for the proper authority of the Diocesan. What he wished (the charter explains) was "non ut... Rectores... ab Episcopali jurisdictione in aliquo eximerenturvelexcluderentur," but rather that " sanctitatis unionis obedientiae et conformitatis viva exemplaria florent [sic] et devenirent." How, then, could it have come to pass that a Charter cor- respondent with this spirit of peaceable submission to episcopal authority must needs be revoked on the particular ground that it contained matters repugnant to the Bishop's jurisdiction? We can only get the answer out of an examination of that which was in the first Charter but was excluded from or altered in the second ; and the following arrangement of Charles I's document must furnish the clue. The governing body, it said, was to include two Deans and four Assistants, as now, but the chiefs of the Court were thus provided for: Et qd Epus london pro tempore existens erit et vocabitur Preses 1 Coll. Sign. Man. Car. i. vol. I. No. 14: ; Cat. St. Papers, Dom. Ch. I. 7 Mar. 1626. 12 THE FOUNDER AND HIS FRIENDS eiusdem Collegii et ex Rectoribus Vicar Lector et Curat unus sacrae Theologiae Professor in sacro Presbyterii ordine institutus erit et voca- bitur Vicepreses. Now it is easy to see that this arrangement might be rejected as being contrary to the Founder's intention. He had said that the Bishop of London is the man "whom I would have... Visitor, he and his Successors for ever " ; and as for the President he must become such by " free Election." The first Charter, how- ever, orders that the Bishop should be President instead of Visitor, and destroys the freedom of the election by confining the one office to the occupant for the time being of another. What is not so easy to realise is the alleged prejudice to the Bishop's status that might arise from making him ex officio President. For the result of this, as will be hereafter explained, would have been to place the Bishop in a position of perpetual supremacy, if only he cared to take a regular part in College affairs. His Vice-President, his two Deans and his four Assistants would come and go, while he alone would be left in office year after year, creating his own traditions and fostering his own unbroken policy. But some one at Court, possibly Laud himself, being already Bishop of St David's and seeing the see of London ready to drop at some time into his hands, seems to have objected that it was derogatory to the Bishop's prestige that he should sit as even the perpetual primus of co- equal presbyters. This first Charter not only settled the name of the College vocabitur Collegium de Syon Anglice Syon Colledge but it appointed in the customary way a set of Governors to hold office till the first statutory day of election. The list, though it contains four names which reappear in Charles II's Charter, does not survive even in manuscript, so far as I have been able to ascertain, within the walls of the College. The President was, of course, George Mountaigne, Bishop of London (1621 1627); the Vice-President was John Donne, the poet Dean of St Paul's (1622 1631), who may be supposed to have owed his nomination not more to his poesy or to his position at St Paul's than to his being Dr White's successor in the benefice of St Dunstan-in-the-West, "which had been THE FOUNDER AND HIS FRIENDS 13 promised him some years before [Dr White's decease] by Richard Sackville, Earl of Dorset, one of the most munificent patrons of poets and men of letters in that munificent age 1 ." The poet's son, John Donne, of St Benet, Gracechurch Street, was elected Junior Dean of the College at the second Anniversary (1633). The two Deans nominated by the Charter of 1626 were Francis White, of St Peter-upon-Cornhill, and Samuel Brookes (or Brooke), of St Margaret, Lothbury. Francis White, who was born at Eaton Socon, Bedfordshire, in 1564, may have been one of those " Whites of Bedfordshire " with whom our Founder claimed kinship ; certainly his anti-Roman activities were after the Founder's heart 2 . He was at the moment holding the Deanery of Carlisle along with his City benefice, but on 3 December 1626 he was consecrated Bishop of Carlisle and was afterwards translated first to Norwich and then to Ely. Samuel Brooke, a Royal Chaplain and Gresham Professor of Divinity, became Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1629. The four Assistants nominated in this first Charter, Worrall, Simson, Abbott, and Wood, appeared again in the revised version of it, and need not be dealt with now. But when the next document was issued, and it had been settled that the Bishop should be Visitor and not President, the office of Vice- President naturally lapsed, and Dr Donne, though for a few months longer he was vicar of St Dunstan's, was not included ; while Francis White and Samuel Brooke, the original Deans, had vacated their benefices on promotion. But the negotiations with a view to this change in the original constitution took some time, and it was not till 3 July 1630 that a second Charter 3 was granted, in which the Bishop was named ex officio Visitor of the College and the Presidentship was left to be occupied by a qualified incumbent. Meanwhile the fortunes of the foundation were left in the faithful and 1 Augustus Jessopp,_/ Assistants M r Marriot ) [Absent M r John Maud, St Anne, Aldersgate] At this Visitation the Will of D r White the ffounder of the College and also the Charters graunted by King Charles the i st & 2 nd were inspected and the latter of them read by M r Newcourt the Register, as also the Accompt of the Plate & Writings belonging to the College and the History or State of the College being a Small Booke written by D r Williams the late Presid 1 . Afterwards the Library was surveyed and viewed And it was ordered That Edward Greene the Clerke of the College doe gett a Copy of M r Calfe's Will or of the part thereof giving the Legacy of Twenty shillings p. Annum to Sion College Library And that He doe drawe up a Short Accompt of the Revenue and Charge of the College and of the Plate and Writings of most import belonging thereto against Tuesday the 22 th day of October next at which time the said Visitation is appointed to be finished, And then the State of the College to be further considered. The three months' grace allowed for this information was none too long. Edward Green, Scrivener, was new to his work, having been elected Clerk in October 1692, and the " Revenue" was not very easy to state at a time when the affairs of Bradwell Manor were particularly involved. Nevertheless, the College passed well through the ordeal. For At a Visitation finished at Sion College London on the Tuesday the 22 th October 1695 by the L d Bishop of London. [Present, the same Officials and six Governors.] 22 THE VISITOR The State 1 of the College... was... delivered to his LP who read the same and approved thereof, and gave it to M r Newcourt to keep and enter the same in his Register.... Ordered by his LQPP That the Interest of 100* being 6 p. Ann given by M r Wynn for Bookes to the Library, which doth not appeare to have been so layd out, since the ioo was rec d by the College for that purpose which was about the yeare 1677 2 doe remain e and stand Charged as a Debt upon the College to be layd out in Bookes... when the College is in better Condicon. And that for the future the same as also M r Calfe's Gift be Constantly layd out every yeare in Bookes. Ordered That the Duplicates of the Bookes in the Library be disposed and others to be bought in their Roomes. Ordered That no person be admitted into the Library but such as are recommended by one of the ffellowes of the College. Ordered That the Governo rs may dispose of such of the College Plate as is useless and unserviceable bying new instead thereof, but especially the Ewer and two small Cupps or Bowles, and to buy a Tankard of like value instead of them.... It is worth while to linger a moment round the personalities concerned in this unique event. Henry Compton, the Visitor, was a man of moderate gifts and earnest purposes, which are well summed up for us in the familiar prophecy of John Evelyn 3 ; and his scrupulous care for the amenities of Fulham Palace and its grounds was clearly reproduced in the directions he gave about the affairs of our College, of which more presently. The Chancellor who attended him, doubtless in the gown and full- bottomed wig with which we are all familiar, was a man of some mark. Sir H. Newton had been Chancellor of the diocese for ten years and altogether held the office for thirty. He was sent as British Envoy to Tuscany in 1704, and was for a few months before his death in 1715 a Judge of the Admiralty Court. As for Newcourt, the Register, his name is a proverb and his Repertorium has probably been consulted as often as any book on our shelves. As so much of its contents is concerned .with the records of men who were Fellows of Sion College, let us hope that the labour of entering " the State of the College " in his register was not without interest to him. It was in any case 1 For the figures of the balance-sheet see p. 88. 2 The actual date of the will being proved was 1673. 3 Diary, 17 April 1673: "This worthy person's talent is not preaching, but he is like to make a grave and serious good man." THE VISITOR 23 one of his last duties of the kind, for he resigned the office of diocesan registrar in the following May. What are we to say of the particular Court which had to face this visitatorial ordeal ? Dr Francis Thompson, the Pre- sident, was " Rector of the United Parishes of St Mathew ffryday Street and St Peter Cheap," and his connexion with the administration of the Society's affairs had been brief and chequered. He was elected fourth Assistant in 1677, and when he came to offer himself, as was then usual, for a second year as Assistant, he was defeated, there being ten candidates for four places. Nor was he ever elected Dean. Some fatality equally followed the rest of his colleagues, none of whom rose to the presidential chair, a circumstance which can scarcely be paralleled in respect of any Court in our annals. The fact, when coupled with the Visitation, suggests, though there is no other official evidence, that some dissatisfaction was felt with those who were then in charge of the College. Nevertheless it may be repeated that the Visitor found little to censure. Possibly the Library was being used by unauthor- ised persons, which was a fault on the side of generosity. Benefactions of books were at that time inconsiderable ; indeed, there were none at all during 1695 J so that additions to the Library can hardly have exceeded the pace of William Nelson's efforts to arrange them and set aside duplicates. The neglect to lay out Mr Colfe's and Mr Wynn's gifts annually was one of the chronic features of College history, as will be fully explained elsewhere 1 . There remains only the matter of the plate in possession of the Court, and in regard to that the Visitation is to be frankly deplored. To make the President and Court exchange the ancient " Ewer and two small Cupps or Bowles " possibly the gift of Travers 2 and of Elizabethan make in order "to buy a Tankard of like value instead of 1 See Chapter xiu. pp. 251 ff. 2 Walter Travers' will (dated 14 January 1635) ^J 5 '- Item, to Sion College in the City of London I give the little plate which I have ; that is, one silver pot, a standing goblet [perhaps the " ancient ewer "], two silver bowles, one deep and another shallow [i.e. the "two small Cupps or Bowles"]; and a dozen of silver spoons, whereof I have in my possession but nine, the other three are to be bought to make up the dozen." [Cf. W. Reading, State of Sion- Library, 1724, p. 46.] 24 THE VISITOR them," is one of those crimes on the part of a Visitor which are best forgotten. But it would not grieve the men of 1695 as it grieves us, who realise the additional value which the lapse of two centuries would add to the discarded stiver. Thus, when Compton came to the close of his long epis- copate, the College felt it had lost a good friend, who in his lifetime had been the means of adding to the Library 1 , which he further enriched at his death ; and it was apparently in his case that they made a beginning of the long-established custom that renders a vacancy in the see of London an occasion of which Sion College is in duty bound to take par- ticular notice. The President was " M r William Whitfield Rector of St Martins Ludgate," and, when he met his col- leagues on 4 August 1713, D r Henry Compton the BP of London who was Visitor of this College, being lately deceased, At this Court, the Presid 1 proposed to know in what method or form the Clergy of London should Congratulate their new BP when the See was filled. Whitfield, though anxious for the sake of the College to take proper notice of the occasion, was evidently a modest man with a dread of being thought to magnify his office ; for the records of the same meeting contain the following : Memorand The President acquainting the Governo rs that he intended to preach a Sermon upon the Death of the BP of London and to print it, Desired to know their Opinion whether it might not be proper to write himselfe Presid* of Sion College. They were of opinion it would be very proper and accordingly the Sermon being afterwards printed they returned their thanks to the Presid 1 for it. The accession of Edmund Gibson brings us to one of the ablest in the distinguished line of the Bishops of London. He was constantly present at the Anniversaries, in spite of the fact that during the twenty-five years of his Visitorship he was expected to pay for his own dinner and that of others by a donation of three guineas to " the bason 2 " ; and they fell into the habit of using these genial occasions for the purpose of expressing their gratitude for his writings and speeches. Thus in 1730 Dr Oliver, of St Mary Abchurch, thanked Gibson from 1 See Chapter xiv. p. 263. 2 See Chapter xi. p. 204. THE VISITOR 25 the chair "in the name of all the London Clergy... for the great service that his Lordship had done to the Christian Religion by his late publication of two excellent Pastoral Letters 1 against atheism, infidelity, and heresie"; and in the following year their gratitude was not less lively because to his "third pastoral Letter ag l Deism 2 " he had added "his share in the judicious and learned remarks drawn up by the Lords the Bishops upon a Bill brought into Parliam 1 last Session to hinder Clergymen from recovering Tythes." Gibson merited their thanks in the latter case at any rate, for his spirited lead against Walpole is often said to have cost him the Primacy. Again, in 1736, the Court were able to emphasise in two ways their sense of the obligations of the diocese to this great man. In the first place they made the President, Joseph Roper, D.D., of St Nicholas Cole Abbey, their mouthpiece at the dinner, and here is what he was moved to deliver : The Lord Bishop of London was present, and had y e unanimous thanks of his clergy by the mouth of the new President... for the several excellent and seasonable defenses he had made of the doctrines of the Christian Faith and for the many & great Instances he hath shown, upon all occasions, of his care and vigilance in maintaining the Constitution of the Church of England in its present Establish- ment, and the legal Rights of the Clergy thereof and in particular for the steddy and vigorous opposition which he gave to some attempts lately made upon those Rights, which manifestly threat'ned the security of them 3 . It was likewise unanimously agreed at the same time that this Resolution be entred in by their Registrary...to remain there as a perpetuall Memorial of the just sense which the Clergy of London have of their singular happiness in being at this time under the Protection and Government of so great & able a Prelate.... Secondly, without waiting for the Visitor to give them his portrait, as Visitors have sometimes done and may yet do, a Fellow and ex-President was moved in 1736 to have one painted as a personal gift to the College. 1 (i) " A Pastoral Letter to the People of His Diocese, occasion'd by some late Writings in favour of Infidelity." 8. 1728. (ii) a sequel against some late writings " in which it is asserted ' That reason is a sufficient guide in matters of religion, without the help of revelation. '" 8. 1730. 2 "Occasioned by the Suggestions of Infidels against the Writings of the New Testament," &c. 3 The reference is doubtless to the Quaker Relief Bill, 1736. 26 THE VISITOR The Rev. D r Samuel Baker [President, 1725], Rector of St Michaels Cornhill, & Residentiary of St Pauls Cathedral, came and acquainted the Governors that at his charge and Procurement M r Vanderbank Painter in Hollis Street Tyburn Road 1 , had drawn the picture of the Right Rev d Edmund now L d Bp of London, w ch the s d D r Baker will send hither in a few days, and entreats the Governors to accept it as his Present, and to place it in the College Hall, as they in their Discretion shall see fit. [Accordingly the said Picture was brought in, May 13, and set up in the Hall, near the Picture of the most Rev d Tho. Tenison late L d Archbishop of Canterbury.] Resolved that M r President, in the name of the London Clergy, shall give thanks to D r Baker for his Present of the said Picture, on the Feast Day. Altogether it must have been a pleasing occasion ; for the donor, being something of a pluralist, was able to employ an artist of no little eminence, whose virtues were not as evident as his vogue. The College has always felt itself justified at least so long as it stood in any full sense as the corporate representation of the Clerus Londinensis in approaching a Bishop of London on the occasion of some particularly timely utterance. Thomas Sherlock, for instance, was not the last of his line to use the opportunity of an earthquake for the purposes of exhortation. The letter he addressed to the diocese in 1750 is a plain-spoken document, of which it is said that 10,000 copies were sold in two days a sale which would hardly befall any episcopal pronouncement in the present day. Our Court thought it was all that it should be, and on 27 March 1750 it was agreed "that M r President [Mr William Reyner, Rector of St Mary Magdalen, Old Fish Street, and Minor Canon of St Paul's], the Rev d M r Barton [Cutts Barton, of St Andrew, Holborn, afterwards Dean of Bristol], and the Rev d D r Allen [Fifield Allen, of St Anne, Aldersgate], be deputed in the Name of the General Court, to wait on the Lord Bishop of London, Visitor of this College, with their Compliment of Thanks for his excellent Letter to the Clergy and People, on the occasion of the late Earthquakes." So the deputation went to him " in the Name and by the appointment of your Clergy 1 He died here 23 Dec. 1739. THE VISITOR 27 of London, assembled in their General Court," and after giving their thanks they thus apostrophised their times : We beg leave further to assure you, that it shall be our constant Aim & Endeavour, to imprint on the minds of the People committed to our care, a just sense of the calamities we have but too great reason to apprehend, from the flagrant infidelity and Licentiousness of the Times, and of the Obligations we are all under to your Lordship, for your most seasonable & affecting Monition. " Which Compliment " so they related on their return " his Lordship was pleas'd to accept in good part, and desired that his Thanks to his Clergy might be Reported at the next general Court." Seven years afterwards Sherlock gave them his portrait, " painted," as the register says, " by Borgnis an Italian." Again, when Sherlock was gone and Thomas Hayter began a brief rule in his stead, a General Court was summoned (25 September 1761), and Dr William Brakenridge, President and Librarian, desired "to know their sentiments with regard to the Corporation waiting on the Bishop of London to compli- ment him on his promotion." This resulted in the usual address; and let it be admitted that, as the custom hardened into a rule, the addresses began to assume " common form." In Hayter's case their sentiments were rounded off with a pious hope for his long continuance, which has a pathetic ring when we think of his early decease. " We," said the Fellows, " have nothing further to wish but that God Almighty may continue this blessing to us, by granting to your Lordship Health and length of days, to exercise those Superiour Talents, which," as they phrased it according to the notions of the times, " have been so eminently distinguished by the best of Kings." We need not enter in detail into the welcome given by our Fellows to Osbaldistone nor into his reply, dated " Frith Street, March 4," 1762. To Richard Terrick, in 1764, their greeting was especially cordial, and his acknowledgment was in admir- able form. From the first they regarded him as one closely interested in their concerns, and there was no precedent for the resolution acted upon in 1765 "that a Catalogue of the Library be handsomely bound and sent as a present from the Governors to the Lord Bishop of London as Visitor of the College." 28 THE VISITOR Evidently the members of the College were soon suggesting to him that it would please them to have his effigy in their collection, and he was ready to oblige them. Here is the letter which he addressed to the President (John Blakiston, of St Ethelburga): Rev d : Sir, Some time ago the Clergy, who are members of Sion College, express'd a desire to give a Place to my Picture amongst several of my Predecessors in the See of London. I consider'd the Honour they did me as a Testimony of their Regard ; and was therefore willing to take the first convenient Opportunity of complying with their Wishes. The Picture was sent to the College yesterday, and if it is thought worthy of their acceptance, they will, I hope, allow it to remind them of that Relation we bear to each other, and w ch I shall ever esteem the greatest Honour of my Life. I am Rev: nd Sir, Your loving B r : Ric: LONDON. London House Dec. 13. 1771. The picture gallery 1 was now growing apace. Memories, it was felt, were short; Visitors followed one another in fairly rapid succession ; artists were not all equally felicitous ; and in the days of wigs one Bishop looked much like another. Therefore in 1777 "the President was desired to cause Inscriptions to be made on each Picture in the Hall denoting the Persons for whom the Portraitures were made." It is impossible to deal with each succeeding Visitor in detail, but Lowth, Porteus, Howley, and Blomfield were a very strong quaternion, and it will be realised, under the head of the public activities of the College 2 , how frequently recourse was had to each of these Bishops for the purpose of presenting petitions- to Parliament. 1 The collection was on one occasion in somewhat ludicrous danger. In 1842 all the pictures were sent to one Eckford to be cleaned, but information came that they had been removed from his house in order to avoid their being seized under an execution and were now in possession of Mr Roberts an auctioneer. Resolved ''to obtain possession of them without loss of time." 2 See Chapter xn. THE VISITOR 29 Lowth was a man whose great learning drew him towards an institution which has done much to promote among the clergy the study of languages and divinity, and his reply to the congratulations of the General Court rose to the level of real eloquence. , No less than six and twenty Fellows presented themselves before Beilby Porteus on II December 1787 he was not fully in office till the following day 1 and in their welcome they made reference to " that amiable and ardent philanthropy with which you have stood forth the eloquent and pathetic Advocate of numberless the most wretched of our Fellow Creatures, the Negroe Slaves in the British Isles." The words went home to his heart ; indeed, the President 2 quite deserved the thanks of his brethren " for the very judicious and sensible form of con- gratulation produced by him." " May the gracious and equal Father of the whole Human Race," said the Bishop in his reply, " speedily accomplish your wishes and mine." Porteus proved himself a good friend to Sion College. It was not merely that from 1788 onwards he rarely missed an Anniversary dinner, but after his first he paid a suitable " footing " by adding to the Library, and received " the Thanks of the College for his valuable obliging Present of the Works of Bishop Warburton in Seven Volumes Quarto," not to speak of the interesting but, perhaps, less valuable fact that in 1811 his own Works and Life, in six volumes octavo, were " received into the Library, in pursuance of his Lordship's will." But he was himself a much-painted man, being handsome of presence and of real dignity of manner, and he noticed our pictures when he came to Sion. So in 1794 there was a request from him that " M r Stewart, a Painter, may be permitted to take Copies of the Portraits of Bishop Compton and Bishop Sherlock in the Hall " a request readily granted. The time came in due course for his own effigy to be added to the others ; but, though he was wealthy, he did not give it. At the anniversary of 1808 it was agreed that the President, Mr James Simpkinson, of St Peter le Poer, should approach 1 Cf. Hennessy, Novum Repertorium, p. 8. . 2 The Rev. Thomas Moore, of St James, Duke Place. 30 THE VISITOR Porteus, " in the name of the London Clergy," for permission to copy any portrait of his Lordship for the College Hall. The Bishop replied with much satisfaction. " That which my Friends," he wrote, " consider as the best portrait that has been taken of me, is one by Hoppner, taken about a year ago ; and as it is certainly a fine Picture I could wish to put it into safe Hands to copy it. And if the College would allow me to recommend a Copyist to them, I would name M r Pocock 1 Junior in Old Bond Street, who has already made one very good copy of it for the Palace at Chester." At the same time there was a letter from Pocock, saying that his price would be forty guineas. There is no further record in the Register, but the copy of Hoppner's celebrated canvas hangs in the Hall. But, when it came to matters of politics and questions of revenue, Porteus was quite ready to speak his mind. One of the perpetual grievances in the minds of the Clergy was concerned with their liability to land-tax, and among our miscellaneous archives is a stately communication on this subject from Porteus to Dr Morice, of All Hallows, Bread Street, who was President in 1789 and 1790, and who was to be found at " Gower Street, Bedford Square," while the Bishop wrote from Sundridge. His writing is strangely bald and uninteresting, but the sentiment is direct. "The Bishop of London," it says, " presents his compt 8 to D r Morice and has read the enclosed case with great Attention. When he returns to London he will be ready to concurr with the Archbishop in any measure that may be thought practicable and ex- pedient. But in his own mind he is convinced that no minister will ever propose a Bill to exempt any Body of men from the Land Tax who are deemed liable to it by Law." Within a few months, on 14 May 1809, Porteus passed away, and for us there are only two points of interest about John Randolph, who succeeded him. One is that at the Anniversary of 1812 he " requested the Use of the College Hall for a General Meeting of the National Society on Wednesday the 3rd of June next " the first of several anniversaries which that Society held within our walls and the forerunner of innumerable meetings 1 Cf. Diet. Nat. Biog. s.v. Pocock, Isaac (17821835). THE VISITOR 31 of Church organisations now held in the Hall each year. The other lies in the partisan use which the Bishop made of the usual ceremonious approach to him by the President and Fellows of our College. Porteus, it will be remembered, had not scrupled to interest himself in those efforts of a growing section of the Church to carry out the Master's last commands that disciples were to be made among all the nations. He saw nothing incompatible with his duty in co-operation with the Bible Society and the Church Missionary Society. Bishop Randolph also had a wide conception of the responsibilities of the Church of England and particularly of the Church in London. In his reply to the Clerus Londinensis on 12 March 1810 for some reason they allowed several months to elapse before waiting upon him he used words which often have their counterpart on the lips of our present Visitor, speaking of London as "a Diocese the most important of any in our Church, because to this, as containing the Seat of Empire within it, the rest must naturally look up as their example." But he took occasion from some words in the address to strike a note of controversy and partisanship, which must have jarred on the ears of some of the deputation 1 . You remind me also [he said] of the difficulties of the times. They are indeed great, and press home upon every man who fills any exalted station, or any station, in the Church. Heresies and schisms are indeed prevalent; none more alarming than this new division, which has lately arisen among us, from those who call themselves members of our Church, and shelter themselves under it's wing, whilst they weaken it's credit by presumptuously proclaiming that many of it's most respectable members are not preachers of the Gospel, or not equally so with themselves, for no other reason than because they preach it with simplicity and plainness. A bad mode this, and a most uncharit- able one surely, of recommending their own labours by depreciating and vilifying those of others.... For myself I can only assure you of. ..my earnest endeavours to preserve our Church such as our Ancestors have delivered it down to from the time of the Reformation. By family, by education, by every circumstance of my life, I am fixed to this point. William Howley's interest in the life of the College has been already referred to, and in 1828 the Court had the 1 Such as William Goode, of St Andrew by the Wardrobe. 32 THE VISITOR double duty of congratulating him on his promotion to Lam- beth and welcoming C. J. Blomfield from Chester to London. Long acquaintance lent sincerity to their statement to Howley that we are truly sensible of the loss, which as a Body we have in consequence sustained, no longer enjoying your kind and Fatherly superintendence as our Diocesan & Visitor Although deprived of your immediate direction... we have the satis- faction of reflecting that your Grace is the Head of our particular Province. To that bond of union we cling with fondness; assured that Your Grace will still watch over our interests and the interests of the Church at large with a parental eye. Blomfield was one of themselves. He even retained the benefice of St Botolph, Bishopsgate, while occupying the see of Chester. To him, therefore, they could say : It is gratifying to our recollection, that your Lordship has been one of our body, as it has caused most of us to be personally known to you, and, we would trust, on that occasion created beforehand a becoming reciprocity of regard.... The time appears to be drawing on, in which more than ordinary zeal vigilance & exertion will be necessary to protect [the Church's] interests and her very existence. Under your able superintendence and the influence of your example, we feel convinced, that these will not be wanting. Let it be remembered that these formal occasions were not unattended with expense. Mr Watts, the Librarian, being an excellent penman, would receive three to five guineas for a fair copy of the address ; and the company that conveyed it was usually considerable. The Court, the Past Presidents, and any Fellows who could, set out from the College, and the President " at the expence of the College provided 8 Coaches for the purpose of conveying [them] to and from London House." Thirty-six Fellows waited upon Blomfield, and nine coaches conveyed forty-three to Lambeth to congratulate Howley, the bill for coach-hire in the latter case being 11. Js. $d. Certainly Blomfield was worth all their congratulations, for he brought a new sense of life and vigour into the diocese. It falls to be explained elsewhere that one or two decisions l of the first importance to the well-being of the College were demanded 1 See Chapter HI. THE VISITOR 33 of him in his capacity as Visitor, and in each case the problems arose out of a revival of parochial vigour or out of the greater interest felt by the Fellows in the affairs of the Corporation. Here we may be content with the more personal side of his relationship to us. Blomfield, it may be noticed, was the first and only Visitor whose recovery from sickness seemed to the General Court an event that called for their official notice. On I November 1836 they met and with the help of Dr Russell, who held the Bishop's former benefice at Bishopsgate, and who on this occasion first became prominent in the affairs of the College, which afterwards owed much to him, they drew up a message of congratulation to their Visitor and Diocesan " on your recovery from your late dangerous illness." They added "a respectful hope that you will be prevailed upon to be more sparing of yourself in future, if not for your own sake, at least for the sake of those over whom you preside," and a few days later they carried the document to London House and presented it " in their Robes." Secondly, Blomfield was the first and only Visitor who thought well to return the hospitality which he and his pre- decessors had so often received in the College Hall. It is possible that, as he grew older, he could not be as regular in his attendance at the Anniversary. It is also likely that he was made aware of a self-denying ordinance by which it was decided in April, 1844, that the dinner should be discontinued till the College had liquidated a heavy debt. Or the reason may be found in the fact that John Russell, of Bishopsgate, was Pre- sident when the invitation came. In any case it came, and it caused a little excitement as to ways and means and methods. John Russell's hand may be traced in the minute which settled the difficulty : The Bishop of London having invited the Members of the Court to dine at Fulham Palace on Wednesday July 16 it was submitted to the Court whether the Members should be conveyed to the dinner at their own charge, or at the charge of the College, and it was unanimously resolved that the charge should be borne by the Indi- viduals ; two considerations mainly leading to the resolution ; the one, that under the existing circumstances of the College it was an P. * 34 THE VISITOR imperative duty to abstain from every expenditure which could be avoided, the other, that, all form being at the Bishop's express desire given up, the acceptance of such invitation did not give to individuals a claim to be regarded as performing an official act. It is not necessary to pursue further the story of the relations of our College to its official chief, for it would be a record of consistent peace and of reverent affection. I can recall no more serious disagreement than may be concluded from a grim remark, made to me at one of our Anniversaries by Bishop Temple, that the soup did not seem to him quite as good as that set before him at the Sons of the Clergy dinner the night before, and every one knows how little that great Bishop would be inclined to " visit " for these things. Alike from Tait and Jackson and Temple and Creighton the Fellows received on these occasions words of wisdom and of encouragement, and it can be easily imagined, as has been already suggested, how the present Visitor delights to speak his heart out to his brethren. 13 3 a ill o '** g o CHAPTER III THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT Impleuit Sion iudicio. Esai. xxxiii. 5. WHOEVER would understand the life of Sion College must be content to follow the concerns of the Presidents and Courts of Governors as these are recorded with varied handwriting, and with no less various skill, in the many volumes of registers which we possess. To this day it is generally true that an absorbing interest in the College on the part of its Fellows begins only after membership of the Court has been achieved, and the writer speaks feelingly, as he was defeated oftener than any candidate of modern times before he took his seat in the Court Room as fourth Assistant. The provisions about the annual election, which are read in breathless legal Latin at every Anniversary meeting, minutely k describe the process to be gone through on the "dies Martis proxime sequens post tres septimanas Paschae." It will be remembered that the Letters Patent of 1630 gave the College a set of Governors, who held office from 6 July 1630 till the Anniversary next ensuing. If they kept any minutes of their proceedings, these have not survived. Probably they regarded themselves as locum tenentes until a popular election should decide who were to be the first working Court. But their names should be put on record. The President was John Gifford, " rector ecclesiae parochialis de Bassingshawe." Thomas Worrall, D.D. (St Botolph, Bishopsgate), and John Simson, B.D. (St Olave, Hart Street), were the Deans. Francis Dee, D.D. 32 36 THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT (All Hallows, Lombard Street), Cornelius Burges, D.D. (St Magnus, Bridge Street), Edward Abbott (All Hallows, Barking), and Thomas Wood, B.D. (St Michael, Crooked Lane), were the four Assistants. The choice of Simson was obvious ; he was one of Dr White's executors and was his cousin, and his foundation of the Library gave permanency to the College as a national institution. Thomas Worrall held the rectory of Finchley and the prebend of Holborn along with the benefice of St Botolph, Bishopsgate. Of Cornelius Burges we shall hear again. Francis Dee was made Dean of Chichester during his year of office and Bishop of Peterborough in 1634; whereupon he vacated his benefice. Edward Abbott, who had formerly been Vicar of Ealing and rector of St Margaret, New Fish Street, resigned these offices on his appointment by Archbishop Bancroft in 1616 to the rectory of All Hallows, Barking, being also ' Precentor and Prebendary of Wells. Thomas Wood succeeded Edward Abbott at St Margaret, New Fish Street, but had the Archbishop's dispensation to hold St Michael, Crooked Lane, with it. Thus the men who were named in the Charter represent a fairly considerable pluralism. Worrall became President in 1634. Simson was Senior Dean in 1631, 1632 and 1633. Cornelius Burges was President in 1647 and 1648. Thomas Wood was First Assistant 1631, Junior Dean 1632, Senior Dean 1636, 1637 and 1638. The rest appear no more. Therefore our first definite event in the corporate life of the College is the statutory election of the following year. Let it be recorded in full : May y e 3 d 1631. At a generall assembly of the President and ffellowes of Sion Colledge the day and yeare above written being the first Tewsday post Tres Pasch: these were by generall consent chosen Gouvenours for the yeare ensewing according to Charter Thomas Westfield Doctor of Divinity ) p j Rector of St Bartholomew y e great j Thomas Worrall Doctor of Divinity Rector of St Botolph Bishopsgate John Simson Bachelor of Divinity Rector of St Olaves Hart Streete THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT 37 Richard Watson Doctor of Divinity Rector of St Mary Aldermary Watling Streete Cornelius Surges Doctor of Divinity Rector of St Magnus Bridg Streete George Walker Bachelor of Divinity \ Assistants. Rector of St John the Evangelist Watling Streete Thomas Wood Bachelor of Divinity Rector of St Michael Crooked Lane What, it may be asked, were the instructions on which such general meeting acted in its choice of men ? The Charter says "tune et ibidem antequam abinde recesserint nominare et eligere possint et valeant unum e praecellentioribus et discretioribus Sociis Collegii illic. Presbiterum ordine constitutum qui erit Praeses...ac etiam duos e reliquis sociorum praestantioribus... qui erunt Decani... ac etiam quatuor Rectores vel Vicarios ut praedictum est...qui erunt Assistentes." Thus it was to be a real choice according to men's merits. They were to be elected " by generall consent " as being those who specially approved themselves to the brethren by their ability and their prudence in affairs ; and, as we shall have to insist, the subsequent tendency to choose the Court in servile fidelity to the chronological order of their institution to bene- fices, not to speak of fining them if they declined to serve, was a violation at once of the letter and of the intention of the Charter. Nevertheless even at this first election certain secondary considerations can be detected. The seven are divided as evenly as seven can be between the eastern and the western portions of the City, very much as to-day an effort is commonly made to secure a just representation at once of the urban and the suburban Fellows. A degree in divinity was evidently reckoned to be a strong qualification ; there are four Doctors and three Bachelors. Something also is due to the principle of continuity. John Gifford, the President nominated by the Letters Patent, retires, but four of the original seven Worrall, Simson, Burges and Wood were, as we have seen, re-elected to various offices on the Court, while Simson's early decease was the first large personal loss sustained by the College in its infancy. Lastly, as the College was intended 38 THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT by its Founder "to maynetaine...love in conversing together," the Court must be representative of various views, and if Dr White could have seen this first election result in the choice of an ardent, if lachrymose, Royalist such as Westfield, afterwards Bishop of Bristol, for President, and of a bustling Puritan like Burges for one of his colleagues, he would have felt that he had not laboured in vain. Their principal business on that 3 May 1631 was the provision of a seal to authenticate their corporate action. Att the same assembly there was proposed to y e President and fellowes a Scale w th this deuice in it. Vid. The Samaritan curing the wounded man, w th this Motto engrauen, Vade, fac similiter, and w th this Inscription round about the border of it Sigillum Colkgij de Sion Londini, and they consented to take it for the Common Scale of the Colledge. The development of the seal is not easy to trace. In 1793 it was agreed that, "the old Seal of the College being much worn," a new Seal be provided ; " and that M r Barnes of Coventry Street be employed to make the same." He was also " to take an impression of the old seal." What he produced, if it was the one used on a warrant in 1815 to Robert Watts to collect books under the Copyright Act, was an admirable classic design. At some later date the College reverted to the more primitive model, which was renewed in 1910. Barnes was paid 20 guineas for the die and six guineas for the press, and " two impressions one in Sulphur and another in wax " were duly laid up in the iron chest, together with the seal ; but, as the Visitor was concerned with the corporate acts of the College, similar im- pressions were " presented to the Right Rev d . the Visitor of the College by the President." We return to the College of the first days. The Court made an effort to meet monthly, but the earliest register does not err on the side of excessive detail. Clearly from the first they blended social intercourse with their serious affairs, and the modest funds of the College saved them from excess. "Thought fitt and agreed/' says a minute of 1635, when William Fuller, the Royalist vicar of St Giles, Cripplegate (Dean of Ely 1636 and of Durham 1646), was in the chair, "that io s shall be added THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT 39 to the io s formerly allowed and so in all 2O S a moneth shalbe allowed to the Govern rs monethly dynners." Dinners suggested to them, of old-time silver plate, and the Puritan had not the least objection to his food and his drink being elegantly served. In 1642 the minutes begin to acknow- ledge the receipt of gifts in this kind 1 , "one bason and ewer of silver being giuen unto the Colledge" by "Thomas Leighton, Esq. deceased," and " M r Almeryes [the executor's] man that brought it had giuen unto him by direccon of the Gouern rs ii s vi d ." By 1655, when the spirit of the Court was so Puritan that "Saint" was banished from entries of parishes in the records, their treasures have increased to the extent implied in the following minute : This day delivered to M r John Jellybrand goldsmith the Colledge plate to be trym'd upp viz fc one dozen of silver spoones white one bason & Ewre of silver one silver salt one silver tankard ffive silver bowles. Forty years afterwards, when Bishop Compton made his memorable visitation 2 of Sion in 1695, the treasures have not greatly increased. There is another " salt " (six were added in 1831 "of the same pattern with the old ones") and there is another silver bowl. But now (1695) we have the weights and the value. Value. One large Silver Bason & Ewer weigh- ing (viz 1 ) Two large Silver Salts One Silver Cann Two high Silver Bowls Two low Silver Bowls Twelve Silver Spoones oz. dwt. the Bason 33 00 9 19 9 the Ewer 19 3 5 14 ii 27 01 8 02 3 16 3 4 16 ii 13 04 A 02 2 13 04 A, 02 2 16 09 4 18 8 41 : 16 : 10 1 Walter Travers' gift, which is not recorded in the register, has already been noticed, p. 23. 2 See Chapter n. p. 21 ff. 40 THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT The pity is that the Governors were bound to act on the Visitor's instructions to buy new lamps for old, and resolved That in pursuance of the Bisho^ of Londons Order... the College Plate being for the most part old and useless and unserviceable be exchanged for such new as the late and now Presid t shall think fitt... And that they doe meet at Aldman Johnsons 1 the Goldsmiths -in Cheapside for that purpose to Morrow Morning.... Memorand. the said Plate was carryed accordingly to S r John Johnsons and weighed which came together to One hundred and thirty- nine ounces and a halfe and in value Thirty seaven pounds and fower shillings at 5 s 4 d p. oz. ...Of which the little Can or Beaker with a Cover and the two high small Cupps or Bowles given by M r Walter Travers oz. dw. weighed together 29 . 17. So that D r Greene & D r Lake directed a Salver to be made of that value and the Armes or Seale of the College to be engraved thereon, and to be engraved The Gift of Walter Travers as the Can and Cupps were, and the rest of the Plate to be a large double Tankerd, a Plate to Collect in, Six Salts and Twelve Spoones, the Tankerd and Plate to be engraved with the College Armes as the Salver, and the Salts and Spoones to be marked : S. C. Sir John Johnson brought to the next meeting of the Court a salver weighing 25 oz. 3 dwt. at 6s. 2d. per ounce, a large tankard weighing 39 oz. 9 dwt, and a small " Dish to collect in," weighing 23 oz. 8 dwt., at the same price, six salts weighing 12 oz. 4 dwt., and twelve spoons, weighing 24 oz. 7 dwt. at 5^. 6d. per ounce, the whole costing 40. os. 8d., or i. i6s. 2d. less than the value of the old plate ! No addition had been made up to 1737, when Reading, who loved and watched over all College concerns, expressed his Fears to this Court that the College Plate, and three East India Bonds (whereof one belongs to y e College, and two to M r Reading) were not so secure from robbery as could be wisht, being deposited in the chest of writings standing in the College hall, a lonesom and very open room ; the Governors agreed that M r Reading might take y e said plate & Bonds out of the old chest and deposite them in any part of his own house, or in the Library, which he thought most safe. Accordingly, on Fryday following, Feb 4: he put y e said Plate & Bonds, in a new box with one lock, standing in a room behind the first clock, at the head of y e Library Stairs. The Plate consists of one Tankard, one Salver, one Dish to collect money at the Feast, all markt with the College arms as the Seal. Six saltcellars and 12 spoons markt S * C. 1 Alderman of Farringdon Within 1696-8. Cf. A. B. Beaven, Aldermen of the City of London, p. 151. THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT 41 No City Company would count itself passing rich in silver if this were all it possessed, and we are not now likely to exchange it for its equivalent ounces of modern plate. It corresponds with the general modesty of the early establish- ment, when "the brasse Andirons given to the Colledge [in 1648] by M rs Elizabeth Potter of the p'ish of St Mildred in the Poultry London " and '' a fire Shovell and a paire of tongues," the gift of Dr Drake 1 , were thankfully ordered " to be inserted in the Inventory of the Colledge goods " ; or when it was acknowledged in 1693 that the Court linen was all worn out "" these 3 or 4 yeares since." However, if their table was modest, they sometimes had wherewithal to consider the poor, and their Clerk has put it down to their credit. Hannah Vatcher, he writes in 1637, " a pore Ministers widdow," was given five shillings, and " M r Whalpole's son whoe is a prisoner in Wood Street Compter " received ten shillings as " a guifte from the Govern 1 " 5 ." Two things were soon found to be necessary for purposes of business. There must be security and there must be punctuality. They have already procured a chest, but they must make it as strong as they can. So they ordered in 1648 That the Chest with 3 locks and Keys be removed in the little Roome by the end of the Gallery which is to be made firm with a strong lock and key. In which Chest all the Evidences, Chrs [Charters], and wrytings belonging to the Colledge are to be kept, and the Presid 1 and two Deanes to have each of them a key thereof. Was it a sign of the laxer habits of the Restoration era that a meeting held in 1661 was obliged to decree that whoever of the President and Deanes bring not the Key of the Chest with them att any Court Meeting shall pay xn d towards the buying of a Booke for the Library? Punctuality, they hoped, might equally be attained by an argument addressed to the purse of the individual. The rule 1 This is Doctor Roger Drake, "Rector of Peters Cheape," who was elected First Assistant in 1654 and was chosen to preach the second Latin sermon in 1653. But he is unknown to the Novum Repertorium Londinense (1898), p. 436, though in its list of rectors of this parish there is a gap into which he may have been "intruded" in 1647. 42 THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT dates from 16 May 1654, and it brought in one shilling and two sixpences at the meeting next ensuing : That a Court day for their meeting being appoynted, if any of the Governo rs shall delay his comeing above halfe an houre after the tyme prefixed he shall forfeit vi d and if he be wholy absent he shall forfeit xn d unlesse in case of sicknesse or such other case as shall be before allowed by the president. For this purpose they bought their half-hour glass, and pro- ceeded on 7 August to decree that the fines should increase with the responsibility of the offender : That whosoever of the Governo rs haveing a sumons left at his house shall absent himselfe without giveing notice to the president shall pay xn d and whosoever cometh after the halfe houre glasse is run being turned up by the first comer after nyne shall pay vi d . Also that if the presid* absent himselfe without notice given to one of the Deanes he shall pay v s and if he come tarde he shall pay 11 s Vl d . That all forfeitures of this kinde be at the yeares end laid out in a booke to be given to the library. This became, if not an ordinance for ever, yet a constantly accepted arrangement for each set of officials, who up to about 1670 used to resolve annually "that the former order concerning the Govern rs not comeing in due tyme doe stand " ; and the order of 1691 "to buy against the next Court halfe an hour glass " is a presumption in favour of the rule still holding at that time. Now there need be no question that in the earliest years the annual elections were keenly contested, and that the Governors knew they must apply themselves shrewdly and punctually to business because they were being watched by their constituents. But several volumes of our registers may be searched without finding the details of these yearly hustings. In 1652 for the first time it is on record that the Court elected was " chosen by the major part," though nothing is said of those for whom the minor part voted. It is only when the actual lists come to be examined that one begins to conjure up visions of the battle of the warriors and of garments rolled in blood. Take the year 1659, when "St" begins to be restored and as a tentative compromise is allowed to three out of the seven names of parishes. William Blackmore, of St Peter, Cornhill, THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT 43 who was then chosen Junior Dean, is the sole survivor of the men of 1658, who doubtless did not all say their nolo. So also in 1661 only Thomas White, of St Mary-at-Hill, comes out of the ordeal. The rest, with the exception of John Meriton (President 1678), appear no more. There may have been political or ecclesiastical considerations in each case, but a contest of some sort there has clearly been. Probably all the further light we can now expect must be derived from an examination of the list of Presidents, with the details of their previous service to the College, which has been compiled as an appendix to this volume. It shows that of the Presidents elected up to the Restoration not less than nine had served no apprenticeship on the Court had not so much as been mentioned in the Letters Patent. It may therefore be concluded that each came forward on his merits, in which case there would be others ready to weigh theirs against his, or was brought forward by his friends and carried in against the votes of other men's friends. The same lack of previous service applies, even after the Restoration, to Robert Pory, " rector of St Buttolphs Bishopsgate" .and Archdeacon of Middlesex (1660 1669), who was elected President for 1661 and 1662, and to Dr Samuel Bolton, "rector of St Peters Poore," who held the highest office in 1664 and 1665, each being a novice to the business. But after this we come to a time when the keenness of the contests is obvious even in the registers. The moment we get past the sudden failure of Andrew Nicholson, the Clerk 1 , to keep his chronicle of the Courts of 1673 properly written up, we are suddenly ushered into a scene of considerable competition for offices, whether its signs be due to the greater care of the succeeding recorder, or whether it mean a new feature in the life of the Society. Dr Bell, vicar of St Sepulchre, has already had one year of presidency, and is put in nomination for another, but he has a rival in Dr Charles Mason, who had been Senior Dean in 1663 and 1664. " And thereupon Dr Bell was elected President." In 1674 Dr Bell had two rivals, whom he defeated, and in 1675 he had three; but by that time the 1 See p. 81. 44 THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT Fellows were clearly of opinion that he had tasted sufficiently of the sweets of office, and " D r Mason, Rector of St Peter the Poore," came to his own. The competition for the subordinate offices was at the same time no less keen. There were three candidates for the Dean- ships in 1673, five in 1674, s ^ x i n J ^75 ; while the nominations for the four Assistantships numbered eight in 1673, including " M r William Sherlocke, Rector of St George, Buttolph Lane" (afterwards Dean of St Paul's), who was taken, and my pre- decessor at Christ Church, " M r E. Sherwing " (or Sheering) 1 , who was left; in 1674 there were ten nominations and in 1675 nine. The details of the voting are not given. In 1676 there were three candidates for the President's chair, " and after a due consideracon and scrutiny D r Meriton was elected," and in 1678, when nine Fellows aspired to be Deans and ten to be Assistants, the re-election of Mr Gifford as President for a second year is recorded as being decided "by the generall consent of all the ffellowes present and upon scrutiny," as if the Clerk would cover up the traces of opposition from some quarter not specified. Yet there are clouds, though they be as small as a man's hand, signifying that all is not well. This keenness for office did not imply a passion for the work of the College. There were at this time a very small number of meetings each year, and the agenda paper was of the slightest character. In the year 1 680-81, the only Courts were on 27 July, on some day not specified in November, when there was no quorum, on 3 January, when there were three present, on I March, and on ii April and 18 April, at each of which there were but four present, to prepare for the Anniversary. The President and two others not infrequently constituted the attendance, and " none but Dr Sherlock" is the record of 10 January 1684. How the Governors tried to instil keenness into each other is shown in one way by a resolution of 1677 u that a Court be the first Munday in Decem: next and that noates be given to the govenors assone as may be that they may give notice thereof to one another and 1 A somewhat litigious person. See^ E. H. Pearce, Annals of Christ's Hospital, 2nd ed. 1908, pp. 199, 200. He became fourth Assistant in 1682, and in 1689 received a few ineffective votes for the Deanship. THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT 45 ingage one another to be theire without faile." It is shown, perhaps, in another way by the entry, 14 February 1682, of the following expenses : Paid Maddocks [the Messenger 1 ] for Attendinge and Pipes 6 d Paid D r Grove [afterwards Bishop of Chichester] for Wine this day had at the last Generall Court 2 . 13 s . But for the moment both failed, and something had clearly gone amiss with the whole system. At the ensuing Anniversary in May 1682, the Fellows elected as their President " D r Zanchy, Rector of - ," some parish which the Clerk did not trouble to state, but which was in fact St Clement, Eastcheap. Clement Sankey is well known to the readers of the daily doings of Mr Samuel Pepys 2 , much better known, apparently, than he was to the officials of Sion College, to which he had hitherto done no service on the Court, though it is fair to add that an entry in the Account Book shows him assisting Dr Bell, of St Sepulchre, to collect money for the rebuilding after the Fire. But he would do no service now. No Court was held after the Anniversary, and it seems to have taken the Governors till 4 December to realise the position, when they called a General Meeting. Upon Consideracon of what was fit to be done this day [n Decem- ber, 1682] at this Court it was ordered and agreed that D r Zanchy the elected president be remoued from the same office ffor that it was testified he refused to hold that office or to Act or doe any thing as presid* or governo r aboute the same College And thereupon it was further ordered that another shall forthwith be elected in his stead & place. Alsoe...that D r Bell is elected president of the said College for the remaineing part of the yeare ensueinge. Alsoe...that D r Zanchy be desired to preach the next Latine sermon And in case of his refusall that M r Spineage be desired to preach the same sermon whoe being present did consent thereunto. As regards the sudden vacancy, the Fellows did then what they would do now, namely, fell back on some one who had previously served the President's office with distinction, and Dr Bell of St Sepulchre had been conspicuous for his efforts to repair 1 His business included taking round the "noates." and leaving them in the vestries of the various governors. 2 See Pepys' Diary, 15 July, 3 August, 24 November, 1661; 2 April, 1662. Cf. E. H. Pearce, Annals of Christ's Hospital, 2nd ed. 1908, pp. 278, 279. 46 THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT the financial and other disasters of the Great Fire 1 . But the mystery remains. When they wanted a successor to no less a person than William Beveridge, why and on what principle did they choose in the first instance a man Pepys calls him " a mean man " such as Clement Sankey, who was unwilling to face the responsibilities, light as they then were 2 ? Anyhow it became clear to the President and his brethren that they must prepare for the election of suitable men by exercising more foresight, and' at the meeting which was held to arrange for the next Anniversary (1683) there is a note "The Register perused and Consideration had of whoe had bin former Governors of this College in order to propose and put in nomina- tion others at the next Election." This, if not the actual beginning, is a sign of the system which for nearly a hundred years afterwards they adopted with fair consistency. A Fellow elected to the Court did not under this system pass through each office in consecutive years. Take Dr Grove, whom we have recently seen repaid his expenditure upon wine for use at the Court meetings, and who held the benefice of " St Mary Ax." He served the Court continuously from 1672 to 1675 inclusive, as Assistant and Dean, being what they then sometimes called "Upper Deane" in 1675. Then he stood aside till 1680, when he was made President. It will be seen from the list of Presi- dents in the Appendix that this plan had been adopted in some previous instances and was clearly in the minds of the earliest Governors. But after the Restoration the interval between a man's previous service as a Governor and his reaching the President's chair was often of considerable length. For instance, Dr Meriton, whom we have seen fighting for the Presidentship in 1676, was first elected to the Court twenty years earlier and had held no office for eighteen years. He may, of course, have made previous attempts to be placed in the chair, and these may- have failed because his brethren discerned the " dunce Meriton " behind his " strange knack of a grave, serious delivery 3 ." On the other hand, they ought to have remembered that he was the 1 See Chapter vi, p. 124. 2 It is fair to say that among the subscribers to Dr Grove's rebuilding fund (1682) appears "Dr Sanckey ;oi. 01. 06." 3 S. Pepys, Diary, 19 May, 1667. THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT 47 means of procuring a gift of 100, to buy books for the library, from Dame Ann Moulson, the widow of Sir Thomas Moulson 1 , sometime Lord Mayor of London. Edward Fowler, again, who was one of William Ill's Prayer- Book Revisers, with a desire to relax the compulsory recitation of the Quicunque, and who died Bishop of Gloucester, is an instance of the fact that a defeat in a contest for the lower offices was no bar then, as it would practically be to-day, to ultimate election to the chair. He served as Junior Dean in 1677 and failed to be made Senior Dean in 1678, but his election to the Presidentship came at last in 1690. For a keen man this system had the advantage of spreading an active interest in College concerns over many years of his incumbency. For instance, no one loved Sion College more than Edward Waple, Arch- deacon of Taunton, Dr Bell's successor at St Sepulchre, and a splendid benefactor to the Library. He became third Assistant in 1 685, first Assistant in 1687, Junior Dean in 16892, and President in 1704. It was about 1780 that they began to make service of the various offices on the Court continuous up to the Presidentship, but we must come to that epoch in its turn. Bishop Fowler happened to be followed as President by John Williams, D.D., of St Mildred, Poultry, who was the last of our chiefs to hold the President's office for three successive years. It was a period of some concern for the landed property of the College 3 , but I mention him now because he is a good instance of a keen Governor at a time when College keenness was losing its edge. He was appointed Bishop of Chichester in 1696, and he will be referred to 4 more than once in our story of the Anniversary Feast. His exodus from the presidential chair was an event of no ordinary interest, and it receives quite unusual recognition in the register of the period. The date is i May 1694. 1 Alderman of Broad Street Ward; Lord Mayor 1634, died 1638. Cf. A. B. Beaven, Aldermen of the City of London , p. 75. 2 A voting paper among the archives shows that he received two votes for the Deanship in 1688. 3 See Chapter vn. p. 138. 4 Chapter xi. pp. 192 f. 48 THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT D r Williams the late Presid 1 did deliver to M r Hall the now Presid 1 the keys of the Chest and Dores in the College Hall and also a paper of Instructions and other papers relating to the Affaires of the College and a Note of Subscribers to be Donors to the College, and of such as might be engaged, and did also present to the Governo rs then present a breife History or State of the College and of the several Estates belonging thereunto and to the Almespeople and the Condition thereof drawne up and composed by him of which the Clerke was ordered to gett Seaven fairly written to be transmitted from time to time to the succeeding Governo rs and also a Shorter State... to be disposed to such persons as may be thought to be inclined to doe any Benefitt to the College. One of these " seaven fairly written " copies of Dr Williams' record was handed to Bishop Compton when he made his visitation 1 of the College in the following year How far this little solemnity on the part of the outgoing President was effective in encouraging the others it is impossible to say. All we know is that a certain formalism fell upon the elections, and we know it because George Daggett, the Clerk 2 , has left us a few voting papers of the period, and among them happen to be those of 1688 (Dr Dove's second year), 1689 and 1690 (the year of Dr Fowler just referred to). Those present and voting numbered in 1688 20, in 1689 17, and in 1690 26. There were 13 nominated for the office of President in 1688, four in 1689, and seven in 1690. But, though there is this wealth of nominations, there is no contest worthy of the name. Dr Dove received each vote in 1688 ; one vote strayed from the elect of 1689 and two from Dr Fowler in 1690. The only sign of variety of view is in respect of the Deanships of 1689, when Mr Sheering of Christ Church (he now appears as Sherewin) received four votes and Mr Stainoe 3 , of St Ethelburga, received five out of a possible seventeen. In 1690, when ten men were in nomination for the four Assistantships, the successful candidates received the suffrages of every man present, with the exception of a single vote that went astray. Clearly a number of these candidatures for College office and even for the President's chair were unreal, and therefore we come before long to a time when it was not easy to find men who 1 See Chapter n. p. 20 ff. 2 See Chapter iv. p. 83. 3 He was also Archdeacon of Carmarthen. THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT 49 wished their candidature to be real. I can see no sign so far that election to the Court went merely "by rotation 1 ," unless the choosing of the unwilling Sankey in 1682 be taken as a proof by itself. But in 1728 there were clear intimations that those who by service on the Court had become qualified for the President- ship were beginning with one consent to make excuse. They had a benefice or some post of dignity elsewhere, and therefore they could not come. On 30 April 1728 the Court agreed " that M> Baron [St Mary, Somerset ; 3 rd Assistant, 1716 and 1717 ; Senior Dean, 1719] and M r [Michael] Evans, [St Bride, Fleet St.] be-spoke with, about taking their turns in the presidency of the College." So the subject came up before the Anniversary Court, at which It being taken notice of, that some of the elder clergy excuse them- selves from bearing office in their turn, it was the unanimous resolution of this Court, that such as decline the service, be applied to, to give 5 guineas, or what more they please, to the College Stock. This decision went home to the conscience of the chief guest then present, White Kennett, Bishop of Peterborough. With his see he still retained not only a prebend at St Paul's but the rectory of St Mary Aldermary. In virtue of the latter he had become third Assistant on the Court in 1709, being then also Dean of Peterborough, first Assistant, 1710, and Junior Dean, 1711. Why should he not go on to be President or alternatively why should he escape the fine that was being inflicted on others ? So The Lord Bp. of Peterborough, D r Kennet, being present, and highly approving the abovesaid resolution, generously promised to pay five pounds as Rector of St Mary Aldermary, though on account of his high station he had been excused from serving the Office of Presid 1 . Kennett died in the following December, whereupon the Court acquainted his son and executor with the fact of this " promise to pay," and the $ was duly received by the Register on 13 January 1729. Now the President of 1728 was Richard Sear, of St Alban, Wood Street, who had so little sympathy with non-residence that, failing an official house, in 1712 he became tenant of the 1 W. H. Milman, Account of Sion College, p. 65. P. 4 50 THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT building in our College called the " President's Lodgings 1 ," after seeing an advertisement in the Post Boy and the Daily Courant. As an evidence of efficiency and zeal, it may be added that the record of the meeting is also signed by Dr Thomas Bray, the outgoing President. It happens that we possess the record in two forms, one in the register, giving what is reproduced above, and another on a separate sheet adding details, which was kept at hand by William Reading that on it he might enter the fines, as they came in during the years up to 1740. At this time, then, five guineas came into the " stock " from each of the following persons Mr Evans, of St Bride, Fleet St., mentioned above ; Dr Astry, or Astray, of St James, Garlickhythe, " with his best respects to y e Govern 1 " 5 ... he being non-resident"; Dr Andrew Snape 2 , of " St Mary Hill," Provost of King's College, Cambridge ; Dr Joseph Smith, of St Dionis, Backchurch ; Dr James Knight, of St Sepulchre ; Mr Ross Ley, of St Matthew, Friday Street, "on account of his infirm health and distance from the College," though his other office was that of a Brother of the Hospital of St Katharine by the Tower ; Mr Sherlock, of St George, Botolph Lane ; Dr Shippen, " Principal of Brazen nose as Rector of Whitechappel " ; " Archd n Gurdon, of St Edm d King " ; and Dr Lisle, " Archd n of Canterbury, Rec r of St Mary le Bow." Lisle applied in April 1739 to be excused from the Presidentship " till another year," pleading " his affairs, w ch call him out of Town," and was " indulged according to his desire." But a year later he stated his inability to act, and Mr Reading was ordered to write to him and ask for the fine " and to send the letter by the hands of D r Shippen." " This," he says, " he writ next day," the reason for using Dr Shippen being that Lisle had added the Wardenship of Wadham College to his other dignities, and found the Oxford of those days a more cheery place to reside in than Canterbury. There is one more name on this sheet of defaulters, that of Dr Gooch, Bishop of Bristol and rector of St Clement, Eastcheap. But his fine was not forth- coming. " Bishop Gooch," says Reading in a note against this 1 See Chapter v. p. 98. 2 Cf. E. H. Pearce, The Sons of the Clergy, 1655 1904, p. 8r, for his generosity to that Corporation. THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT 51 name, "talkt of his giving, at y e election April 25, 1738. but I have rec d nothing as yet." This murrain of refusals continued during the middle decades of the 1 8th century 1 . Thomas Reading kept a letter received by him in April 1746 from Mr Thomas Biscoe, rector of St Martin, Outwich, who said : I am sensible it's my Turn to serve Praesident and would gladly do it were I not disabled. As to paying five Guineas, I have a very good reason to plead in my excuse, which is that at the unanimous Request of the Society I serv'd Dean two years when there was a troublesome Affair depending. I think therefore that the Society ought to excuse me now, and that it should be enter'd in the Register, that whereas through Lameness and Distance of Habitation I am render'd incapable of serving the Office of Praesident... the Society at my Desire excuse my serving it.... This letter is a good sample of a confusion of pretexts for avoiding the office. As to "distance of habitation," it is ad- dressed from " North Weald." Its plea about his having been two years Dean is true and the " troublesome Affair depending " relates to his active interest in the affairs of the Manor of Brad- well 2 . Nor did the fact of the same service save Dr Bristow 3 , of All Hallows, Staining, who was associated with him as a two years' Dean, from being now elected to the office. Biscoe's excuses secured him only a year's reprieve ; for he became President, malgre lui t in I747 4 . He was a man of some dis- tinction, who had served a dissenting cause in Old Jewry before his appointment to a city benefice and a Royal chaplaincy. So much for 1746. In 1747 James Howe, of St Margaret, Lothbury, in 1748 Dr Samuel Holcombe, of St Benet, Grace- church Street, and in 1749 Thomas Kynaston, of St Botolph, 1 In spite of the fact that in 1737 it was " Orderd that a handsom elbow chair be bought and placed in Court for the use of the president." 2 See Chapter vn. p. 137. 3 Bristow's name had been brought up at the election of 1745, but he protested stoutly. "When those Gentlemen who are my Seniors on the List, shall have serv'd the office, or pay'd the Fine, I shall make no scruple of doing the same" (Letter to T. Reading, from "Selborn by Alton Bag, Hants," 7 May 1745). What he adds throws some light on a City incumbent's relation to his parish at this period: "I shall remain in the country for the cheif part of the remaining year, except at Whitsontide, and now and then a first Sunday in the month." 4 For his neglect in the matter of the Latin Sermon see p. 174. 42 52 THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT Aldgate, declined to be Presidents in their turn. Kynaston's case is of interest, because he was elected at the Anniversary on 1 8 April 1749. But he refused to accept the office and paid his fine 1 , and after an interval of five months, which appears to have been of no consequence, a successor was duly chosen. Nor was Kynaston safe even then. For he was again elected President ii May 1753, and again declined, and this time his successor was appointed within four months. Indeed, there were at this period some years in which the main business at Sion College seems to have been to find a Fellow willing to accept presidential honour. Take the year 1753. On 15 May Mr Hugh Wyat, rector of St Alphage, London Wall, was elected President. He could hardly plead distance from the College, for it lay within his parish, round which he could walk in seven or eight minutes. What he pleaded was " an ill state of health." But so also did Dr William Geekie 2 , of All Hallows, Barking, who was elected in Wyat's room on 30 June, adding that his said ill state " obliges him to reside chiefly in the country." Therefore a third general meeting was called for August 4, and this time they secured Dr Theodore Waterland, of St Benet Finck. But not without a curious difficulty, which Waterland had seen coming afar off. He was admitted to St Benet Finck in 1731, and was soon in receipt of the Clerk's communications to him as a Fellow of the College. But he entered an immediate protest, in order to fend off unpleasant duties in the future and, perhaps, to let it be seen also that he was not too pleased with his position. Here is his explanation of the case to William Reading (15 April 1737): You are pleas'd to write to me under the stile tf Rector of St Bennet Fink, a title I have not the Honour to Bear. Bennet Fink, so far as I have any Right in it, is only a Donative, the church at Windsor being Rector Impropriate or Appropriate rather, 'tis true, I enjoy the 1 As Dr W. Best, of St Lawrence, Jewry, wrote to T. Reading on 7 Nov. 1749: "I am well informed y* our President for the current year will, if calld upon by you, in y r handsome manner, to know his pleasure, fine to be excusd from serving the office....! thought it proper to give you this hint and am Yr affect, friend W. Best." 2 The name is given in the Novum Repertorium, p. 75, as "Geekie." THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT 53 Tythes settled by Act of Parliament, but the canons of Windsor 1 have the benefit of the Glebe. I have therefore no Right to be amongst your Governours, having no Induction but the Bps license only to serve the cure. I pretend not to the Honour you mention, nor do I so much as appear at Sion College amongst the London-clergy, having been refused the use of your Library. I cannot sit to study in your Library-Room, and your Governours allow me no Books to Hackney, where my health obliges me to have my Dwelling. Evidently Waterland had a grievance and at the same time desired to secure immunity from responsibility towards the College. If so, his protest was unavailing, for in 1747 he was chosen fourth Assistant, in 1748 first Assistant, and in 1749 Senior Dean. Of these elections he seems to have taken no notice, for he did not attend any of the not very numerous Courts held during the years in question. When, however, the failure of Wyat and Geekie brought about his election as Presi- dent on 4 August 1753, and this had been announced to him by Reading, perhaps with the accustomed intimation that he could avoid service on the usual terms, he sent the following not too genial reply : I very plainly perceive that your court wants me to Fine: I am much obliged to the good Gentlemen. But let them fairly prove their Right to Burthen me with an office, who am neither Rector nor Vicar in any Church within the Bounds of the City. This is a Point of Law first to be decided: I am not willing to be Imposed-on. However, with a bad grace or a good, he submitted, took the chair at two out of the three Courts held during his term, and preached the Ad Clerum sermon in 1754. The case of 1757 was even worse. The President first elected at the Anniversary was Williams Gibbon, of St Dunstan in the West, who as Dr White's successor inherited a right and a duty to be an ardent Sionite. But he lacked promptness as well as keenness and it was only in October that his refusal to serve was known. I have before me the draft of Thomas Reading's letter, dated 15 October 1757 "to D r Jeremiah Mills at Exeter in Devonshire," for Milles, Dean of Exeter and rector of St Edmund the King, was Senior Dean of our College, and with a non-serving President and a non-resident Senior Dean, Reading 1 Daniel Waterland became Canon of Windsor in 1727, which perhaps accounted for Theodore's presentation to St Benet Finck in 1731. 54 THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT was left to his own resources. Gibbon, he says, " has by a note given me notice that he will not serve... and directed me to call a General Court to choose a new President in his room, but has not paid the usual Fine of Five Guineas, nor has he said to me that he intends to pay it." Reading would therefore be glad of the Senior Dean's advice whether the summons should go out in Reading's name as clerk or in the President's name, or in whose. The Court, when it met on 28 November, resolved that Gibbon should not be excused "unless he pays the Customary Fine." Thomas Bateman, the next on the list, was passed over, " being out of the Kingdom," as we shall hear presently ; they therefore elected Dr Thomas Wilson, of St Stephen, Walbrook, who declined and paid the fine. Hence the summoning of another General Court for 2 January 1758, at which, after passing over Stephen Aldrich, of St John, Clerken- well, owing to "a doubt whether he is eligible to that office," they chose "M r John Prichard, Rector of Christ Church, Spittle Fields," who also made excuse. The fact is to be deplored because there had been but one previous case in which a suburban Fellow had had a chance to fill the chair 1 . The first suburban Fellow to be actually President was John Doughty, minister of St James, Clerkenwell, who served in 1765 ; but it must not be assumed that this portended any permanent widening of our Society's outlook, for he had no suburban successor till Richard Lendon, rector of St John, Clerkenwell, was chosen in 1811. However, we had thus reached 2 January 1758 and found the College still without a President ; but hope sprang eternal, and a court was called for 6 February. Then at last, when the College year was ten months gone, they secured a man, who became Presi- dent for seventy days. As the case is hitherto unique, though it was practically repeated in the year ensuing, the register may describe it. The Rev d M r John Cooksey Rector of St Antholin (the next In- cumbent in turn) acquainting the General Court that it will be very inconvenient for him to attend the business of the College for the remaining part of the present year, but that he is willing to serve the Office of President next year; the Court unanimously agreed to elect M r Cooksey for the remaining part of this year, and that on Account 1 Dr Shippen as rector of Whitechapel. THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT 55 of the shortness of the time they do not expect him to preach a Latin Sermon at the next Anniversary meeting, and he was accordingly Elected, and desired to do the business of the College in such manner as should be most convenient to himself. The General Court also agreed with M r Cookseys consent to recommend him on the next General day of Election, to be continued President for the ensuing year, in which case he promised at the expiration of that time to preach the Latin Sermon as usual. Nevertheless, other counsels prevailed. Cooksey, perhaps, saw a chance of escaping with a light period of responsibility. He went to work at his Latin Sermon, which was ready by the time the Anniversary came round on 18 April 1758. And then the whole dismal process was repeated. Thomas Bateman, of St Bartholomew the Great, was chosen and was next heard of in the following circumstances : Extract of a Letter from the Rev d M r Bateman the new president, to M r Thomas Cox in Winchester Street, dated at Plymouth Nov r . n. 1758, being read in these words, viz 1 . "With regard to Sion College it is out of my power to attend, as I am a Chaplain in his Majesty's Navy, must be excused, and when I reside on my parish should endeavour to discharge the Duty of President, they must therefore appoint another." The Court agreed to comply with his request. And being informed that M r William Sedgwick 1 Rector of St Clement Eastcheap who is next in turn for that Office is much indisposed at Cambridge, that he has been twice wrote to but has not given any answer. Resolved that he be not put in nomination. Thomas Reading laid aside a copy of his printed summons to this General Court, in which the name of the absentee President is given as " the Reverend M r Richard Thomas Bateman" who is described as " being engaged in His Majesty's Service as Chaplain of a Ship of War." The condition of governance in the College during such a year must be gleaned from the fact that there was after the Anniversary one meeting of the Court for business (7 August), and the amount of business that could be then done rested on the shoulders of the one member who put in an 1 I.e. William Sedgwick, President of Queens' College, Cambridge, 1731-60, who held St Clement, Eastcheap, with his headship 1738-60. Thomas Reading's letter warning him of his approaching nomination as President of Sion is useful because it conveys an idea of the terms in which the fine was generally suggested. " I am also ordered to acquaint you," he says, "that such Gent 11 , as do not chuse to serve this office usually pay to the Coll. a Fine of Five Guin s " (22 Nov. 1758). 56 THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT appearance. Similarly, the first Court summoned by the Presi- dent of 1759 was held on 28 March 1760, by the President of 1760 on 24 March 1761, and by the President of 1762 Jeremiah Milles, Dean of Exeter, referred to above on 20 December, being summoned thus early to elect a Librarian. We are debtors to Thomas Reading for preserving a characteristic letter from this Dean, to whom the presidential duties are evidently a nuisance and who clearly refers to the meeting just mentioned. The writer is not in Exeter as it happens, but only in " Grosv r Street" ; the date is 16 January 1763. He is glad, he says, that the meeting has been postponed ; " it would have been equally disagreeable to me, but I did not care to take upon me to alter y e day." An attorney had called upon him, he said, in order to treat for "a room next to y e garden,"... "nor do I well under- stand what he wants." Finally, "the Porter has also plagued me since last meeting," no doubt it was poor Thomas Pate 1 , " but I gaye him no satisfaction." That brings us to what was, perhaps, the most ludicrous of all these cases and with it we come to indubitable traces of the practice, never formally but, as I conceive, gradually and lazily admitted, of electing Presidents and members of the Court according to the place which their names occupied in a list of qualified incumbents arranged according to the date of their institution. Such a list is published yearly by the College to this day and the custom is clearly a relic of this ancient and evil plan. It was a direct contravention of the Charter, as has already been explained ; for the Charter says nothing about seniority and much about various types of moral and intellectual fitness, while it does insist on the qualification of residence. The case was that of Mr George Colton, of St Helen, Bishops- gate, who before the Anniversary of 1761 was warned "that he is next in Rotation for the Office of President, and will be put in Nomination at the General Meeting." But for some reason they gave him grace till 1763, the date being 26 April. He had evidently been again warned, for Thomas Reading has kept a letter of his, dated " Evington, 21 April 1763," in which Colton says : 1 See Chapter iv. pp. 73 f. THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT 57 I have received y r Fav rs and I beg you will present my Compliments and Brotherly Respects to the President and Governours of Sion College, and humbly entreat They will be pleased to excuse me this year, and if it please God I live to an other I will either wait upon them, or give them such Reasons why I can not, as will be satisfactory. The Expences that attend a large Family, they are most of them well acquainted with, and it will be very hard to pay for what at present it is not in my Power to prevent. Nevertheless the General Court on 29 April elected him to the chair, and Thomas Reading's reply to his naive letter was a message from the Court to Mr Colton " that as it is usual for all the Gentlemen who are London Incumbents either to serve the Office of President or pay the customary Fine to be excused," they desired to know whether he would serve or whether he would pay. Colton made no haste to .reply, but on 16 May he put in some interrogatories " whether the Office of President requires constant Attendance, and how often in the Year I must be obliged to be in Town, and how long at one time. I have three Sons in Orders, whether the Busyness can be done by one of them, or by any Deputy." " I am a hundred miles from Town," he adds, in bland forgetfulness of the parish of St Helen, Bishopsgate, " and long Journeys at my time of Life are not very agreeable." And there the matter rested. Colton had neither paid the fine nor put in any appearance in fulfilment of his office. Nor were any steps taken to bring him to book, till on 26 March 1764 they held a General Court at which there was produced " a letter from the Rev d M r George Colton the President... representing that his Affairs in the Country making it absolutely impossible for him to come to London at the time of the next Anniversary, he desires leave to pay his Fine." Whereupon, " the Rev d M r Theophilus Lewis Barbauld, rector of St Vedast, Foster Lane," was President from 26 March to 15 May 1764, when he was succeeded by Dr Ferdinando Warner, who was comfortably resident at Barnes. But consider the implication of Colton's final letter. He wishes to be excused because he cannot come to town for the Anniversary ; that is to say, he cannot preach the Latin sermon and be the arbiter bibendi at the Feast, as though that were the 5^ THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT main portion of the President's duties. But there was the property of the College to be cared for. Bradwell was a source of constant anxiety and at this very time there were some of the City houses, the leasing of which required special attention. Besides, the President, as has been already realised, was be- coming a public functionary. Duties outside the College were being laid upon him. Three of these, though not of vital importance to the larger educational life of the country, may be mentioned here, and are of such a nature that the obligation to attend personally to the business might come at any moment. One was connected with Mr Abraham Colfe's 1 gift of one guinea a year to the Library and the Librarian. The calls on the College in respect of this gift may not have been recorded in every case, but they were hardly frequent. Two instances will suffice to show the nature of the duties : Memorandum, Feb. 21. 1704. M r Tilsley as Proxy for the Presid 1 . (who only is allowed to send one) the two Deanes, and fower Assistants, upon Notice lately sent them from the Leathersellers Comp a . went (in Coaches at their owne private and particular expences) to Lewisham ffree Schoole, to meet the Master and Wardens of the said Comp a ., the Lord of the Mannor of Lewisham, the Ministers of Greenwich, Woolwich, Deptford, Eltham, Charlton, Lee, and Lewisham, and the Masters of Westminster, St Paul's, and Merchant taylors Schooles, for the Choice of a Schoole Master of the said Schoole at Lewisham, founded by M r Abraham Colfe dec d , formerly Minister of that place.... M r Thomas Davis was chosen The other instance may be taken here, though it belongs to a later period than Mr Colton's. At a Court held on 25 February 1794 the President, Dr de Salis, informed his brethren that on i May 1793 there had been no meeting of the Court since ! he with Dr Conybeare and Dr Vincent, " upon notice sent them by the Leathersellers Company, went at their own private and particular expences to Lewisham Free School " for the same purpose, the point of interest on this occasion being that Vincent, as a member of the Court, was summoned and went at his own expense to meet Vincent as " the Master of Westminster School." 1 See Chapter xiv. p. 251. THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT 59 William Reading, the Librarian, who, as we shall realise later, was apt to consider rewards rather closely, adds to his account of these functions the comment : " But I don't know of any Recompense which M r Colfe has left to our Governors, for their Pains in attending at the Election of his School- Master, except it be the Twenty one Shillings per Annum, which he has left to the Library 1 " as if it were not recompense enough to show confidence in our corporation by adding to the responsibilities of its chosen representatives. The second educational duty that fell and still falls upon our President is to act as one of the governing body of Lucton School, Herefordshire. It first appears in the register of 1729 : Memorand. That the President of Sion College for the time being, is by Act of Parliament a Govern 1 " of Lucton School in Herefordshire, founded by M r John Pierrepont In pursuance of w ch Act I rec d a Sumons in y e year of my Presidentship (1728) to meet at an Assembly of the said Govern 1 " 5 at the Master's Lodging in y e Charterhouse on Wednesday the 26 th of February: w ch I complied with, and was at the same time desired by the Master of the Charterhouse (D r King) to make this entry... for the information of future Presidents. Rich d Sear. The third became a regular feature of the life of the College till the nineteenth century was well advanced. In 1717 Mr Peter Joy established a " Free-School " in the parish of St Ann, Black- friars. William Reading 2 gives him an attractive character as " a worthy Gentleman " who " had by much Hospitality and Generosity, always testified great Respect to the Clergy of the Church of England, and frequented the publick Prayers and Sacraments with exemplary Devotion," and ascribes his action to a desire " to implant (as far as in him lay) the same Spirit of Christian piety in others." Let us first record the proposal of the trust to a Court that met on 14 January 1717: Peter Joy Esq re proposed to lodge in this Corporation y e Trust and Government of a Charity School by him lately founded in y e Parish of St Anne Blackfryers. ...And to settle upon this Corporation in perpetuity a competent Estate for Endowment thereof according to a Draught of a Deed of Settlement for y l Purpose now read. And M r Joy as an 1 State of Sion- College, London (1724), p. 31. 2 Ibid. 60 THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT Encouragement to y e College to take this Trust upon y m proposed to settle at y e same time on y e College for their own use & benefit an Excheq r Annuity of I3 1 . 6 s . 8 d . for y e remainder of a term of 99 yeares. But question arose as to the visitatorial power given in the draft to the Bishop of London and as to a condition of forfeiture in case of a breach of the trust. The opinion of the Attorney- General was taken on these points, but, as he expressed the view " that it would be both safe and prudent & no ways dis- honourable to y e Corporation " to accept the Trust with these conditions in it, a General Court met and sealed the deed of settlement, thanking Mr Joy "for y e good opinion he has entertained of y e Corporation of Sion College." Reading says that Joy fixed his school at St Ann, Black- friars, as a parish " where the Poor are numerous, and very much wanted it." His endowment brought in an income of 160. ijs. id. ; the Master was to be paid 30, and the Mistress ,15, yearly, for teaching, "freely, and without other Reward," forty boys and thirty girls " good English, Writing, and Arith- metick, and for training them up in the Worship, and instructing them in the Catechism of the Church." The rest of the income went towards their clothing, books, and other necessaries. There is no mention in our registers of this good man's de- cease, but Reading records that on the completion of his scheme, "in a little time after, and at a good old Age, he exchanged this Life for a better; leaving behind him two Sons, Heirs of his Humanity and Regard for Persons in Distress." Among the latter Reading places himself, thankfully acknowledging that he owed to Joy's sons "those Necessaries of Life, which my most exerted Diligence could never obtain." Our Court also esteemed them highly and henceforward up to about 1736 it was the invariable custom to keep places at the anniversary Feast for Charles and James Joy, the usual arrangement being: "M r Reading to invite the two M r Joyes," as if in token of his special friendship with them. Charles Joy dropped out after 1736 and his brother after 1741. The daily life of Joy's Free School did not come within the purview of our Court as such, but from 1719 onwards till 1890, the proceedings of every Annual General Meeting included the THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT 6l election of six or eight members of the College (who might also be members of the Court) to be trustees and members of the School committee, "as directed by y e settlement for y e Charity School in Blackfryers, founded by Peter Joye Esq r ." But in either of two circumstances the Court might and did intervene. If there was a vacancy in the Mastership or the Mistress-ship of the School, it lay with the Court to fill it, and in 1 840, when the Trustees of the School had themselves selected a Master, they were promptly told that this was our Court's business and not theirs. Again, the Governors felt it incum- bent upon them to stand by the Free School, when its pecuniary fortunes were in a critical condition. In 1799 there was a resolution to desire each Fellow in alphabetical turn to preach or cause to be preached at his Church a Sermon for the benefit of M r Joye's School, which is under the patronage and protection of this College and now reduced from various circum- stances so far that it's Revenues are inadequate to its support. In fact, in 1834, when the finances of the College were in a parlous state, the Free School was in debt to the College for ^"243 on account of repairs, and it is not surprising that in 1840, when the Governors of the School proposed to unite it with "the London Diocesan Board," our Court should have been sorry to come to the conclusion, on an examination of the trust-deed, that consent could not be given to "the Union of the said School with any other Establishment." Peter Joy's Free School was hardly established before another testator was anxious to put our College in trust with what would to-day be a considerable estate. On 8 February 1725 M r President acquainted the Court with y e substance of the last will & Testament of one M rs West, late of London, offering a Trust [for the benefit of poor blind people] to the Governours of Sion College : w ch was debated. Resolved that y e contents of y e Will... be laid before y e L d Bp. of London as Visitor. With the result that the Visitor "discouraged their accept- ance of it"; the Court ratified their renunciation under the common seal; and the charity lapsed to the Cloth workers' Company, who dispense the .1236 which it produces yearly. One beneficent and only too feebly supported effort of charity 62 THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT connected itself with the life of the College under the aegis of the Court in the eighteenth century. It was introduced to their notice in December 1764, though the present organisation dates only from 1791*. It was then (1764) Ordered, that leave be given to the Clergy within the Bills of Mortality & the County of Middlesex to hold their several meetings here in order to form a Society and execute a plan, for the relief of their Widows and Children. In 1826 the Treasurer (Richard Lendon, Past-President) of this "Society for the Relief of Clergymen and the Widows and Children of Clergymen in the Cities of London and Westminster and the County of Middlesex," asked the President to "take the sense of the Court on the propriety of placing at the next Anni- versary Dinner a Copy of the Statement of the Funds of the said Society in the Plates of the Curates and Lecturers, very few of whom at present subscribe thereto, though their families are chiefly benefited." It was at once agreed to comply with Mr Lendon's proposal and "that a copy of the Statement be placed in every Plate at the Tables." But, if these things the management of the estates, the offices held by the President, the educational responsibility of the Col- lege, the Anniversary festivities and the Latin Sermon were not enough to engross the personal attention of the President and his colleagues, still there were the poor whom they had always with them in the Almsrooms. Their story is written elsewhere 2 , and it has been written in vain if it does not suggest that a sympathetic and efficient Head of the College would find much to claim his interest in the opportunity which was not lacking to reprove and to rebuke as well as to exhort. So long as the Fellows adhered to election according to the rota, they were bound to elect from time to time indifferent and unenergetic men, and often the best thing that could happen was that the office should be declined. The fines went to swell the main account, especially in a year like 1778, when six papabili fined themselves at one and the same time. In 1810 the system gave 1 Its present secretary is a Past-President of the College, Mr Joseph Miles, rector of St Catherine Cree. The business is still conducted at the College. 2 Chapter vm. THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT 63 so much satisfaction that it was resolved that "the usual Fine of Five Guineas to be paid by any Fellow of this College for being excused from serving all or any of the Offices thereof be increased to Ten Guineas," and one of the first to pay at the increased rate was the learned Dr Van Mildert, rector of St Mary-le-Bow, who had become fourth Assistant in i8ii,and who in 1816, being then Junior Dean, excused himself "on account of his official engagements at Oxford." As he held the Regius chair of Divinity in addition to his benefice, Van Mildert could easily afford the ten guineas, and he was ultimately to become rich beyond the dreams of avarice as prince-bishop of Durham. But, if it was hard, it was not less illegal, and no court of law would have upheld it for a moment. Every Incumbent within the area becomes a Fellow, and every Fellow has an indefeasible right under the Charter to be nominated and, if he receives sufficient suffrages, to be elected and constituted a College officer, provided that he be resident within the area 1 . But to compel a man who was unwilling either on account of non-residence or for any other cause to accept office, and to fine him if he refused, was to go beyond any right inherent in the Court or in the general body of Fellows, and in due time there arose a protestant who for a time gave hope of showing fight. The story is due to the entry in the register of 1828 of a Letter... from the Rev d George Hodson, Minister of St Katharine Creechurch to the Secretary, dated Birmingham April 3. 1828, in which he declined serving the Office of Assistant Governor of this College and also paying the usual Fine to be excused therefrom ; alledging that the whole income of his Benefice seldom exceeds ,120 a year, of which he pays ;n6 to his Curate; and that he could not consider himself bound by the Laws of a Society of which he became a member by no act of his own. To which the President... had written..: in answer that he became a Fellow of the College by his own act when he became an incumbent and consequently by his own act entitled himself, to the Privileges and sub- jected himself to the Onera; that if he does not enjoy the Privileges, it is his own fault; and that there has not been an instance of a Fellow who did not chuse to serve, hesitating to pay the usual Fine. Hodson could have countered the last remark, if he had known more, but at the Anniversary Court a letter was read in 1 The Charter says : si tarn diu infra dictam civitatem London vel suburbia ejusdem erunt residentes. 64 THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT which he merely maintained his refusal, and the Secretary was instructed to convey to him "the Unanimous Opinion of this very numerous Meeting of the Fellows that there is nothing in his case which should exempt him from the operation of the rule hitherto observed" and "that the College, never having had occasion to en- force the payment of the usual Fine, have no intention of resorting to any compulsory measures in this instance." As a matter of interest, we are unable to follow the incident as far as we should like, for Mr Hodson wrote a few days later engaging to pay the fine and the College lost the chance of putting its legal position to the proof. A year later Hodson resigned his unprofitable benefice, so that his payment of the fine was sheer loss. Something must here be said as to the process by which the rights of Fellowship were gradually enlarged. In this process there are two critical dates, 1707 and 1841. The date of a much greater enlargement has yet to be fixed. The first of these dates brought the Anniversary Meeting together in a mood of sincere gratitude to Bishop Compton for his donation of Dr Castell's Oriental books 1 ; and its feelings found vent in a desire to have his Lordship's further aid in settling the exact College status of Lecturers and other Ministers, who, strictly speaking, were not fully beneficed. The Fellows stated their case in these terms: Whereas there is some dispute in this Corporator! whether Lecturers have Votes in the Choice of Governo rs And whether D r Butler D r Ken- net D r Atterbury and severall others (who, although they are neither Rectors nor Vicars nor are instituted and inducted into their Livings, have the same care of them as if they were) are Capable of being chosen Governo rs . It was likewise Ordered that the President for the yeare ensuing with some of the other Governo rs now Chosen doe attend upon his LOP with the Charter, And take his direction as Visitor therein. The President of the year in question wasDrMapletoft,of St Law- rence, Jewry, and he had the able assistance of Philip Stubbs, who was at this time writing the Court Minutes and, it may be added, entering his own name as "Stubs." In the following March they invited "all y e former Presidents, Deans and Assist- ants" to "be pleased to give y e Governors a meeting about y e said affairs." Four of the existing Court and seven former 1 See Chapter xiv. p. 265. THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT 6$ Governors accordingly met and "ordered that M f Stubs and D r Roderick doe wait upon y e L d Bp of London w th ye Founders Will and Charter," with the result that at the Anniversary two steps were taken at once. One was to record the following judgment of the Visitor: At a motion of y e Governors of Sion College, I doe hereby deter- mine y l All Ministers of y e respective parishes within y e City & Libertys of London (however distinguished) are by y e Charter qualified to choose & to bee chosen Governors of y e said College & Corporation. The other was to elect forthwith to the Court as 3rd and 4th Assistants two clergymen whose status had till then been in doubt, Lilly Butler, D.D., Minister of St Mary, Aldermanbury, who was President in 1714 and 1715, and no less a person than Francis Atterbury, D.D., Minister of Bridewell Precinct, who became 2nd Assistant, 1709, when he was specially chosen to preach the Latin sermon 1 for Mr Zouch, the President, and Junior Dean in 1710, when he had become Dean of Carlisle. That he pro- ceeded no further in the upward steps of our little hierarchy is doubtless due to his absence from town, for he retained his fellowship of the College till his resignation of the Ministry of Bridewell Precinct on 15 June 1713. His year as President would have been 1716, when the office was filled by Samuel Bradford, who was to be Atterbury's successor in the Deanery of Westminster. But the enlargement of the constituency in 1841 was of a much wider character and paves the way for a greater extension of the franchise in days to come. The movement originated in a letter from incumbents of two new districts, as to whom it may be added that a bust of Dr Worthington was fitly presented to the College in 1912, and that Mr Rod well lived through the rest of the nineteenth century as rector of St Ethelburga. The letter was not presented to the Court till 25 November 1841. The Rev D r . Worthington, Incumbent of the Church of the Holy Trinity [Gray's Inn Road], St Andrew's, Holborn, and the Rev d J. M. Rodwell, Incumbent of St Peter's, Saffron Hill, beg to state to the President of Sion College that Districts having been assigned to their 1 For the importance of this discourse, see H. C. Beeching, Francis Atterbury, 1909, p. 163. P. Z 66 THE PRESIDENT AND THE COURT Churches, which constitutes them Incumbents of their respective charges, they will feel obliged if Dr V. [Dr J. W. Vivian, St Augustine and St Faith] will take the requisite steps for having them admitted as Fellows of the Corporation. Vestry, St Peter's Church Saffron Hill March 5 th /4i- The Court instructed their solicitor, Mr Tilson, to state a case for the opinion of Dr Haggard of Doctors' Commons, and a fortnight later the case and the opinion were laid before Bishop Blomfield, whose decision was not given till June 1846. Its points may be summarised as follows: The Charter ordains that all Rectors and Vicars of Churches, and all Lecturers and Curates, within the City of London and its suburbs, "canonically instituted and having power to preach from the Bishop of London, and there residing, and constituted in the order of a Minister" (or Presbyter) "shall be and be called Fellows." The Bishop thought the term "instituted" was used in the Charter in a large sense, comprehending those who are duly "licensed," with certain other qualifications above-mentioned. Moreover, 8 & 9 Viet. c. 70, sect. 17 was an important new fact. It enacted that every District Chapelry constituted under the Church Building Acts should be a Perpetual Curacy and Benefice and " the License thereto shall operate in the same manner as Institution to any Benefice." "I entertain no doubt," wrote the Visitor, "but that if any Ministers of this description had existed when D r White founded his College he would have included them in the Number of Fellows." " I am therefore of opinion that all Incumbent Ministers of Churches in London and its suburbs to which Districts have been assigned under the provisions of any of the Church Building Acts, or of the 6 and 7 Victoria c. 37, are Fellows of Sion College in as full and ample a manner as if they were Rectors or Vicars ; and I hereby determine accordingly. Fulham, 15 June 1846. C. J. London." It may be that a Visitor will yet arise who, similarly admitting the possibility of what Dr White might have done, had he seen London as it now is, will have the courage to decree that "London and its suburbs" can be taken to mean at least the diocese, if not the administrative county, of London. CHAPTER IV THE STAFF Et ponam...praepositos tuos iustidam. Esai. Ix. 17. WHATEVER fault may be found with the administration of our College from age to age, the charge of an excessive officialism cannot lie against it. To this day its salaried helpers are as few as is consistent with the proper management of the Library and the safe-guarding of the premises. But in the beginning this restraint in the matter of salaries was a financial necessity. With an income of ,160, of which 120 was to be paid out in pensions, there was small margin for officialdom. We may start with the record of the staff appointed by the first Court on 5 March 1631. These were by the Gouvernours then present chosen Officers of the Colledge and to have theyr seuerall Allowances & Stipends during theyr continewance and good carriage in theyr places. John Spencer Stationer was chosen Clearke of the Colledg afore- sayd and to have the Rents of fowre Chambers on the kitchin side to be lett out at the discretion of the Gouvernours aforesayd and their successors for euer if he dwell not there him selfe. John George yeoman was appointed Ostiarye 1 of the Library afore- sayd and to have stipend p annu 4^ Raphe Bulkley one of the Almesmen of the Colledg aforesayd was appoynted Porter of the Colledg & to have stipend p. annu 3^ John Jackson Cooke was appoynted Cooke then and there to be employed as often as occasion shall require. Let us take them in reverse order, and begin with the Cook, who need not detain us long. I take it that John Jackson was 1 It appears from the " Book of Benefactors " that there was an Ostiary as early as 1629, it being recorded under that year that "Thomas Adison sometimes Ostiarye of this Library gave by Will five pounds " to buy books. 52 68 THE STAFF not an inmate but a visiting tradesman, who had the privilege of supplying the modest repasts with which our first predeces- sors refreshed themselves when they had got through their agenda-paper 1 . The same would apply to the C9rbets, father and son, and to Mistress Staynoe, who at various times succeeded to this piece of business, till at last, as related elsewhere 2 , the Court left their Anniversary refreshments in the hands of some large firm of caterers, as it is this day, and employed the Ostiary on minor occasions. The Porter. But the Porter was of more consequence and was from time to time a perplexing problem. So much depended upon him in the way of discipline, and his failure in this respect so often obliged the Governors to say their quis custodiet? Dr White's "strong fair gate and a wall aboute" risked its entire efficiency upon the vigilance of the Porter, and on occasion, when his patience was sorely tried, it became necessary (as in 1 729) that he be "admonished to refrain from indecent language.'' It appears that Ralph Bulkley's reign in this office was short- lived, for early in 1634 they admitted one Peter Compton to be an Almsman and at the same time made him Porter, his duty being then described as "to open and shutt the doores and gates and to sweepe and make clean the garden Courte and other places belonging to the Colledge." A few weeks later they made it clear to him that he would be paid in accordance with his attention to both these duties; for his 3 per annum was defined as " viz 1 xx s for weeding the garden and xl s for keep- ing of the garden cleane and handsome." Moreover, it was the Clerk's business to see that the gardening functions of the Porter were fulfilled, so that "yf Peter Compton the now porter will not doe it handsomely," the Clerk must "deduct the money for doing it out of this $ p. ann. and... pay the Porter the rest." By 1640 it had become necessary to have a separate Gardener 1 The Account Book shows that originally College funds provided ten shillings a month towards the Court Dinners, and it may be concluded that Jackson did what he could with this, charging the excess to the Governors personally. 2 See Chapter xi. p. 203. THE STAFF 69 who received 2os. for "weeding mowing and keeping the garden hansomly and Neatly." The reason for this addition to the Staff was doubtless the necessity for not diverting the Porter's atten- tion from his gateway, but it was also much better for the garden, which the Court through their Clerk tended with due care. One of Thomas Reading's papers is a receipt given in 1747 by one Thomas Meek for "the sum of Fourteen Shillings for plant- ing Seven Lime Trees in Sion College Garden, and I hereby prornise," he adds, "if any of the said Trees should fail growing within one year from the Date hereof, to put others in their Room." But it was the gateway that really mattered. We therefore pass to a series of regulations as to the hours which must be observed by the inmates. In 1635 "charge is given to the porter that noe lodger shall come into the Colledge after ten of the clock at night." This is a reminder that the inhabitants of the old College were a very miscellaneous com- munity clergy and students in the chambers, tenants in the houses, Almsmen and Almswomen in the Hospital and the first and second took naturally more liberties than the last. The difficulty of definite legislation appears in the following order of 1641 : Uppon complaynt this day made that some gents lodging in the Colledge doe come in att undue houres It is thought fitt and so agreed that from henceforth the porter of the Colledge shall lock up the gate att ten of the clock every night and deliver the keyes thereof to the Clark of the Colledge whoe is to kepe them untill the next morning to the end None may come into the Colledge after ten, unlesse he can showe some reasonable cause for his being so late out, wherof the Clarke is to give an Accompt to the Gouvn rs att their next meeting. In 1647 the Court further ordered the Porter to keep a list of the late-comers; in 1648 they arranged that, while inmates might be still admitted up to 10 p.m., "the Porter shutt up the gates presently after Eight of the Clock every night, and... give warnyng to all within the Colledge to take notice of it." The Puritan regime slightly restricted the hours of indulgence, for in 1654 the order was that the Gate of the Colledge shall be shutt upp at Twylight winter and sommer And that the Porter attend to open it from lady day to 7O THE STAFF Michaelmasse till ten of the Clocke and from Michaelmasse to lady day till 9 of the clock. The Puritan Courts also saw in the Porter's activities a means of securing a better attendance from the College at the Sabbath ministrations in St Alphage: Ordered [1659] that the Porter take speciall care about the Colledge Gates, as to the seasonable shutting & opening of them, & that he open not the Gates to Lett any in or out but upon urgent and speciall occasions after 1 1 of the Clock in the Night, & that he shutt the Gates every Sabbath day halfe an hower after 9 till halfe an hower after 1 1 in the forenoone and from two till after 4 in the afternoone, & that hee him selfe goe to Church duely every Sabbath day. But he had also duties by day as well as by night and it was impressed upon him in 1664 that he "doe Keepe the College free from Children and Strang rs : so as the Students be not molested, and that hee Keepe the Women from fetching Water att the Cock." John Spencer, the Librarian, when he was getting old and querulous, urged personally that the Porter keep out rude boyes and others from tossing of Balls, throwing stones &c., whereby many of the Library windows have been broke this last Sommer ; but if it were Ordered that every one should pay for the mending theire own Windowes there would [be] more care taken then now there is of both Library and Hospitall Windows. But the most complete statement I have found of the Porter's duties belongs to the more business-like days of Robert Watts and coincides with the appointment in 1818 of one John Linnit at a salary of " Fifty pounds a year, with the usual Allowance for Brooms and Dustmen." If he fulfilled each item of the require- ments, he earned both salary and allowance. Constantly to attend Divine Service in the Parish Church of St Alphage, and to deliver an Account in writing to the Secretary weekly of the Names of such of the Almspeople as absented themselves from divine Service on the preceding Sunday. To go round to all the Almshouses at 1 1 at night and see all the Fires and Candles of the Almspeople extinguished. To attend upon all Courts of the President and Fellows and of the Governors. To deliver summonses of the Members of the College and others to the Courts. THE STAFF 7 1 To go on all Errands respecting the business of the College, when required by the Governors or the Secretary. To sweep the Gutters and Drains of the College every Morning ; and to sweep the College yard thoroughly and the Garden once a week. To assist in the Preparations for the Anniversary and to wait at that and all other Meetings of the Fellows or Governors. To attend at the Meetings of the Committee of the Widows 1 Charity, and General Meetings of the Subscribers. To attend with the Charity Children of M r Joye's School at the Anniversary Meeting at St Paul's. To attend when the Nightmen are employed in the College. To keep the College Gates shut as soon as it is dark and to open them in the Morning, at 6 o'clock in the Summer & 7 in Winter. To attend to the Library Door during the Hours of the Library's being open. An office of this kind, so important to the peace and welfare of the little community, depended for its efficiency upon two requirements, the conduct and the contentedness of the official himself, and it is characteristic of Minute-books that they chiefly record cases in which one or other of these requirements was wanting, leaving it to be assumed that at other times all was well. For instance, Timothy Middleton, the Restoration Porter, gave a world of trouble 2 . In March 1677 he made his second appearance before the Court, when it was recorded of him that he had often misbehaued himselfe & is a quarrellinge & fighting person with his brethren & others in the College & used dayly to be drunke And used to locke out the Almespeople at night & all or most of every day never looked after or attended the College gate. He was, in fact, almost everything that a Porter should not be, yet the merciful Governors did not there and then dismiss him; they merely in October of the same year chose Bunch, another Almsman, to perform the duties. Alas! the arrange- ment was shortlived, for in December 1678 an entry "Pd. for old Bunches Coffin g s 6 d " signifies that they were again thrown 1 See Chapter in. p. 62. 2 Spencer has left a document (date, about 1670), in which he urges "that the Porter Middleton be agayne admonished to keepe the Gate more and the Alehouse less, to be mindfull of his employment, to demean himself civilly to all Men and lovingly to his brethren." 72 THE STAFF back upon the tender mercies of Timothy Middleton, whose "many misdemeano 1 " 5 " were further multiplied, and who was soon "discharged from the office of Porter," though not from his Almsroom. On the whole, he seems to have been the worst of his line, though a century later the Court were obliged to get rid of one Joseph Martin, who " was accused of having pawned the Cheeks of y e College grate in his Apartment which he con- fessed, and other Misdemeanours." There was, however, no undue haste in filling Martin's place. His confession was heard in July 1773 and was duly reported to the President, Dr Daniel Burton, of St Peter-le-Poer. The Court met again in October, but the election of a Porter was " deferred till the President comes to Town," and finally took place in January of the following year. If this is the worst that can be alleged against the Porters of our College, they can certainly speak with their enemies in the gate. On the other hand, there is more than a suspicion that for a long time they were but poorly paid. To start with, each had his Almsroom and his pension, which were his by right of election on condition of good behaviour. To salve their conscience the Governors would give him, say, "ten shillings for a great coat"; or "a chaldron of coals" (even if it was necessary, as in 1743, to add "an admonition to be more sober, and attend better at the Gate"); or at last "a proper Gown. ..which he is to wear when he is on his Duty." But the chief financial in- justice arose when, after the Great Fire, a number of persons besides the Almsfolk became resident within the College to the enhancement of its revenues. Clearly at this time the Court should have raised his stipend, and made a charge upon each tenant to recoup themselves. But they took a middle and less courageous course, which is described in the following memo- randum of 1689: The Porter acquainting the . . . Governours . . . that there now being more families within this College then formerly some whereof upon theire occasions came in and others of theire servants goe out att very late houres in the Night... By which he is at greate charge in fire and Candle and much impaired in his health Besides farre more labour than usually... whereupon the... Governours... doe therefore commend the pre- sent Porter to the Charitable Benevolence of the Inhabitants hopeing THE STAFF 73 that in regard his Care and dilligence at the Gate is much for theire service and security They will be pleased severally to allow him quarterly something towards his extraordinary paines and charges. And it is ordered that he doe forthwith goe...and knowe theire pleasure herein... The Porter retorned this Answeare s. d That M r Alix had subscribed... to pay him p. qu r 2. 6 M r Correges ...... i. o M r Dagget 2. o M r Barecroft refused to subscribe but promised to pay p. q r i. o Madam Jeffries did promise to consider him. The Lady Gold did promise to consider him. Naturally, the plan did not answer, and in 1693 the Porter was allowed five shillings "towards buying him candles." The tenants had not responded in any measure, "notwithstanding he is obliged to sitt up late sometimes for some of them." But the Courts continued a policy of small doles. Henry Turlis, for instance, complained 1 in 1753 of "the expense he is at for Candles and oyl for his Lamp, which he reckons cost him one shilling p. week," and to him they gave a sovereign as "being recommended to the Governors as a very sober man and diligent in his station of Porter." But his successor, Thomas Pate, rebelled altogether. "Being much dissatisfied with the customary allowances... and having now [1763] as at severall former meetings... in a very positive manner demanded a sum of money much greater than what his allowances amounted to," he reverted to the status of a simple Almsman, getting no more satisfaction than "one guinea extra for Coals the last Winter, in consideration of the Coldness of the Season." Thus far the College register. But Thomas Reading's papers enable us to see what Pate had to say for himself, and we have already noticed 2 the somewhat sum- mary treatment he met with at the hands of Dr Milles, Dean of Exeter. To begin with, he has a grievance against Reading, whose care of his letters shows no desire to cover up the traces of it. Poor Pate, who is far more illiterate than Turlis, writes to Reading, 24 January 1763: 1 We still have his actual petition setting forth "this Extraordinary Expence which He Humbly hopes you will in your Great Goodness take it into your Considera- tions." 2 See Chapter in. p. 56. 74 THE STAFF By y r 111 Treatments you gave me Last Friday as if I weare your Doge and fower Warne Me everr to come into your House anny More I now Desier you Will Send me My Monny For Goeing of your Kichen Arrants by the Order of your Cook and Maid Susanne for tow years and Three quartters of a year which comes to tow pounds fower shillings which I Desier you will Pay Me fourwith for I will not be your foott Man for Nothing. His language to the Governors is becomingly different, for it is that of a "humbel petishon," though he insists that "cols," "oyle," "candels," "cotten," brooms, mops, a pail and shovel, a basket, "and the Tin Lamp," have cost him 7. IQS. instead of the guinea which the Court had granted him; and in a less formal statement of his grievance to a friendly member of the Court he explains that "My Wayges will not alowe me tow pints a Bear aday...and nothing for Vittels." It is amusing to find that Pate, having vacated his portership in disgust, tried to have the law of Thomas Reading, who filed a letter from one Samuel Tapscott, of Clifford's Inn, evidently a lawyer, present- ing on Pate's behalf a bill for 27. ^s. yd. for moneys laid out and labour performed, and intimating his intention "to proceed to recover the same." And that is the last of Thomas Pate. On the whole, the Porters seem to have been by force of circumstances a somewhat querulous crew. As late as 1801 I find one, by name John Barrow, throwing himself humbly upon the generosity of "the Most Rev d the President." Owing to "the wetness of the Building" he had been obliged to have two fires for a long time; "it has cost me the whole time Four pounds fourteen shillings and eight pence, for wich I am alowed two pounds per year." Indeed, "I had fifty pounds in the stocks and was obliged to sel it for my suport, for wich I got 29^." Add to this that "provisons of all kinds has been so Dear, and still is Dear tho' something cheaper," and it may be admitted that the poor man had presented a fair case for special treatment. It is needless to detail the succession to this necessary office; but it must be mentioned that its dignity was enhanced not only by a gown but by a staff As late as 1845 there is a resolution to provide a "Staff and Head for the Porter for ten guineas," but it would be pleasanter if we could recover the THE STAFF 75 earlier "Porter's staff and Dove," which on the appointment of Thomas Twichart in 1735 was " deliver' d to him by the Govern 1 " 5 in Court." It should be also noted that from the first there were various subsidiary officers whose work was more or less akin to the Porter's 1 . For instance, in 1633 it was arranged, first, that one of the Almsmen "shalbe employed to go on Errande for this College when occasion shall require And in respect thereof to have for his better mayntenance p. ann....xl s "; and secondly, another Almsman "was chosen ostiary of the Library and to sweepe and make clean the same and to have for the same p. annu....iiij;." The former, who was sometimes called the Beadle, and whose chief business till the rise of the Post Office was to deliver summonses to the Governors' Courts and the General Courts, might hope to rise to the Portership, and did so in 1641, when his superior officer had been "lately preferred to Buttons Hospitall." In 1695 he was called the "Marshall." On the other hand the changes that time has brought have tended to fuse the Porter of the College and the Ostiary of the Library into one official who by a nice return to precedent is called the Ostiarius to this day. If any one is distressed to hear that the Ostiary of the Library is seldom, if ever, mentioned after 1633 and so wonders how the Library was swept and garnished, he must take what comfort he can from a spasmodic attention to this detail on the part of the Governors of 1770 who Ordered that Two Guineas be given to the two Maid servants of the Register [the Rev. Wm Clements, who was also Librarian] for having thorowly cleaned all the Books in the Library a work not done for very many years past. 1 Owing to the presence of pensioners in the College, substitutes were easily found at a modest cost in case of sickness. John Lewis has left " his mark" on a receipt in William Reading's handwriting, dated 1736, for 5-r. id. "for keeping the College Gate 37 nights at two pence p. night in the sickness of Thomas Twichart the Porter" : while the greater responsibility of John Grimes in 1733 in "watching the hall 3 nights, when the great window glass was all taken down to be mended," was recompensed with three shillings. 76 THE STAFF The Clerk or Register. But the corner stone of the official establishment was the Clerk. Dr White had not conceived of a Library, much less of a Librarian, and, even if he had, was still sufficiently a man of affairs to understand that a foundation with a small income and some broad acres in the country would greatly depend on its man of business. Without him there might be no funds where- with to pay the pensions or the Cook's bills, much less purchase a new book now and then for the Library. The details about the first staff which have been given above show that in choosing their first Clerk the Governors lighted upon a man who, amid whatever personal misfortunes, was to serve the College admirably for many years. John Spencer's history as an official is to be found in our story of the Library 1 . All we need note now is the arrangement that was made with him when he entered the service of the College as Clerk in 1631. Dr White's ordinance was for "a Clarck to have sufficient lodge- ing in the fore parte of the College to dwell and dispache the causes committed unto him," but he said nothing about the Clerk's stipend, though he added an interesting suggestion "yf it may be that all the Clarcks of parishes in London and suburbs be annexed untoe the saide companye," wherein, I suppose, he reckoned without the Worshipful Company of the Parish Clerks. Therefore the Governors must needs maintain the Clerk out of such resources as they had, and their early surplus revenues consisted of the modest rents received for students' chambers. John Spencer's salary, then, came either from four of these cham- bers, if he chose to save himself house-rent elsewhere, or from what was paid to him for their use of such chambers by tenants of whom the College might approve. It was an unsatisfactory plan, for the Clerk thus had a special interest in the well letting of his own rooms, while it was also his duty to manage the letting of other rooms on his masters' behalf, and it lasted only during Spencer's brief career as Clerk. In 1633, two years after 1 See Chapter xm. THE STAFF 77 his appointment, he was transferred to the Librarianship, and in May of that year John Winterborne reigned in his stead. So much we can gather from the bare statements of the Minute Books, but there was more behind. In a yellow, closely-written paper of John Spencer's, which I found in a rubbish heap of such documents, we have the man's own account of his office and his connexion with it. He seems to have composed this record about 1670, when his temper was becoming a little fractious and his animus against subsequent Clerks was un- abated. He tells us that "M r Langhorn Attorney in the Com: Pleas (nominated by the ffounder) was the first that appeared for the Office" ("An<>. 1629"), but he "fell sick and dyed." Then came " M r ffrancis Sherman an old Servant to the ffounder and Clark to the Peculiars of Lond.," but lodgings without a salary did not suit him; so he "went off and relinquished any thought of the place." Then, says Spencer, M r John Simson, of St Olave, Hart Street, "ffounder of the Library in the sayd College," made "the Proto-Bibliothecary, J. S." [i.e. Spencer] Clerk, who "had onely for his salary the Rents of the Lodgings appro- priated to the Clark... being ffoure pounds p. Annu." Spencer adds that "An . 1632" Simson desired him "to give up vnto him the said Clarks place," which was "readily surrendered" and was " disposed of vnto one M r John Winterborne." Spencer's instructions as Clerk have not survived, but the duties of his successor were thus specified on the day of his appointment : And thereuppon John Winterborne was by the sayd President, Deanes, and Assistants, freelye chosen and admitted Clarke of the sayd Coll: to write, doe, sett downe, finish, and dispatch all Acts, matters, writings, and businesses unto that place belonging, to haue, hold, exercise, and enjoy the same place with all Chambers and Commodityes, thereunto appoynted or belonging unto the sayd John Winterborne during soe long time as he shall well, and honestlye use, and behaue himsealfe therein. In September they gave him a Power of Attorney to receive "all rente arrerages and other duties belonging to the said Colledge," and in 1635 they assigned to him 20 a year "as a fee or penson in respect of his place," thus apparently super- seding the earlier system of payment by the rent of certain 78 THE STAFF chambers 1 . So John Winterborne went about his work for some twenty years to come. The way he employed his time must be gathered from an examination of the register, or book of the Court Minutes, which it was part of his business to write. In this respect the lover of Sion College is much beholden to the long line of Clerks; so that a change in the occupant of the office can generally be traced through a change in the handwriting and the style of the Minute Book. It was his duty also to superintend the other officials (except the Librarian), to pay the Almsfolk their quarterly pensions (in hard times advancing the money himself), to communicate with the agent for and the tenants of the country property, to arrange for the satisfactory letting of the various tenements within the College, and, one suspects, to coach the President and the Court in the manage- ment of College business, about which his knowledge became by degrees more complete, as it was more continuous, than theirs. It is necessary to give the Clerks the more credit for their ill- paid labours because their own name and deeds were the last that they would enter on the Minutes, unless there were a positive command so to do. Nor can it have been quite easy to be the chief administra- tive officer of a Court whose prevailing opinions changed as rapidly as they did during the twenty years that began in 1633. To see a copy of the "Solempne League and Covenant" received by the Governors and, later, the Minute referring to its reception scratched out; to be expected, naturally, to write "Vicar of St Augustines" (apostrophes were nothing accounted of) and afterwards to find Puritan requirements reducing the same title to "Minister of Austins," all this must have meant a severe test of a man's worth. But when John Winterborne failed, it was for some other reason altogether. The first sign that all was not well appears in 1654, when James Cranford, "Rector of Christophers behinde the Exchange," was in his second year as President. Winterborne, says an entry of this time, was to 1 In the document before referred to John Spencer takes umbrage at this salary for the Clerk, but omits to state that his own stipend as Librarian was also raised to 10. THE STAFF 79 be informed that the Governors "were very sensible of his neglect this day in his attendance upon them," for he had been "ordered to give them Accompt" of some important business, and had failed to do so. No doubt the reference is to the affairs of the Manor of Brad well 1 , where Mr Keeling was greatly in arrear with his payments, to the imminent peril of the annual dinner. James Cranford was a vigorous President and not a man to pass by inadequate service. So a year later, I October 165 5, the hints became plainer, and it was demanded of Winterborne that hee bring in next Monday to the Com ee ...the plate & all other goods of the Colledge in his hands... the wry ti ngs ... their Register p'fected & the State of the Accompts or else wee shall take further course therein as wee shall see cause. They met again on October 8, and were, perhaps, not a little comforted to find that their plate was not in pawn, though it appeared, when they went through the College linen, that "there was found wanting 2 dozen and a halfe of flaxen napkyns and one diap napkyn." The trouble was not dishonesty, but neglect and non-residence. Dr White had insisted on a house for the Clerk and the Clerk did not live in it. As on the same day there was an order "that M r Winterborne's house be forthwith glazed," it was possibly not very fit for habitation. Still, resi- dence was their test of efficiency; if, in order to live, the Clerk must have clients outside the College, he must at least do their business in and from the College. Here, then, is the final, or almost the final, decree : "M r Winterborne shall come to live in this house by the 5 th of November in Syon Colledge and shall attend and discharge the place of Clarke that the house suffer not by his neglect." But our College has rarely been precipitate in its disciplinary action. November 5 passed ; the year wore to its end; and at the beginning of February 1656 they gave the Clerk a fortnight's warning to be "resident here in the Colledge." Even so, they parted from each other without un- friendliness. He, they felt, had too many irons in the fire and had better leave; they, he could reply, did not make it worth his while to have less irons and to stay on. It all ended in 1 See Chapter vn. 80 THE STAFF the following not very angry Minute, which they passed in March 1656: This day the Governo rs ... desired M r Winterborne to Resigne his place because his many other imploym ts hindered him from attending the service of the Colledge w ch he was willing to doe provided that he might name his Successor, which they thus farr assented to That they being free from Ingagement to any, they should as willingly choose the p'ty named by M r Winterborne as any other he being fitt for the place. . Winterborne's nominee was one Robert Whiteing, who was not elected. We return to Spencer's manuscript to see why. He speaks of "M r Whiting (bred up in the Mayors Court at Guild-hall Lond.)" as a man "by whose Admittance the College might have been much more happy then now it is, he undertaking at that time to cleere the Taxes assessed on the Hospitall and Colledg." But the Puritans would not compromise their prin- ciples in order to evade taxation and Mr Whiteing was rejected, "notwithstanding great Certificates to the contrary, as a Pot- companion, and an Enemy to the then Godly Ministery of London." Instead, the Governors chose "privately... at M r Cala- myes house" one who could be "confirmed as a Godly man," and the vacancy was formally filled up on 28 April 1656, by the appointment of "M r Andrew Nicholson Scriven 1 "," an object of Spencer's suspicions. The difficulties of non-residence and un- willingness to resign must not be risked again ; it was therefore demanded of him, first that he should dwell in the appointed house, and, secondly, "that in case hee be disliked by the Governo rs he shall quietly relinquish his place upon a q'ters warning." But two things were needed before all could be said to go well. In the first place Winterborne, if he refused to live in his residence, had been careful to leave it securely locked, and there came an order "that the Clarkes House where M r Winter- borne dwelt (sic) be broken open this day." In the second place, Winterborne's successor was as difficult to bring to the point of residence as Winterborne himself. Eighteen months after his appointment, Andrew Nicholson required to be told that he must give a final answer at the next Court "whether he will come with his family to live in the Clerkes house... or leave his place." THE STAFF 8 1 Then for fifteen years or so things settled down again. The Clerk's "family" came into residence, for in 1663 it was resolved that " M rs Nicholson have x s to buy her a payre of Gloves for her care about the Colleges lynnen" no doubt they still remembered Winterborne's loss of the "2 dozen and a halfe of flaxen napkyns and one diap napkyn"; and from time to time Mrs Nicholson received similar consideration. But, whatever might be Mrs Nicholson's devotion to the napery cupboard, her husband lost interest in his office. In 1672 the student of the minutes comes suddenly upon two blank pages, and finds a memorandum in another hand to the follow- ing effect: The next 2 sheetes are left imwritt for to sett downe the orders that was made from 30 th April 1672 till the 22 nd April 1673 when dis- couered or knowne M r Nicholson haveing not attended the Governo rs all that yeare. Therefore in April 1673 Nicholson was "absolutely discharged." It is a little difficult to apportion fairly the blame in this second disgrace of a Clerk at Sion. To begin with, Nicholson was in possession of the College documents and treated them as something to bargain with. These consisted, we may notice, of The Comon Seale one booke or Register of Accompts another Court or Jornall Booke of orders of the Hospitall & the Copie of the {founders will, the Copie of the Charter with Counsell Noates All Counterpts of leases bonds writeinges and other things whatsoever that M r Nicholson hath in his custody relateing to the College. Nevertheless two years passed and Nicholson was still in pos- session of these treasures. In May 1675, Daggett, his excellent successor, was ordered to pay him " forty shillings in regard of his poverty" and in February 1676 "2O S more than he hath had in regard of his poverty." But still he keeps the College treasures. It is all very confusing. Let us hear, first, what the College had to say for itself. It felt that Nicholson had failed it at a time of crisis the lean years that followed the Great Fire. The Governors were ready to beg and borrow funds to rebuild the College ; the least their Clerk could have done was to be as careful of the accounts p. 6 82 THE STAFF as his wife was of the linen. Here is what the Court put on record at the time of his lengthy absence in 1673: Memorandu that D r Bell reported & ordered to be Registered That the College Almeshouse & Library & Gatehouse was built in part of the gifts of them or others procured by them & of the Clergy which togeather & debts due at & since y e fire & charges in earring bookes to & from severall places & some desks then made came to iooo and upwards And because M r Nicholson late Clerke was not to be trusted with money they had kept noe certainty in theire accts but paid as bills of workmen were demaunded. He was "not to be trusted with money" certainly a suf- ficient disqualification in a Clerk, though not an excuse but rather an aggravation of the Governors' neglect in not looking after him. At last in July 1675 he appeared before them, Dr Lake, of St Botolph, Bishopsgate, and Dr Bell, of St Sepulchre, the two Past Presidents with whom he had been chiefly concerned in financial matters, being specially asked to attend. At this meeting Nicholson denied to declare what he had received and alsoe denied what D r Lake justified to be true.... Ordered, that no Accompt be made with him untill he hath delivered the bookes & writings.... And also the Court was not satisfied at his peremptory behaviour towards the Governors & others present in his words &c. This and a certificate from Dr Lake as to his financial under- standing, or misunderstanding, with the late Clerk represents the Court's case. But Nicholson had something to plead in the shape of a substantial debt due to him from the College. In point of fact, at a time when he was clearly glad to receive a gift of twenty shillings "in regard of his poverty," he presented to the Governors a bill for 230. gs. gd. As to rather more than one-sixth of this sum he had no details to produce; but the total included ^no in respect of salary, and it does not seem to have been con- tested that it was now five and a half years since Nicholson had received his 20 per annum. Clearly the Great Fire had put more than the College buildings into a state of utter confusion. Whether it was due to the incompetence of the Clerk or to the negligence of the Governors, it is true that we can gain no THE STAFF 83 satisfactory idea of what money was subscribed to rebuild the College after the Great Fire nor of how it was spent Happily, there was no such trouble with George Daggett 1 , who was elected "Clerke or Register 2 /' on 29 April 1673, and who proved an admirable servant for nearly twenty years at half Nicholson's salary. I have only one fault to find with him, that from 1677 to 1680 he entrusted the writing of the minutes to a very careless deputy. To Daggett in 1692 succeeded Edward Green, whose style and title was "Clerke of the College and Corporaton," and who was a neat and careful chronicler. In 1707, when Green fell ill, the Court asked Samuel Berdmore, who had been Library Keeper since 1703, to "discharge the Duty of the Clerk's place... till M r Green be in a capacity to return," and in 1708 the appointment became permanent, for Green was "then dismissed as being no longer in a capacity to discharge that office." A month or two later, Berdmore left for a country benefice, and the Clerkship was conferred on Thomas Sheppard, who had been a candidate for the Librarianship against the redoubtable William Reading. On Sheppard's death in 1724 Reading was appointed to succeed him (15 October) as Clerk or Register and held the office with the Librarianship for the concluding twenty years of his life. He wrote the minutes of the Court at which he was elected and those of every subsequent Court till the General Court of the year in which he died (1744). His son Thomas hoped to succeed him in one or both of his offices, but the Clerkship like the Librarianship fell to Dr William Brakenridge. Still Thomas got his consolation, as appears from the following solemn minute of 28 January 1745: Upon examining into the State of the College and finding its Revenues so improved of late, as to be almost able to bear the same expenses in the Salaries of Officers, and other Disbursements, as were intended by the Founder, & continued for the most part till the Fire of London. It is agreed, i. That M r Tho. Reading have, (during his good Behaviour & for the benefit of his Sisters) the Places of Ostiary, Under-Librarian, & 1 He had been admitted to our Library in 1661, being then of the Inner Temple. " For the use of Register as an official title, cf. E. H. Pearce, Sons of the Clergy, pp. 44, 45. 62 84 THE STAFF Clerk-Assistant to the Principal Librarian, Clerk & Register, in regard to the long & faithfull Services of his Father; who dyed without being able, with the utmost frugality, to make a competent Provision for his Family, considering the reduction of his College-Salaries, & the Strait- ness of his other Income. 2. That his Duty in these places be to take care of the library, in case the principal Librarian be sick, or absent with leave of the Governors ; to inspect the Repairs of the College, & the Estate belonging to it ; to examine & settle the Bills of workmen, & others ; to keep and enter all accounts ; to make all leases ; to attend all meetings of the Trustees of M r Joy's School: and to do all the business relating to that Trust. 3. That he have for such his duty & services the Rooms over the College-Gate to dwell in, or the Profit of them : and a Salary of twenty pounds per annum (so long as the College Revenue will bear it) together with all Fees & Perquisites of Leases. No doubt, the result was in some degree a disappointment to Reading, whose zeal for the College was more than a mere inheritance; and it is a pleasure, when one is indebted to him for his clear script and his careful bundles of letters, to be able to say that the arrangement had the effect of making him as much the factotum as his father had been. Brakenridge changed lodgings with him in a short time, so that Reading and his sisters continued to live in the home of their childhood. Being a bachelor and a careful man he managed somehow to do more than make both ends meet. Sometimes, as in 1765*, there was "upwards of Two hundred pounds" due to him from the College; and, though, when he died, his accounts seemed "perplexed intricate" and one M r Trafford of the Bank of England was paid six guineas to straighten them out, the money then due from him to the College was all there, and his will spoke eloquently of his love for the place and its people : Item, I give and bequeath a Mahogany Bureau in the Chamber up two pairs of stairs, the locks on all the Doors, The Chimney-pieces, Copper in the yard, Kitchen grate, sinks & cupboards at my House at Sion College to be left standing and fixt as they are on the premises for the use of my Successors Item, I give & bequeath unto the Reverend the President & Fellows of Sion College for the use of their Alms folk the sum of One Hundred Pounds in 3 p Cent New S. Sea Annuities the interest to be equally divided amongst such of them as are resident in the said College at Christmas yearly 1 He was practically sole Clerk or Register from 1762 till his death in 1768. THE STAFF 85 Item I desire that mourning Rings, value one guinea each, be given to such of the Clergy as are Governors of Sion College at the time of my Decease. Thomas Reading died in September 1768, his last entry being the minutes of 17 April, and the Rev. William Clements, the Librarian, was appointed Clerk or Register; but the arrange- ment had a short life. In December 1771 Clements presented a long "memorial & petition" to the Court, in which he repre- sented, rightly, that up to William Reading's time the two offices had been in separate hands, and, quite wrongly, that on William Reading's decease "y e two places of Libr n and of Clark returned into their original channel, y e rev d D r Brakenridge being chosen Librarian and M r Thomas Reading (a layman) appointed Clark"; for, as we have seen, Thomas Reading was carefully named and de jtire remained Assistant-Register under Brakenridge. But Clements represented that the business of Clerk, "especially with its appendages of M r Joye's School and of y e Society for y e Widows &c of y e Clergy," left very little time and thought for the Librarian's work, "and scarce any for y e liberal Employ- ments and Studies of a Clergyman." In brief, he pleaded to be made Librarian only, and the Court at once agreed. On 30 April 1772 they chose Mr Isaac Gregory as their Secretary or Clerk, giving him a salary of 40 with the use of the house over the Gateway (as appointed by Dr White), and of the Court Room "at pleasure." Gregory was succeeded in December 1779 by Thomas Simpson, who was probably then advanced in life. He kept the minutes with fair regularity up to 1792, but the beautiful pen- manship of Robert Watts begins to appear at times, and in July 1802 Gregory resigned on the ground that his health was "impaired and on the decline." "I flatter myself," he wrote, "that my conduct has been such as to merit your regard"; and so it had. The Court spent ten guineas on a silver cup "as a testimony of their approbation" and lent Watts an impression of the College seal in order that it might be engraved on their gift. At his death Simpson, like others in his office, left a legacy to the Almsfolk. There was only one possible successor. Robert Watts, 86 THE STAFF unlike Clements, loved the business of the foundation as well as of the Library. His first set of minutes was written on Simpson's behalf on 18 March 1790, and, as much must be said about him under the head of the Library, it will be sufficient here to step across the half-century of his ceaseless devotion and record that he continued to chronicle the Court's doings up to March 1839. In the following year they were obliged to take note of his "advanced age and infirmities" and in token of their regard allowed the Solicitor to help him with the minutes, so that his now palsied script is replaced in the register by the cruder clearness of a lawyer's clerk's penmanship. Watts died on 19 January 1842, and a month later the unfortunate Rev. Henry Christmas succeeded him.- Three causes combined in the case of Mr Christmas to bring the office of Secretary practically to an end his own incom- petence, the appointment of Dr Russell, of St Botolph, Bishops- gate, as Treasurer, and the clause in the Sion College Act, 1846, empowering the Court of Chancery to nominate a Receiver. But with the advent of Mr W. H. Milman to the Librarianship in 1856 the College was once more in possession of an effective Secretary, though the office was henceforth honorary and though for a time it was overshadowed by the thorough Treasurership of Michael Gibbs. At the present time a Treasurer is elected annually at the General Court and it is the custom of the Court to appoint a Secretary annually from among its members, the choice usually falling on the Senior Dean, who thus gains a useful education for the Presidential responsibilities that are in store for him. A chapter concerned, as this has been, with the management of College interests ought not to conclude without a few words on finance. What sums of money did these Clerks or Registers handle communibus annist Any one at all interested in the Sion of to-day knows that it can reckon on about 1450 a year in ground rents from eight houses on the old site; that its $fa share of the Bradwell manorial dues and rents stands at about 80 and tends to rise ; that light-rents paid by the Port of London Authority (formerly the Thames Conservancy Board) amount to 47, as taxed ; that, thanks to careful management THE STAFF 87 and to the gifts of patriotic Past-Presidents such as Dr W. Wal- lace and Mr Septimus Buss, there are invested funds bringing in about ^43 a year; that members' subscriptions have reached 420 and need not stop there; and that other adventitious helps may produce 200; a total of 2240 a year, which with prudence, and if we are spared a great rise in the assessment of the building, may just suffice for annual maintenance. But what about old times? It is clear that there was a perpetual stringency, which kept the College hard at work appealing to its Fellows and its other friends. Here, for instance, is one such appeal, dated 1687: To the Rectors Vicars Lecturers & Curates of the City and Liberties of London, Brethren, Whereas the Estate of Sion College London by reason of a greate Debt contracted by late buildings & of a former debt is very Low And whereas there are severall necessary payments and expenses incumbent on us, & noe present mony to discharge them These are therefore to request you that have already subscribed that you would be pleased to pay in the remainder of yo r subscriptions forthwith (if it may stand with your convenience) to the bearer hereof Mr Daggett our Clerke And that those of you whoe have not as yet subscribed would freely contribute to soe good a worke by present mony or subscriptions as you thinke fitt. Hen. Dove, President Sion College &c &c. the 30 th May 1687. This appeal is also useful as showing that the Clerk's work was not only to administer existent funds but to give aid in adding to their total. Here also is a further expedient adopted at a Court which met on 28 April 1695, a short while before Bishop Compton's visitation. Four Governors and four Past- Presidents attended and all signed the following "promise to pay" or to collect: Wee who have hereunto subscribed our Names doe hereby severally promise to endeavour to procure the severall Surnes of Tenn pounds a peice for and towards the discharging the debts owing by Sion College London and repairing and augmenting the Library at or before the Nineteenth day of May which shall be in the yeare of our Lord Christ One thousand Six hundred and Ninety & Six, Or otherwise THE STAFF on default thereof to pay severally our Selves the severall sumes of Two shillings for each pound that shall be wanting of the said Tenn pounds a peice. ... But after a careful search through the accounts I can find scarcely any result 1 . The fact is that for long after the Great Fire it required the greatest caution on the Clerk's part to make both ends meet, and in 1692 the Court had to prove this "to y e satisfaccon of the Comission rs for the King's Tax." The Governors, who included Williams, afterwards Bishop of Chichester, and Fleetwood, after- wards Bishop of Ely, an authority on finance, explained that, as it was, "the Poore were forced to be abated almost Halfe of what was their former Allowances"; .and then proceeded to state the case of the College : Upon the whole the College was the worse for the Charity as it is at present since y e Rentall wh ch is about ninety five pounds p. arm. makes not good the expenses as followeth: To the Church for Minist r & Bread for the poore of s d St Alphage p. Ann. 08 = = The Quitt Rente to y e King 01 =17 = 2 The Library Keeper 20 o o There should be an Under Library Keeper 10 = A Clerke should have 20 = = A Porter 04 = = There should be an Und r Porter A Messenger 01 = = Interest for 700* 35 = = Repairs and other Contingencys of the Library ab l 20* New River Water 03 = o - o 102 17 = 2 Thus the receipts on which their Clerk could count when he drew up his statement for Bishop Compton in 1695 were less by about 20 than those which had come into the hands of his predecessor in 1635, with the added anxiety that in 1685 the College had been compelled to raise a large sum by mortgage 2 . Somehow Dr White's foundation pulled itself through its dis- asters, and for this we are indebted not least to a succession of patient and poorly paid officers. 1 The accounts for 1698 show "Rec d of D r Edward Lake by him obteyned of M r Robert Heysham as a Gift to the College, 10 Guineas." 2 See Chapter v. pp. 99 f. CHAPTER V THE COLLEGE BUILDINGS Quia aedificavit Dominus Sion. Ps. cii. 1 6. IT need hardly be said that when Dr White's executors on 25 April 1627 purchased from Mr Alderman Parkhurst and Helen, his wife, the site of Elsing Spital and its appurtenances, they laid the foundation of the financial stability of the Sion College of to-day. The property consisted 1 of "one Capital Messuage, sometime belonging to the Priory of Elsynge Spittle ; three Tenements and Two gardens, within the Close and Precinct of the said Priory ; one long Messuage or House, situate near the Scite, Close, and Precinct of the Priory, and extending in Length from the Priory-Church [St Alphage] towards the East, by the common Way leading from Cripplegate to Bishopsgate towards the North, to Philip Lane towards the West. Three tenements lying together to the said Scite and Garden of the Priory in Philip Lane aforesaid ; two Tenements lying together... in Aldermanbury, all lying together, abutting upon the Priory- Garden towards the West, and upon the common Street leading from Aldermanbury to London Wall towards the East." But Minute-books are seldom of service in recovering the appearance of a building and its surroundings that have long since vanished. We must get what facts we can from the ex- penditure and the receipts of the early years, and the former will naturally give us more detail than the latter. For instance, John Simson's outlay in the first year, " from the fifeast of the Annunciation of our blessed Lady St Marye y e Virgin 1631 to 1 W. Reading, S fate of Sion- Co liege (1724), p. 12. 90 THE COLLEGE BUILDINGS the same ffeast i6$2 l " starts with twenty shillings " ffor mending the Pumpe." The College has its gate, for which there must be provided " lanthorn, iron, & candles." There is a " turrett " which needs repair and a " Stone walke in the garden " which must be laid. The garden is being " dressed " and there is an item for " setting trees." Vines are growing outside and are cut at a cost of fourteen pence. The gardener needs a wheelbarrow, a roller, a "watering pott" and "gravell for the walkes," he digs the " grasse-plott " and borders, levels the ground " next the Bowling alley," sets the rosemary and flowers, and lines "the Borders with camamile." Presently (1637) an erection called "the long Arbo r " is being put up in the garden, and there are payments for its " postes " and " polls " and " tymber " and " chequer work," for "wyer" and "oziers" to "bynd upp the vynes," and for various cuttings such as " 300 of quick, 100 of damson setts, IOO of goosberyes." Naturally the tenants both of houses and of chambers soon came to take a practical interest in what are called the " ameni- ties " of the place, and were willing to co-operate with the Court if a fair agreement could be arrived at, such as came into being in 1645 : This day Mr Adderley tenant of one of the Chambers in the Col- ledge moved the Governo rs that he & other gent of the house might paue the long walk under their chambers & grauell the garden walkes & otherwise beautify the garden w ch now lay ruynous w ch they were now willing to doe if as they might be allowed the same out of their rents And if they lefte the Colledge before the money should be runne out that then they would give the surplus to the Colledge. ...The Governo rs assented & the same is left to M r Adderley to see it per- formed. Thus for the good of all it was worth while to have the garden kept " hansomly & Neatly." Neither the tenants nor the Almsfolk must treat it in a way that would lessen its amenities for the rest of the inhabitants. " The garden plott," ran an order issued in 1648, must " not be made a comon drying place for Cloathes." The practice was especially selfish, as several of the occupiers had gardens attached to their tenements, and had 1 Such is the financial year of the College to this day. THE COLLEGE BUILDINGS 91 the less need to encroach upon the common pleasaunce. Yet from time to time the custom revived and required reproof, as in 1693, when it was resolved : That M r Wooley take downe the Posts used for hanging Lynes to drye Clothes on which now stand betweene the Lady Golds Garden and his Garden, That the Lodgers & Inhabitants of the Colledge may have the liberty and benefitt of walking in the Voyd Ground betweene the said Gardens. And that no person for the future be allowed to hang up any Clothes to dry there.... But that M r Wooley may nevertheles if he think fitt sett up the said Posts within his owne Garden for his owne accomodaton. One of these private gardens belonged to the Librarian's residence and was sufficiently visible to be worth occasional outlay. When in 1768 William Nelson held the office and occupied this house, there was a special order " that the ground in the College at the back Front of M r Nelson's house be digged, levelled, & sowed w th Grass and Dutch Clover & that the rails and brickwork be removed and sold under the direction of M r Nelson." Evidently it was desirable to throw this plot into the common ground. In any case nothing was to be done which would either reduce the rights of the inhabitants of the College to enjoy the Garden or to open the advantages of it to the outside world. For instance, the business capacities of Dr Woodroffe, of whom more hereafter, enabled him to obtain a lease for seven years of various parts of the College with "the use of the Garden in comon." This was in October 1687, at a time when the ravages of the Great Fire were still affecting the rents. But Woodroffe wanted to obtain too exclusive a use of the privilege, and in 1688, with some preciseness, it was ordered declared & agreed that it was not nor is the intencon of this Court and College ever to demise to D r Woodroffe the College Garden otherwise or in any other manner but onely in Comon with other the Tenants and inhabitants within the College. But the most interesting case of a possible encroachment upon the exclusive quietness of the Garden is connected with the famous name of Edmund Calamy, who became Minister of the neighbouring church of St Mary, Aldermanbury, in 1639. 92 THE COLLEGE BUILDINGS He was elected a member of the Court of Governors in 1643 and at his first meeting put in what was at once a complaint and a request for compensation in another kind. " In regarde " so he pleaded " the light of his house is much darkened by the late buylding of chambers for the College over the long Walke," he would like a door made between his parsonage and the Long Walk, with a key, " and liberty to come and goe thorow it to & from the house into the Colledge garden att his pleasure." The Governors " freely granted " what he asked, "so long as he shall inhabite in the same house & be parson of St Mary Alderman- bury & noe longer." But by 1661 the views that Calamy represented were passing swiftly out of fashion among the Clerus Londinensis, and then it occurred to Dr Pory and his more Royalist colleagues in full Court assembled that Calamy's privilege ought never to have been granted. Here is their minute of 2 April 1661 : The present Governo rs apprehending that they have no power to p'mitt any passinge into the College, else than what the Porter by the ffounder allowed is to be Guardian of, doe desire M r Calamy that hee would take away the doore made out of his howse into the Turrus walke, and firmly to make up the Wall as it was before. In October "in regard of his present lameness" Calamy was allowed during the pleasure of the Governors to retain " the liberty of the dore," but the pleasure was shortlived. Just a year later came &fiat " that the dore leading from M r Calamy's House into the Colledge garden bee substantially made up answerable to the Wall out of which it was made." Another danger of making the grounds of the College too public arose through the water-supply. There was both a water- vault and a water-cock, and, if the Porter was negligent in his duties, the women of the neighbourhood were apt to come with their buckets and help themselves at the College expense. Trouble arose in this way as early as 1647, when concerning the ryver water whereof the pipe belonging to the Colledge is now cut off It is agreed that it be referred to M r Cranforde 1 to speake with S r William Middleton about it. 1 Then Senior Dean. THE COLLEGE BUILDINGS 93 The nature of the trouble appears in an order of the next year which commanded the Porter to looke to the water cock that no strangers fetch any water there as hitherto they have done there being complaynt already made thereof to the overseers of the waterwork who have ordered it to be cutt off unlesse prevented for the future. There were constant difficulties as to the watercourses made by the various tenants. Some of them had to be " repayred " in 1660, but in such a way "that care be taken for the preservacon of the Vyne in the Garden." It was as necessary to forbid the inhabitants to " make any watercourses into the same but such as the Governors shall allow of" as it was to order that none of them " lay out any dirt soile filth or rubbish therein." The water-vault was a constant menace to the stability of the central building. In 1664 two Assistants were told off to "advise w th workmen how the Water in the Vault may be taken away for preservacon of the ffoundacon and Walls," the result being " a substantiall pump" and "a well digged in the vault for the Drayning the Water thence." It is not difficult to realise that at times the College was far from being either dry or savoury 1 . Again, the various kinds of tenants admitted from time to time threatened the quietude of the College in their different ways. The students in the early years must have their rooms attended to, and the bedmaker became a necessary institution. But she must be under discipline; so the Governors of 1647 gave orders " that noe woman is to stay in the Colledge after Nyne of the Clock att Night neither shall any woman be a Bed- maker. . .but such as are approved of by the Governo rs ." It involved a more serious condition of things that in 1662 it should be necessary to provide that the College tenants " p'mitt no woman kinde whatsoever to lodge in any of their respective Chambers," or they must expect " a qr's warning." : E.g. on 3 August 1 749 Thomas Reading received a letter from one P. Nicholson, a tenant, who wrote: "I am poison'd with this Stink, it is impossible for me to live in it : therefore I hereby give you notice that I shall quit it at Christmas next.... I in- tended indeed to have ended my daies here, but not in such a manner as this will bring me to by swallowing continually (more especially all night) y e unwholesome stench of a Sewer." 94 THE COLLEGE BUILDINGS But the student began to give place even before the Fire to wealthier tenants taking land or houses as a business proposition. Then the danger changed to that of a general commercialising of the premises. This is clear from an incident of 1653, when W m Peplow baker was a suito r to have a lease of Batesons house except the roome over the Clothworkers," and obtained a 26 years' lease at 8 a year. Even the Long Walk was not sacred, for in the very next year a piece of ground was let there for a wash-house, the reason given by the Governors being " because they could not see that it could be ymployed for the use or benefitt of Students." Nevertheless even after the Fire the Court did what it could to prevent the College becoming a manufactory. Mr Flatman, who became tenant of a consider- able parcel in 1682, received permission "to Let his tenements of this College to any familys soe as there were not used therein any handicraft trade or manuall occupacon nor sold nor bought therein any sort or kinde of wares goods Comodities or Mer- chandizes whatsoever." In the same way another tenant in 1690 must apply for leave " to exercise his servant in the handicraft of a wiredrawer in his house within the College." But it is time that we gained some idea of the position and the use of the buildings that looked on to the Court and the Garden, even though our information is mainly derived from John Simson's and his successors' figures in the account-book. It there appears that, when the College started out in life, one John Lawrence had two tenements in Philip Lane, for which he paid 20 a year ; and William Batson had the third at 10 a year ; and Sir Francis Swift had a house in Aldermanbury at 20 a year. Somewhere on the property there were also sets of "chambers," apparently erected by John Simson, which in 1632 brought in fy, but by 1634 were producing nearly 40 annually. They were evidently occupied by clergy and young students anxious to make use of the Library, and it is tempting to suppose that " M r Lamplugh," whose rental was 3. os. od., was the future vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields and Arch- bishop of York, then about eighteen years of age; that " M r Dell " was the William Dell who was then incumbent of St Mary, Aldermanbury ; that " Mr ffynch" (1636) was Edward THE COLLEGE BUILDINGS 95 Finch 1 , vicar of Christ Church, Newgate Street (1630-43); that " M 1 Thomas Gouge" was the Minister of St Anne, Blackfriars; and that "M r Fuller," who in July 1646 took over a chamber from another tenant was, as there is every reason to believe, Thomas Fuller, the incomparable writer on " Worthies." Fuller appears to have left the College for a while, possibly on account of its occupation by the troops, but possibly also, I fear, because he was remiss in the payment of his rent; for on 8 May 1648, when Cornelius Burges was President, it was resolved that these persons following be warned to appeare here the next friday at 3 of the Clock in the afternoone to shew cause why they doe not pay their Rents arreare, and "M r Fuller" was one of the six. Evidently he did not obey this summons, for an order was given to Spencer, the Librarian, on 1 2 May to " speake with M r Fuller out of hand, and if he doe not forthwith pay his rent that an Attachm 1 be made of his Chamber also." Apparently there were tenants more difficult to live with than Fuller is recorded to have been. For here is what is written of one of his contemporaries : Mr Bowles appearing before the Governo rs he peremptorily refused to yield possession of his chamber... M r Bowles also alledged that M r Coppyn in M r Kents chamber is a Tradesman and that M r Clark is noe Scholler & that M r Jaggard is a married man & that other gents of the house. are drunkards & as fitt to be removed as he. Fuller's name returned to the list of tenants in 1654 when he paid a rent of 4 " for the two lowe Chambers next the Garden," and so continued till his death in 1661. This feature of the College life and usefulness was further developed in quite early days. For in 1636 the Court decided to build more chambers on the south of their property, and we can follow the steps they took. Four shillings were paid to the Lord Mayor " for a warrant for the Com rs to vie we the place intended for newe buylding on the south side of the Colledge garden," nor must it be concealed that rather more was expended 1 It is characteristic of him that the payment of his rent often appears among the " Arrerages" of the accounts. 96 THE COLLEGE BUILDINGS in " wyne and Cakes att severall tymes for the Commissioners when they viewed it." Anyhow a certificate was forthcoming, and the contract price for building the chambers " and for makeing the old garrette over the gallery into chambers " was .145. It is of. interest to remember that the legacy of $o l (besides some plate) left by Walter Travers [our books call him Travis] was " layd forth in the new buyldinge." Thus by 1650 the College, according to the ledger of that year, could count its student and other lodgers as follows : (1) " The Chamber adioyning to the Library Stayres and the Chamber over it [at the far, or south, end of the Court-yard, as you entered from London Wall] are assigned to M r John Spencer library keep without Rent." (2) In the same Court-yard on the east side there were five other chambers at various rents. (3) " In the second Courte or Garden," the entrance to which was by a passage on the east side of the first Court, there were eleven or twelve chambers at rents of from 4. to thirty shillings. All went well with this investment in building, and the chambers, though they changed tenants not infrequently, were clearly in demand, until the account for 1651 records under head of " Rente of Chambers " " Nothing because the Souldiers contynue qrtered there." In 1652 and 1653 the receipts were equally blank for the same reason, save that one Dillingham managed to retain his apartment and to pay his rent. In later years the Court thought it reasonable that the Library as well as the College should gain by the presence of these Chamber- tenants, and in 1663 it was Ordered that every psori who shalbe admitted Tenant to any of the College Chambers shall before his Entrance into the same give to the Library of this College a Booke of Twenty Shillings price att the least as an Income for every Chamber and a booke of fforty shillings price att the Least for Every double Chamber, and that the sd Bookes be fitt for the Library as the Gouvno rs shall judge most. We return to the first Court. As we enter it from London Wall we have on our right the building in which the two elements of the foundation were concentrated. The ground floor consists of 1 See Chapter n. p. 23. THE COLLEGE BUILDINGS 97 the almsrooms, of which ten open on to the Court, facing east- ward, and ten on to Philip Lane, facing westward an unfortunate arrangement because the occupants of the latter could come and go without being fully liable to the discipline centred in the College gate. The Library was built upon the Almsrooms. "When they were raised to a sufficient height," says Reading, " M r Thomas Wood, rector of St Michael's, Crooked Lane [Fourth Assistant, so named in the Charter and elected to the first acting Court in 1631], viewing them in company of M r Simpson, the executor, observed that they would serve for a very good Basis of a Library." Simson caught up the idea and " at his own proper Cost and Charge he erected a stately Room over the Almshouses, con- taining One Hundred and twenty one Foot in Length, within the Walls, and about Twenty five Foot in Breadth 1 ." As our books begin their record after the completion of the fabric, there is no trustworthy information about the cost of the Library 2 ; we can, however, see " Dan y e Smith " receiving in 1631 four guineas " for 2 complet deskes in the Librarye," and in 1632 8. us. for the same u w th other woorke." The term "gallery," which occurs frequently, may probably refer to the upper storey of the Library, and in May 1633 there is an item for a gutter over this gallery at the " end next Brewers hall," which lay to the south of the College. On the left of the Courtyard near the College gate stood " the President's house," which in practice belied its name, for at times it was the home of the Librarian, if his family needed more room than Spencer's two chambers, and at other times it was let for what it would fetch. Not the least worthy of its tenants was Robert Watts, Librarian 17991842, who was allowed to move into it in 1809, his own rooms " being much too small for the accommodation of his family." Other occupants included Lady Gold, "widdow relict of the late Alderman Gold 3 ," who took a lease of the 1 State of Sion- Library (1724), p. 34, giving as his authority ex MSS. Coll. Sion. 2 Reading puts Simson's outlay at "above two thousand Pounds." 3 Sir Thomas Gold, who served the office of Sheriff in 1675-6, was admitted Alderman of Dowgate Ward in September 1676, and was superseded by Royal Commission in 1683. Cf. A. B. Beaven, Aldermen of the City of London, p. 141. P. 98 THE COLLEGE BUILDINGS house in 1689 at 30 a year, and Philip Stubbs, Archdeacon of St Albans and rector of St Alphage, in 1698. W. Reading 1 is doubtful " whether any House here was called ' the President's Lodgings' before the Fire," and suggests that Dr Woodroffe's residence in the College for some years and his being President for three years (1684 1686) "occasioned it to be called so." Nevertheless there are signs of " President's Lodgings " before the Fire. Thus (3 January 1637) It is this day thought fitt & agreed that M r President [D r Jonathan Browne, of St Faith's, Dean of Hereford] shall have libertie to take away his Stove when he leaves his Studdy so as he make it upp as it was at the first ; and on 22 May in the same year Item that the President shall for the matted chamber with the closett in the new buylding adjoyning to it & the Colehouse under the new Stairecase with the Roome over the matted chamber pay 5^ p. an. And the Govern rs are content that he for his tyme in the same chamber haue the use of the gallery and studdy adjoyning. Next to it, further south, was the College Hall with a Court- room adjoining and with a kitchen underneath. Our founders took the Hall over from their predecessors with its " old wayn- scott," and in 1634 paid to the " Joyner" 13^. ^.d. for " freezes " and to another man a sovereign " for paynting the hall and staires." They gave the hall a new hearth and the kitchen new ovens, and added to the kitchen a "pastry room." As to the larger houses (though they were of no great size) which formed part of the College property, Mary Tookey was for a long time tenant of " tenements betweene Alphage Church and the Colledge gate," fronting on London Wall, at 14 a year. Paul Isaac paid 20 a year for his house in Aldermanbury which backed on to the east side of the Garden ; while to the westward there were two houses in Philip Lane at 20 and 10 a year respectively. The effect of the Great Fire, which is dealt with in another chapter, appears also in the account-book, which leaves seventeen folios blank for the period between 1666 and 1672. When it resumes its record in another hand, that of George Daggett, 1 State of Sion- College, p. 27. THE COLLEGE BUILDINGS 99 Nicholson's successor, there is money coming in from the country property but none from chambers or houses. The Fire has swept them all away, but the plots are being quickly taken up with a view to rebuilding. In 1674 Mr Racket pays the greater part of his fine of 75 for a lease (the period is not specified) of the houses between St Alphage Church and the College gate. Captain George Wharton pays a fine of $$ for " 130 foote of ground in Length and 10 in Breadth in the College garden next adjoyninge all along the back part of M r Wharton's new built houses there," while Mr Carpenter gets a lease for 81 years of the premises formerly let to Mr Bee 1 , the publisher, and of "the roomes and chamber over the same." By Lady Day 1676 rents were coming from all these sources, but there is no more revenue from chambers. In 1688 the Court felt some hesitation "touching the College power in letting leases & sinking rents," and they took the opinion of Mr Paul Bowes, the editor of D'Ewes's Journals, which was entered thus in the minutes : The questions and opinion are as followeth (vizt) I st The question is whether this Corporation (Although it be of Ecclesiasticall persons Yett haueinge noe Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction) Bee within the Statutes concerning Colleges The opinion I conceive its not within the intent & provision of those Statutes. 2 d And whether the Corporation may in this Case grant leases for sixty or seaventy yeares or upwards or can because of the Charity and Statutes of Charitable uses sink or lessen the Rents. Opinion. I conceive as this Case is Circumstanced the Corporation may well Justine the sinking of the Rent. P. Bowes. This anxiety to be fortified with a legal opinion came a little late, for in the long Presidency (1684-5-6) of Dr Benjamin WoodrofTe, rector of St Bartholomew the Little by the Exchange, and, like Dr Thomas White, Canon of Christ Church, Oxford, the Court had committed itself to a considerable mortgage, a sum of ;6$o having been borrowed in 1685 of one Robert Judd for a term of 499 years, it being covenanted "that for the secure payment thereof againe All the said College Hall Kitchen 1 See Chapter xin. p. 246. >7 Ti _____ tj 100 THE COLLEGE BUILDINGS Parlour and all Chambers and roomes over and aboute the same and the said buildings now a building be conveyed and assured." Thus when Dr John Williams wrote his presidential account 1 (1691-2) of "The History and State of Sion College London with several matters relating thereto," the houses in and around the College were all held at small rents after the payment of large fines an evil system whereby the present battens on the dues of the future. The list is as follows : Timothy Bates, houses in Sion Court (2 p.a.) ; Lady Wharton, houses in Aldermanbury (3. 6.$-. 8d.) ; Edward Bartlet, houses between the College gate and St Alphage Church (2)-, William Woolley, houses in the College garden (4) ; Lady Gold, the President's Lodgings and the Hall (30) ; Joseph Stevens " for his Chambers being the Ground rooms on y e right hand in y e passage going to the Garden "( 1 1); William Barcroft, "his Chambers over M r Stevens" Gio); Dr Wm. Bedford 2 , "his Chambers over M^ Barcroft" (7) ; John Corrige, " two Rooms being the ground Rooms on the left hand in y e passage going into y e Gard n ," i.e. opposite Mr Stevens (4); Mrs Margaret Shenton, Chambers over Mr Corrige's (6) ; Mrs Sybill Hunt, Chambers over Mrs Shenton's (6) ; Wm. Nelson, the Library keeper, " ground rent for his house at the end of the Library " (2). These with two tene- ments then vacant " a cellar with one of y e Rooms over D r Bedford's" (2. i$s.) and "one of the 2 Rooms over D r Bed- ford's" (2) brought the College rental for its City property to a possible total of ^92. i s. 8d. Thenceforward for some forty years there is little to record about the houses in the precincts save the steady change of tenancies. Mr Stevens' rooms in the passage were taken by Jeremiah Dodson, rector of St Catharine Coleman, who had been President in 1689, and on his death in 1695 they passed into the occupation of his son. In 1694 Mrs Shenton sub-let her rooms to Mr Stubbs, and this was the beginning of Philip Stubbs' long connexion with our College, which must be noted when we come to St Alphage Church. In 1695 he became ne 1 A manuscript copy is in the Library (Arc. L 40. 2. E. 56). 2 Rector of St Botolph, Billingsgate, 1691 1725; President, 1711. THE COLLEGE BUILDINGS IOI direct tenant of the College for the two garrets over Dr Bedford, to which he added a cellar in 1697. Next year, waxing more ambitious, he entered into occupation of the President's Lodgings and the College Hall at the rent (30) paid by Lady Gold ; and to these in 1 707 he added " the Parlor with the Clerk's Office on y e south side of y e Hall" at an additional rent of 4. In 1712 he gave up the President's Lodgings, but retained till 1733 the Chambers for which he paid 4, so that he was more or less resident within our walls for forty years. Another occupant prominent among the City Clergy, who came to stay, was Dr Richard Roderick, of St Michael Bassishaw, brother of Charles Roderick, Provost of King's College, Cam- bridge, who became tenant of Dr Woodroffe's holding in 1701 at g a year. He continued for the rest of his life to reside in the College, of which he was President in 1722, and on his death on 13 October 1730 he was succeeded in his rooms by a curate of St Alphage parish. Philip Stubbs was followed in the President's Lodgings in 1712 by Richard Sear, who in the previous year had exchanged the rectory of Hornsey for that of St Alban, Wood Street, close to the College, and who retained 1 the house for a quarter of a century, being followed in February 1737 by John Thomas, of St Vedast Foster, who owed to a knowledge of German and to King George II his rapid promotion to the Deanery of Peterborough and the sees of Lincoln and Salisbury. Sear took a keen and not unbusinesslike interest in the College, and in 1727 and following years he was receiving interest at the rate of 5 per cent, on a mortgage of 700 on the College buildings, sub- sequently increased to 1400 and paid off in 1737, when he duly " acquitted the Govern 1 " 3 both in the Assignment and the book of acquittances kept for the purpose." Meanwhile the long leases at small ground rents were running their course and the College drew nearer to the day when it could hope for a more profitable system. Naturally the sitting 1 At least, he paid the rent but he may have sub-let, for in 1726 it is recorded that " M r Charles Wheatley, now residing in the President's Lodging, and being about to republish his illustration of the Book of Cofnon Prayer," desired to borrow books from the Library. 102 THE COLLEGE BUILDINGS tenants tried to take time by the forelock. For instance, in February 1723, when Dr Roderick, who knew the worth of a College tenancy, was in the chair, a certain Mr Wilder brought proposals for renewing his lease for houses in Aldermanbury, and was told that if he "will give 200^ by way of fine and advance y e Groundrent to 10^ p. ann. they are willing to make up y e unexpired term 2 1 yeares." At the next Court the Register reported on the fate of these (quite unwise) proposals. " M rs Wilder who was present & was in a great passion was very angry with y e Reg r & y e Governors not w th out some reflections on them as Clergymen for offering such hard & unreasonable terms considering y e charge M r Wilder had been at ab 1 y e houses." On the other hand Mr Wilder "was more mild and seemed inclinable to give 200^ by way of fine, but as to any advance upon y e Groundrent peremptorily refused to Agree to it." So it was resolved that the leases should "be suffered to run out, till they fall into y e hands of y e Corporation of Sion College, w ch will be in ab* 8 yeares time." It was in 1737 that the critical period arrived and a special Court met on 16 April " to consider of the Lease proposed to be let to the best Bidder, of Houses belonging to the College, in Aldermanbury, Sion Court, and Philip Lane " ; but the same old policy was again adopted, for it was unanimously resolved, that a good Fine be taken preferably to any rent extended above sixty pounds p. ann. according to what had been publickly advertised, and as the Debts of y e College require. . The result was the appearance of " about 8 or 9 Bidders " and "the highest Fine offer'd was nine hundred pounds and sixty pounds p. ann. reserved rent." Then appeared three di ex machina in the persons of John Denne, D.D., vicar of St Leonard, Shoreditch, rector of Lambeth, and Archdeacon and Canon of Rochester; Robert Drew, rector of St Margaret Pattens, and Prebendary of St Paul's; and Reuben Clarke, D.D., rector of St Magnus the Martyr, Archdeacon of Essex, and chaplain in ordinary to George II. Two of them, Drew and Clarke, were Assistants on the then Court of Governors, and Denne was brother-in-law of Clarke and grandson of Samuel Bradford, THE COLLEGE BUILDINGS IO3 Dean of Westminster and Bishop of Carlisle, who had been President of Sion in 1716. Lest anyone should say that there was something suspicious in an arrangement which placed the leases in the hands of members of the Court, posterity was to rest satisfied with the following minute : Whereas in the year 1737 the affairs of Sion College were very bad, there having been a debt growing for many years, which then amounted to i4oo; occasioned by a thorough repair when their estate came into their hands after a long lease. And whereas there was no way thought so prudent and so effectual to extricate the College out of this pressing difficulty, as offering to the best bidder a Lease of the houses adjoining. And whereas there actually was notice given in a publick news paper [" every day in the Daily Advertiser, and once a week in the Craftsman," Court. Feb. 28 1737] by the Governours of the College, that they were come to such a resolution, and pursuant to it a day was appointed for receiving proposals, And whereas when that day came the highest proposal that was made was not more than a 1000^". And whereas the Governours of the College, finding how far this method of raising money fell short of their expectation, and considering that to embrace this proposal would be ruinous, & yet that there was no way fairly to reject it, but by making another, & upon this were in very great per- plexity; when the Governours were in this straight, Then the Rev d M r Archdeacon Denn, the Rev d . M r Archdeacon Clark, and the Rev d M r Drew (without taking Advantage of bidding less, which yet they very well might, and which would have been very readily accepted) did generously and of their own accord offer at once the whole summ of 1400}!, whereby the honour of the Governours was saved, the College debt was paid, & things put upon that happy foot they now are, And a Lease was accordingly executed to the new Purchasers, but there appearing afterwards to be a mistake in the Printed particular (upon which they purchased) of that part of the estate which is situate between the College gate and St Alphage Church consisting of five houses then upon Lease, and said to expire at Christmas 1737, which, upon perusing the said lease did not expire 'till Lady day 1738, whereby the said Purchasers lost one quarter of a Years improved Rent which they had bought and were entitled to. And the said College might have been involved in an expensive Lawsuit, thro' such a mistake on their part, had such a Lease been granted to other persons. Yet notwithstanding such a mistake to the loss and prejudice of the said Purchasers, they generously of their own accord agreed to take no advantage of the College, & not to insist on being allow'd their quarters Rent for the said 5 houses, which they had a right to do, but forgave the same and acquitted the College of their mistake. To the end therefore that such singular instances of Publick Spirited- ness may not be forgotten, at least whilst they and those that shall 104 THE COLLEGE BUILDINGS hold under them continue Tenants, We the Governours in that Year when this was done, have ordered this account to be inserted in our Register, with this view among others, that whereas such undertakings are of a complex nature, and besides are out of the way of those Gentlemen's professions, and they may not have guarded against many Inconveniences which men more conversant in such matters would have guarded against, that therefore if in time to come any such defect should appear, and they should pray the relief of the Governours, that they and their Executors may be Intitled to all that Favour, which they can with Reason ask or the Governours with prudence grant. Edward Arrowsmith President John Abbot Dean R Skerret Assistant The signatories are those members of the Court then present who had no personal interest in the mortgage. For the time being the College benefited and the high ecclesiastical position of the three bidders, who held eight or nine offices between them, gave the Fellows a sense of security. The business was productive of a considerable and cordial correspondence between John Denne and his son Samuel on the one hand and Thomas Reading, our Clerk, on the other. Reuben Clarke, who was President of Sion in 1745, died in 1746 and "Aunt Clark's" share came into the keeping of John Denne and a Mr Askham, who employed " M r Fidoe, overseer of the works at Westminster Abbey" as " joynt agent... in managing the Trusts of my brother Clarke's will, for w ch we expect every day to be called to account 1 ." Reading also assisted in keeping the family finances clear and received an allowance for his pains. Either John Denne or his son would make an appointment with Reading on some brief visit to the parish of Lambeth before returning to Rochester. " I dine at three of the Clock," says T. Reading in making one of these appointments, " and shall be glad of your company " ; or sometimes it is suggested by Denne that " it may be agreeable to you to come over to me at Vaux Hall." In 1760 Samuel Denne opens proposals on his father's behalf for a renewal of the family lease, and asks Reading to acquaint the President with this intention. " You, Sir," he says, " very well know how large a sum of money he has expended in putting their estate into and keeping it in tenantable repair : so much indeed, that unless the 1 From a letter of John Denne to T. Reading dated " Vaux Hall/' 22 June 1757. THE COLLEGE BUILDINGS IO5 College is pleased to Grant him another Lease, He and his family must I think suffer considerably by it." Thus the Court were not anxious as to the houses comprised in this particular trust. But there were three other houses which at this period defied all efforts to let them. The difficulty 1 may have arisen from the obstinacy of John London, the blacksmith, who plied his trade at the College gate and was not careful about his smoke. In 1755 he "has altered one of his Windows looking into the College, by making it into a Casement, in order to let out the Smoak from his Shop," and it required a lawyer's letter to reduce him to " putting up a common leaded light as formerly." Again in 1767 he is described as "having lately put up a Forge in a back Room, the Window of which looks into the College, from whence at times comes out great Clouds of Smoke, to the annoyance of the inhabitants of the College, and also greatly to the Prejudice of the Books in the Library." Apart from this nuisance these three houses in the Garden were evidently in a bad state and one of the Court's expedients to obtain tenants was to call in the College tradesmen to report and, if they so chose, to make an offer. Here are their several opinions, as the minutes of 1758 preserve them : M r Alexander the Carpenter said to put them into Tenantable repair would cost little more than 100 a house, that the Cellars are very bad the Water coming in, the Ground Floors might be raised which would be an additional Expense, that they might be let for about ,25 a year each. M r Keen, Glazier, said if a way was made into Aldermanbury they would be more likely to let, but he would not take them, will cost about ^500 necessary Repair, & may then let for about 24 a year each. M r Fullmer, Bricklayer, said he had seen them, will cost about ^"500 to put them into Tenantable repair, the Cellars being very damp and full of Dirt, if repaired may be worth 2$ a year each, don't chuse to take them himself. It was the glazier's suggestion of a passage into Alderman- bury that finally solved the problem, and in 1766 one Michael Babb received a 60 years' lease of the three houses on condition of being allowed to make a passage six feet wide " through the 1 Lettings were, of course, not made easier by advertisements which excluded "any persons who are of working Trades or keep Schools" (1757). 106 THE COLLEGE BUILDINGS House in Aldermanbury which has a back Door into the College Garden" a privilege which cost the College 10 a. year. Babb was to build four houses on the site instead of three, to pay a fine of 100 and a rent of 22 per annum. The expiry of that lease brings us to the nineteenth century and fairly excuses us from further details except these that the front of the College was almost rebuilt in 1800 during the presidency of John Moore ; that the whole of the College property, urban and rural, was mortgaged by Act of Parliament in 1846 in order to pay the cost of a new Almshouse ; that the sum insured on the College buildings and houses rose steadily 1 , being in 1780 5 800, in 1801 8350, and in 1810 12,000; and that at the present moment the ground rents receivable from seven houses in Aldermanbury Avenue and one in Philip Lane, being the portion of goods which fell to the College when it was separated from the Hospital, amount to about 1450 a year. It may be added that our Court sought from time to time the advice of very competent surveyors in their dealings with their London property. John Long, the surveyor of Christ's Hospital, served them in this capacity from 1810 to 1815, when he was succeeded by Samuel Pepys Cockerell, who gave place in 1825 to Philip Hardwick. Cockerell's tenure of office was marked by a great effort to repair and almost rebuild the Hall in 1815. This followed hard after a heavy expenditure on the Almshouses, during which the in-pensioners were removed and their rent elsewhere defrayed, and on the Library, of which the contents were temporarily removed to the Hall. The trades- men's bills for the work just mentioned had amounted to 959, and now Cockerell, as their new surveyor, brought them alterna- tive proposals for dealing with the Hall. He said it " appears to have been erected about 1 50 years the west front of it in the character of the common ornamental brickwork of that time." The south-west part of the wall had " settled down and become fractured long ago " and the fractures had again opened. In fact, the west end showed " altogether such a weakness that without 1 In 1717, when a term of insurance had expired, it was "Agreed that 500/6 be insured on y e College Hall & Lodgings and 500^ on y e Library and Almshouses in y e Hand and Hand Office on Snow Hill." THE COLLEGE BUILDINGS IO/ rebuilding it seems to be impossible to give the Building such a substantial and lasting character as is suitable to a Public Estab- lishment." No doubt the fabric could be " braced and bound " and restored for 200 to ^250, but it would be better to rebuild the west and part of the south side. The Court agreed to the latter and set him a limit of 700. Hardwick's reign saw gas laid on in 1818 in the Garden and the Court and at the gate. He was also concerned with considerable improvements to the drainage of the houses, and in this respect conferred benefits upon one of the tenants, the Rev. John Page Wage Wood (after- wards 2nd baronet), the father of Field-Marshal Sir Evelyn Wood. He was made rector of St Peter-upon-Cornhill in 1824 and in a few months became the tenant of the College at 50 a year for " No. 4 in the Garden " ; but he not unnaturally com- plained that "the want of a sewer therein has occasionally caused much inconvenience," and he was allowed his first year's rent in respect of "the great expences he had been at in draining" and removing a cess-pool. It should be remembered, as illustrating the long connexion of the College with educational work, that in 1837 a lease of " No. 2 in Sion College Garden and a Portion of the vacant Ground in Philip Lane " was granted to the Cripplegate Ward School on the condition of an outlay on buildings of at least ^"1400, and that the Ward School was still in occupation when the College went its way to the Thames Embankment. CHAPTER VI THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE GREAT FIRE Conuertantur retrorsum omnes qui oderunt Sion. Ps. 129. 5. WHEN our Founder devised his plan of bringing the London Clergy together into a lawful Corporation and attached to his foundation a charity for the support of the poor, he probably expected neither that the poor would always live in amity with their neighbours nor that the Clergy, being thus confederate together, would pass entirely peaceable days. The right relation of the priesthood to politics remains one of the puzzles of clerical life. Dr White's attitude to the " great thoughts of heart" which were already filling " the wateVcourses of Reuben " in his time, has been dealt with elsewhere, as far as it can be ascertained. But he could not doubt that a College of clergy in the centre of the City would become involved in national strife, however it might desire to escape it. He must have expected that when there " was war in the gates," among a hundred clergy there would be some " governors of Israel, that offered themselves willingly among the people." He could see all the elements of a vast ecclesiastical strife at work before he died, and well within twenty years of his death the clash came. The man of strife appeared earliest in the person of John Sedgwick, the near neighbour of the College as Rector of St Alphage, London Wall, and the first of several rectors of that parish who made things more or less difficult for our foundation. Sedgwick was a violent Parliamentarian, while James Marsh and others of the opposing party had succeeded in maintaining their position on the Court. He soon proceeded to question the THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE GREAT FIRE legality of the elections, and in respect of the General Court held on 25 April 1643 it is recorded : This day... John Sedgwick Rector of St Alphage London made protestacon against the Eleccon of the Governo rs and officers... for these reasons 1 because Somons as he considereth have not issued out according to the Charter nor according to usuall custome Lecturers and Curates not being warned 2 because there was noe latyn Sermon 3 That none should be eligible or have voice in the choice whose liveings are sequestered by the Parliament. 4 That all such as have byne putt into those liveings by the Parlia- ment shall have their voice in any eleccon that shalbe made. John Sedgwick It is obvious that the sting of his protest is in the tail. Sedgwick was an incumbent, with, perhaps, no strong passion for the supposed rights of lecturers and curates and still less for the regularity of the "latyn Sermon." He wanted none but Parliament men in College offices. For the moment he was foiled, but six months later he received some satisfaction ; for a special election-court was held on 21 October 1643. It was a " maimed rite," for it is called " an Assembly of the Deanes, two of the Assistants, & Fellows," and it took place because men must needs be " chosen to be Governo rs the rest of the yere ...in the Roomes & Places of James Marshe president & Edward Sparkes 1 & Hume assistants lately amoued & gone out of the Cittie." This meant that what Sedgwick could not induce the Anniversary Court to do the Parliamentary authorities had done. James Marsh, Archdeacon of Chichester, and vicar of St Dunstan-in-the-west, died in exile. Edward Sparke, who had been incumbent of St Martin Pomeroy since 1639, lived to become chaplain to Charles II. "Hume," about whom our register is so little concerned that it neither gives his Christian name nor records his benefice, was no doubt George Hume, rector of St Dionis, Backchurch. Naturally the " intruded " members of the Court were all strong Puritans. Andrew Janaway, of All Hallows, London Wall, became President and of the two new Assistants one was Edmund Calamy, the elder, 1 The date of Sparke's ejection is given in Diet. Nat. Biog. s.v. as "about 1645." 110 THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE GREAT FIRE and the other, Henry Roborough, had been substituted for the lawful rector of St Clement, Eastcheap, in 1641. What is curious is that the election of Puritans to the highest positions in the College was no protection to the establishment when there were troops to be quartered. With great prudence the Court resolved in April 1648 that the Provinciall assembly shall have the use of the studdy in the long gallery untill further order be taken to the contrary. That full use was made of the " studdy " is beyond question. The College then, as now, was an ideal meeting-place for any large number of clergy who wished to promote a particular policy or uphold a certain ecclesiastical system. Therefore, at a time when the Presbyterian polity had the support of most of the City Incumbents, whether lawful or intruded, it was inevitable that Sion should become the Mecca of the opponents of Epis- copacy. In 1647 and onwards the various Provincial Presbyterian Synods 1 of London met there as a matter of course; the "Sion College Conclave " sent out its voice from the same address ; and the address itself tended to be a bye-word of controversy and a proverb of the pamphleteer. So much may be admitted without going into further details, for the details have no just place in the history of the foundation itself, and they are concerned with a number of persons who had no more connexion with the College than have the audiences of various kinds for whom the Hall finds room at the present day. But this hospitality towards the predominant party in Church and State did not avail to defend the Puritans from the forcible intrusion of Parliamentary troops. The public posting in the Hall of the Solemn League and Covenant itself proved no sound prophylactic against the attentions of their own friends. Indeed, this document had been placarded before the "studdy" was handed over to the Provincial Assembly. "This day" (n Feb- ruary 1647), runs the record, " M r English one of the Elders of 1 It was announced to the Court in 1726 that the Register had received for the Library, as "the gift of Mr Tho. Granger of the East India House," a "large folio M.S. entituled The Records of the Provincial Assembly of London, begun A.D. 1647 and ending A.D. 1660," which may be consulted as to the use made of the College buildings during the period. THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE GREAT FIRE III Swithens London gave as a guifte to the Colledge A table of the Solempne League & Covenant to hang upp in their dyning room." It was not likely to be refused when the Court included Burges, the quasi-Dean of St Paul's, Lazarus Seaman, and William Gouge. But the whirligig of time brought its revenges and some one ultimately drew a wrathful pen through the entire entry of the gift in the register. However, there was the Solemn League and Covenant plain for all folks to see, and its principles were deeply inscribed on the hearts of the College authorities, but still there was a nervous feeling that this would not avail. They must try other measures. So on 12 December 1648 the register has this record: In regard it is rumoured that the Souldiers shall be quartered in the Colledge Also ordered that the Clarke doe certify under his hand that all the Roomes and Chambers in the Colledge and Hospitall within the gates are full save only the places for meeting of the Governo rs for the affaires of the hospitall and of the Members of the Provinciall Assembly for dispatch of things under their cognizance But these pleas proved to be of no avail. The xxi st day of December 1648 This day the Souldiers took up their Quarters in Syon Colledge but the same day M r Calamy procured and brought from the Lord Generall a Proteccon in these words following Whereas I am informed that some Souldiers are appointed to Quarter on Syon Colledge where there being a great library and little spare Roome to quarter in you are therefore to fforbeare to send any Officers or Souldiers to Quarter there untill such tyme as the Collonel of the Regiment or other ffeild officer doe come & speake with me concerning the same and Receive further order therein. Given under my hand and scale the xxi st day of December 1648 T Fairefaxe To the Colonell or chiefe officer Comanding the forces appointed to be quartered in Syon Colledge Which Proteccon was forthwith delivered to Captaine Leifetenant Townsend chiefe officer of those souldiers yet they continued their Quarters there untill the Saturday following in the afternoone. The reprieve, such as it was, must have been more than welcome, but the danger was only postponed for a time. The Anniversary of 1651 happened to be one of some importance to 112 THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE GREAT FIRE our Parliamentarian Court ; Edmund Calamy was leaving the President's chair and was to install Lazarus Seaman in his room ; it was thus with a quite fiendish lack of consideration that six days before the Feast the following ^/fotf went forth from the very Palladium of authority : Wednesday the xvi th of April 1651 Att the Councell of State sitting att Whitehall Ordered That the place called Sion Colledge be appointed to Quarter such Souldiers in as Colonell Berkestead shall send thither for the safety of the Citty and pts adiacent And that speciall care be had that the Library be kept safe and no Iniury done unto it Ex r Gualter. ffrost Seer. Thus the inevitable had to be faced and risks taken that could be only too clearly foreseen. When the Court met on 3 November 1651 they began to realise the actual damage, though whether this was due to the violence of the soldiery or to the free coming and going that would result when the College Porter could no longer be responsible, it is impossible to say. " This day," says the minute, " the Gouerno rs observed that the silver clasps that were on the great book of Benefactors to the Library were wanting And therefore gave order that Enquiry be made for them." Already on 1 1 August they had sent in a plea for deliverance in the following form : To the Councill of State. The humble peticon of the Governo rs of Sion Colledge London for the tyme being Humbly sheweth That by yo r Hono rs order of the i6th of Aprill last the said Colledge was appointed to receive such Souldiers as Colonell Berkestead should send thither And accordingly Souldiers have ever sithence been quartered there. That upon their coming thither the Clark... was forced to leave his dwelling there and all the gentlemen & students were removed thence who whilst they dwelled there paid the Colledge for the Rent of their Chambers 45^ p. an. which with other meanes of the Colledge was wholy every yeare disbursed & paid to the library Keeper Beadle & other officers of the Colledge and to the poore of Alphage p'ish & for repayring of the Colledge & Almeshouse and other payments... THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE GREAT FIRE IIJ That the meanes of the said Colledge without the Rent of the afore- said Chambers... is not sufficient to satisfy the publique payments... there being g 5 s deducted for Taxes out of the poore Almespeoples last quarters penson & much more will be deducted out of the next. May it therefore please y r Hono rs to take order that the said Souldiers may be removed thence... & that your petition 1 " 5 may peaceably and quietly enioy all such ffreedomes and Immunities as are vouchsafed to other Corporacons while they demeane & carry themselves as becomes those who are well affected to the Parliam 1 and the Councill of State by their Authority established. [s d ] La Seaman [& four others] Upon which an order 1 was made in these words. Att the Council of State at Whitehall Ordered That M r Darley S r John Trevor Colonell Walton & Colonell ffeilder or any two of them be appointed a Comitte to consider of the peticon ...who are to sitt to morrow morning in the Admiralty Chamber con- cerning this busynes at eight of the clock and Colonel Berkestead is to be sent unto to attend the said Comittee at that tyme Ex r Gualter. ffrost Seer: But before the Committee " did anything in that busynes," Trevor and two others were removed from the Council of State, and it was not till December i8 2 that the Governors could procure a new order. The committee then named consisted of Colonel John Walton, Mr Scott, Mr Herbert, Mr Nevill, Colonel Purefoy, Sir James Harrington, Colonel Dixwell, Mr Challoner and Colonel Morley. The committee thus appointed were a not undistinguished body, when tested by their service to the Commonwealth. But the result was neither speedy nor decisive. On 24 December the Council of State 3 specially recommended to the Committee of Parliament for the Disposal of Houses of the Commonwealth that "James's 4 " should be repaired and made into quarters for the two regiments of the Guard, in order that the three com- panies then at Sion College might also be brought there and the College evacuated. Clearly there was some obstruction in some quarter for on 9 January 1652 there was a further insistence on 1 It was item 3 in the proceedings of the Council of State, 3 Nov. 1631. CaL St. Papers, Dom. xvi. 2 CaL St, Papers gives the date as Dec. 8. 3 Item 16 of the agenda, 24 Dec. 1651, CaL St. Papers, Dom. xvi. 4 Cf. Edgar Sheppard, Memorials of ' St Janus 's Palace, I. pp. 72, 73. p. a 114 THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE GREAT FIRE the part of the Council 1 that the Clerk of the Works must be careful to carry out the foregoing recommendation. In any case the soldiers remained at Sion. Meanwhile the entire life of the College was disorganised. The Court held no meeting between 3 November 1651 and 8 March 1652. On 4 June they decided to try the effect of one more petition, making pathetic reference in it to the "peticon... heretofore presented... unto yo r hono rs in the yeare 1651 and severall orders made thereupon... of all which they humbly crave a review." Then, as if unwilling to believe that the Council of State was as impotent as it seemed, the Governors thus proceeded : yett still Souldiers contynue to be quartered there by whome the fabrick of the said Colledge hath susteyned great damage. Some of the Neighbouring Tennants...are so annoyed that they refuse to pay their rent and unlesse some tymely remedys be afforded the poore Almes- people cannot be maynteyned the buyldings upheld nor those charges be defrayed which lye upon that Colledge by parliamentary taxes the appointm 4 of the founder and those few who have byne Benefacto rs May it please yo r hono rs To take order that the Souldiers may be removed & that the Colledge may receive such reasonable allowance for the Damage already susteyned and towards future reparacons as to your wisdome shall seeme meet But nothing was done upon this peticon. Not, indeed, that the Council of State ignored the request, for at its meeting at Exeter on 18 December, rather more than six months later, it referred the petition to the former committee with the addition of Bradshaw and Sir Henry Mildmay 2 ; and again, on 10 February 1653, it asked the Irish and Scotch Committee to consider how the soldiers could be conveniently removed 3 ; finally, it recommended the Lord General to appoint quarters elsewhere for his officers and troops 4 . This seems definite enough, but more than eight months later (i October i653) 5 it was necessary for the Council to repeat it. At last, at some time between this repetition and the close of the year 1653, the College was relieved of its unwelcome visitants. The register does not specify the date ; all it cares 1 Cal. St. Papers, Dom. xxm. ' 2 Ibid. xxvi. 3 Ibid. xxxm. 4 Ibid. 22 Feb. 1653. 5 Ibid > XLI - THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE GREAT FIRE 115 for is that there should be signs of a vigorous reparation. In February 1654 there is a call for the bricklayer, the " plommer," the " glasier," the smith, the mason, the " plaisterer." Orders are given that the " freestone pavement be forthwith laid out even by fflory the Mason," that the plumber " repayre the water pipes and cocks for the use of the poore," and " that the Hall & 2 next roomes be stopt and made ready for whiteing." On the same date as the last order, 6 March 1654, the Governors resolved to present their bill to the Government : That a peticon be drawne upp to be presented to the Lord Protector to conteyne the p'ticulars following viz 1 1 That thankes be given for the removeall of the Souldiers 2 That the Colledge losses & damages 1 be presented viz 1 1 Soe much in yearely rent 2 The glasse generally broken 3 The lead in great part taken away 4 A generall spoyle of waynscott 5 The walls defaced 6 Not a lock or key or boult scarce left about the house And this peticon to be recommended to the care of M r Balmeford 2 . What success Balmeford, who was an excellent choice, had in his mission to the Protector it is impossible to say, though it was ultimately agreed to order that the modest sum of " tenn shillings be paid to Thomas Boighton for makeing clean the Colledge roomes after the Souldiers went thence." But mention should in justice be made hereof the services of James Cranford, "Rector of Christopers behinde the Exchange." He belonged to a period when the register objected to " Saints " on principle, but as he was Senior Dean in 1646 and 1647 and President during the three years 1653-55, he saw the College more or less safely through some very troublous times. It seems likely that Sion continued to be occupied by the troops till the end of the Commonwealth period ; for among the payments in 1660 were these : Item for Coach hire to Wallingford house about takeing off the Souldiers from Quartering in the Colledge oo . 10 . oo . Item for a Booke to the Lord ffleetwoods chaplaine oo . 06 . oo ; 1 The bricklayer's bill for " reparacons " was ^27, the glazier's 16, and the "plomer's" ^7. 6s. od. 2 He was Junior Dean of the College, and Rector of St Alban, Wood Street, " his actions," as was testified of him after his death "being living, walking sermons." 82 Il6 THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE GREAT FIRE as if the reverend gentleman had rendered the College some service in securing an interview with the great man and con- tributing to the success of its object. Perhaps, as we have been here dealing with military events, it may be well to say that this was not the last occasion on which the College, having within it an "open space" rare in a thickly built city, was used by troops of various kinds, though there was no case of further damage to property. It was ordered in 1689 "that M r Dagget [the Clerk] doe pay the Marshall of the Trayned bands seaven shillings & sixpence for getting the College put out of the Mustermasters roll 1 ." In 1711 the College found it needful to put itself right with that ancient and quaintly surviving body, the City Lieutenancy. Whereas the Lieutenancy have ordered a Company of Trained Bands to keep a Court of Guard in Sion College w ch we apprehend to be contrary to y e Rights and Privileges of y e s d College The Presi- dent is desired. ..to endeavour to dissuade y e commanding officer from entring y e College w th his Company And if he insists upon his Orders to enter to make such Protestation before witnesses as shall save y e Rights of y e College for y e future, but if y e commanding Officer desire entrance merely as a favour from y e College that it shall be allowed till further order. Provided y e Souldiers do only muster in y e College yard and do not enter either into y e Hall or any other Roomes. " How this Business ended," writes W. Reading 2 , " the Register does not show ; But I well remember (for I lived then in the College) that a Company of Soldiers quickly came before the Gate, and the Captain sent to me, desiring Leave to draw up his Men in the College. I returned Answer, that it would be very inconvenient, by Reason one of my Family was then sick in bed. Whereupon he mustered his Men under London Wall, without the College Gate ; and so we heard no more of that Matter." A hundred years later, at a time when the eye of the country was fixed apprehensively on a foreign foe, the Governors were 1 Nevertheless, Mr Daggett's accounts for 1690 show an expenditure of ^5. 3.5-. d. on a single soldier, but this comparatively small sum paid for a " Coate & Cullers," "Sword Scabard & Belt and a Baganett and Belt," "a Hatt," "mending the Musquett," "a Pound of Gunpoud r " (one penny), "two pound of Bulletts" (sixpence), "Drums and Cullers," as well as a month's pay (2. nj. od.}. ' 2 State of Sion College, p. 18. THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE GREAT FIRE 1 1/ not slow to make their contribution to the cause of home defence. For there came in 1803 a request from the "Voluntary Military Association in the Ward of Cripplegate." They wanted permission "to drill their young Recruits in the Garden," but " to have the use only of the Gravel Walks," as it was " not their wish to exercise on the Grass plots," nor would they "have occasion to use the Fife or Drum." The Court, though for the sake of students in the Library they made no reference to the fife or the drum, reversed the churlish policy of the King of Edom, bade the association drill its youngsters on the grass if it liked, and gave a subscription of ten guineas to its funds. Indeed, when a second militant society called " the Cripplegate Ward Within Armed Association " came in the course of a few days having heard, perhaps, of the genial reception accorded to the other and prayed to be permitted "to use the Drum & Fife in Sion College Gardens," but would " be careful not to disturb the Inhabitants by beating the Drum till after 7 o'clock in the morning," the Court made the quietude of the students a sacrifice to the seriousness of the times and granted the boon. Nor was it enough to deal with the ward in which the College stood. Patriotism demanded a wider outlook. On 17 August 1803 a general meeting of the Fellows was held "to consider the propriety of a joint contribution of the Fellows of the College towards the subscription now open at Lloyd's Coffee-house for the Relief and Support of the Defenders of their Country, who may suffer, or merit by their exertions, in the Public Service " ; and such a subscription was opened there and then 1 . Three days later, the College was reminded of its similar responsibility as a landed proprietor, for there came a letter from one William Bugg, of Maldon, to say that they were " instituting a Volunteer Corps of Infantry within the Hundred of Dengie." What would the Lords of the Manor of Bradwell subscribe? So again the College faced its patriotic duty and sent 20 towards the upkeep of the Essex volunteers. We return to the Commonwealth, which, even from Sion College, the home of the Presbyterian Classis, in due time 1 John Brand, the President, subscribed 10 and the other Fellows a total of 210. The name of this Coffee-house has been perpetuated by the underwriters. Il8 THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE GREAT FIRE "departed and was not desired." That a number of the Presbyterian clergy were anxious to restore the Monarchy, if suitable guarantees were assured, need not be emphasised here. Nor are we concerned with any action which members of the College may have taken in their individual capacity. The corporate proceedings of our Fellows are clearly described in their minutes. Let us take first those of " a Generall Assembly " on 7 May 1660: Att the same meeting the King's Ma ties most Gracious Declaracon from Breda was read & most thankfully accepted. Ordered That an humble Addresse to the King's most Excellent May (now in Holland) be presented by the Ministers in & about the Citty of London. Resolved That the Addresse now read be the same which shalbe presented, And that it bee forthwith fairly written and subscribed. Resolved That D r Reynolds D r Spurstow M r Calamy M r Manton M r Hall & M r Case doe attend his Ma^ with the sayd Addresse and are desired to beare their own Charges Resolved That Andrew Nicholson the Clerk of this Colledge doe attend these p sons in their Journey att the Colledge Charge. Resolved That the Latine Sermon to be preached by D r Reynolds be respited till his returne. Nicholson, it may be noted, was paid 10 "towards his journey & charges... to the King's Ma tie att the Hague 1 ." What is of more public concern is that in this case the College became the centre for the forces of compromise, whether in its own body or outside it. Most of the deputation were outsiders. But Edward Reynolds was " minister " of St Lawrence Jewry, and having been elected President of Sion at the anniversary of 1659, with- out serving any previous office on the Court, was due to preach the Latin sermon at the anniversary of 1660, which clashed with the journey to Holland. Edmund Calamy, also, was a Past President and minister of " Mary Aldermanbury." News came that the King would soon be here and a further general meeting was called for 18 May, at which it was 1 This was not all the cost of the welcome to Charles II ; for Nicholson's accounts for 1660 show also Item for the Ministers Standing in Paules Church Yard when the Bible was presented to his Ma tie 10 . oo . oo. Item to the President for disbursements at that time 09 . 1 1 . 06. THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE GREAT FIRE lig Resolved That a Bible be presented to the King's most Excellent Majesty Resolved That the Charge of the s d Bible' be borne out of the Colledge Stock, and that if the Colledge shall not be in a Capacity to defray the whole Charge, Then the remaynder of the Charge shalbe raised by subscripcons of the Ministers. No doubt, they then prepared the Bible which was to be their gift, and when that was done, they met again on 28 May, the day before the Restoration, to settle their procedure, which was to be after this manner : That the Bible be presented to his Ma tie in Transitu. That the Ministers present themselves in one Body to his Ma tie when the sayd Bible is presented. That M r Jackson sen be the p'son to present the s d Bible to his Ma tie . That Ticketts be sent unto the Ministers to meet att St Pauls School in their Gowns that morning of the day that the King shall come through the Citty. There is a note added in the book to give the result : 29 Maie 1660 M That the Bible was accordingly presented to his Sacred Ma tie & that his Ma tie was very graciously pleased to Accept the same. The choice of Arthur Jackson to make the presentation is easily explained. He may have been the senior Past President avail- able, or his brethren may have realised the appropriateness of approaching Charles II through a Presbyterian who was also a Royalist. But in 1643 he had been substituted for the lawful rector 2 of St Faith under St Paul, and the presentation was no doubt held to be taking place within the bounds of his parish. Even after the Restoration, however, our College continued to be the useful resort of men interested in the cause of the Covenant. In a pamphlet printed in 1663 and called The Cabbula; or an History of the Nonconformists from Aug. 24 1662 to this present May i663 3 , there is an amusing account of how a " Close-committee of the well-affected and ejected Ministers," 1 This marginal rebuke is in another hand. ' 2 Jonathan Browne, Dean of Hereford, who had been President of the College in 1636 and 1637. 3 The copy in our Library, part of the Budd Bequest, has written upon it "By Sir John Birkenhead," but it is not ascribed to him in Diet. Nat. Biog. I2O THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE GREAT FIRE including Calamy, Manton, and others, had before them on " the ninth day of the ninth moneth " a certain Welsh curate, " or a son of the Church of England, who goeth in Welsh-frize and a russet cloak, ycliped Lewis'' He is in the habit of " holding forth at the Meeting-place of Allhallows in the Wall," but is accused of " several misdemeanours, whereby he was a Scandal to their Cause." He defends himself, however, by a recital of " twelve things for the propagation of the good old Cause which I do." Among these, which include reading "little or no Common-prayer," avoiding the surplice, and at Lecture praying an hour and preaching two hours, there is this : "n. I have a convenient Chamber for private Meetings and affairs at Sion Colledge, where I can do no little service." In the event the Committee dismissed Lewis "and wished him to walk circumspectly, and be wise as a Serpent." We are only concerned to notice that our College, in which Calamy 1 was still resident at the time referred to in the pamphlet, was associated with the supporters of the Covenant even after the Restoration, and that this remains true even if the pamphlet is the work of Sir John Birkenhead and a mere piece of that buffoonery which Anthony a Wood 2 disliked in him. In any case we must remember that the Restoration rector of All Hallows, London Wall, was called William Lewis, and that there is no record in our books of his being a College tenant, though he could easily arrange with a susceptible Covenanting almswoman to allow him the occasional use of her room for "interviews." The Restoration thus accomplished, it might have been hoped that Sion College would at last settle down, if not in the peace of unanimity, which was hardly to be anticipated in a body so constituted, yet in the free interchange of honest opinion and the free pursuit and study of the truth. But first "the Sickness" of 1665 visited the Almsfolk, and apparently made it impossible to hold any Courts between June 1665 and March 1666. And secondly, six months later came the Great Fire. Its effect on the Library 3 is dealt with separately; what we are now concerned with is the disaster that it brought to the 1 See Chapter v. p. 91 f. 2 Athen. Ox. in. 1203. 3 See Chapter xm. p. 248. THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE GREAT FIRE 121 Corporation as a whole, its life, its finances, its administration. As the surviving books were welcomed at the Charterhouse, so also did Thomas Button's foundation provide shelter for the meeting of the Court in the first stress of the great Visitation, but for the most part the Governors assembled " in the Vestry house in D r Smallwoods Church," for Matthew Smallwood, " Rector of St Martine Outwich" and afterwards Dean of Lichfield, was President that same year. It was possible, by the way, to hold the election of April 1667 somewhere within the College; probably the Charter was felt to demand that ; and the man for the emergency was found in John Lake, " Rector of St Buttolph Bishopsgate," whose promotion to College office had already been rapid ; for though he was instituted to his benefice only in 1663, he was chosen as 4th Assistant in 1664. Lake, afterwards Bishop of Chichester, had the distinction of refusing the Solemn League and Covenant as a young man and the oath of allegiance to William and Mary as an old man ; but here we are only concerned with his services to our College, of which he was President for three years after the Fire, 1667-8-9, during which time the business was frequently conducted at his rectory. Let us consider the results of the outbreak, as they appear in the minutes, to the College buildings and to the tenants. On ii November 1666 it was ordered that Andrew Nicholson, the Clerk, " take care to preserve the Materialls of the Colledge in the late Ruines, & that hee bee satisfied his Disbursm ts in that behalfe." This is eloquent enough of the havoc wrought by the Fire. In June 1667 the Court were anxious to make arrange- ments with their tenants and resolved " that M r Baynes & those of the College tenants p. Lease whose houses were Burnt downe by the late fftre be spoke unto to attend the Governors at their next Meeting... att the President's house." Then there was the pitiable case of Mr Cornelius Bee, the publisher, whose benefac- tions to the Library are mentioned elsewhere, and who had leased business premises within the precincts since 1656. Here is what was settled in his case " att a meeting att the Charter- house": Upon the mocon & request of M r Cornelius Bee, and in consideracon of his very greate Losses in the said College by the late ffire ; It is 122 THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE GREAT FIRE agreed and ordered That the said M r Bee att his owne Charges may Erect & Sett up a Shedd or Place for the Printing & Laying up of Bookes upon the Ground in the College Garden where his Warehouse and Chamb r stood and enjoy the same untill half a yeares warning be given him to take away the same in order to the rebuilding of the said College without paying of any other Rent then Giveing to the use of the Library... one Booke out of every Booke that shall be printed in the said College. The bargain is curiously suggestive of the part afterwards played by the Libraries and Copyrights Acts in the augmentation of the Library's possessions. Inasmuch as the rebuilding of the College after this Visitation has some points of special interest, it may be best to continue the story here. The process was slow. Lake's three years went by, and he was followed for a biennium, 1670-71, by Daniel Mills, of St Olave, Hart Street, who is familiar to Mr Pepys' readers. The Account Book naturally lapses into confusion after the Fire and I find it impossible to say exactly how much was raised by these two and others, and what the reconstruction cost 1 ; but at least we can recall some of the donors, who were by no means confined to Fellows of the College. They included the Bishop of Norwich (Edward Reynolds) ; Bancroft ; Stilling- fleet ; Simon Patrick, of St Paul, Covent Garden, afterwards Bishop of Ely, who also " procured of her Grace, Anne, Duchess of Monmouth 30 " ; " Samuel Pepys Esq., Secretary to the Lords of the Admiralty, (at the Motion of M r Daniel Mills) 20" ; "the Earl of Northampton, his Lady, and Sister"; that splendid philanthropist, Mr Thomas Firmin ; and a collection at the church of St Giles-in-the-Fields. Mills himself was not idle in this respect, as is shown by a grateful minute of 1674: It is to be remembered that this day came into this Court M r Daniell Mills Rector of the Parish of St Olaves Hartstreete London whoe of his wonted charity and good affection for the advancem 1 of this College and Library Acquainted the present Governors That some charitable persons had intrusted him with the disposall of some moneyes for pious uses And of his voluntary good will was pleased to offer 127^ thereof for the erectinge and setting upp of Nineteene Desks in the library... which 1 The Book of Benefactors puts the value of the buildings before the Fire at ^4000. THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE GREAT FIRE 123 compleates the same in as good a manner as it was before the late dreadfull fire Which generous prefer and seasonable charity this Court hath kindly accepted accounteing it a principall meanes for the restaura- tion both of Library and College to theire former state and condition Therefore this Court doth...returne hearty thanks to M r Mills for his kind remembrance hereof and doth alsoe order that he be desired and entreated to returne very hearty thanks... to the charitable persons therein concerned... And... that this in perpetuam rei memoria be entred in the Register booke accordingly. So they went to work at the rebuilding as well as they could, being frequently at a loss for money to pay the bills when they came in. Here is the specification of what was arranged to be done to the Hall in 1675 : The Hall to be 45 foote within the walls from east to west The East & west walls to be 2 bricke thick to the Roofe with a Jelly window of 15 foote widenesse with Compasse retornes handsomely wrought of oaken tymber The ffrontispeece of the whole buildinge to be according to the draught The widenes of the hall from North to South within the walls 25 foote The wall to be two bricke & a halfe Flu she to the roofe The ffloore of the Hall to be elevated 3 foote above the surface of the Courtyard with handsome stone stepps uppto it as in the draught And Celleridge under the hall from the west end extending Eastwards 30 foote and to be of the whole widenesse as is now within the old walls from North to South The Celler to be seaven foote deepe betwixt flower & flower with two paire of staires to goe downe to it one out of the kitchen the other out of the passage to the garden The hall to be 26 foote height from fflower to Ceeling The Ceeling to be bracketted on the side for the Plaisterers to work a handsome Cornish round the hall The kitchen & parlor ioyneing to the North side of the hall to be built with highte of stories thicknesse of walls and Gantlings of Timber According to the Act of Parliam 1 for 2 d rate of buildings with two paire of handsome Harthpace of fower foote goeinge Leading to the Chambers the Kitchen and parlour The Kitchen Chimney to be sixteene foote wide betwixt the Jambs And to have for the perfectinge of the said building in all mens worke 938^... viz 1 ; Carpenters worke 417 Bricklayers worke 311 Plaisterers worke 080 Plumbers worke 040 Glasiers worke 030 Painters worke 020 Masons worke 020 Smiths worke 020 In all 938 P el 1 , 124 THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE GREAT FIRE It was further ordered that Mr Hobbs, bricklayer, and Mr Harris, carpenter, should forthwith begin the rebuilding of the Hall, but that they were to be paid only at the rate of "31^ : io s p. square upon the flat which... by the said workmens computacon will amount to aboute 28 square," and that they were not to go beyond 2Oo's worth of work " without further order." Less than three weeks later, 21 May 1675, it was reported that " the workmen have proceeded in the said worke and now desired one hundred pounds for whats already done." Dr William Bell, vicar of St Sepulchre and Archdeacon of St Albans, who had been President in 1672-3-4, had "by himselfe and other charitable persons raised & p'cured A considerable sum of money," and it was recorded of him, " in perpetua rei memoria," that he could now pay this sum of ;ioo. But even his money was not inexhaustible and on 6 July an order had to be given "that the workmen proceed noe further in the buildings then layeinge the first flower over the Kitchen & parlor without further order." That is to say, the Hall itself must await events. However, at the moment they decided to raise ;ioo on three leases " by way of morgage," and the loan was taken up within a week by " M r Corbet the Cooke " ; when their creditor died eighteen months afterwards, they were obliged to raise the 100 to satisfy his executors, together with "all the arreares of interest." But, in the middle of August 1675 there was a further necessary halt in the operations, and it was only in July 1676 that these could be resumed. Necessity knows no laws and this time Wynn's gift 1 of ;ioo, instead of being funded, went as to ^"70 of it towards satisfying the workmen. In all this they had the advice of Robert Hooke 2 , the City Surveyor, and, as they went on to deal with the other build- ings besides the Library and the Hall, they decided that " his Assistance be desired to procure some p'son to measure & value the same," his "mesurer" being "paid one guiney." But presently they were obliged to make more serious demands upon his help. For there came a dispute with the workmen, 1 See Chapter xni. p. 25-2. 2 The register says " M r Hooke surveyo r ," but his identity is not doubtful. THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE GREAT FIRE 125 and with it an interesting case of arbitration, which is worth particularising : Upon a debate this day [20 August 1677] betweene M r Hobbs Bricklayer & M r Harris Carpenter & the Presid' & Governo rs the matters in difference was by consent of all parties referred to M r Hooke & M r Sowerby & if they cannot agree to such Umpire as they shall chose And that bonds of Arbitracon be made And that y e Comon Scale of this College be affixed to a bond of Arbitracon on the behalfe of the College. That all was done in amity and good fellowship may be con- cluded from a note that there was " Paid for wine at M r Boyces in y e Poultry 3 s pd for beare 6 d & paid Bunch [the Messenger] 6 d ."- The actual settlement was on the following lines. The disputed points were " referred to 4 p'sons Carpenters or Bricklayers," of whom Hobbs and Harris were to choose two and the College two within nine days. These were to give their award within four days, and if they failed so to do, then " M r Oliver surveyor of London to determine it alone in 7 dayes." A bond of arbi- tration on these conditions duly received the College seal. By December 1677 the Governors were able to accept the tender of a bricklayer, who could only make his mark, for the roofing of the Hall. He agreed that he will tyle all the Hall workemenlike and accordinge to the Rules of the Comp a of Bricklayers with good and marchantable at his owne costs and charges for 6 8 a square and alsoe doe and performe all the bricklayers worke aboute the battlements walls to be done about the Hall ffor 4^ io s a rod and to have & finde all materialls needfull for the same at his owne costs and charges... The marke of William Goodson /X\ Witnesse Geo. Daggett At the same time the carpenter, who for his part could write, guaranteed to "make a substantiall roofe of stout oaken tymber" and to do his work " in every respect as is enacted by the Acts of Parlement made for building houses in London." Thus we get a forcible reminder that arbitration and the supervision of building operations by local authorities are not the modern privileges that we sometimes imagine them to be. 126 THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE GREAT FIRE Money continued to be raised by donation or by loan. George Gifford, of St Dunstan in the East, and Gresham Professor of Divinity, who was President in 1677 and 1678, advanced ^77 on " all such security that can be made," in the first year to pay workmen's bills, and in the second year " was pleased to give to this College 30^ to be allowed out of the money he hath lent." Persons as far asunder as " William Beveridge, Deane of the College," who subscribed ,5, and "his grace the Duke of Albemarle," who sent 20, joined in the effort 1 . At last the Court could accept an undertaking that a plasterer " will for io lath plaster... the Ceilinge of Sion College Hall" with a "Cornish round and two inrichments & doe it all well & substantially." Whereupon the Court, being thankful to indulge themselves with this final embellishment, subscribed the price on the spot. When it is considered that many of the City churches were still unfinished twenty years after the Fire, in spite of having Sir Christopher Wren and public funds to help them, our Governors, with their depleted income and the many calls on their own individual finances at such a time, can be said to have deserved well of the Foundation. J * Among those who sent special contributions towards the relief of the College at this time were "his Grace of Canterbury" (Sancroft, ^40), the Bishop of Salisbury (Seth Ward) and Benjamin Whichcote (both at some time of St Lawrence Jewry), <4 D r Busby," the Earl of Thanet, Stillingfleet, " M r fflamstead," Sir Christopher Wren, Paul Bowes, F.R.S., of the Middle Temple, Mr Chiswell, the publisher, Serjeant, afterwards Sir William, Rawlinson, and Sir Basil Firebrace, Alderman of Billingsgate. This miscellaneous list of helpers testifies to the general esteem in which the College was held as a public institution. CHAPTER VII THE COLLEGE AS LANDOWNER Et terra nostra dabit fructum suum. Ps. Ixxxv. 11. IT was natural that the College and Hospital of Sion should start with an income derived in part from landed estates. No form of investment or endowment was in such high esteem as agricultural land, but such property has always been subject to the hazard of the ability or otherwise of its beneficiaries, espe- cially if they are non-resident, to guard their interests and nurse their estates to the joint advantage both of landlord and of tenant. As a matter of fact our records abound in signs that a constantly changing body of urban clergy had just the diffi- culties in managing their farms that might be expected of them. But in truth the College became a landed proprietor rather by chance than by the intention of the Founder. He gave his executors the alternative of saving his foundation from the anxieties of agricultural management, and they accepted it. "I give," he said, " towards the Almes howse and the Colledge either out of my lands or in some portion of my lands 160^ yerelie whereof 120^ I wold have to be settled for ever by somme good coores in law duelie to the Almes howse for ever." The College, apart from the Hospital, was to receive the balance of 40 a year. This annuity was charged by Dr White's exe- cutors upon the property known as Brad well Hall 1 and Hockley 1 The Manor of Bradwell has an interesting history. It was long vested in the Crown, and was granted by Richard II to Alicia Ferrers ; by Henry IV to his son John, it having come again into the King's hands through the treason of Thomas, Lord Bardolf (1405) ; and by Henry VIII to Anne of Cleves. Mary Tudor assigned it to the Duchy of Lancaster, and James I granted it in 1604 to Walter Mildmay, who sold it to Dr White. 128 THE COLLEGE AS LANDOWNER Farms as to 40 and upon the estate called Beeches as to 120. But in each case after no long time those who held the estates fell into difficulties. Beeches, for instance, was leased after Dr White's death to Mr John Keeling, one of his executors, by a lease for 200 years dated 19 May 1632, on the condition of paying the yearly sum of ,120 to our Governors as trustees of the Hospital; but forty years sufficed to reduce this family to great embarrassment. The sea took its toll of the land ; rents fell away; the annual charge lapsed more and more into arrear ; till on 1 8 October 1675 the Court had to listen to a some- what pitiful story. John Keeling, the original lessee, was dead and had left behinde him Moses Keelinge his sonne whoe beinge poore and a prisoner assigned it [the estate] for satisfaction of a debt to his uncle or Cousen John Keelinge, who was dead and left his wife his exec x and had one daughter whoe had issue... M rs Waterhouse And that the Mother & daughter . were both undone by looseing all their Estates by a Grocer that broke And that M rs Waterhouse was now dead And that she had lost by it for many yeares & kept it onely for haueing the fall of the wood &c. Naturally the surviving representative of this unhappy family confessed that he could hold on no longer. The estate, he said, was not worth jo a year, and it was absurd to ask him out of that to find a charge of .120. All he could suggest was that the College should do as they had already done in 1672 in the case of Bradwell Hall and Hockley; namely, take it over them- selves and make what was possible out of it. Now in each of these two cases the College was not the sole beneficiary. In the matter of Bradwell they were partners with the city of Bristol, there being a further small claim, as we shall see in a moment, in favour of St Paul's Cathedral. So there were close consultations with Bristol, and an agreement that the clear rent resulting from the new system of ownership should be divided in the proportions which still prevail; namely, out of 103 parts 70 to Bristol, 28 to Sion College, and 5 to St Paul's Cathedral for the maintenance of its Divinity Lecturer. In the case of Beeches the interests to be consulted were even more numerous, as comprising all bodies having a right to nominate Almsfolk for election by the Court. So, after THE COLLEGE AS LANDOWNER 1 29 Mr Keeling had poured out his woes and eased his shoulder from the burden of Beeches, the Court had a conference on 25 November 1675 w ^ tn representatives of the Bristol Corporation, the Merchant Taylors' Company, the parish of St Dunstan-in-the-West and the parish of St Gregory in the City of London. Here were two sets of interests; on the one hand, these four bodies must see that there was a proper maintenance for their poor pensioners and on the other the College must see that it was provided with the wherewithal to pay that maintenance. Therefore it was agreed that Beeches Farm should now be surveyed by two persons, one for each set of interests. At the end of a year's investigation they were all convinced that Mr Keeling was right. No one would give more than 70 rent for the place 1 and till 1769 that was the rent obtained. But it was not a net rent; deductions often amounted to 12 or 15 a year. Yet all that time the Governors paid out the 70, that is, 3. los. yearly to each of the twenty Almsfolk. In subsequent years the rent improved, and by 1788 the pensions had been increased to 6 a year. It happens that the farm con- tained about one hundred acres of woodland, and "the falls of the woods" became a carefully husbanded source of revenue. An entry of 1792 shows that "the clear money received by the College from the Fall of Woods at Beeches amounts to 863. 2s" for the years 1775 to 1790 inclusive. But, lest it should be supposed that this enriched the College, it is necessary to add that there was an expenditure of ;i8i6 under the direction of Philip Hardwick, the surveyor, on necessary works such as a new farm house, a new barn, the repair of outhouses and the sinking of a well 336 feet deep. Considering that for many years the College paid the Hospital more than it received, and that the "fall of the woods" meant less than half the cost of these improvements, we can hardly call Beeches a profitable undertaking. Bradwell and Hockley were on the whole a more fortunate possession, consisting of about 400 acres each. We can trace 1 They had advertisements put into the City Mercury and "published and set upp in Market Townes thereaboutes " ; also " to inquire aboute it at M r Woodcocks in Billery Key " [Billericay]. p. 9 130 THE COLLEGE AS LANDOWNER their financial product at various stages in the history of the College. At the time of Bishop Compton's Visitation 1 the College share of the income of Bradwell and Hockley was about 20. I have come across a folio sheet in William Read- ing's handwriting giving "the Annual Revenue of Sion College and the Hospital there, as they now stand in this present year 1725." Here are his statements as to Bradwell and Hockley: The Farm of Bradwell Hall in Essex. Richard Flack, \ Tenant, pays eighty pounds p. ann. clear money. A lease for xi years is granted to the Tenant. When it is executed the r ;8o Revenue will be somewhat lessened because the Tenant is to pay but half y e Land tax, whereas he now pays the whole. / The Farm of Hockley in Essex, pays one hundred pounds p. ann. The Tenant is William Younge, who has a Lease for twenty-one years, from Michaelmas 1722. But he is allowed ten pounds per ann. for y e Land tax, and 6j io s p. ann. for I 22 1 . 8 s a Fee farm Rent paid to one M rs Savile, and two shillings for acquittances on that occasion. So that the clear money which he pays to the College is but Now as to the profits arising at the same time out of the manorial rights: Quit rents. Money rec d annually at a Court held at Bradwell for quit-rents, fines, and Heriots, is very uncertain. It may amount communibus annis to about twenty-five pounds ^ 25' p. ann. The Steward of the Court is M r Sol. Grimston of Chappel near Colchester In 1786 and onwards the Manor fines and quit-rents had risen to an average of 63 a year; the clear rent of Bradwell Farm was 177. 8^. and of Hockley 141. i6s. But times were improving, and, as we shall see, larger figures were reached, though it must always be borne in mind that the College retained only T 2 ^ for its own purposes. One other property falls to be mentioned a farm called " Tylers Causey " in the parish of Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire. It came to the College by the will of a barrister of the Inner Temple named Samuel Brewer, who gave it for the benefit of the Almsfolk. The will, which was proved in 1685, expressed a desire that his body might be "handsomely and decently buried in the Church belonging (sic) to Sion College, near Cripplegate, 1 A.D. 1695, cf. Chapter n. pp. 21 ff. THE COLLEGE AS LANDOWNER 131 in London," and bequeathed the farm, which appears to have been called Tilehouse Causey, for the benefit of "the poor men and women that live in the Almshouses under Sion Library," to which he gave all his books 1 . Originally the farm brought in 27 a year, but the rent declined and in William Reading's list "it yields twenty pounds p. ann. clear money, and is in the possession of the widow Walker, who has a Lease of it granted her for 21 years, at a Court Apr. 2, 1/19." It has come into misfortunes from time to time like other farms, and in 1791 the College solicitor was obliged to arrest the then tenant for arrears of rent. It has long since passed with other property to Sion Hospital, whose trustees are about to convey it to a neighbouring landowner. To sum up our early possessions were as follows: The Hospital had the manor and farm of Beeches with Beeches Wood and Beeches Scrubs, and Coxal Farm and Wood, in the county of Essex, and Tyler's Causeway Farm in the county of Hertford ; while the College owned a certain proportion of the rent and income derived from Bradwell Hall and Hockley Farms in the Hundred of Dengey, Essex, and the manorial rights of Brad- well with Pilton fee. These two parcels of property were kept clear from the start, so that, when Bishop Compton held his Visi- tation of the College in 1695, an estimated balance-sheet was duly laid before him, but it contained no details about the Hospital, its estates, or the expenditure of its income. There was merely an entry showing that the College share of the Bradwell profits might be expected to amount to about 20. Up to the date (1875) of the Act which placed the affairs of the Hospital under separate management, the Court minutes are fitfully significant of the Governors' anxieties about these various estates, but the property which gave most trouble, though it was, as we have seen, not unprofitable, was the Manor and Farm of Bradwell in Essex. The preponderance of Bristol in the Bradwell interests has led to a constant and amicable intercourse between prominent 1 Apart from his being a tenant in the College Garden and a reader in the Library, the only connexion of this good man with the foundation that I have been able to trace is concerned with his lending it ^100 on mortgage in 1679. 92 132 THE COLLEGE AS LANDOWNER Bristol citizens and the Governors of Sion, which is pleasantly maintained to the present time. One Court each year is still devoted to a meeting with the Bristol Trustees for the purpose of examining the Bradwell accounts, and every alternate year they join the Governors in the quaint formalities and the homely entertainment amid which, as My Lords of the Manor, they go to visit their Bradwell property. There is no need to relate in any detail the varied story of this riverside estate in a remote corner of Essex, close to that Manor of Tillingham which for thirteen centuries has been contributing to the maintenance of St Paul's Cathedral. From the first there were tenants who fell behind with their rent. The troubles of Mr Keeling, the earliest tenant and a friend of the Founder, have already been mentioned, and the registers are full of them 1 . On "Feb. ix 1647/8" he was "due and arreare to the Colledge" to the extent of ;ioi and on "Feb. xvi" he paid 64. as an instalment. On 5 April, as he promised pay- ment of the rest forthwith, it was thought safe that "order may be taken for the dyriner at the Eleccon day 2 ." Nevertheless, when May came his "arreariges" were still mounting up. Indeed, things became so complicated that in 1654 John Winterborne, the Clerk, who was responsible for the general management in London of all Bradwell afifairs, was instructed to "goe and con- sult with learned counsell about the businesse with M r Keeling." In 1667, when the property had been for nearly forty years under their hand, the Governors suddenly ordered that a "speedy search" be made "in the Rolls concerning the Settlement of the Mannor of Bradwell" in order that "the interest of Syon College" might be secured, and, as has been explained, they finally took it over. It not seldom happened that the Divinity Lecturer of St Paul's 3 was also a City Incumbent, who might therefore be 1 The Account Book shows that he began to appear among the " Arrerages due to the Colledge" as early as 1634, was fairly level again by 1642, was a year behindhand in May 1644 and onwards till 1649, wnen he produced 20 and was ^125 in arrear. 3 See Chapter xi. p. 190. 3 Dr W. Sparrow Simpson in the supplement to his Registrum Statutorum (1897) begins his list of the Lectores Theologiae with Edward Fowler (4 Dec. 1680); so that Sherwood, who died the same year, may be taken as his predecessor in office. THE COLLEGE AS LANDOWNER 133 elected to an office on the Court. Such was "Mr Sherewood" [John Sherwood], rector of St Martin Orgar, 1666 1680, whose church was burnt in the Fire less than three months after his induction and never rebuilt. In 1679 Sherwood brought to the Governors a proposal which is not quite lucidly expressed in the register. It was that the 10 due to him out of Bradwell rents, to make the stipend of his lectureship 40, "with the rents of two farmes in Rotchford hundred in Essex the one called Boxes the other Gooses might be somewhat thereof saved," if the tenants could be induced to take leases. The proposal, whatever it meant for the College was bound to pay not 10 but jfg of the nett Bradwell income was received with much sympathy by our Court, who hoped that Sherwood would obtain the consent of the Dean and Chapter and guaranteed him any expenses he might be put to in carrying out his design. The matter is not further referred to in the register of the period. A proposal came to the Court three years later from "Sir Thomas Earle Knt and Alderman of Bristol," suggesting that the Governors should "let and dispose of the farmes at Bradwell." This also they considered, but the various offers before them were "adjudged too small." The fact appears to be that the Court were becoming doubtful of their ability to get the best out of this estate and were beginning to reflect that in any case their share was rather small. So in 1683 they tried to divert the responsibility to the predominant partner and on 26 November "all the affaires aboute Bradwell was wholly referred to the Maior and Aldermen of Bristol, they being farre more con- cerned therein then this College." The close relations prevailing between the members of our Court and the members and officials of the Corporation of Bristol are evident not only from the registers but also from the tattered correspondence which survives from the latter part of the seventeenth century. In 1670 and onwards, Richard Aldworth, the Town Clerk of Bristol, who was often conveniently to be found at Lincoln's Inn, and Sir John Knight, one of the Alder- men, who had been Mayor of Bristol in 1670, were in constant communication with the President, Pepys' friend, Daniel Mills 1 , 1 See Chapter vi. p. 122. 134 THE COLLEGE AS LANDOWNER "att his house in Crutched ffryers neere the Church," and with Andrew Nicholson 1 , the College Clerk, who lived "over against the Counter in Wood Street." There is a conveyance being made out for "the Mann r of Brad well" to Mr Baynes and Mr Greene 2 , and the consideration to be received is $20, which the City of Bristol and the College are to receive in certain pro- portions. "Wee will pitch," write Mills' two "Loving freindes" in Bristol, "upon an indifferent person betwixt us both." But the "daysman," that should lay his hands upon them both, was not easy to find, and Mills had gone out of office, and Dr Bell had reached September in 1672, his first year as President, without a settlement being arrived at. "Wee are very sensible," the Bristol men then wrote, "of the obstruccons that haue been in the settlement... It semeth our not agreeing as to the p'son that is to be Intrusted with the receipt thereof, and to make the deduccons and portions and abatements have hindred the p'fecting of the Conveyances... There is an expectancy of a con- siderable Sallery [for the arbitrator] which will be too much to abate out of the good uses, and for that the trouble is not like to be much...." So they suggest that their agent, "M r Chamber- laine in Wattling Streete...att the Signe of the Swan there," and an agent appointed by the College should meet and "may in half an houres time receaue the money and make the divident." It was all very slow but very friendly, and the worthy business men of Bristol had an admirable influence on the less expert knowledge of the clergy. But, if the difficulties involved in this double and even treble ownership made the process of conveyancing trouble- some to the owners and not without profit to the lawyers, the 1 See Chapter iv. pp. 80 ff. 2 In technical language it may be said that on 27 June 1672 by Indenture quadripartite of Grant Bargain and Sale John Greene and John Baynes conveyed to Sir Robert Cane and others, Trustees for the City of Bristol and Sion College, the Manor or Lordship of Bradwell and the Capital Messuage or Farm called Bradwell Hall Farm and a Messuage or Farm called Hockley Farm in Essex, upon Trust to permit the said City and College to receive the Rents and Profits and that the said Trustees should dispose thereof as the said City and College should by any writings under their Common Seals direct. The articles of agreement as to the fractional apportionment of the profits bear date 26 February 1673. THE COLLEGE AS LANDOWNER 135 process of securing the delivery of rents at the close of the seventeenth century was even more hazardous. Here is a letter, dated 17 June 1668, to the President, Dr Lake, from "Jo Baynes," quite possibly one of the parties to Sir John Knight's bargain referred to above. He has had a communication from Dr Lake "whereby," he says, "you tax me with breach of promise, w ch I deny, having sent one of my Clarks severall times who intimated unto yo r servant that you might receive all such moneyes as were due at Michmas last if you sent for it by some person whom you shall authorise to give a sufficient discharge for the same, pro- vided you allow your share of taxes and of the Marsh Wall I acquainted you with." You can still do so, he concludes, or "otherwise you may take such course for it as you shall thinke fitt." Then there is one Andrew Solme, who writes anxious letters from Brad well Hall as to the rapid way in which some one by Daggett's authority is felling. the trees. "If thay goe on thus, they will not leave a tree about the farme fit for any use." He, again, has a disagreement with Daggett about the amount that is due from him, and writes under date "Bradwell, Decemb r ye ist, 81," "these ffor his Loueing ffriend" at "Sion: Colledge": I understand you sent me a letter y e 6 th of May Last wherein you are pleased to Charge me w th mistakes ; (though I protest the letter came not to my hand till within these 10 days); you are pleased in that Letter to Charge me with 95-^: 15 s : io d ob : due at Michelemas 1680; the reconing of w h we made in december then next following ; I meane in decemb r 1680: Now S r you may be pleased to rember that I payd 25^ by the hoy man in January, then next following, for which I have both yo r discharge, and letter under yo r own hand ; so that now there remaines due for rent, at Michelemas last past, 175-^. i5 s . io d ob : which I am very carefully industreous to prouid for you. Corne and all other thinges sell so loe that farmeing is no incorageing trade at this time; but I have sent up A frait of corne by y e barer hereof; and have orderd the money to be payd to you ; And shall send up more Corne by the next voyage which is all for money for you ; which I hop will discharge great pt of what I owe (my court diners and other things being deducted). In such a case the honours clearly rest with the tenant who is precise and anxious, rather than with the representative of the landlords, who forgets what he has received, and has given quittance for. 136 THE COLLEGE AS LANDOWNER We pass over a decade and come to "Bridgget Mosse," of Brad well Hall, who in her way is plainly a woman of Shunem, "a great woman," and who carries on her dealings as tenant impartially and at the same time with the President of the College and with Sir Richard Hart, who now takes the place of Sir John Knight. Her troubles are much the same as Andrew Solme's the right use of the timber on the property and the difficulty of handing over her rent, even when she had the wherewithal to pay. Sur Richard Hart [she writes 1 ] I receiued your Letter one the 6 of July and this is to satisfie your Lordshipp that I will come to London at mice'masse and cleare my years rent. I wold have bine with you according to your desier, onely it is a bissy time with me now. As for any wood I have not cut downe any but where I make hedge and ditch which is for my expences on the premises. As for wood I sell non but such underwood & bushes as my Lease aloweth, making noe strip and wast I scorne to abuse the farme for I have Land of my owne & I would not be willingly saruid so myself. The woods are well fenced in, it cost me betweene forty or fifty shillings to fence them in, for their was not any fence at my coming to the farme. It hath cost me forty pounds in repaiers this yeare or more, which I am alowed but 25 pounds by you. I will be at London as aforesaid with out faile, so with my saruice to Sur Richard Hart and doctor Williams presedent I rest your tenant Bridggett Mosse. There is every reason to believe that she was as good as her word, for on 3 October, within a few days of Michaelmas, she writes to Edward Green, the Clerk, to know if Sir Richard is in town. "I can come up,'' she says, " between this and halamass 2 ," and then she explains to Green that he will "find the Brad well hoy [which was to convey the answer] at new Galley Key neare Tower Hill." On the whole the Court's method of procedure seems to have been a wise one to copy the example of Bristol and have a certain member or members of the Court specially interested in and entrusted with the Brad well interests. It might even be worth while that a General Court should be asked to elect 1 The date is 7 July 1693 and the address is: "This to be left at Sion Coledge ffor Sur Richard Hart or doctor Williams presedent at London near Crippellgatt." For convenience I have inserted a few stops. 2 sc. Hallowmass. THE COLLEGE AS LANDOWNER 137 Governors for this special purpose; for instance, in 1740 the Clerk was "order'd (at y e motion of D r Nicolls) to desire M r Biscoe 1 to be one Dean for y e year ensuing, Dr Bristow 2 now present having consented to be y e other, they being better acquainted with the affairs of Bradwell than new ones." To this the General Court agreed and re-elected them Deans accordingly "as best understanding the Disputes concerning repairs at Brad- well Hall in Essex." In the latter part of the I7th century their Bradwell specialist was Benjamin Woodroffe, D.D. 3 , who, when he was Dean in 1683, was asked at a time of difficulty to "be pleased to goe to Bradwell and see what could be done." The result was that they fell into the expedient of allowing him to collect the proceeds and account to his colleagues for them ; in fact, an entry in the register under date of 5 March 1688 shows us his statement of his stewardship and gives us an idea of what Brad- well meant to the College exchequer. It is called Dr Woodroffe's "noate," and runs as follows: M r Dagget pray Devide to Bristol Sion College and D r Grove the sums underwritten w ch are an Ace 1 of Michas rents last And of the rents & ffines received for the Manno 1 of Bradwell the Court held the somer before The halfe yeares rent due then to the Queene being taken out vizt 37^ 15 s And the charges of the Court Leete and Baron 3^ : 12 s : 2 d rested s d rent neate 45 = 15 = o and for rent and fines of the Manno r neate 18 = 19= 4 soe tot to be devided is 63 = 14 = 4 which to Bristol is 43 = 5 = 9 To Sion College is 17=5=8 to D r Grove is 03 = i = 1 1 63 = 13= 4 So D r Woodroffe is Debtor 00 = 01= o Daggett, to whom this missive went, was, of course, the Clerk 4 ; Dr Grove 5 received the St Paul's dividend as being the Cathedral's 1 Of St Martin, Outwich. President, 1747. For his effort to avoid the President- ship, see p. 51. 2 Of All Hallows, Staining. President, 1746. 3 Of "St Bartholomew the little neare the Exchange." President, 1684-5-6. 4 See Chapter iv. p. 83. 5 He had been President in 1680 and rose to be Bishop of Chichester. See pp. 46, 193. 138 THE COLLEGE AS LANDOWNER Divinity Lecturer; and it will be noticed that, though Wood- rofife was a man of affairs, his addition of the receipts is one pound too little, so that he "was debtor," not a shilling, but a guinea, an error which was doubtless observed in due course by the Mayor and Aldermen of Bristol. Naturally the Governors were occasionally afflicted with unsatisfactory tenants, to whom they extended their customary longsuffering. In Dr Woodroffe's time (1691) there were dark rumours about one Smith of Brad well. He had been "dis- trayned," they were told, with his "goods and cattle on Brad- well Hall farme." Presently he "was reported to be in the West country to raise money. But on inquiry it was found he was comitted to Chelmsford goale for debt and alsoe aboute a Bastard Child." This was early in July, and Daggett's son was shortly bidden to go to Chelmsford and make Smith sign "writeings of surrender." But Smith had a mother-in-law, one "Goody Martin," who urged him to do nothing of the sort, and it took a week to bring him to a better frame of mind. By September, however, he had gone from bad to worse and was "now a prisoner in the King's bench." On 13 September, George Daggett, who was getting old and has left a pathetic 'admission to the President, dated four days later, that "I am weake and not soe well in memory... as I have bin," received a missive from one "W m Simonds Att the Coffeehouse Exchange Alley." "I am forced," he says, "to write to you to kno the meaninge why Smith lyes in prison and cannot gett Baile being Charged w th an Account of his Landlords in 300^ or thereabouts. I always thought, hee haueing surrendered and gave you all hee hadd, w ch I am sure would much more apaid what hee owes, It had bin well managed, & thereffore you need not Aput him to charge in prison, and there hee must stay and starve If you doe not take some course to help him out. The man sent downe to me the Last night, desiringe to know what I had done & how long hee must lye there, w ch I desire your Answeare that I may send him word." Whereupon the patient Court gave Smith ^5 on account of his "necessity and occasions" and proceeded to let the Hall Farm to a new tenant on a seven years' lease at ^"80 a year. To the risks arising from bad tenants there were added the THE COLLEGE AS LANDOWNER 139 constant dangers due to the inroads of the sea and the perennial expense a serious item to this very day of maintaining the sea wall. In the latter respect they could spread their burden. The Queen Dowager, it has been stated, had a quit rent on the property, and it was natural that "Sir Richart Hart 1 be desired to peticon the Queene Dowager for some allowance by the losse that was by the late greate inundacon of the Sea" (21 Sept. 1691), the result being a gift of 30. In the middle of the eighteenth century the Court became still more conscious of the difficulty of husbanding these country estates. They had tenants, but were the covenants of the leases being kept? They had a local agent looking after each set of property, but was he doing any work? They had a Clerk or Register 2 in London, but was he as firm in dealing with the tenants and the local agent as he ought to be? Various expe- dients were possible. They could, as we have seen, re-elect Governors having a special knowledge of Bradwell, or they could send down now and again an individual member of the Court; but not often, for the cost made an appreciable difference to their receipts. For example, when Mr William Reyner 3 visited Brad- well in 1743 to inspect some repairs, it was necessary to pay him "four pounds thirteen shillings for his travelling expences." Or, again, they might make a more frequent inspection in larger force, and in 1756 they actually passed a resolution in these terms, though it was rarely acted upon because of the cost : The Court considering the State of the College Estates in the County of Essex, Agreed to recommend it to future Courts that once in two or 1 Alderman of Bristol. 2 Mistress Young, of Bradwell, was not above sending Thomas Reading "a Turky against Christmas day" nor was Reading above writing to acknowledge "a very fine Goose" (he wrote "Turkey" and corrected it) at Michaelmas. In her various missives the tenant pleaded sometimes that there were " never worser times in the memorery of man " ; and sometimes that, while ' * the minister of the parish where I live has got the distemper among his cattel and has lost nine," yet as for hers "God be thank they never catch it" ; but always added a hope that "the gentlemen" will not press her for her rent. Thomas Reading, on the other hand, in spite of turkey or goose as the case might be, did not fail to assure her that "our Gent n , being out of all patience, seem determined not to wait any longer." (Letters, 1738, 1745, I75I-) 3 Of St Mary Magdalen, Old Fish Street. President, 1749. 140 THE COLLEGE AS LANDOWNER three years as they may see occasion, one or more of the Governors with the Register of the College should go and view the condition of those Estates. But there was a further alternative. The country clergy were not always as incapable in business as their reputation implied, nor are they so now. Why not apply in a case of difficulty to the "Minister of Bradwell"? So in 1765 they asked advice from this quarter about the timber on the estate. But this plan had its possible inconvenience. The vicar of the parish might hesitate to deal faithfully with a parishioner who was wronging an outside body. However, there were other clergy in the neighbourhood who would not be thus constrained. It was in this way that they came to entrust their concerns to that worthy gentleman, "M r Milbourne, Minister of Rawreth near Raleigh in Essex." In 1769 the Court had a tenant called Waight. Would Mr Milburn inform the Register whether Waight was keeping strictly to the covenants of his lease? Milburn's reply was not to Waight's credit and it led to a close alliance between the vicar of Rawreth and the Court of Sion, which in due course the latter were not slow to recognise. In 1772 they bade their Register assure Him that the Court entertains the highest sense of his continued good Offices for several years past done to Sion College and that the Court have resolved to beg his acceptance of a piece of Plate of the value of Twelve Pounds with a Latin inscription... Desiring him to signify what kind of piece of plate will be most agreeable. Presently it was agreed, no doubt upon hearing from the parson, that it should "be a Silver Cup and Cover of the value of Fourteen Guineas... and the President was desired to bespeak and order it at a Silversmiths." The cup bore the following inscription : Reverendo et spectato viro Thomae Milburn. A.M. Ob Rem Collegii Sionis Ope et Consiliis Per Complures Annos Conservatam auctam ac stabilitam CLERUS LONDINENSIS Hoc Munusculum grato animo donant et inscribunt Gal. Aug. Anno X li MDCCLXXII. THE COLLEGE AS LANDOWNER 14! They duly despatched their gift to him "by the Rochford Coach" on 18 August, and four days later he wrote that "he desires his gratefull acknowledgments to the President and Fellows," and, like the fine old country gentleman that he was, he added "that he intended to fill it on the Thursday following (it being his Birthday) and to drink success and prosperity to Sion College." Nor was Milburn the only parson of the same genial spirit from whom the Court gained advice. For in 1774 they were in negotiation with the "Rev d M r Powley of Brentwood." Here, too, it was a case of an inspection of some College timber. "I made," he wrote, "an excurtion of about 10 Miles on Horse back and 15 on foot in Quest of the Woods you mentioned to me," and then added his report. Its details need not detain us here, but it was sufficiently businesslike to make the Court desire his better acquaintance in similar affairs. On what terms so they asked him in 1776 could they expect his help? To which he sent to the Register a breezy reply in these words: I am ready to engage in their service upon the moderate terms of being paid for all extraordinary expences that I am to be at in gaining proper Intelligence and Instructions in their affairs : except some Gold Mine should be discovered : in that case indeed I should expect to rejoice with them that rejoice. This modest expectation of a share in a gold mine is economy itself, when compared with the actual cost of visitations to the estates undertaken from London by members of the Court. I have found an account of " Extra Expenses by the Presid 1 and Dean's Visits" in 1814 and 1815. There are four visits on the bill. The chaise on each occasion cost $, but the total came to 65, which means that the two worthies expended in "petty cash" about 13 on each visit, and the outlay was divided between Bristol and the College. It is only fair to add that there have been times of trouble when the relations of our Court with the authorities of the Municipal Charities in Bristol 1 have been slightly strained 1 For instance, it is curious that it should not have been the custom till 1830 for the Bristol authorities to be represented at the Manor Courts at Bradwell. In that year, as the result of a deputation to the Governors consisting of Mr Alderman Haythorn, the vicar of Temple parish, the Town Clerk (Serjeant Ludlow) and the Chamberlain (Thomas Garrard), it was resolved that the Corporation of Bristol 142 THE COLLEGE AS LANDOWNER and when there has been plain-speaking on the one side or the other, such as is contained in a letter of the Bristol Chamberlain to the Secretary of the College, dated 9 November 1804: I have not given you a single line since 23 July last, nor have I reced a word from you since 17 April last. I really have for some months past been in hopes of getting instructions from you to draw for the Balance of the last Ace 1 you sent me made up to 29 Sep. 1803, said Balance due to the Chamber of Bristol being .418. 15. 3. It really is high time it was settled, there being now more than another year due. You'l be pleased to consider that this money is all to be applied to charitable purposes, which you'l have the goodness to make known to your reverend Governors at their next Meeting. Rich d Hawkeswell, Chamb". This, indeed, was somewhat peremptory, but it was not with- out excuse. Our Governors replied immediately by a payment of ^150 on account, but they could only plead in extenuation "the very considerable expences to which they have lately been put by necessary repairs of the Library and other Buildings," which were no concern of the Almsfolk side of the foundation. It was about this time that they came into dealings, as landlord and tenant, with a curious and characteristic figure in the social life of the Georgian era, the Rev. Henry Bate Dudley 1 , a well-known "man about town," and one of the earliest editors of the Morning Post, whose addiction to duelling procured him the name of the "fighting parson," a description not at all falsi- fied by the letters of his, which appear at full length in the laborious minutes kept by Robert Watts. Various questions about the sporting and other rights over the property had arisen at a time when sport of all kinds was becoming a more and should have notice " when a Court of the Manor of Brad well is intended to be held, in order that they may, if they think fit, send an Agent to attend it." We have improved on that plan, for the day is now always arranged to suit the convenience of the Bristol Trustees themselves. 1 They heard of him first on 12 April 1792, when he applied for a lease of Hockley Farm. They were favourable to the application, not only because, as he pointed out, the land mainly lay round his residence, " but also on account of M r Dudley's general reputation for spirited management of the estates on his hands." " Spirited management " is good and may be compared with Dr Johnson's estimate of the man. " Sir," said the Doctor to Boswell with regard to Dudley, "I will not allow this man merit.. .1 will indeed allow him courage." Boswell, Life of Johnson (1831), v. 196. THE COLLEGE AS LANDOWNER 143 more absorbing interest. In 1798, for instance, the College obtained counsel's opinion as to a grant of "Free Warren" at Bradwell. It occupies nearly twenty folio pages of our register 1 , and Watts received seven guineas for entering it in his beautiful script. The case need not here be discussed in detail. It arose out of a notice of action sent by Mr Willes, who afterwards had a fracas with Parson Dudley and who was lessee of lands within, but not belonging to the lords of, the Manor of Bradwell, to the gamekeeper appointed by the lords, on the ground that such gamekeeper had no right to hunt, shoot, or sport upon the lessee's farms. The question necessitated an interesting search among the records of Liber a Warenna in the Tower, and the opinion resulting was that the lords "are in possession of the franchise of Free Warren upon certain lands called the Demesne Lands within the Manor; and are exclusively entitled to the Game of Warren on those Lands as Grantees of the Crown; and may kill or protect the same on those Lands by themselves, or their servants, although such Lands be now in the possession of other persons." It was therefore necessary to ascertain the exact extent of the so-called ''Demesne lands." Now Parson Dudley knew all about Sion College, because he had been licensed in 1773 as curate to the Rev. James Townley, vicar of Hendon, formerly Upper Grammar Master at Christ's Hospital 2 , then Head Master of Merchant Taylors' School, and the author of the well-known farce (1759) of High Life Below Stairs. As if these were not sufficiently miscel- laneous, Townley was also incumbent of St Benet, Gracechurch, and took considerable interest in his Fellowship of Sion College. He showed a business-like desire for information about the College lands, and in 1757, four years before his first election to the Court he reached the Presidentship in 1769 it is on record that "M r Townley made a Motion which was seconded, that a List of the Several Estates of the College with the Rents of each, and the names of the Tenants, together with the Monies at present in the Funds be made out, and laid before the next General Court" which was done. Having an intimate 1 Register E, 203 222. 2 Cf. E. H. Pearce, Annals of Christ's Hospital, 2nd ed. 1908, pp. 78, 303. 144 THE COLLEGE AS LANDOWNER knowledge of the City, he was also useful in the matter of letting the Aldermanbury houses in 1765*. Now it is like drawing a bow at a venture to connect Townley's knowledge of the Manor of Bradwell with his curate Dudley's subsequent purchase in 1781 of the advowson of Brad - well-juxta-Mare for 1500. The curious in such matters, who would like to follow an episcopal action for simony, must refer to the "Letters which have lately passed" on the subject and were afterwards published. For our purpose it is enough to know that Dudley had acquired an interest, legal or illegal, in the parish of Bradwell. This interest he further cemented by acquiring from our College the shooting rights over the Manor; or, in the phraseology of the time, he received our "deputation'' as "Gamekeeper of the Manor." In 1806 the Court heard that he had left the county and they inquired about his intentions. His reply from "Sloane Street" in 1806 admits that he has left Bradwell for the present, but he does not wish to resign the "gamekeepership of the Manor." He then goes on to describe the sporting conditions of the property: That there is but little Game on the Manor... is true ; and the causes of it are these, i. a succession of bad breeding seasons ; 2 d the depre- dations committed by the large quantity of Foxes turned out by Capt. Hay [the tenant then living at the Manor house] in the Parish, and 3 dl y the unfair sporting of various officers, who come down to Bradwell hall, in the absence of Capt. Hay (who I believe does not reside in Bradwell himself three weeks in the year). The pheasants are so much destroyed by the Foxes, that at my Farm of East Hall, where I could have seen 50 brace at feed by the side of a cover, scarcely one is to be found.... The only day I have shot at Bradwell hall this year, I was treated rather roughly by M rs Hay, for presuming to come on the Manor Farm, of which I had the College Deputation.... The game I should hope would soon get up, now Capt. Hay's fox-hounds are dropped, if he will restrain the visitors at his house within the limits of fair sporting. Sir Henry (the Parson was made a Baronet in 1813) returned to the old grievance in a lette*- to the Secretary dated "Bradwell Lodge, I st Sep r . 1819," in which he complained that during that week Mr Willes had "sent his two sons and another young man to shoot upon Bradwell Hall and killed a considerable number of Birds. The tenant, M r Lozell, remonstrated with them in 1 Cf. Register B, 555. It was Townley also who presented a special folio book in which the College might keep its own Repertorium of appointments to benefices. THE COLLEGE AS LANDOWNER 145 vain, and says, nothing but a legal notice will keep them off." The "fighting parson" added, according to his true form: Although this conduct of M r Willes arises from a personal resent- ment to me, as his successor in the Farm of Hockley, I have no wish that the Governors should take any step in consequence of this illiberal conduct : They will only judge whether they prefer a submission to the uncontrouled trespasses of M r Willes to the exercise of their rightful authority to restrain them. The registers now begin to show frequent signs of consider- able anxiety about his rent for Hockley Farm. He was applied to early in January 1821, and excused himself as "being in close residence at Ely," of which he had been appointed Canon in 1817. Again, on 16 February, the Secretary was bidden "to write to the Rev d Sir Henry Bate Dudley, pressing the payment of his arrears of rent." So it continued all that year, till on 29 November it was sadly noted that he "owes one year and a halfs Rent of Hockley Farm due at Michaelmas last" amounting to ^"1057. los. The Court were ready, however, to make a reduction of 20 per cent, "when that year's rent shall be paid." All he could manage during 1822 was to give a bill for ^"300 at seventy-five days' sight, and then to ask for indulgence. This was again given him, as he freely acknowledged in a sanguine letter dated "Ely College. 3 d Jany 1823." After the very liberal indulgence which I have received from the Governors of Sion College, I should not solicit a further extent of it, but under a conviction that their property in my occupation would benefit by a short continuance of that indulgence. Though embarrassed in common with other Agriculturists I can safely state that I shall ere long possess the means of arranging my Arrear account [as to which he makes proposals]. I need not restate the losses which I have sustained in bringing the Farm of Hockley into its present condition ; but it was necessary for me to observe that the principal part of the Manure derived from the collected Tythes of the whole Parish for several years, has been applied to its improved cultivation ; and that had it remained in the occupation of my Predecessor it would probably not have been tenantable at this time on any terms. This curious canon and baronet concludes by asking only for such consideration as maybe judged due "to an old Tenant who has always felt the interest of the College inseparable from his own." But the Court had reached its limit, and in June 1823 the p. 10 146 THE COLLEGE AS LANDOWNER College solicitor "sent down Authorities for immediate Distresses on Hockley Farms." This brought Sir Henry to an interview with the Governors, who communicated his proposals to the authorities at Bristol. All they could then extract from him was "a Draft for 450 on J. White, Captain of the Prince Regent Packet, Falmouth, payable at a Banker's in London at six weeks after date, and accepted by Mr White." Happily for the College, he asked leave in October 1823 to surrender his lease of Hockley Farms "on account of the great losses he had sustained in farm- ing them," and they were let to another tenant at a rent of 525. His affairs were placed in the hands of trustees and it is pleasant to be able to state that in December of that year the College received all its dues less the 20 per cent, agreed upon. On I February 1824. Dudley died at Cheltenham. On the whole, with Dr Johnson, we "will, indeed, allow him courage." The story of the country property would not be complete without some reference to the Divinity Lectureship at St Paul's Cathedral, towards which -^ of the nett profits of the Bradwell- juxta-Mare property are still payable by us to the Receiver of the Dean and Chapter. Our Founder, it will be remembered, held the prebend of Mora 1 in St Paul's Cathedral, and it was the aim of his last will and testament to benefit the places and churches with which he had been identified. The clause con- cerned has already been referred to in connexion with his will 2 . With the administration of this money our College has no concern; it has performed its office when its treasurer has the Receiver's quittance for the yearly dividend. But it has mostly happened that the occupants of the Divinity Lectureship have been Fellows, Governors and sometimes Presidents of the Col- lege such as John Sherwood, 1st Assistant, 1676; Edward Fowler, President, 1690; Robert Grove, President, 1680 (Bishop of Chichester, 1691); Edward Gee, of whom more presently; Richard Venn, of St Thomas Apostle ; Thomas Spateman, President, 1732 ; Thomas Winstanley, of St Matthew, Friday Street, Laudian Professor of Arabic at Oxford; Matthew Feilde, of St Anne and St Agnes; Henry Meen, of St Nicholas, Cole Abbey, President, 1809; and especially his successor, Robert 1 12 December 1588 to i March 1624. a Chapter I. p. 8. THE COLLEGE AS LANDOWNER 147 Watts, one of the best of our Librarians, whose successors as Lecturer, John William Vivian, D.D., and Richard Harris Barham were both Presidents of our College 1 . This fact naturally main- tained within the College a special interest in the Lectureship. Of course, the failure of the Bradwell tenant, Mr Keeling, as above recorded, to produce the necessary charges out of his farms affected the funds of the Lectureship in the same pro- portion as those of the Bristol Charities and the College, and the agreement of 26 February 1673 assigned to the Lecturer -1^3 of the profits, "if he should be legally intitled thereto." How much, the Court might well ask, was included in this last proviso? Suppose it were known that the Lecturer was an absentee, enjoying the additional amenities of some distant dignity; was he still "legally intitled" to his share? The question arose definitely in 1725, when Edward Gee, the Pro- testant pamphleteer, held the office and omitted the duties. On 13 July, the Register produced to the Court "a Letter from D r Edw d Gee 2 Dean of Lincoln, demanding Arrears due to him from the College as Lecturer of St Paul's," and it was "Resolved that Mr Wood 3 the late Presid 1 be desired to accom- pany some of the present Govern 1 " 5 to the L d Bp of London, to whom the affairs of the s d Lecture were referred in his time." Three weeks later Gibson, the Visitor, intimated "his Lordships pleasure that the further consideration of that matter be deferr'd till winter." They must have hoped that Gibson, if any man, would take a strict view as to the fulfilment of obligations. No doubt he consulted his officials and the answer came in the following April: "My opinion in general is,. That the nonper- formance of Duty will not alter his right, if he be otherwise legally entitled to what he demands"; upon which, in dutiful allegiance to their Visitor, they paid the sum which the absentee Lecturer claimed. And then, as far as the College is concerned, the subject is 1 Cf. the list in Sparrow Simpson, Reg. Stat. sup. p. 155. 2 Gee had formerly been a Fellow of the College as rector of St Benet, Paul's Wharf, but at this time he had nothing to bring him to London save a canonry of Westminster and the rectory of St Margaret. 3 Montague Wood, of St Michael Royal. President, 1724. 10 2 148 THE COLLEGE AS LANDOWNER heard of no more till the days of Robert Watts, who combined laborious service to the College as Librarian and Secretary with the rectory of St Alphage and the Divinity Lectureship of the Cathedral, and who on 24 November 1829 placed before the Court a memorial making certain claims upon the Bradwell and Hockley profits. Though it was agreed there and then "that the same be laid on the Table," it deserves a word or two in connexion with our story of the Lectureship. Watts was a care- ful man, and three drafts of it in various stages of perfection lie before me. He recited the direction of Dr White's testament, the taking over of the estates after Reeling's failure, and the agreement with Bristol as to the allocation of the proceeds. He proved from the books the payment of their due dividend to various Lecturers, adding "that it does not appear from the Bradwell and Hockley Accounts that the Lecturer ever received in any one year so much as 10 for his share until the year 1768, when he received besides 4. 43. od. for one year a further sum of ;22. igs. 2%d. on account of Timber from March 1766 to November 1768." He then details the Lecturer's receipts for 1769 to 1787 inclusive (the average is about i2\ and says that "after the year 1787 the Lecturer for the time being has not demanded his share, and it has constantly been carried to the College account 1 " a fact which can only be sadly compared with the precarious fortunes of Wynne's and Colfe's gifts. He himself had been appointed to the Lectureship on 16 April 1817, and owing to improvements at Bradwell he should have re- ceived for the years 1817 to 1829 inclusive a sum of $ 14. 7^. I id., or about 39 yearly. The Lectureship has been dealt with in two successive schemes 2 by the Charity Commissioners, and the Dean and Chapter may now apply the income towards the remuneration of Lecturers in Lent. It is thus our privilege to think of our Founder being at charges with those who give week-day addresses under the Dome during each Lenten season. 1 His first thought was to say more bluntly, " The College has converted it to it's own uses." 2 14 June 1872 and 3 February 1897. [//. Pearce The Almshouses (looking east). From a water-colour in the possession of H. McQintock Harris, Esq CHAPTER VIII DR WHITE'S ALMSFOLK Quia Dominus fundavit Sion, et in ipso sperabunt pauperes populi eius. Esai. xiv. 32. OUR story is mainly concerned with an institution which has largely affected for good the common life of the London clergy. But it must not be forgotten that Dr White's chief concern was the establishment in London of an Almshouse corresponding to the Temple Hospital founded by him in 1613 in and for his native City of Bristol. Accordingly, his will prescribed " allso for a convenient House or Place fast by, to make a convenient Almeshowse for Twenty Persons, viz. tenne Men and tenne Women." The rules laid down by him in 1614 for Temple Hospital prescribe that St Thomas's Day (or, if it fell on a Sunday, the day after) should be the anniversary, when the rules were to be read openly to the old folk, and when they were to receive some part of the remainder of a forty shilling dinner for the Governors. Like our Almsfolk they were to attend their parish church, and for every two days of unnecessary absence were to be fined ^ twopence, and the fines were to be "equally divided among the rest there that do use the church, and do pray at home, as is above appointed." They were to be single people, not under fifty, and there was an absolute disqualification of " any that is known to be, or hath been within one quarter of a year before, either a blasphemer of God, or fornicator, or drunkard." The Bristol parishes benefiting were Temple, St Werburgh and All Saints, and the minister of Temple parish was to have twenty shillings yearly for catechising and visiting the inmates, who were to receive every third year " three yards of sad marble broad cloth, 150 DR WHITE'S ALMSFOLK of eight shillings the yard, to make them ten gowns, without velvet, lace, or silk, in plain and decent fashion... and also one cognisance of a dove, to be made in tin or like metal, with this inscription ' Be simple.' " " And so," says the good doctor, " I end, praying Almighty God to bless them that now are or that hereafter shall be of the said poor almshouse, for ever. Amen." "...And I will have the Almeshowse for the lawes and order thereof otherwise to be in all thinges as they are for my poore Almeshowse in Bristowe." When he came to divide his substance as between the College and the Hospital, it was the Almshouse which he most favoured. " I give," he wrote, "towards the Almes- howse and the Colledge either out of my lands or in some portion of my lands 160 yerelie whereof 120 I wold have to be settled for ever by some good coores in lawe duelie to the Almes howse for ever." He saw that there might be difficulties in securing the necessary constitution for the College. The Bishop might oppose and the Crown might refuse. Very well ; in that case the great thing was to make sure of the charitable side of his intentions. Yf the saide Corporacion cannot be procured whereof I have left in writing mie reasons both for maner and order to further the same, that then I will have the almshowse purchased afonewiih convenient romes for twenty poore whereof I wold have six men & women to be taken out of St Dunst in the west parish 3 men and 3 women and so to be renewed when anie of them doe die or deserve expulcion for their evell manners, and I wold have 2 oute of St Gregories parish and 4 oute of Bristowe and the residue out of the company of the Merchauntaylers. He made a further provision that "any of my poore Kindred or any of my late wives Kinred Fortune & Elizabeth White being honest and qualified... unto the number of fowre and no more at any one tyme together... should be preferred before the others formerlie spoken of." At the very start, when they had just taken charge of the Founder's poor pensioners, the Governors found themselves facing a case that transgressed one of these intentions. Early in 1634 Dr Hacket, the President, afterwards Bishop of Lichfield, deemed it necessary to confer with "Judge Crook 1 overseer of the flounders will," and as the result it was decided that " Joane 1 Sir George Croke (15601642), Justice of the King's Bench. DR WHITE'S ALMSFOLK 151 Searle one of the Almeswomen being a married woman is not capable of the place by order of the ffounder." She "shall receaue only her pension due next Wednesday and noe longer." Nevertheless Joane Searle, who, as will be seen in a moment, had some powerful friends and was a relation of Dr White, was not easily dislodged, and " contynued still in her roome." It may be added that, in spite of the formal order which follows, she was still making difficulties two years later, and was told that there would be " noe more pension paid her till she resigne the key of her chamber." Here is their decision in October 1634: The Governo rs receaued a peticon concerning Joan Searle to have her settled in the Almeshouse (being referred by the Lord of Canterbury [Laud] to D r Duck 1 and by D r Duck recommended from the Lord Bpp of London [Juxon]), Uppon w ch M r Presid 1 & M r Reeues attended his grace whose pleasure is (notwithstanding the order of Bristowe w ch prohibited any married woman to be an Almeswoman) yett she being one of the rfounders poore kindred & settled here before the clergy medled with the Government thereof & having receaued her penson euer sithence that her penson be contynued to her So as she come not in the Roome but deliver upp the key thorough w ch by undue meanes she hath lately gotten into her hande And so as thenceforward she behaue herself quietly as becomes a woman in such a place Unto which the said Joane Searle promised performance and had her penson paid her accordingly 2 . Thus for many a long year our records show instances of the Founder's kin being in sufficiently evil case for admission to the Hospital. The Court extended their consideration towards their benefactor even to the point of admitting in 1644 one Frances Kent " being heretofore Cooke Mayd to D r White the ffounder," and special care was taken of these kin pensioners if they fell upon hard times and found their way into a Debtors* Prison ; for instance, it was ordered in 1646 that Jeane Wright a poore pensoner now in prison and one of the flounders kyndred shall have io s giuen unto her as a guifte from the Governo rs . 1 Probably Sir Arthur Duck, LL.D., Chancellor of the diocese of London, who rendered considerable legal service to Laud. 2 In 1725 they came upon a similar case among the men. "Thomas Burtt... being questioned by the President & confessing that he was married; Ordered tha the said Burtt be expell'd from his Place of Pensioner." 152 DR WHITE'S ALMSFOLK So, again, in 1676 there is an order that in regard Goody Emmerton one of the ffounders relacons hath been sicke & wants friends & hath no reliefe from any place but the College & is ready to starve that M r Dagget [the Clerk] pay her 20 s more & what else she shall need to keepe her from perishing. In fact, it became an established principle with the Court that even serious impediments to the admission of the Doctor's relatives should be somehow obviated. The person might be for some reason unsuitable, however deserving. Thus, in 1643 : Abigail Gifford alms woman of D r White the ffounder of this colledge was chosen and admitted an Almeswoman in the Roome of Margarett Hodgkin deceased But she is to have her penson only & not to Inhabitant [sic] in the Roome In regarde she is often troubled with fitts of phrensy & therefore not fitt to be trusted under the library yett the Roome is to be lett out to such persons & for such rent as the Governo rs shall allow of, w ch rent is to be paid to the said Abigail. Or the difficulty might appear in the financial distresses of the foundation. If so, they would do, as they did in 1647, the best that was possible in the meantime. The Governo rs this day did resolve to make choice of Cornelius Simpkyn one of the ffounders kindred [father of Goody Emmerton above mentioned] to be an Almesman in the Roome of William Coleman lately deceased But they forbore actually to admitt him in regarde of the great taxes deteyned for the poores money Noe other way being as yett thought uppon for the Colledge to recoupe that money but by pensons growing due betweene death & admissons of the Almespeople that shall hereafter come into the Colledge. Only, they must be perfectly satisfied as to the actual kinship of the applicant. For instance, in the case which follows there was failure to establish the claim and the application was refused. The Governo rs receaued a peticon of John Wright of kynne to D r White the founder to be admitted an Almesman in the Roome of Anthony Armeson whoe died yesterday [3 Jan. 1648] w ch peticon was delivered to them by M r Robert White of Lambeth, Whereunto was answered that he must produce D r Whites pedegree to make it appeare he is of kynne & a sufficient testimony of his age & good behauiour. It may be well to dispose of Dr White's kindred by noticing that as late as 1688 Isabell Emmerton was glad to receive from the Court a gift of ten shillings, being "part of Widdow DR WHITE'S ALMSFOLK 153 Whitefootes pension due at Christmas last towards her expenses washing & Nurseing widdow Whitefoote for a long tyme before and unto her death." Necessarily the records of the College are full of details about the affairs of the Almshouse, which sometimes occupied the entire meeting. The beneficiaries were mostly aged at the time of their admission, so that vacancies were frequent and elections were a common feature of the proceedings. In the first place, there was a perfectly clear rule that the choice of the actual beneficiary rested with the Governors, and that the various nominating bodies must not try to force the hand of the Court by insisting on the election of a particular person. This had to be made clear as early as 1635 when this day the Governo rs resolved to make choice of John Gibberd of St Dunstanes p'ishe to be an Almesman in the Roome of ffrancis Oliver deceased so as St Dunstanes p'ishe do amend their peticon that it belonge to them in their right w ch the Govern rs did now utterly dislike of. Attempts were made to repeat this process from time to time and in 1687 the Court reiterated its determination to have full exercise of choice by resolving That alwaies hereafter two poore p'sons fitly qualified be for the future p'sented to the Governo rs election of one of them And that there [be] none p'sented that the Company or parishes would not have elected Soe that the Governors may have a faire election And that a Ministers hand be to the petition. In quite modern times the same difficulty arose with Bristol. The Municipal Act of 1838 placed Dr White's Charity in the hands of trustees appointed by the Lord Chancellor, and ne- gotiations were conducted with the College by their secretary, instead of by the Chamberlain of the City of Bristol. In 1838 he sent a letter to our Court forwarding the name of a suitable person for election as Almswoman. But the Court still main- tained its right of choice and insisted on two names at least, and this brought a letter from the Bristol secretary, which certainly creates some sympathy for Bristol candidates. The Trustees were aware of the forms of election, he said, but found compliance impossible. 154 DR WHITE'S ALMSFOLK Old people who are almost starving and have no resource but dependence on children almost as poor as themselves, will not leave their native place, nor will their children part with them for even the certain provision afforded by becoming an inmate of your Almshouse. The Trustees have appointed three persons to recommend to your Governors, and when they have been told to get ready the necessary testimonials and the parochial guarantees, their hearts have failed them at the prospect of dying separated from their friends, and they have declined the appointment. Let it be acknowledged that as a rule the places were filled up not only with justice but with despatch. There might be at times special circumstances that moved them in favour of a particular case. Thus it no doubt seemed fitting to admit (1636) in a special way the daughter of a late Lord Mayor. This day uppon consideracon had of the peticon of Judith Allen als Verzelyn the daughter of S r William Allen 1 Kn l sometymes Lord Maior of this Cittie & the uncertaynty of her meane condicon It is thought fitt and agreed uppon by the Govern rs that she shalbe admitted to the next Almeswomans place that shall happen to be void if any fall while they are Governors And yf not then it is their request to the succeeding Governo rs that they would admitt her accordingly. The case appealed as strongly to the successors, whose year of office fell in troublous times and who in the following October, finding that an almswoman's place had been empty " these twoe moneths," that it had not been filled " by reason of the absence of some of the Govern 1 " 5 ,'' and that there was " little hope of any greater appearance by reason of the sicknes," admitted Judith Verzelyne or Allen without more ado. Of course attempts were made from time to time to secure election by doubtful means, and our Governors were as well pleased as other trustees would be, when any such doubtfulness was detected. In 1802, for instance, there being a vacancy for an out pensioner, to be recommended by the parish of St Dunstan in the West, two men, Peter Carter and Thomas Holloman, attended with their certificates apparently in due form. When the Court came to inquire into their cases, 1 Perhaps William Alleyn, Lord Mayor 1586. Cf. A. B. Beaven, Aldermen of the City of London, p. 57. DR WHITE'S ALMSFOLK 155 Thomas Holloman declared that he knew nothing of the Petition which was presented in his name, but not signed by him ; that he was not, as therein stated, reduced to poverty or by age incapable of getting a maintenance ; that he was a Master Bricklayer, and by no means desirous of being elected to the vacant place, and that he attended at the request of Carter, and meerly to serve him. Whereupon the Court ordered that the Petition of Peter Carter be rejected; and resolved, that he has rendered himself unworthy of the Place, by having thus attempted to impose upon the Court. It is characteristic of their long-suffering and kindness that Peter Carter was nevertheless elected an out-pensioner in the course of the following year. Secondly, having exercised their full right to choose the fittest candidate, the Governors found themselves committed to the task of keeping their twenty inmates in order. Dr White had provided one not very effectual means to this end by directing that every three years " one of the discreetest " of the men should be chosen to oversee the men at Bristol he was called " the Antient Brother " " as also a Widow Woman too be the Matrone to govern." The earlier years supply instances in which this provision was acted upon ; e.g. in 1643 William Coleman shall be Monitor for the Almesmen & M rs Price Matron for the Almeswomen during the pleasure of the Govern rs . The chief duty assigned to these pensioner potentates was concerned, however, with a matter which gave the Court con- tinuous trouble. A minute of 1663 will explain it : That Samuel Pretty one of the Almesmen and Elizabeth Emerton [of the Founder's Kin] one of the Almeswomen doe in their severall places see that their Brethren & Sisters doe attend Divine Service in this p'ish Church according to y e ffounders Orders, & give an Accompt to the Governo rs of such as shall neglect their dutyes in that behalfe. But as early as 1633 it is on record that All the Almesmen and Almeswomen of this College being com- playned against for neglecting to goe to Church to heare devyne service on Wednesdaies & ffrydaies were according to D r White's ordenances admonished not to offend any more in that kynde. In 1640, as the same neglect continued, the Court appealed not only to the Founder's directions but to the rules of the Church, and started a system of penalties, as laid down in the following 156 DR WHITE'S ALMSFOLK / order, which avoided the Temple Hospital system of allowing the regulars to profit by the lapses of defaulters : This day complaynt being made that the Almesmen & Almeswomen ...have very much neglected to goe to devyne Service in the Church on Sondays & holydayes Wednesdayes & ffrydayes They were all admonished not to offend any more : the Cannon 1 of the Church appoynting that one in a family should be present thereat on each of the said dayes But yf any of them shall hereafter without any just or reasonable cause of excuse neglect the same & shalbe absent on any of the daies above said : that then hee or shee so offending shall for every default forfeit & loose i d2 out of his or her penson. At the monthly meeting next ensuing this order was put in force, for there was a " complaynt that since the last admonicon the Almesmen and women hereafter named have neglected to come to the Church." Then follows a list of eight out of the ten men and of five out of the ten women, who had been defaulters on from " 3 daies" to " 14 daies" respectively; and it was decreed "that i d for every one of the said defaults be... deducted & abated out of each one of their pensons unlesse the Govern 1 " 5 shall otherwyse Direct and appoynt." Puritan times did not bring much improvement in this respect; indeed, there is not only a mingling of secular and sacred offence's, but a lowering of liturgical requirement, in the minute of 1655 that This day Admonicon was given to all the Almesmen except Jennour & Sanders to beware henceforward of being drunck & haunting the Ale- house and of swearing and to take care to goe every Sabboth day to the Church. Necessarily the insistence on this rule varied with the ecclesi- astical conceptions of the moment. It was late in the reign of Queen Anne (1713) before any mention is made of the Alms- folks' attendance at Holy Communion, and the method then employed was one that scarcely commends itself to modern ideas: The Rev d M r Brooke Rector of St Alphage... Complaining that the Almespeople... neglected to go to Divine Service in the Church, [the Court admonished them to attend] on Sundays, Wednesdays, ffrydays, and Holidays, and to receive the Sacram* frequently at least 3 or 4 times in the year, And to bring a Certificate from the Minister of their so doing. Which they promised to do. 1 Canon xv. 1603. 2 In 1660 the penalty rose to " ij d for every default." DR WHITE'S ALMSFOLK 157 On the other hand, when we pass far on in the reign of George III, the requirement is relaxed. Holy Communion is no longer insisted upon and week-day attendance is not men- tioned. The poor folk are merely warned (1788) that they must " constantly attend every Sunday both morning and evening service, unless prevented by Sickness, Lameness or other urgent cause," and the Porter is to attend with them and report to the Governors the names of the " Absentees (if any)." But perpetual difficulty marked the maintenance of general moral discipline among a score of men and woman, who were assured of a modest allowance on the mere condition of peaceably occupying a residence, without any duties save attendance at St Alphage Church. This residence had to be perpetual. If an Almsman was fortunate enough to get employment as a watchman he must (1646) "bring a certificate from the Beadle of the Warde of all the nights that he watches & that he lodge att the Colledge all other nights except those wherein he watches." If an Almswoman fell ill, and wanted a change of air, she would lose her pension unless she made formal application to have " liberty given unto her for her healthes sake to goe into the country for halfe a year and then to returne again." Indeed, at least one of the Bristol nominees after due trial preferred his native city and in 1681 was paid a quarter's pension, "he chooseing of his owne Accord to retorne to Bristoll." Let it be acknowledged that even in times of severe financial stringency, when the Court could only find the money for pensions out of its College funds, the poor folk received the utmost that could be obtained from the product of Beeches Farm 1 , which was their chief endowment. Up to about 1775 this gave them each 3. los. yearly; in 1776, the first year in which the estate was out of debt to the College, this was raised to 4.. icxy. ; in 1778 to $ (owing to further receipts from the sale of timber); and in 1786 to 6. In addition, those who actually resided in their rooms benefited by Mr Samuel Brewer's bequest of Tyler's Causey Farm, which gave them each about i. $s. a year. It is pleasant, to remember that several of the College Clerks, whose business it was to see to the payment of 1 See Chapter VH. p. 129. 158 DR WHITE'S ALMSFOLK the pensions, and often to advance the money out of their own resources in the hope that the rents would ultimately cover their outlay, did what they could to increase the yearly dividend. Thomas Sheppard 1 in 1724 left 40 " for the benefit of the Poor Pensioners... to make their Pension (w ch is now but i?s. 6d.) Twenty shillings a piece" ; Thomas Reading, who died in I/68 2 , bequeathed to them 100 "New S. Sea Annuity Stock"; the Rev. William Clements, who was Librarian from 1762 to 1799, left 50, the interest to be divided among them ; while Thomas Simpson, who retired from the Clerkship in 1803, was equally generous. Thus on the whole the distresses of the inmates were few and their privileges were many. There were frequent instances, as in 1644, of "xx s " being " distributed among the Almespeople towards fire this cold weather." Customs that were found to bear heavily on some were firmly put down; for example, a form of " footing " seems to have been expected of a newly admitted man; so in 1653 it was ordered that from henceforth no Breakfast be exacted or required from any Almesman at his coming in as hath formerly byne used (as is pre- tended). When the Governors dined together after their business meetings, Dr White's wishes were regarded and the " remainder " went to the old people ; but in due course it was arranged (1664) that they should " have six pence a peece allowed them in Lieu of their Dinner upon the Monthly Meetings 3 ." When an order went forth " that the Trees in the Garden where most Need is bee Lopped," it was coupled with a direction that "the Loppinges bee distributed to the Almesfolkes according to their Necessities." Even "the present high price of Provisions" (1763) a phrase that enjoys a long life was accepted as good reason for an order "that the Almesfolks be paid Ten shillings each extra- ordinary," just as the same sum had been given them a few years 1 Clerk, 1708-24. See Chapter iv. p. 83. 2 Assistant Clerk, 17451768. :i Apparently they reverted at the Anniversary to the practice of giving the old folks some of the wine; for in 1742 it was agreed "that 6 d at the Feast in lieu of wine, and the money then collected at the Church door be given to the Almesfolks at the discretion of the Clark or Register." DR WHITE'S ALMSFOLK 159 earlier (1756) "in consideration of the extraordinary price of coals." Again, in 1789, one guinea was divided among them " on the 23 rd Instant being the Day by Proclamation for a general Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the Restoration of His Majesty's Health." In a way all this was supererogatory on the part of the Governors, for each inmate was admitted under a bond by which the churchwardens of their parish covenanted to relieve their wants, in respect of the fact that their admission saved the parish poor-rate some expense ; and occasionally the Court would remind applicants for special aid that their parish was still responsible. Thus (1743): Two poor Almeswomen complaining that they wanted relief the Governours referred them to their churchwardens to claim it upon y r Bonds. In effect, the inmates at this time fell between two stools. Witness the following dismal record, which belongs to the same year : That y e parishes whence y e Almesfolks are elected, do not perform y e covenants of y r Bonds, but neglect to visit them when sick, or super- annuated & provide them with nurse and necessaries as obliged. So that they are often in danger of perishing for want. That in December last Philip Baker, very old and poor, was found dead in his room, being starved, as it appear'd, for want of fewel, bedding, & wearing apparel. That such things should be enquired into at y e time of their election, & y l two persons being proposed, the most likely of the two to help them- selves should be chosen. The fact is that the performance of their bond by the parishes depended largely on the vigilance of the Clerk. The bond itself was formal and stringent. I have found one of the year 1726 among William Reading's papers. It begins with a Latin exordium in the usual style of "know all men by these presents" &c. and binds the Churchwardens of St Michael, Bassishaw, and their successors to "keep harmless and indemnified" the President and Governors of the College and the parishioners of St Alphage " of and from all payments, relief, maintenance and charges whatever" that might arise through the pensioner's residence in the College. They were sufficiently to " maintain and relieve " her " in all needfull cases whatever " ; if she were 160 DR WHITE'S ALMSFOLK expelled from Sion Hospital for breach of rules and orders, they were to accept her as a parishioner ; and they were to bury her at their own charges " whenever she shall happen to die." But the churchwardens could only be blamed if they failed to act after receiving information. In 1749, for instance, the younger Reading found it necessary to write sternly to the churchwardens of St Botolph, Bishopsgate, to say that an Almsman of their parish was " in a very weak & sickly condition & so poor as not to be able to subsist " without the help of the parish. In this case the bond prescribed, under a penalty of 20, the provision of a nurse in case of sickness and the payment of half a crown a week in money. Reading sent the Porter to the churchwardens, who gave him answer that the man must be " passed " to their parish before they would do anything for him. " I hope," Reading then wrote, " you will consider better of this affair, & comply with the necessary conditions of the Bond this night (it being a case that won't admit delay), otherwise I shall be obliged to proceed in putting the penalty in execution to morrow morning." But the bond was as often allowed to go by default because of the Almspeople's ancient (and modern) dread of " the Parish." In 1739 William Reading had reason to call upon " St Mary, Whitechapell," to do its duty by one Mary Clark. After reminding the churchwardens that her pension was but 4. i$s. per annum, " without coals or cloathing or any thing else," he stated, in a letter which he has left in draft, that Our Govern rs have already given her something over & above her pension, more than the circumstances of the College can well bear. But she still complains that she is ready to perish, which if it should happen, it must lye at your door.... I hope you will visit her this Rigorous Season, and give her so much as will answer her real necessities. But Reading's proposed letter was shown to Mary Clark the same day by the Porter, and "she refused," adds Reading in a footnote, "to send it, saying The Churchwardens would put her in y e parish workhouse, and y l she would rather starve in y e Hospital." Those who have sat on Outdoor Relief committees have heard history repeat itself in this respect. DR WHITE'S ALMSFOLK 161 But while the Presidents and the Courts could demand that their charges should be regular at Divine Service, and could order " the Porter to go round to all the Alms Houses to see all the Fires & Candles extinguished between the hours of Nine & Ten O. Clock," and could give them occasional aid in various forms, yet the little community of Sion Hospital was from time to time at the mercy of a few for whom rules had no meaning, and whose apparently safe retreat offered constant temptation to misconduct and unrestraint. Almost at the dawn of the Hospital's life (1633) there appeared the inmate who quietly defies regulations and is "complayned against for suffering a Mayd Seruante & other suspicious persons to lodge with her often in the night." But this was not the earliest case, for on 6 August 1632 : At a meeting of the President and Gouvernours Elizabeth Dale one of the Almeswomen of the Colledg being vehemently suspected of incontinencye by the testimony of Grace Wright and Susanna Parker two other Almeswomen of the Colledg, as also other Euidence pro- duced, was not held fitt any longer to enioy the benefitts of an Almes- woman, but by a generall consent of the President & Gouvernours then present, had warning giuen to avoyde her Roomes and to deliuer up her key on the first Monday in September next ensewing. But the Court were always long-suffering. This very Susan Parker whose "testimony" against a neighbour was thus accepted and who also at the next monthly meeting " was by a generall consent expulsed," remained in her room, in spite of expulsion and of "a second admonicon " in 1637, and died in the College in 1638. Nor were these by any means the last occurrences of the kind, for the rule about harbouring strangers was enforced with some strictness, and the infringement of it was easily detected by the neighbours and therefore speedily reported to the Court. In 1811, for instance, I find one Anne Peacock " charged with having men in her Room after eleven o'clock at night," an hour which of itself would have shocked the Founder grievously. She at once "acknowledged the truth of the charge, alledging that they were her sons," which seemed innocent enough, but she was admonished " not to be guilty of the like offence in future." p. ii 162 Take, again, the case of Thomas White, one of the first inmates and most probably of Founder's kin. In the early weeks of 1633 he was "complayned of for a drunkard." In 1637 he had proceeded a stage further in his downward career, and was " admonished by the Govern 1 " 5 for being a Comon Drunkard, diverse testifying that he had byne diverse tymes drunk... and that he said he would be drunk." By 1638 he had become not only drunk but defiant, "and in his drunkennes said he cared not... for the Governors; they neither helped him in nor should they helpe him out." So his " pension was stayed & not paid to him." But he was never expelled. In 1640, after making a " humble submission," he recovered his pension, and died in his chamber two years later. Of course, all Courts were not equally long-suffering towards the inebriate, because the inebriate was not always equally long-suffering towards himself. For instance, an Almsman in 17 50 "was become a Lunatick by hard drinking, so as to occasion great disturbance in the College." Wherefore the churchwardens of St Giles, Cripplegate, were called upon to remove him to their workhouse. Such cases belong to all periods. In 1815 it was agreed, none too soon, that Mary Margaret Smith was " not a proper person to reside alone in her Almsroom, she being very infirm and... very much addicted to excessive drinking, and having twice attempted to hang herself." At the moment she was in the Poorhouse of the Ward of Aldersgate, but, instead of cutting off her pension, the Court sent it to the Matron to be administered for her benefit. But besides the inmate to whom the nearest alehouse was a constant temptation the Hospital, like all institutions based upon the principle of a common life within a ring-fence, had to reckon also with the person who is by nature prone to be unneighbourly. Such, in a not too neighbourly era, was Robert Salter, who first came before the Court in 1641 on a charge of "being quarrelsome & contentious & misbehaueing himself in his place," and who three months later was alleged to have " misbehaued himselfe worse than before, & especially against Margarett Gascoigne." But his worst crime belongs to 1645, when he fell foul of Mrs Sedgwick, the wife of the none too DR WHITE'S ALMSFOLK 163 tractable rector of St Alphage 1 , whose children made use of the College garden. Uppon M rs Sedgwicks complaynt this day made against Robert Salter one of the Almesmen A third admonicon was given to the said Salter for misbehaveing himselfe very grossely in his place against M rs Sedgwicks children & Mayd servant by kicking her black & blewe And therefore he was straightly admonished not to offend any more uppon payne of expulsion And... also... Robert Salter shall repayre to M rs Sedgwick & acknowledge his fault against her by the Injury done to her Mayd servant & children And that he quietly permitt her children or any other to come or be brought into the College walkes & garden without any disturbance And yf any misdemeane themselves there that he rebuke them by words.. .and not offer any Injury or violence but to acquaint the Governo rs therewith. But the most persistent quarreller of early days was one Christopher Smith. His first offence was trivial enough. His second (1655) illustrates the Court's rule of continuous residence, for his crime consisted in " lying out of the house dyvers nights & goeing into the country without any leave of the Govern 1 " 5 ." The third, in 1657, reveals to us the President (Samuel Clarke, the intruded Puritan Minister of " Bennet Finck ") and his brethren in a quasi-judicial capacity. Whereas this day... appeared Christop Smith one of the Almesmen, upon compl 1 brought to this Court by one Margarett Roberts for false accusacons, rayling, & other abusive & scandalous carriages, which this Court took into serious consideracon, and upon the sayd Smiths denying the matters alleadged ag l him This Court required Evidence to prove what the sayd Margarett had complayned of, which she accordingly produced, namely, John Lawrence living in Redd Lyon Court in Silver street, and Joane his wife, and one Ann Parry lyving in Whitechappell, who Attested the matters alleadged, And whereas the said Smith hath bin Thrice admonished This Court doth order That the said Christop Smith is and shalbe from henceforth Ejected & discharged from his Almesmans place in this Colledge, And that his Pencon shalbe no longer payd him, and that hee shall have a monthes tyme to remoue his goods. This occurred in July 1657 and in October Smith came before the Court arid entirely refused to " avoyd the Roome." Where- upon it was ordered " that forthwith the doore be broken open " and " that a Smith be sent for to doe it." 1 See Chapter vi. pp. 108 f. I I 2 164 DR WHITE'S ALMSFOLK But this was not the last of Christopher, who in 1661 went to law with the College, which may be left to tell the story in its own words : Whereas Christop Smith formerly an Almesman.. lately ejected, upon his action obtained his Ma ties Referrence to S r Thomas Adams 1 S r Richard Browne 2 & Alderman Turner concerning his s d Ejeccon, the President D r Pory 3 having notice thereof, and looking on it as preju- diciall to the Liberties of this College, procured his Ma ties revocacon of the sayd Referrence and the Remitting the pet r to the Lord Bspp of London the Visitor of the s d College, It is ordered, that the peticon & revocacon thereby obtayned be entered into the College Register, and that D r Pory have the hearty thanks of this Court for his great care & paines in the busines, & that he be allowed the sume of 5o s expended about the same. Then follow the petition of the College to his Majesty, which describes the petitioners as " being a Society and Corporacon of the Entire Clergy of the said Citty," having in their Visitor " their owne prop. Judge," and the revocation which shows that Smith was a citizen of London and which desires the Bishop " fully to heare the pretences of the s d Christopher Smith." There seems to be no record of the Bishop's arbitrament. Public disturbances seemed sometimes to react upon the peace of the Hospital, for in April 1688 This day Palmcot & Inghall two Almesmen...were Admonished to forbeare theire open & public false scandalous & malitious clamorous words & actions against the Governors & Government of this College and ag st the Clerke of this College on paine of beinge expelled out of this Almeshouse This is the first time Admonished in the Register But they have bin by words in Court and out of Court severall tymes told of the same & forewarned to forbeare such false clamorous scandalous words & their malitious actions. Palmcot came in for further admonition shortly afterwards and, like King James the Second, was expelled in 1689. 1 Alderman of Cornhill; Lord Mayor, 1645-6; founder of the Professorship of Arabic at Cambridge (cf. J. Bass Mullinger, University of Cambridge, in. pp. 95 9 6 )- 2 Browne was Alderman of Langbourn; Lord Mayor 1660-1. William Turner was Alderman of Farringdon Within from October 23 to November 27, 1660, and of Candlewick from '" May or June 1662 " (A. B. Beaven, Aldermen of the City of London, pp. 85, 149). He is here styled Alderman during the interval, viz. 18 November 1661 (Cal. St. Papers, Dom. Charles II, under that date). 3 Rector of St Botolph, Bishopsgate. DR WHITE'S ALMSFOLK 165 The record of a more genial ruffian, John Fox by name, belongs to 1730 and is, perhaps, due to a general slackness ; for in 1733, when he could plead that "he had left off... keeping a Brandy shop in y e night," there was a general order " that the Almesfolkes be warned to avoid drunkenness, to govern their tongues, to observe y e founders orders, & to keep peace in the College." But, whatever excuse can be found for him, his story is as follows : M r Hitchcock Tallowchandler over against Beech Lane in Cripple- gate parish came hither, and inform'd the Presed 1 that John Fox of that parish, one of the Almesmen of this Hospital, was a disorderly liver, and comonly kept a Brandy shop open over against him the said M r Hitchcock at all hours in the night ; and usually, but especially on Sunday mornings amused people with lewd and abusive rhymes of his own making, w ch he wrote with chalk upon his door & windows to the corrupting of peoples manners, and the offence & scandal of his neighbours especially of M r Hitchcock, who had been abus'd & HbelPd in them, as he proved by several copies of them w ch he now produced ; and the said M r Hitchcock having often spoke to Fox to forbear, but all to no purpose; the Presid 1 now admonished Fox to mend his manners, & leave off writing such abusive rhymes, upon pain of expul- sion from the Hospital. To quarrels of the Almsfolk among themselves there would at times be added disagreement between these old people and various tenants, the latter being certainly intruders, as far as the intentions of Dr White are concerned. The somewhat feline amenities of the place are well illustrated in a letter, dated 1759, from one Thomas Cannon to Thomas Reading, giving formal warning to quit his " two Rooms in the house called the Great house" on the Lady Day then ensuing; and still better in a covering letter of a more intimate and expansive character 1 . It says : I have been twice this day down at your door to leave the Inclosed with you, and let you know the Ladies will have the Staircase to them- selves, and so they shall for me. One sent me word My Coalman had dirtied the whitewashing and that no more coals should come up, which you know is talking absurdly, for I might try any one's Right to stop Things 1 orderd into my own rooms ; And so I bid my woman, by whom she sent her message, tell her. The other acquainted me she could not rest for me, and that I made as much noise as ever, though 1 E.g. the P.S. runs: " I heartily thank you for your Prescription, which did me much good." 1 66 DR WHITE'S ALMSFOLK she had never complained to me before. I answered, that I made as little as I could, and was not able to avoid what I did. indeed I doubt not but the raking of the grate &c. does disturb them ; for which I am very sorry ; yet they desire besides, no doubt, to have the rooms empty; for I found my large room hung with lines for drying linnen, and what can be a more airy laundry? However, as you told me, Sir, at the first, that the Governors of the Colledge would not have them made uneasy upon any account, and now they are so, I by the Inclosed take the only way to remedy it.... A little more of the same philosophy under the College roof would have produced more peace and goodwill between the gossips of the Almshouses and the other inhabitants. Thus time brought its average of awkward cases and a perusal of the candid minutes shows how low the average was. Nevertheless, the arrangement of the Hospital left much to be desired. There are constant signs of a neglect of the most elementary precautions in sanitation. At times when the City was visited with Plague or other epidemic, their small rooms and confined conditions rendered the inmates peculiarly liable to infection, and that, too, at a season when because of the Plague the vigilance of the Governors was apt to be relaxed. For instance, there was no meeting of the Court, presumably because a quorum was not to be expected, between June 1665 and March 1666 ; and, when the Plague was stayed and the Court returned, it was to give order " that the roomes wherein any of the Almesmen dyed of the Sicknes be done with Lyme and hayre, and whited." Even as recently as 1831, Philip Hardwick, the architect and surveyor, is found announcing to the Court that " in consequence of the recommendations of the Board of Health he had given orders for washing with Lime the Almsrooms of the College forthwith." No doubt, if the Founder's idea of "a strong fair gate and a wall aboute" had been maintained, and if the Porter had watched as he was commanded to watch, the result might have been different. But the Hospital was in fact a piece of private Poor- Law work, and such work requires strict supervision and an unflagging discipline. The circumstance that half the Alms-rooms, those, namely, which fronted on Philip Lane, were allowed to have doors opening into the street, made effective oversight and good discipline practically impossible. DR WHITE'S ALMSFOLK 167 But the amazing thing is that, as the Library grew more and more valuable, its treasures were still left standing above twenty Alms-rooms, inhabited on condition that the occupants, who were very aged, had no one with them at night except in case of sickness. Consider how often there must have been serious danger of cases such as this in 1 808 : Catharine Wright, an Alms-woman of this College, attended, and it having appeared from satisfactory evidence to this Court, that a fire had lately been discovered in her Almsroom, and she not being able to give any clear account thereof, and the said Catharine Wright having in other instances grossly violated the rules and orders of the Hospital in this College ; Ordered that she be forthwith removed put out and expelled. But the time of improvement was at hand. In 1828 the Court desired Philip Hardwick to " consider whether a division cannot be contrived in each of the Almsrooms in some measure to remedy the inconvenience of each Almsperson's having only a single room." In 1841 their minds were exercised by the question whether the Almsrooms could be made fire-proof and, if so, at what expense. In 1843 so fast did things move all at once they received a special and serious report from Philip Hardwick calling attention to the terrible risks which the Library ran under the prevailing conditions. I feel it my duty [he wrote on 12 April 1843] as Architect of the College to bring under your notice... the very dangerous condition of the Library, which is situated in a building on the West side of the entrance court and in an upper floor, under which are rooms appropriated to the occupation of the Almspeople, each Almsperson having one room in which is a large fire-place and separated only from the floor of the library above it by a plaister ceiling. The Almspeople are generally very infirm and under such circumstances a library so placed must be very much exposed to danger from fire. But in addition to this the building is very old, the timbers very dry and decayed and the flues unsound. I have long been apprehensive of danger, but within the last ten days that apprehension has been greatly increased by smoke issuing through the floor of the library. The moment I was apprized of it I caused a portion of the floor to be taken up, and found under it a flue from one of the Almpeoples' rooms so cracked and decayed, that had any soot by accident taken fire, the whole library would in all probability have been destroyed. Then at last the Governors took action promptly. The Almspeople were all removed from their rooms, being allowed 1 68 DR WHITE'S ALMSFOLK half-a-crown a week for their rent. Plans and estimates for new Almshouses were at once prepared ; but it required the vigour of Dr Russell's Presidentship in 1845 to press the matter forward towards completion. He drafted and gained acceptance for a series of resolutions to this effect : that the Governors' duty as trustees was "to bring back so soon as may be the Alms- people within the walls of the College " ; that " the rooms lately occupied by the Almspeople are not suitable to the people, nor according to the dignity of the Corporation," and "cannot be occupied without endangering the safety of the Library"; and therefore that new rooms be erected on " the space now vacant in Philip Lane to the South of the Library," the plan being to have two houses containing ten rooms each, one for the men and one for the women, with "the entrance to them wholly within the College." The lowest tender for the two houses was ^2500. This house, which in its turn was found not to satisfy requirements, was the final stage in the outward development of the Hospital before its partnership with the College was finally dissolved. In the matter of book-keeping the severance had come already. For the foundation naturally attracted the attention of the Charity Commissioners and in 1837 (2 October) the Court was in possession of a decree of the Master of the Rolls " that the Almspeople's accounts should be kept separate from the account of the College." The secretary thereupon received orders to act accordingly, and reported in due course that there was no less a sum than 457. $s. lid. "due from the College to the Almspeople/' which sum he was instructed to have " gradually invested in the Funds as soon as the Finances of the College will permit." But the Court, though they may have seen here a cloud like a man's hand, did not relax their care of and interest in the old folks, and as late as 1855, when Michael Gibbs was President and the College was providing itself for the first time with a newspaper room, the Court laid out 5 for a small circulating library for the Almsfolk " to be kept by the Porter under the supervision of the Chaplain." CHAPTER IX THE LATIN SERMONS De Sion exibit lex. Esai. ii. "AND to have," says the Founder's testament, "4 Quarter Dayes Sermons ad Clerum in Latin and a dynner evrie Quarter daye, and the remainder to the Hospitall." His object was that the London clergy, joined all together in a corporation, should endeavour to "maynetaine truthe in doctrine," and, as a preacher of long experience, he believed in the power of the pulpit to contribute to that end. Possibly his insistence on Latin as the medium of the instruction was due to a sense of the value to the clergy of a doctrinal dissertation which would not be readily intelligible to the ordinary layman. He would surely have been the last, being the man he was, to admit the existence of truths that belonged esoterically only to the priesthood, but he knew that clear thinking and careful expression would be demanded, if ever, of a man who is addressing his brethren in the most deliberate and not the least exact of the ancient tongues. Nothing is more to be regretted in connexion with Sion College than the disappearance of this ancient custom. With the ex- ception of the opening service of the Canterbury Convocation after a General Election the periodical occurrence of which depends upon the people's will there is practically no occasion in the modern life of the English Church upon which an incum- bent is called upon to preach to an audience consisting of his comeniores, with the possible addition from time to time of the Visitor of the College, and of some of the episcopal and other guests at the Feast. I/O THE LATIN SERMONS The fact is that, from the beginning, the Founder's inten- tions were rarely carried out in their entirety; indeed, we cannot be sure of the beginning. For Dr Westfield, the first President, who was elected on ''May y e 3 d 1631," and held office for two years, was at the end of his period the preacher of the earliest Ad Clerum of which the books contain any record. The actual date is 14 May 1633. Uppon the same day Thomas Westfield D r in Divinity Archdeacon of St Albanes did in the p'she Church of St Alphage adjoyning to the said College in the audience of the said Assembly & many others preach the first latyn Sermon according to the tenor of the last will & Testa- ment of Thomas White D r in Divinity deceased flounder of the said College uppon this text psalme the 5 inverse 18 Benignefac Domine in bona Voluntate sua Sion. At the meeting for collegiate business held the same day, the Assembly faithfully arranged the preachers of the "fower quarterly latyn sermons the yere ensuing." The Court had already been making provision with a view to a Latin service, for a search through an ancient heap of documents in the basement of the College has yielded at least one treasure of considerable interest. The date of the following document, it will be noticed, is some ten days before the Anniversary at which Westfield gave the first sermo. It is addressed to Laud as Visitor, shortly before his journey to Scotland, and its object is to suggest that a Latin sermon might well be preceded by Latin prayers, as is, of course, the case with the opening sermon to the Canterbury Convocation and with the daily prayers of the two Houses. It is a rough draft only, with a few corrections and excisions, and the signatures of the Court are not complete, being those of the President and the two Deans. They doubt- less made a fair copy which all signed, but the proposal is not referred to in the register of their proceedings. * The draft runs as follows: Honoratissime & Reverendissime in Chro patri ac Domino D Gulielmo providentia Divina Londinensi Episcopo ac Regiae maiestati e Consiliis secretioribu' 1 . Nos praeses Decanus & socii Assistentes omne humillimum subiectionis obsequium. 1 The alternatives are " sanctior'b's " and "Privatior'b's." THE LATIN SERMONS 1 7 I Reverende Pater Cum iuxta constitutiones Eccliae Anglicanae & instructi- ones Regiae Maiestatis nuperrimas Liturgia publica ante condones legenda praescribatur Nos earn ante condones nras secundum tenorem ultimae Voluntatis Thomae White latine habendas negligere aut omittere nefas ducimus & piaculum. Verum cum nobis dubium sit & contro- versum utrum magis expediat, ut haec sacra sermone Latino (quemad- modum in sacra Synodo provincial! fieri solet) an Vernaculo ad prae- cavendam offensam peragerentur : ad Reverendam v. Dom: (ut in praefatione libro publicarum precum prefixa admonemur) confugimus humiliter rogantes, ut quid in hac re faciendum sit parvitatem nostram dirigere dignemini. Promptos et alacres aeque in hoc ac in aliis omnibus ad iussa vestra capessenda inveniet vestra paternitas. Deus Opt. Max. Reverendam Dom: v: sospitet in itinere, quod moliri iam vide- mus, et nobis restituat salvum ac incolumem, et ad libertatem Eccliae conservandam conservet diutissime. Dat e Collegio de Sion Maij. 4 1633 Dom: vestrae servuli humillimi Tho. Westfeild Jo. Sympson Tho. W[ood] The paper on which this is written is backed as follows, apparently in the handwriting of John Spencer: 4 May 1633 Gouerno rs significac" to the Bpp whether prayers before the Latyn Sermon should be in Latyn or Englishe. v e in the ptchm 1 bundle for the Bpps answere The parchment bundle has been sought for in vain, and, as there is no trace in the archives of any such form of service, it seems likely that Laud's answer was in the negative. In 1634 it, occurred to them or possibly it occurred first to the interested party that the Latin Sermon was an "addi- tional service," which it was no part of a parochial officer's obligations to arrange for. So it was agreed that The Clark of St Alphage shall have 4 s p. ann. for his paines extra- ordinary at the latyn sermons, and 3 s to be paid him presently for the three last sermons. I?2 THE LATIN SERMONS Lest, however, the worthy official should conceive that he had secured an inalienable perquisite, there soon came a time (1648) when the formula "no sermon, no shilling," had to be promulgated, and there went forth an edict that The Clarke of Alphage shall not have the 4 s paid him but when there is latyn sermons. Alas! some three years from the inception of the custom of the Sermon there came a time of financial dearth; and in 1636 it was Propounded and thought fitt that the latyn sermons be reduced to twoe in a yere in regarde of the small meanes allowed for the dynners And so to have only twoe Sermons and two Dynners. So far nothing is on record about a fee for the preachers 1 , but Dr White had coupled the quarterly sermon with the quarterly dinner, and it was financially necessary to dispense with what could not be paid for out of current income. The fact, however, seems to be that even the Caroline divines did not face the ordeal of preaching a sermon in Latin as readily as we might imagine would be the case at a time when Latin had hardly ceased for a century from being the language of Divine Service. What the Court did was to lay the duty on those and they were then the majority of the City incumbents who had taken degrees in Divinity. They arranged in 1639 to take a solemn vote on future arrangements, and in 1640 the following Minute embodied the action of a General Court : Uppon long debate & consideraccon had of the great difficulty w ch heretofore hath byne in procureing of preachers to preach the latyn Sermons appoynted by the ffounder of the Colledge It is now with full assent & consent of all the Clergy now present thought fitt & agreed & by them undertaken That each D r of Divinitie being a member of the Colledge according to his seigniority & degree of being D r shall yerely in Easter terme att such tyme as the Govern 1 " 5 shall appoynt in the place accustomed preach or procure one to preach a latyn sermon in the audience of the Clergy as hath been used (those that haue already preached the same only excepted) And. ..every Bachelour of Divinytie being a Member of the Colledge (according to his Seignioritie and degree of being Bachelour of Divinitie)... yerely in Michas terme. 1 Milman's mot, Sion College (p. 29), about "the well-fed and the well-feed" is premature in the latter respect. THE LATIN SERMONS All such customs depend upon public circumstances at the moment and it may be well at this point to state that sometimes the ceremony lapsed perforce. In 1642, "in regarde the Colledge is visited with plague 1 ," it was agreed that " there be noe latyn sermon this terme as formerly hath byne used." Nevertheless, the President, Dr Matthew Styles, chaplain to Charles I and one of the Assembly of Divines, the two Deans, Josias Shute (St Mary Woolnoth) and Ephraim Udall (St Augustine and St Faith), and three out of four Assistants attended at the College for the discharge of business. Later on, when the Ad Clerum, as they came to call it, had become part and parcel of the anniversary, it was liable to accidents affecting the anni- versary, which can be mentioned under that head 2 . It will be sufficient to note the occasional difficulty of securing promises of two sermons yearly; for, though in 1648 four preachers were chosen at the Feast, yet two instead of four became soon the normal number, one at the anniversary and one at a moveable date in November. There was, for instance, the accident of health, for which the President or other appointed Latinist could atone by nominating a substitute; as in 1756 when D r Burton, Fellow of Eaton College, preached the Latin Sermon for M r Smith the President who was much indisposed ; or as in 1765 when D r Warner last year's President [Ferdinando Warner, D.D., Rector of St Michael, Queenhithe,] being much afflicted with the Gout, his son M r Warner preached the Latin Sermon. On such occasions the Court were apt to think more of the performance of an eminent visitor whom they had not expected than of one of their own prophets, and the visitor himself, realising the uniqueness of the occasion, was apt to throw into it more style and .elegance than would come from a Fellow who had heard many such sermons and grown callous to the limita- tions of the function. Dr John Burton, for instance, who was mentioned just now as substitute for Samuel Smith, of All Hallows, London Wall, and whose name appears (1761) in 1 The same reason had operated against a Feast in 1636. 2 See Chapter xi. p. 190. 1/4 THE LATIN SERMONS the list of the Festival Preachers of the Sons of the Clergy Corporation 1 , put his sermon into print 2 , and the Court in- structed Thomas Reading, their Clerk, to purchase One hundred copies of the printed Sermons preached by D r Burton before the Clergy at the last Annual Meeting, & that he send one to the Bishop of London, one to each of the Bishops invited to the Feast and one to each of the London clergy being rectors or vicars. But the most impressive instance of a. neglect to keep faith with the Fellows was the case of Mr Biscoe of St Martin, Outwich, which exercised the attention of a General Court in 1748 and caused this pronouncement: Whereas it has been a laudable Custom, time out of mind, for the Presidents of this Corporation, to preach either in person or by proxy a Latin Sermon, before the Right Rev d the Visitor and Fellows, on the day appointed by the Charter for the Election of Annual Govern 1 " 5 . And whereas the Revd. M r Richard Biscoe, the present president, being disabled by an ill state of Health, from performing the said Branch of his Office in Person, and having neglected to provide a Deputy to do it for him. Now to prevent, as far as may be, this precedent from passing into future practice, It is hereby Declared by this General Anniversary Court, as their unanimous sense and agreement, that the preaching or providing the said Sermon, is to be understood, deemed, and taken, by all future Presidents, to be according to uninterrupted prescription, a branch or part of their office. In actual fact Biscoe, whose efforts to avoid the President- ship are dealt with elsewhere 3 , did not attend any Court during his year of office as President. But, though a great invalid, he was by no means deficient in the power to resent this vote of censure. " I was not a little surpris'd," he told Thomas Reading in a letter which survives, "that the two Deans & Hugh Wyat in particular should think me ignorant of a Custom well known to every Curate's Curate & probably to every Journeyman Shoemaker and Cobler in the City of London." But what he 1 Cf. E. H. Pearce, The Sons of the Clergy, 16551904, p. 275. 2 Burton published this at Oxford, e theatre Sheldoniano, the same year, under the title of De Fundamentalibus Dissertatio Theologica, sive Concio ad Clerum Londinensem habita in Ecclesia S. Elpegi. It extends to 78 pages and he admits that its preface must therefore be short. Verum enimvero eorundem legentium patientia facile abuti posse videar, a quibus ultra praescriptum clepsydrae decursum tam patienter et benigne fuerim auditus. 3 See Chapter in. p. 51. THE LATIN SERMONS 1/5 resented more than the resolution was the suggestion that he was really malingering. Wherefore a fortnight later (i May 1748) he took up his pen again and gave Reading such a cata- logue of his ailments as must have made his brethren thankful to be spared a visit from him for a Latin Sermon or for any other purpose. I have for many years had chalk Stones proceed from several parts of one side of my right leg. In the beginning of Nov. last there issued from them a sharp humour which took off the cuticula where ever it came and where that was taken off the like humour issued from thence so that almost the whole of my Leg and Foot pourd forth the same humour & to such a Quantity as is almost beyond Belief. [There follow gruesome details as to ague, coma, a fall out of his chair on to the hearth, and " a Fit of the Stone "] So that thro' the immense running of my Leg, my constant Pain & Watching & want of sustenance, I was reduced not only four Inches in Girt but to such a Degree of Weakness that I could not stand without being held up. However, he was nothing daunted and assured the brethren that if they would only postpone the election "till Midsummer, when we may hope for warm Weather, I should be heartily glad to come, tho' it were to preach three Latin Sermons instead of one." The wording of the resolution is also of interest as serving to show how phrases like "time out of mind" are used to conceal ignorance of what could easily have been ascertained. The Latin sermon, according to the Founder's intentions, had no connexion with the Visitor or the day appointed for the annual meeting. The two occasions became linked together long after the inception of the custom. The association of the sermons Ad Clerum with the church of St Alphage was almost unbroken, but not quite. This church escaped the Great Fire, but was for a time used to shelter the Almspeople; for there is an order, dated u November 1666, "that such of the Almesfolkes as Lodge in St Alphage 'parish be Suspended their Pentions, untill they cleere the said Church of their Lodgings." But either the Fire upset the custom of the Sermons, or it gave the Court too much else to think about, for there is no reference to the appointment of Ad Clerum preachers till the anniversary of 1678, when it was "Ordered uppon a Noate by the whole Court that Dr Atfield [St Mary 176 THE LATIN SERMONS Somerset: Senior Dean] be desired to preach the Latin searmon the next yeare." But inasmuch as in the previous year Dr Meri- ton was voted "one broad 2O S peece of old gold for his Latine sermon," it is clearly not safe to assume a cessation of the custom from the absence of any resolutions appointing the preachers. But time dealt hardly with St Alphage, and about 1775 it was falling to pieces, so that the Governors had to search for an alternative venue. Among the possible churches in the near neighbourhood were St Alban, Wood Street, St Michael, Bassi- shaw, and St Stephen, Colernan Street, Dr Anthony Webster, the incumbent of the last named, having the unique experience of preaching the Latin Sermon, as retiring President, in his own church in 1776. But what happened in 1775 may be taken as a fair instance of the rest. The President concerned was William Parker, D.D., F.R.S., of St Catherine Creechurch, a notable preacher and apologist, and in high favour with George II and George III. The President (D r Parker) had composed a Latin Sermon which He intended to Preach this day, but He being obliged to go to Buxton for His Health, appointed M r Clements the Librarian to deliver the same for Him before the Officers & other Members of the College at the Parish Church of St Michael Bassishaw the use of which (St Alphage being in a ruinous Condition) was very obligingly granted by the Rector D r : Marriot. It remains to notice two features which the Court adopted to lend dignity to the ceremony. It was resolved in 1657 "that at the preaching of the Latine sermon the Governo rs shall all meet in their Gownes." Secondly, the Court and a benefactor between them arranged after a time that there should be a fee for the preacher. The origin of this custom will appear presently, but the question arose acutely in the case of Edmund Calamy, the "intruded" Minister of St Mary, Aldermanbury, who was President in 1650, from which it will appear that the Presbyterian Latinist stopd to receive in 1652 a not inconsiderable fee, which after- wards became usual. The assembly this day voted that it be referred to the last precedent Governo rs to allow or disallow the 4* to M r Calamy for the latyn sermon who presently returned their oppinions that xx s be allowed out of M r Travis guift and the other 3-^ out of the Colledge rents. THE LATIN SERMONS 177 The name "Travis" with strange forgetfulness conceals the personality of Walter Travers, in whose will, in addition to those already mentioned, there was the following clause: I give to the said College fifty pounds, binding them to give every Quarter one Piece of ten Shillings to the Minister that shall preach in Latin ad Clerum : or if that Use alter, to some other as convenient 1 . This legacy became available by the autumn of 1637 and the first Latin preacher to receive 2 in respect of it (28 November) was Dr Jonathan Brown, rector of St Faith and Prebendary of Westminster, the other 2 being paid to "Dr Sibball" (17 April 1638) by whom is probably meant William Chibald 2 , of St Nicholas, Cole Abbey. Henceforth for some time the registers are silent as to the names of the Ad Clerum preachers, but the Secretary comes to the rescue by recording these two payments of 2 yearly; so we can trace the following (among others of less note) Dr William Broughe, of St Michael, Cornhill, afterwards Dean of Gloucester (1639), Dr Michael Jermyn, of St Martin, Ludgate (1641), Dr John Grant, of St Bartholomew by the Exchange, twice (1641-2). In the Michaelmas term, 1642, there was no Latin sermon "in regarde the Colledge was then visited of the plague," and from then till the election of 1648 the custom was altogether dropped "in regarde of the troubles and distraccons of the tymes." Then we resume with "the latyn sermon preached by M r Pres dt " Cornelius Burges, 28 April 1648. The Michaelmas discourse did not survive the "distraccons," and after this Mr Travers' 4. was paid for the one sermon on Election day, to Cornelius Burges again (1649) an d to Dr Gouge, of St Ann, Blackfriars (1650). But now there was a curious change in the plan of payment. Whereas Burges had received the full 4., "being the guifte of M r Travis," Edmund Calamy (April 1651) was paid only i. os. T>d. "out of the guifte of M r Travis." There seems to have been no Ad Clerum in 1652 and 1653, as also there was "noe dynner by reason the souldiers contynue quartered there." But on 1 8 April 1654, Mr Abbot [of " Augustines," then Senior Dean] " preached the latyn sermon for which he is to have xx s in 1 W. Reading, State of Sion- Library, p. 47. 2 Cf. Bloxam, Register of Magd. Coll. i. p. 25. P. 12 1/8 THE LATIN SERMONS gould according to M r Travis will and xx s more as of the guift of the Governors," and the same sum rewarded Mr Jenkyn 1 (1659), my Presbyterian predecessor at Christ Church, who died in Newgate gaol. The preacher in 1661 was Thomas Man ton, who was not a member of the College. The Latinists of the Restoration (mostly the outgoing Presidents) found themselves back in the palmy condition of receiving "ffoure pounds," but in 1677 Dr Meriton's "one broad 2O S peece of old gold for his Latine sermon" was entered as being worth i. $s. od* Naturally there came occasions when the excellence of the sermons, which, indeed, were not infrequently printed by their proud authors, whether excellent or not, provoked high compli- ments. In 1801, John Moore, of St Michael, Bassishaw, the President, undertook the task and "the Lord Bishop of London being present, and expressing his approbation of the Sermon, the Clergy joined with his Lordship in requesting the President to print the same" at the expense of the College. Those who would now consider whether the money could have been more usefully bestowed may do so in the light of the sermon's title Prophetiae de septuaginta hebdomadis apud Danielem explicatio; concio ad Clerum habita in aede D. Alphaegii ; adjiciuntur ad calcem notae, in quibus fusius tractantur quaedam et illustrantur. (London, 1802, 8vo.) But at the anniversary of 1799 they might know beyond all doubt that they had a Latinist among them. They may or may not have thought it strange that a Headmaster of Westminster should at the same time be by the Archbishop of Canterbury's nomination rector of All Hallows the Great, and so should become in due course their President. But William Vincent's scholarship was beyond question, and his theology as robust as his person. They knew that the draught with which he regaled 1 De Memoria Sapientum Peritura Concio Latine habita ad Theologos Londi- nenses In solenni et anniversario eorum conventu, Apr. 26. 1659. Authore Guil. Jenkyn. Ecclesiae Christi apud Londinenses Ministro. (Londini. 1659.) - W. Reading, though he evidently did not examine the Account Book as to this custom, is correct in describing the payment to Meriton as "the last upon Record." He adds that "no such Gift has been given in our Memory" (State of Sion-College, p. 18). THE LATIN SERMONS 179 them was marked interiore nota FalernL This sufficiently ex- plains the entry in the Court minutes of the following laudatory letter: Rev d Sir, Accept our best thanks for your very elegant Latin Discourse, delivered before the Fellows of Sion College, and a numerous body of the London Clergy, who had the satisfaction of hearing so orthodox and able a Defence of the main Articles of the Christian Faith. We consider it to be so complete a Summary of Criticism and of the Evidences of their Truth, and are convinced that the promulgation of such Doctrine, at the present period, (when such indefatigable & alarming attempts are made to impeach their veracity & destroy their grand support,) must be productive of the most beneficial consequences, that we beg you would favour us with a copy of your Sermon, that it may be printed at the expence of the College, under your inspection. With much respect & esteem, Your affectionate Brethren. Sion College April 26, 1799. The terms of the letter also explain why at the Anniversary of 1804, when John Brand was closing his second year in the chair, having already preached an Ad Clerum at the end of his first year, the Court turned again to the same scholar, who had now reached the highest step in his career. He could not attend in person, but he accepted the task, and "the Rev d John Moore, Rector of St Michael's, Bassishaw, read a Latin Sermon com- posed by the Rev d D r Vincent, Dean of Westminster." The custom was maintained practically without interruption till 1855, was resumed in 1858, and was observed for the last time in 1878. The preacher on that occasion, Mr C. C. Collins, of St Mary, Aldermanbury, is still with us a venerable link with the days of old. 12 2 CHAPTER X THE PARISH CHURCH Lauda Deum tuum, Sion. Ps. cxlvii. 12. THE most notable feature of our group of buildings, though in no sense ours, was the Church of St Alphage (or ^Elfeah). It has already been explained that this was the church of Rising Spital and Priory. The present building which dates from the fourth quarter of the eighteenth century (it was ready for use in 1777) is quite the least attractive of the surviving City churches, but it still contains in the pointed arches of its porch some remnants of the priory church, in which our Almsfolk said their daily prayers up to about the year 1774. It lay along the north- east side of the College garden, from which it could be entered, and its incumbents and its clerks of necessity had their part in the life of Sion College, and their regular receipts appear in the account-books. At least five out of the six rectors who reigned over the parish between 1666 and 1842 namely, Edward Wareing, Philip Stubbs, Samuel Brook, Hugh Wyatt, and Robert Watts had a residence in the College, and, if some were litigious and others importunate, their unpleasant attentions were more than compensated by the great services of Philip Stubbs and Robert Watts. We can gather something of the value of Stubbs' ministrations in St Alphage (1699 1708) from Steele's subsequent experience of him at St James, Garlickhythe 1 . After some remarks on the prevalent neglect of "the well reading of the Common Prayer," the essayist proceeds to suggest that the only remedy "is to propose some person of great ability that way as a pattern" for the clergy, and so he plunges into a vivid description of the rector's reading, without giving his name. 1 Spectator, No. 147, 18 August 1711. THE PARISH CHURCH l8l I heard the service read so distinctly, so emphatically, and so fervently, that it was next to an impossibility to be tmattentive...The Confession was read with such a resigned humility, the Absolution with such a comfortable authority, the Thanksgiving with such a religious joy, as made me feel those affections of the mind in a manner I never did before. Evidently Steele knew more about Stubbs' interest in our Col- lege than he pretended, for he adds a practical suggestion : that this excellent reader, upon the next and every annual assembly of the clergy of Sion-college and all other conventions, should read prayers before them. For then those that are afraid of stretching their mouths, and spoiling their soft voices, will learn to read with clearness, loudness, and strength ; others that affect a rakish negligent air, by folding their arms and lolling on their book, will be taught a decent behaviour and comely erection of body : those that read so fast, as if impatient of their work, may learn to speak deliberately. At the moment when the College settled in the parish a special effort to restore the church (1624-28) was just culmi- nating. The Court was born just too late to have any part in that efTort, but in 1638, when the connexion with the parish church had been cemented by the regular attendance of the pensioners and by the periodical ceremony of the sermons ad Clerum, there came a petition for help in the recasting of the bells, a matter in which the College was near enough to feel a physical interest. With all due reserve the Court made its contribution: This day the Govern 1 " 5 for example sake & for the good of the Church were pleased to give to the Churchwardens of St Alphage towards the new casting of their Bells Ten pounds provyded that it be not drawn into president to rate or taxe the Colledge. But discord was not avoided; for there were matters of finance pending between the College and the parish. From the year 1634 onwards for some years the first four payments out of College revenues were all concerned with St Alphage and appeared as follows: To the poore of St Alphage for one yere ended att lady day 1635 being giuen by S r Rowland Hay wards will out of . s. d. this house 04 . oo . o To M r ffrithe 1 the parson for Tythes for the like tyme 04 . oo . o To the Clark of the parishe for his wages for the like tyme oo . 13 . 4 More to him for attendance att the latyn sermons for the like tyme oo . 04 . o 1 Josias Frith, Rector of St Alphage, 1619-38. 1 82 THE PARISH CHURCH Of these the first charge was at once the most interesting and the most likely to cause trouble. Many people know the splendid monument of Sir Rowland Hayward, which the gratitude of the parishioners rescued from the former building. He was Lord Mayor in 1570 and 1591, resided within Elsing Spital, and was a generous benefactor to the parish. The pay- ment referred to above is evidence that at the beginning of the life of Sion an obligation was accepted to contribute a definite sum for the relief of the parochial poor. But by 1640 the Court began to entertain doubts as to the legal soundness of it. They paid it for that year and also a rate of 2 "to releeue the poore otherwise," but in 1641 they paid the 2 and withheld the 4, noting that " yt was alledged by M r Siddon one of the p'ishioners that S r Rowland Hayward charged land for the payment thereof, but did not name his house or any other in particular to be charged therewith." This continued for four years, and it was not till 1645 that The parishioners of St Alphage complayned of the Non paym* of the 4 p. ann. to their poore for 4 yeres last past And alledged pre- scripcon thereof in the conveyance by Aldman Parkhurst But the Governo rs answered that by the trust reposed in them they could not admitt of that prescripcon for an evidence to charge the Colledge with the same for ever But when they made their title appeare to the Colledge they should be ready for their p'ts. The correspondence which resulted is characteristic of the feline amenities of the Puritan period ; it is here given as it appears in the Court minutes of 7 September 1646. This day the Governo rs receaued a letter from the Elders of the Congregacon att Alphage in these words following viz* To our reverend frende M r Arthure Jackson president & the rest of the Governo rs of Syon Colledge Reverend freinds wee the Elders of the Congregacon att Alphage haue tooke into consideracon the difference depending betweene yo u as Governo rs ...and our Churchwardens in behalfe of the parishe about 4 p. ann. w ch they clayme as due from you to the use of our poore And we conceaue it to be one part of our duetie as Elders to endeavor to compose differences haveing first spoke with the Churchwardens & understood by them how farre the busynes is proceeded, We thought fitt to make this addresse to you And first wee are sorry that this busynes was not taken upp without bringing the matter to publique tryall, But much more doth it greeve us to heare that there hath byne any unseemely heate and unfreindly carriage exprest by THE PARISH CHURCH 183 any whoe haue acted either for you or us which possibly hath occa- sioned some unseemings as if wee the parishioners did endeavo r to cast disgrace & contempt on you the Governo rs or you to wrong us, the contrary whereunto we hope will appeare on both sides, And to that purpose by this wryting wee declare that if in the prosecucon of this sute any thing hath byne done by any Agent of ours w ch savoreth of dis- respect to any of you wee approue it not but disavowe it, And wee desire that you would not suffer your selues to be abused & exasperated by any misrepresentacons of any Agent of yours (Pours), What con- fidence soever wee have that what wee demaund is our due yett wee much desire to obteyne it without the least blemishe to them whome wee haue cause to hono r Our motion therefore is That by mutuall consent the matter may be hastened to a speedy determynacon in a freindly way whether by ripening the cause for a speedy tryall in the Chancery or otherwise. The cheife ground of this our mocon is to avoid the scandall which (if the busynes be not managed more loveingly & freindly than hitherto) is like now more & more to be raised on the one side or on the other, w ch while we endeavo r to prevent wee doubt not but to obteyne your concurrence. Yo r freindly answer is desired by those whoe esteeme highly of you as Ministers of Jesus Christe & hope wee shall have no cause to esteeme otherwise of you as Governo re of Syon Colledge Will Haynes [and five others] To this the Court sent the following answer: To our much respected frends the Elders of the parishe of Alphage London Christian & beloued freinds wee haue read y r loveing and respectfull letter w ch you as Elders of the congregacon of Alphage wrote to us as Governo rs of Syon Colledge touching the freindly takeing upp of the difference depending.... Wee thank you for the respect you expresse towarde us as Ministers of Christe And wee take much content to observe so pious a Motion from you as Elders w ch gives us grounde of good hope that God will prosper the blessed work of reformacon begun And it shall not be our fault if the successe you shall fynde of this your first endeauo r doe not giue great encouragem 1 to goe on comfortably, And to that purpose wee assure you wee are as sorry as you can be that the last agreement w ch was betweene us & the Comittee of the parishe was not prosecuted w ch in probabilitie would have prevented the ani- mostes you seeme to complayne of betweene your & our Agents. Wee doe assure you, that wee are hartily desirous that this controversie may be brought to a happy & equittable conclusion. To w ch end wee certifie you that wee are willing still either to referre it to Arbitram 1 or to proceed in Chancery in a freindly manner to bring the cause to a speedy tryall And tho wee hope there hath byne no just scandall raised on our side yett to prevent any misiudginge will not only con- curre with you but endeavor to goe before you in any way wee can 184 THE PARISH CHURCH apprehend may lead to a loveing composure of this to us most un- pleasing debate Wee remayne Yo r truly loveing & affectionate frends & brothers Arthur Jackson [and five members of the Court] Evidently the case went to the Court of Chancery, for on 15 November 1647 "the Governours mett to consult uppon the order pronounced uppon the late hearing in Chancery And it was thought fitt and resolued that in pursuance thereof the Baron be attended by the Governours," over whom Cornelius Burges then presided. The result is not recorded in the minutes, but may be assumed from the fact that the payment of 4 "to the Church wardens of Alphage for I yere for bread for the poore according to the Awarde" appears in the accounts of the year 1647. But, while acknowledging the force majeure which compelled them to obey Sir Rowland Hayward's injunc- tions, the Court at the same time declined to pay the "4O S p ann assessed on the house for the poore," which they conceaued unreasonable for these reasons, first that the Colledge is much in debt the revenues of the house being deteyned for assessment for the Almespeoples meanes, 2ndly for that they haue 4 paid from the Colledge lately ordered to them for bread for their poore & they now absolutely refused to accompt the Almespeople any of their poore or to allow them any meanes though their necessities were so great And 3dly for that twoe of their parishe to witt Ann Swan & Margarett Gascoigne be now Almeswomen in the said Colledge. After being dropped in 1648 and 1649, the 2 for poor rate reappears in the accounts in and after 1650, till it was reduced to four and twenty shillings on the re-erection of the buildings after the Fire. But the Fire also caused a cessation in the payment of the parson's tithe. Edmund Wareing (rector 1666 1699) entered a protest in 1677 against this proceeding, and it may be admitted that the Court's defence of its action was not of the strongest. For It was considered... that in regard the revenues of this College are much sunke by reason of the late dreadfull fire And that there is noe parte of it that is in the possession of the College that yeilds any rent or profit And that most of the... grounds of the College are let out on lease to Tennants whoe have builded houses & the occupiers thereof THE PARISH CHURCH 185 pay tithe to the said Rector And for that this College in the tyme of King Hen. the 8 th was a religious house 1 And paid no tythes And for that by the Statute which grants tythes to ministers in London greate houses halls &c. which pd noe tythes are excepted This College there- fore cannot pay tythes as was formerly which is supposed was but gratis for that it is said a Modus decimandi is not good if it can be made appeare otherwise although it hath for a long tyme been paid Yet not- withstanding for the future & from this tyme it is ordered That 4O S p. Ann be paid to the said M r Wareing gratis for satisfaccon of all demaund of tythes or clayme to any arreares w ch the said M r Wareing is pleased to accept untill the College be in a better Condition. There is no evidence in the accounts that this arrangement was carried into effect. Perhaps Mr Wareing thought better of his compliance. But time was on his side and the Annual General Meeting of 1691, possibly in defiance of the Court, ordered that the Rector of the Parish of St Alphage London within which this College standeth Be from Lady Day last forwards paid for tithe fower poundes p. Ann. As it was formerly pd for all such ground and tenements before the fire in 1666. We may dispose of the matter of the St Alphage tithes by adding that in 1801 Robert Watts, being both rector of the parish and Librarian of the College, appealed to the Statute of 37 Henry VIII. c. 12 and obtained an opinion of counsel to the effect that he was entitled to a tithe payment at the rate of 2s. gd. in the on the rents of those parts of the College which were let, and that the traditional 4 recorded above could not be "substantiated as a fixt and unalterable payment." Whereupon the Governors agreed to pay at the rate of one shilling in the pound, which Watts was obtaining from his other parishioners. In 1752 the question of Poor Rate broke out afresh. One of the Church-wardens, the Overseers of the Poor, and some other of the Inhabitants of the parish of St Alphage, attending the Court about their Claim of Poors Rate from the Inhabitants of Sion College, The Governors acquainted them that it is their Opinion the College is Extra Parochial and therefore not chargeable to their poor. But in order to avoid disputes with them the Governors are willing to make them a voluntary Gift, but will not submit to any Rate. At a further interview in 1753 it was agreed that notwithstanding the expense, it is more eligible for the College to settle the same amicably, than to try a point of this nature at the quarter 1 It is impossible to believe that the relation of Sion College to Elsing Spital was close enough to support this argument. 1 86 THE PARISH CHURCH sessions ; and it having been observed that the apartments have usually- been let as free from Taxes and Parish & Ward Offices.... the Church- wardens &c. were asked by the Governors whether they would agree to Rate the College in such manner as not to make the inhabitants liable to serve Parish or Ward offices, to which they readily declared their consent, on condition that all the Buildings within the Gates (excepting three houses in the College garden...) shall be assessed in the Name of the President & Fellows at Seventy Pounds a year, whether they be full or empty.... The Governors on duly considering the whole of this affair, agreed to comply with the said demand. Happily there have been few other causes of difficulty be- tween the parish church and the College. In 1654 there was a resolution of the Puritan Court that "the p'she of Alphage be desired to repayre M r Winterbornes lodgings that were endangered by takeing downe their Steeple," which happened in 1649, an d there is no reason to suppose that the request was declined. In 1673 the letting of a building plot in the College to Mr, afterwards Sir George, Wharton would, it was found, " enclose the doore leadinge into the Church out of the College garden." Thereupon Mr Brewer 1 , who had become Wharton's tenant, did "promise to obteyne and procure of the parish of St Alphage a dooreway and passage into the Church out of the College garden at the west end or corner neare the South of the Church And that he would make the same at his owne charges And also procure the parish to make such order of the vestry or other Act as should be needfull and convenient for the College to have and for euer enioy the same assuredly." Naturally, from time to time requests were presented to the College for assistance towards various parochial objects, but financial stringency and the fear of precedents combined to make the Governors cautious. When Mr Lilly, a resident in the College, applied to them in 1695 for "an Allowance from the College towards the Lecture on Sunday afternoones, he was answered That there had not at any time been any such demand'* and that "the present Governors were by no meanes willing to introduce a new Custome." Again, in 1738 Chuchwardens of St Alphage waiting on the Court for something to- wards the late repairs of the Church, order'd that M r Reading search for some precedent of this : w ch he did, but found none. 1 See Chapter vn. p. 130. THE PARISH CHURCH 187 Nevertheless it was decided at the next Court meeting, with all due caution, That the Churchwardens of St Alphage shall have forty shillings towards the repair of their Church, as the Governours free gift, not as due from the College. w ch M r Reading paid the same day. The same cautious spirit marked the Court's resolve in 1770 "that the steps going down from the Garden Court into the Church of St Alphage be repaired"; for it was accompanied by this addendum: N.B. The above Order is a Voluntary Act of the College, for their own Convenience in going to Church on the Feast Days ; and not founded in any Obligation to any Repair of the sd Church whatsoever. Also from time to time the parish was given clearly to under- stand that the College was not to be easily imposed upon. The Churchwardens, for instance, were told in 1777 that their waste water was causing great annoyance and that their drains required renewing, and with this protest went another, that it appears to the Officers of the College that the Parish of St Alphage has encroached upon the Ground of y e College in respect of the South Wall of the Church, and the new Paling in the College Garden. Similarly the Court was jealous for any immunities enjoyed by its officers and inhabitants, while the parish in its turn was anxious to place ordinary civic responsibility upon them. Wit- ness an attempt made in 1798 to compel Thomas Simpson, the Clerk, and one Nettleship, a College tenant, to accept Ward office as collectors of the consolidated rate. The College had recourse to counsel's opinion and the parish decided at discretion to excuse the service of Simpson, but it was clearly within its rights in refusing immunity to mere tenants. The reader will find more information about the dealings of the College with the parochial authorities under the heads of Dr White's Almsfolk and of the Latin Sermons. Here it need only be said that effective discipline over the former in respect of their regular presence at Divine Service required from time to time the co-operation of the parish officers, as the following resolution testifies. The unwisdom of the method must be left to assert itself. The date is December 1771. 1 88 THE PARISH CHURCH Ordered That the Secretary endeavour with the assistance of and Information from the Churchwardens of St Alphage (which he is to request of them) to enforce the Penalty of Three pence being inflicted (aces to D r Whites appointment) 1 toties quoties on each of the Almsfolk belonging to Sion College who absent themselves without good cause from their Parish Church of St Alphage every Sunday Morning and Evening. The Forfeit being (as the Founder's Will appoints 2 ) to be divided amongst those Almsfolk who are present at Church. And it is further Ordered that the Porter of the College (who, tho' not an Almsman, occupies the place & room of one) be included in this Regulation. 1 The reference is to a rule for the Temple Hospital at Bristol, which was not regularly adopted at Sion, cf. p. 156. 2 The will contains no such appointment, except by reference to the Bristol rules, where the penalty is only twopence. CHAPTER XI THE ANNIVERSARY Laetata est Sion. Ps. xcvii. 8. THE great annual celebration at Sion College, of which the Latin Sermon became in due course a regular feature, was fixed by Charter for " Tuesday next following after three weeks of Easter." The records give the date in phrases compact of English and Latin. " Tuesday next after Tres Septimanas Paschae " or " Die Martis post Tres Septimanas Paschae " or " Tuesday 3 Weeks after Easter." To this date the Governors of the College were loyally faithful. Nothing but a Public Fast would make them alter it, though in several instances there were obstacles, other than a mere Fast, to what the Founder called "a convenient dinner." Thus 1643 might well seem to the clergy to be hardly a time to feast. In that year It is thought fitt and agreed uppon this present day [April 10] by the Governo rs now present In regarde of the disturbances & distraccons of the tymes and of the great imposicons & taxes laid on the Colledge as also for that the day of Eleccon falls out inconveniently on the day ymediately before the fast that the feast & sermon att the next generall meeting shalbe omitted And that the Rectors and Vicars only be warned to meet on the xxv th day of this Moneth att fower of the Clock in the afternoone for the eleccon of new Govern rs . Nor did they hesitate from the first to make a fairly lavish provision for hospitality. It was the Founder's wish that the entertainment should be a distinct feature of the life of the College, and such they would have it. John Winterborne, who took over the accounts on Mr John Simson's death in August 1633, enables us to follow in his careful ledger the expenditure 190 THE ANNIVERSARY of each year in this respect. Here is the first entry of the kind : To the Cooke Vintn r brewer & for wood & Coles for the dynner for the Clergy the 14 th of May 1633 as s . d. appeares by a Note then cast upp. 023 . 12 . o which is a considerable item in a total revenue of 265. The subsequent early years show these figures: 1634, ^27. i6s. 6d.\ 1635, ;35- 15-f- 10^.; 1636, 35. iSs. od.\ 1637, no Feast "in regarde of the Visitacon of the Plague," but only"wyne & cakes on the Eleccon day," 3. is. iod.\ 1638, two dinners (one in November 1637), 48. 17 's. %d.\ 1639, 46. 7s. jd.\ 1640,647. 6s. 7d.; 1641, 51. 4-y. id.\ 1642, 4$. igs. jd.\ 1643 (the year referred to above, when the College was "visited of the Plague" in November and felt the " troubles & distraccons of the tymes " at the Anniversary), "wyne and Cakes," 3. i6s. od.; 1644 (the same conditions and the like provision), 6. us. od.\ 1645, 4. 13^. zd.\ 1646, $.6s. gd.\ 1647 (when to the same "distrac- cons " was added Mr Reeling's failure to produce the Bradwell rent) 8. 8^. 4d. " The Eleccon day," they said in 1648, "happens to be the day before the Monethly fast," but again it was not less decisive that " Mr Keeling hath not brought in money to provide the dynner 1 ." Still it was only postponed for three days and cost 20. iSs. $d. Nor need it be supposed that the incidence of a Public Fast was felt to be inconvenient only under Puritan auspices. Such occasions were hardly less favoured by the Stuarts, and it is possible to realise that the clergy of the Restoration saw more need of a general preparedness in themselves and their people if Fasts were to be of any avail. Such a case is specified in the Minute of I May 1693 : Tuesday 3 weeks after Easter happens to be the day before the first of the Publick Monethly ffasts appointed by their Maj ties Proclama- tion, And that the same would not be proper on that day by reason of the interruption it must give to the Clergy in their p'paratons It was ordered and appointed that the said Election... [May 9] be deferred untill Tuesday then next following, being the i6 th inst: And the Presid: desired to waite upon the Bishop of London the Proper Visitor of the Colledge to desire his consent to it. 1 See Chapter vn. p. 132. THE ANNIVERSARY 19! Once more, amid conditions which have been explained else- where 1 , there is nothing strange in the fact that "the dynner appointed to have byne this day is put of by reason of the Souldiers quartering in the Colledge." So much for the date. Let us now consider the company. It appears that in 1642 there was some little discontent about the invitations. For Yt was thought fitt and so agreed that M r Byfield & the rest of the Clergy that complayne shall have Coppies of the Ch'rs & other wrytings remayning in the Custody of the Clarke of this Colledge. It is not certain that any member of the somewhat notorious Byfield family had become entitled to membership of the College ; but the action suits the character of Adoniram, son of Nicholas Byfield, who is stated by Newcourt (vol. I. p. 915) to have been licensed to the curacy of All Hallows, Staining, in 1629 ; so that the revolt, if such it was, was probably one of the unbeneficed against the incumbents. Considerable care was therefore taken in the wording of the summons to the Anniversary, which was generally submitted beforehand to the Court. Some early examples will suffice. [1648.] It is thought fitt that Notes be sent to each parish in London & the Suburbes thereof for a Meeting at the Eleccon day in these words viz 1 . The Minister or Ministers of Alphage London are desired to meet at Syon Colledge the 25 th day of April 1648 by 9 a Clock in the Morning to heare a latyn sermon and afterwards to dyne there and to choose Governo rs for the yeare ensuing. The possibility of there being more than one Minister and the description of the parish church of the College as " Alphage " would roughly decide the date of this missive. Another belongs to 1676 and runs as follows : To the Rector Lecturer Vicar or Curate of London Sir You are desired to meete att Sion College in London on Tuesday the day of instant by nine in the morneinge to heare a latine sermon and then to elect new Governo rs for the yeare ensueing And afterwards to Dine togeather Charles Mason Presid' 1 See Chapter vi. p. in. 192 THE ANNIVERSARY A third, dated 1725, is in a slightly different form, To the Rector, Vicar, Lecturer & Curate of Rev d Sir, You are desired to meet yo r Brethren of the Clergy at Sion College on Tuesday April 20 by ten of the clock in the morning, to attend at Prayers & a Latin Sermon, & to dine in the College Hall : at w ch time Governors are to be chosen for the ensuing year. Mountague Wood Presid*. N.B. Those who do not attend, are desired to send their usual contributions. But, if not from the beginning, yet certainly for two centuries past, the Governors have not conceived of their duty to be given to hospitality as being fulfilled when they had invited only their brethren the Clergy of the City. Quite suddenly in 1694, without any intimation that it was a new invention (indeed, some unspecified invitations were sent out in 1692), we come upon a record that there had been guests at the Anniversary, In case it may have been a novelty then recently introduced, let us give honour to whom honour may be due by recording some names. The outgoing President, who of course was arbiter bibendi for that day, was John Williams, afterwards Bishop of Chichester and at that time Rector of St Mildred, Poultry, and the incoming chief was John Hall, rector of St Christopher-le- Stocks. Whether this was or was not the beginning of a visiting list, it was distinguished as well as small. There were present at this Sermon Election and Dinner the Bishops of London, Chichester, & Lincolne. Honour, that is to say, to the Visitor first, and naturally to so benevolent and watchful a Visitor as Henry Compton 1 . From that day to this with increasing regularity it is particularly noted that in 1771 his lordship could not attend, being "gone to Bath" the Anniversary has become a time when the Bishop of London, with a pleasing sense that there are no reporters present, can speak to his presbyters freely of that which is on his mind, and can even, if he so chooses, deal faithfully with what Dr White calls "such sinnes as followe us as men/' Secondly, the Bishop of Chichester was there as an ex- Fellow 1 See pp. 20 ff. THE ANNIVERSARY IQ3 and an ex-President, who had risen to the episcopal bench. Fourteen years earlier " M r Robert Grove, Rector of St Mary Ax," had occupied the presidential chair, after spending four years (1672-5) in serving various offices on the Court. It was a critical time for the finances of the College, and Sion was under well-remembered obligation to him for his efforts 1 . The third guest was, in a way, an outsider, though, as vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Thomas Tenison had not been very far outside the College pomerium. His enthusiasm for Libraries in general, his friendship with those who were already making gifts to our Library, such as Dr Lawson 2 , his position as a great man with the Sovereigns of the Realm, made it natural to show attention to one who would afterwards befriend the Library at the time of the Copyright legislation. Presently they began to count other prelates among their ex-Fellows and to invite their company. By 1698 John Williams, who has been just mentioned, was seated in the cathedra of his erstwhile guest, Dr Grove, and he henceforth attended the Anniversary with considerable fre- quency. Edward Fowler, of " St Giles Without Cripplegate " (President 1690), as Bishop of Gloucester; William Beveridge, Grove's successor in the presidential chair, as Bishop of St Asaph; John Moore, rector of St Andrew, Holborn, as Bishop first of Norwich and afterwards of Ely ; Offspring Blackall, rector of St Mary, Aldermary, who reached the office of Senior Dean in 1706, but failed to be President because he was made Bishop of Exeter ; Fleetwood, rector of St Augustine with St Faith, Junior Dean in 1697, as Beveridge's successor at St Asaph all these and such as these were remembered as the day of the Feast drew near. They knew of old what the day would be and probably kept themselves at liberty. At the beginning of the eighteenth century the Governors were extending their list to include some of the Deans Canterbury, St Paul's (Henry Godolphin), Sarum, and St Asaph, and "Arch Deacon of London" (William Stanley, who had been Junior Dean in 1697). At the same time, the laymen were not being forgotten. Archdeacon Waple, vicar of St Sepulchre and a splendid benefactor to the 1 See Chapter in. p. 46. ' 2 See Chapter xiv. p. 262. P. 13 194 THE ANNIVERSARY Library, who was President in 1704, was the first to see the wisdom of entertaining some booksellers. He ordered the Clerke to invite the Bishop of Chichester [John Williams] and M r Moss of Grayes Inne D r Tyson and D r How Phisitians and M r Chiswell 1 M r Bennet M r Kettilby and M r Wallis Booksellers in St Pauls Church Yard to dine with him. It was shortly after this, at the Feast of 1710, that they entertained visitors who are worth the notice extended to them in the following minute : N.B. The 4 Indian Sachems then in Town, on an Embassy to the Queen from their respective Cantons, and comonly known by the Names of Tee Yee Neen Ho Ga Row King of the 6 Nations, Ho Nee Yeath Gaw No Row King of the Genesegarick Eh Tow Koam King of the River Nations and Sa Ga Yeath Qua Rath Tow King of the Magnas (but Christened Henry, John, Nicholas, and Brent) being Invited to the Anniversary ifeast...by the R* Rever d our Visitor (who had Con- firm'd the first, third, and fourth of them in the Chappel at ffulham on the Sunday foregoing, the second sick at that time) the three former accordingly came (the last being indisposed) accompanied by Clement Cottrel Esq re in her Maj ties Coach, with Col. Nicholson, Col 11 Schuyler and their Interpreter 2 , And after Dinner there was presented to each of them by the Presid 1 in the name of the whole Body in the presence of the Visitor Governors and ffellows of the College, a Common Prayer Book 8 VO finely bound in Turkey Leather The Society for Propagating the Gospell in fforeign parts having beforehand presented to each of them a 4 to Bible 3 bound in the same manner, as their Negotiation here related in a great measure to the sending over Missionarys to those Territorys in North America to which they belonged. The President, to whom this interesting ceremony was due, was Dr John Gascarth, "rector of Alhallows Barkin," a man to whom zeal in the cause of Christian missions was nothing new ; for his name appears on the first brief list of those who started the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel with subscriptions amounting to 184. i$s.od. 4 This visit of Francis Nicholson and his Indian friends to our College is a delightful link between us and the missionary development of the Anglican Communion. How important 1 See p. -256. 2 Probably the Captain Schuyler, mentioned in Nicholson's letter which follows. 3 An account of the visit of these Iroquois Sachems, together with the resolution for the presentation of the Bibles and their quaint signatures to a letter of thanks, will be found in Digest o/S.P.G. Records, 1701 1892, pp. 68 ff. 4 Ibid. p. 822. The list is dated 17 October 1701. THE ANNIVERSARY 195 a moment it was in that process may be realised from a letter 1 addressed by Nicholson to Archbishop Tenison less than three weeks later : May it please yo r Grace On Board her Ma^ 5 ship .Draggon May y e 22 nd 1710 in y e evening about 100 Leagues from y e Lands End I was in Hopes before I left Great Brittain to have received her Ma^ 5 Royall comands concerning y e Chappell & House for y e Missionaries which were to be in an Indian Fort, as likewise about an Interpreter. For w th Humble Submission I think it is of y e last Consequence to have those things gone about as soon as possible & that the two missionaries be sent. For these things being promised the Indians they fully rely thereupon and nothing will convince them but ocular Demonstration If there be not a speedy beginning made I fear they will at least suspect that what was promised them will not be p'formed & that will not only be a point of ill consequence of Religion but of state also I know your Graces extraordinary great Zeale both for Propagating the Christian Religion in America and for y e Civill Interest thereof....! hope in God that yo r Grace is in so good estate of health that you have been able to wait upon her Ma'y and that yo r Grace hath fully discourst her upon this, as likewise that of a Bishop, of w ch I know yo r Grace is so desirous of having one in his own Right By a mistake of Coll 1 Schuyler & Cap 1 Schuyler the Interpreter, they have not kept a copy of what y e Indians said to Yo r Grace & y e Corpora- tion, which will be wanted to communicate to y e five Nations. Therefore I humbly begg y r Grace would order a copy of it may be sent by y e first opportunity to [&c. &c.] ffr: Nicholson " His Excellency Francis Nicholson Governour of South Carolina" was their guest again, together with Gibson, Bishop of London, in 1727. It was the last year of the former's useful life and his presence was doubtless intended as a graceful compliment to the President, Dr Thomas Bray, of S.P.C.K. fame. At the same time "Govern 1 " Nicholson gave to the Library Bernard Montfaucons Antiquities Englished by M r Humphreys, and had the public thanks of the Clergy for the same." By the middle of the eighteenth century the Court mostly had a list of eight or nine Bishops to invite on the foregoing plan. But in 1755 there is an important and significant addition 1 Lambeth MSS. 941. 24. 132 196 THE ANNIVERSARY "also the Bishop of Oxford as Dean of St Paul's"; an order " that the Residentiarys of St Pauls Cathedral be invited to the Feast" did not come till 1760. Now the Dean just mentioned was no less a personage than Thomas Seeker, who attended again in 1758, the first year of his primacy, and in 1760. It may therefore be repeated here that it has been the privilege of the College to entertain the Archbishops of the Southern Province, including Dr Randall Davidson. Our good friend Tenison was invited in 1709 and subsequent years, and the Archbishop of York [J. Sharp], who had been fellow of the College, 1675-6, as rector of St Bartholomew by the Exchange, in 1714. They never requested the company of Archbishop Potter, but they twice invited Herring while he was Archbishop of York, and their next guest from Lambeth was Frederick Corn- wallis in 1770. He had probably enjoyed the Court's hospitality as a "residentiary" of St Paul's (1766 1768) and it became the regular custom to invite him as Primate. To return to Seeker, his visits were frequent and in 1767 there was a proposal to present his portrait to the College ; wherefore " M r President is desired to wait on his Grace to know whether it is agreeable to him that the picture be put up in the College Hall," to which his Grace duly assented. Quite a ceremony was made of the inviting of the various Prelates, who were mostly to be found in town, at least at the date of the Anniversary. The following resolution may be taken as a specimen of what was usual. It is dated 1769. Agreed that the President [Nicholas Fayting of St Martin Outwich], a Dean (Mr Humphrys) & an Assistant (if one be at leisure) meet at Sion College on Tuesday the n th day of April to go together in a Coach to invite the Bishops (who are members of the College) to the Feast on the i8 th of April. Among our papers we possess an invitation inscribed by Thomas Reading with the addresses to which the Coach would be driven, so that we can watch the President and his colleagues going their ceremonial round 1 . 1 In addition to a call at Fulham, this yields the following: The Bishop of Oxford (Dean of St Paul's) at Doctors' Commons; the Bishop of Rochester (Dean of Westminster) at the Abbey; the Bishop of Peterborough, Soho Square; the THE ANNIVERSARY IQ7 But there were two years, 1713 and 1714, in which their list of guests to be called to the Feast, while it began with the Archbishop of Canterbury, ended with a lady, Mrs James. There is no record of those who obeyed the call, but the Court, if they were to invite ladies at all, had good reason for what seems to have been a solitary instance. Eleanor James was the widow of Thomas James, a printer in what William Reading 1 calls " Minchin Lane." James had made a large and miscel- laneous collection of English books, which he bequeathed to public uses, and his widow and executrix decided that our Library was the fittest place for them. To his bequest she added pictures of herself, her husband, and her husband's grandfather, Dr Thomas James, the first Bodley's Librarian at Oxford, as well as the two pictures of King Charles II. " Further," adds Reading, "she gave a Clock, a Turkey Carpet, three Chairs, and two Tables, all under the great Window, anno 1711." It is curious, though it need not be significant, that one of the two Feasts to which Mrs James was invited the minute follows immediately after her name in 1714 saw the adoption of a Latin Grace to be " said before and after Dinner," with the injunction "that it be Recommended to the succeeding Governo rs to use the same." Of this actual grace I have found no record, but there is a paper bearing a few words in Thomas Reading's hand, though mostly written by some one else, which gives the grace as used about 1763. The prayers run thus : Benedicas, quaesumus, Domine, hisce tuis donis, quae de largitate tua sumus sumpturi per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen. Aginius tibi gratias, Omnipotens et sempiterne Deus, pro hisce et omnibus tuis donis, pro Doctore Thoma White caeterisque Benefactori- bus nostris. Deus Ecclesiam suam sanctam conservet, Georgium Regem sospitet ; necnon Georgium Walliae principem, Viduam 2 Walliae Principissam ; Ducem ; Principissas ; totamque Regiam Prosapiam, per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum, Amen. Bishops of Lincoln and Exeter, Albemarle Street; the Bishop of Winchester, Chelsea; the Bishop of St David's, Queen Square, Westminster; and the Bishop of Worcester, Spring Garden, Charing Cross. 1 State of Sion- Library, 1724, p. 43. 2 Over this word another hand has written dotatam, but Thomas Reading has settled the problem with dotariam. 198 THE ANNIVERSARY It is hardly necessary to draw attention to the greater edification and the lesser banality of the seemly Latin office which has now for some years past been in use at our College on these occasions : {Before Meat.} Benedic nobis, Domine Deus, et his donis, quae de largitate Tua sumpturi sumus : per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen. [After Meat} V. Benedictus sit Deus in donis Suis : R. Sanctus et in operibus Suis. V. Adjutorium nostrum in nomine Domini : R. Qui fecit coelum et terram. V. Sit nomen Domini benedictum : R. Nunc usque et in saecula. Dignere, Domine Deus, largiri nobis omnibus Te invocantibus, propter nomen Tuum sanctum, vitam seternam. Amen. Domine Deus, resurrectio et vita credentium, qui semper es laud- andus, turn in viventibus, turn in defunctis, agimus Tibi gratias pro fundatore nostro Thoma White, cseterisque nostris Benefactoribus, rogantes Te, ut nos, his donis recte utentes in nominis Tui gloriam, una cum fidelibus omnibus, ad resurrectionis gloriam immortalem per- ducamur : per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen. Deus det vivis gratiam, Ecclesiae, Regi, regnoque nostro pacem et concordiam, et nobis peccatoribus vitam seternam. Amen. Two practical questions arise : what sort of provision did the Court make for the entertainment of the brethren and such distinguished guests, and how did they meet the expense ? Dr White was no rigid and kill-joy precisian and he enforced no sumptuary restrictions. He bequeathed to the College a limited income, laying down what proportion of it must go to the " Almes howse." This was soon found to be insufficient for "a dynner Evrie Quarter daye," though dinners were occasionally held on the day of the autumnal Ad Clerum as well as at the Anniversary. But one thing he insisted on as regards the Feast "the remainder to the Hospitall"; the poor Almsfolk were not to be forgotten when the clergy dined. The Court remem- bered this duty, even when they were unable to afford a dinner, or were otherwise prevented from having one. When the Commonwealth troops were quartered on Sion in 1651, and the Feast was consequently abandoned, they still resolved to give THE ANNIVERSARY IQ9 " 2 s a peece " to the Almspeople. But for some reason, which would hardly be allowed to weigh in modern times, the Alms- women were at first neglected in this yearly ministration. So in March 1657 the Court atoned for its partiality by a resolu- tion That in regard the poore men have allwayes the Remainder of our Dynners, that the Governo rs bee pleased to remember the poore women in some charitable way as they shall thinke fitt by sending them some dish of meate &c. Some figures have already been given as to the cost of the pre-Restoration dinners, and we may proceed to note that in 1665 it was agreed "that the Clarke be allowed Thirty pounds for the Dynner on the last Eleccon day." It was clearly not satisfactory to farm the function out to an official, who was liable to make his commission on it; so in 1682 for the first time the Court took responsibility for the arrangements and "the bill of ffaire for Dinner next Generall Court was alsoe concluded on." This brings us within sight of some details. We find an order " that a Kilderkin of Nine shillings beare be .laid in for the next Generall Court of Election" (1688). We have a gratifying glimpse of a sentiment that it is possible in prescribing a bill of fare to go beyond what is really needed, as at the November Feast of 1689, when it was agreed That halfe of the bill of flare now produced and that was in November 1687 Be a sufficient provision att the next dinner with a dozen bottles of Claret & a kilderkin of 9^. beare. At this early date the same " cook " probably a coffee- house keeper was employed year after year, sometimes from generation to generation. But the general plan is seen in most detail from the orders for the Anniversary of 1692. It was then arranged " that the Cooke provide Linnen Knives diet oyle pepper sallets Trenchers and Trencher plates Bread and all sorts of Silver plate to drink in." The President, as we shall see presently, was personally responsible for the wine-list 1 ; so now he " undertooke to send in the wine & appoint a man to 1 In some cases he took his duty in this respect quite seriously: " I shall order in a kilderkin of small beer," wrote Dr Bristowe in 1747 to Mr Thomas Reading, "that I may be sure of having it good." 200 THE ANNIVERSARY receive it and to distribute it out, and to provide Westphalia hams." Daggett, the Clerk, besides taking in the customary " Kilderkin," was to have " the Courtyard swept & the hall & kitchen & parlo r swept and washt & to provide Bowqets Strowings Lawrell Chaires Carpets a fire in the parlo r & other things as formerly used." Cooks came and went, as cooks do still, to " better them- selves." For instance, in 1716 M r Staines y e late Cook being gone to Cambridge to be Cook of a College there, one M r James Pinkney Citizen and Cook of London upon his Petition was chosen Cook of y e College to dress y e yearly Dinner at y e Election of Governors. But he was to " dress the Dinner," not to provide what he pleased ; for in 1722 he was told by the Court to follow the bill of fare for the previous year " except that in y e Dishes of Fish there should be Cod instead of Salmon and y l there should be added another Pidgeon pye," which, lest they should "rust in ease," was reversed in 1723 to "Salmon instead of Cod." Ten years later Pinkney was still receiving occasional hints in the direction of variety, as that there might be " chickens & aspara- gus instead of Pidgeons." Perhaps I may be forgiven if, having before me Pinkney's bill for the Feast ordered in 1743 by my Christ Church prede- cessor, Dr Joseph Trapp, I take it as a fair sample of a Georgian banquet. There are two tables to provide for, and two " corses " for each table. It will suffice to give the viands of the first table with their price. The first corse. . s. d. A dish of sallmon Soles Smelts Lobster and Shrimp sace and dresing i . 6.0 A marrow puding o . 5.0 A Hamb and chickens with spineg i . 9.0 A pidgeon pye 1 2 in a pye o . 1 1 . o A Sallad o . i . o A Srloyne of Beef o . 15.0 A marrow puding o . 5.0 A dish of fish i . 6.0 THE ANNIVERSARY 2OI The second corse. . s. d. A dish of Chickens 3 in a dish with butter and gravey & dresing and a dish of Asparragrass and butter o . 15.0 A Tansee 1 o . 5.0 A dish of Lobsters 4 in a dish o . 8.0 A dish of Chickens 3 in a dish with butter and gravey and a dish of Asparragrass and butter 0.15.0 A Tansee o . 5.0 The fare provided for the second table was roughly double that laid upon the first, and as the total number of guests was about thirty, it is reasonable to conclude that the above supply was set before ten men. The extras for the whole company were as follows : Bread 0.8.0 Oyle and Vinegar & peper and salt 0.4.0 Wood & Coles 0.7.0 for the use of puter i . o . o for the use of Damask table clothes napkins knives & forkes saltes & spoones cruites and peper boxes i . o . o Chees 0.2.0 fine shugar o . i . o 2 Butlers too attend 0.5.0 The food bill came in this case to ig. i$s. od., or rather more than thirteen shillings a head. But I have also Dr Trapp's bill for wines and tobacco amounting to five guineas. The company consumed eleven gallons of " Red Oporto " at six shillings a gallon, one of " white Lisbon " and three of " Mountain," while their smoke consisted of " two Pound of Tobacco " (at $s. 4^.) out of "half a Groce of Pipes" (at is.). The College carpenter received a few shillings for fixing up " 30 Hooks for Hatts " at three halfpence per hook, and a few years later (e.g. 1755) there come entries " for oranges and lemmons " and " for Nose Gays & Sweet Briar." Of course, the Presidents were found to vary in the points about the Anniversary for which they cared most. Where one might be anxious that his " Kilderkin " should be of good quality, another, such as Dr Best, of St Lawrence, Jewry ( 1 749), was scandalised because no Common Prayer Books were provided " for the use of the Visitor & other Bps at church on 1 According to Murray (Oxford English Dictionary) a Tansy-pudding was specially "appropriate to Easter." Cf. Pepys, Diary, 20 April 1666. 202 THE ANNIVERSARY the feast day," and urged Reading to secure " a proper number of attendants on each table without noise and hurry and that all things may be conducted w th great decency and decorum." The two requisites last named decided that " no servants except those of the Bishops be admitted into the Hall" (1786) and that " no Wine be issued after half past 7 o'clock 1 ." Altogether it is to be a simple festivity, where there must be plenty to eat and drink, but no waste the President's hired butler is to see to that and where mere creature comforts are not to be neglected. " The President & Governors," it is added, " will invite the guests themselves," in a pleasing conviction that Sion will be a cheerful place of meeting for " love in conversing together." It may be added that the President chose his own wine-merchant " M r Smith who keeps the ffeathers Taverne in Cheapside" (1706), " M r Sheppard of the Baptist Head in Aldermanbury " (1707), " M r Powell in Gracechurch Street" (1762), and " M r Godfrey Springall" (1771 and several years following). These responsibilities of the President in respect of the wine were evidently the historical basis of a custom that came to an end in the year (1910) during which this chapter was being written. For the ceremony of the new President's investiture with the chain and badge was hitherto accompanied by the presentation to him of the key of the wine-cellar. It is but an ill-furnished compartment and a little of its modest contents goes a long way towards the entertainment of a company that includes many who like the songs of Sion to be only carmina quae scribuntur aquae potoribus. The solemn handing over of the cellar-key to the President-elect was felt to have outlived its time, and the outgoing President (1910), the beloved and lamented Mr E. C. Carter, of St Jude, Whitechapel, who perished with his talented wife in the wreck of the Atlantic liner " Titanic " a year later, substituted a silver key of the Library, as who should say hinc lucem et pocula sacra. Tea and coffee were introduced to the guests (from "The Bank Coffee- House") about 1750, and the following orders of 1769 present us not only with a variety in the liquors but with 1 This was in 1805, the first Feast which Manners- Sutton attended as Primate. The dinner began at four p.m. THE ANNIVERSARY 203 the employment of a firm of caterers which still survives under the name o Ring and Brymer and has not infrequently provided the banquet in modern times. Ordered That the Register bespeak of Horton & Birch in Cornhill the like Dinner as was provided at the last Annual Feast & at the same price as was proposed by M r Birch, And That the usual Quantity of Wine red and white be provided for the Feast & that M r Springall send in the wine. That tea & coffee be provided as usual. One further change (1812) must be noticed because it is the only intimation of any social severance between the Incumbent- Fellows on the one hand and the Curates and Lecturers on the other ; as also because of its fiat against smoking and its thoughtful care that wine should not be set before the juniors after dinner : Ordered that Coffee and Tea be provided in the Parlour for the Visitors and Incumbents, and in the Court room for the Curates & Lecturers ; and that Pipes and Tobacco be not allowed and that no Wine be at any time carried into the Court-room, nor any into the Hall after Coffee and Tea shall have been ordered on that day. So much for the commissariat. There remains the question of how they paid the bill. A College of self-respecting clergy entrusted with the administration of a charity could never conscientiously feed themselves at the expense of the flock. In the early years the dinner was sometimes imperilled by the non-payment of the farm rents 1 . Supposing that these came to hand at the proper time, it appears that, up to the distress which fell upon the College through the Great Fire, there was enough income to provide the " Counte Day " Feast and to maintain the Almsfolk ; and there were some rare subsequent occasions upon which they felt themselves in the same fortunate condition ; e.g. 1765 when it was resolved that the Feast Dinner be paid for out of the College Stock & that the Half Guinea rec'd of some of the Clergy on that Account be returned to them. But, apart from these, it has been since about 1678 a distinct understanding that those Fellows who attend the Feast should contribute to the cost. " Collected this day," says the record of 1 See p. 190. 204 THE ANNIVERSARY that Anniversary, " towards the Charge of the Dinner 3^ 13 s ," which was at once "Pd...to M r Davage the Cooke.in pte," the balance coming presumably out of College funds. Hence arose the custom of collecting " at the Bason " indeed, there was a special piece of plate for the purpose. Sometimes the phrase "collected by the President [Edward Fowler, 1690] at the Bason " shows the part which the chairman took personally in raising the necessary funds. By 1693 it can be seen that the contributions were expected to be of a certain figure per capita, with the result of a gratifying advance on the normal $ or so. Collected at the Dinner this day in the Bason 8^. 2 s . 6 d The President giving io s and all Incumbents 5 s a peice, from which it may be gathered that covers were laid for at least thirty. Next year, there was a further graduation of the con- tributions, "the late Presid* [John Williams] giving 2O S the Deanes io s and the Assistants and all Incumbents 5 s a peice." In 1696 they decided not to depend wholly upon "the Bason," it being then agreed that Every Incumbent give halfe a Crowne upon delivery of the Invita- tion Tickett to the Generall Court for Election of Governo rs and halfe a Crowne at the Bason. That every Lecturer and Licensed Curate properly so, give halfe a Crowne at the Bason. The effect was that when ex-Presidents and ex-Fellows, become Bishops, were guests at the Feast, they too desired to contribute, and it is on record that, when "the Bason" of 1696 realised 6. $s. 6d. y John Williams, " the Bishop of Chichester who was present [gave] halfe a guinea thereof." Early in the 1 8th century, when receipts " at the Bason " were mounting up to 16, "collected at y e table and sent by absent clergy," the financial position of the College improved ; so in 1739 "the Bason," or the principle of "the Bason," was discarded with some solemnity. After the second course [there were only two] was brought in, at y e usual time of collecting the contributions for the Dinner, M r President Skerret [Rector of " St Peters Poor "] gave M r Reading a paper to read aloud, w ch he read accordingly, and is as follows, viz*. My Lords the Bishops, and the Reverend the Clergy, The President & Governors of this College have directed me to acquaint yo r Lordships and their Reverend Brethren here assembled, THE ANNIVERSARY 205 That they have the pleasure to see the Affairs of the College so much improved, and under so good a Regulation, that there is not at present, and they humbly conceive that, with proper management, there will not for the future be, occasion to make any Collection, as usual, for defraying the expense of this, or any other anniversary Dinner. And accordingly they intend the minute, w ch was drawn up at their last Court, shall be enter'd in their Court Register, if the Clergy here present, upon hearing it read, shall agree thereto. Which Minute is as follows. Whereas it hath been a Custom upon the day of the Annual Feast at Sion College, to collect money at the Table from the Bishops and Clergy towards defraying the expense of the Dinner ; which the College hath hitherto from time to time been under a necessity of doing, by reason of a large Sum of Money the Governours had borrowed upon Interest, & because the affairs of the College in general were in a bad State and Situation. But as that Debt is now discharged, and a re- served Rent secured to the College sufficient to answer the yearly incident charges thereof; It is the opinion of the present Governours, that the affairs of the College are in so good a condition as to enable their Successors, by a frugal management, to bear that expense without any Contributions from the Clergy. And therefore they came to a Resolution at their last Court that the Clergy be excused for the future from every such contribution ; and the whole charge of the Dinner con- stantly paid out of the annual Income of the said College. This being read, was agreed to by all there present. Such a solemn decision must have come with a certain sense of relief to those who had the honour of the College at heart. For the " bason " was placed impartially before hosts and guests, and the Visitor, to whom special honour is shown at Anniver- saries, made special payment for the honour shown him. The custom culminated in the episcopate of Edmund Gibson. His presence it was probably not the first occasion is first noticed in the record of the Feast in 1726 : There were present at this Assembly the L ds Bishops of London, Peterborough, [White Kennett, still a Fellow of the College as rector of St Mary Aldermary], Carlile, [John Waugh, still rector of St Peter-upon- Cornhill], Rochester, [Samuel Bradford, also Dean of Westminster, and formerly rector of St Mary-le-Bow], & Chichester [Edward Waddington, formerly rector of All Hallows the Great]... The Bishop of London gave 3 Guineas. It is tempting to linger round the fact that the College was then in a position to invite, to meet its Visitor, two Fellows and two ex-Fellows on the episcopal bench, but our business is with the Visitor's contribution to the cost of the Feast. The same gift 206 THE ANNIVERSARY on his part is recorded against every year from 1726 to 1735 (in 1728 he sent it, being " not well "). Also it began to dawn upon the episcopal Fellows that, as pluralists, they might copy his Lordship's example; so we have it recorded next year (1727) that the " Bps of Peterburgh, Carlile, & Chichester sent (being absent) a Guinea apiece." It is pleasant to be able to add that not only the Almsfolk and the clergy but also certain residents in the College benefited by the product of the "bason." In 1732 the cook was bidden " to order something to the value of 2O S for M r Readings family, and for M rs Sear if she please to dine at M r Readings," and in 1735 it was agreed "that M r Sears & M r Readings families be allowed each 3 bottles of wine for their Dinner at y e Feast." The claim of Reading's household is obvious. The inclusion of Mistress Sear was doubtless a delicate recognition of the fact that her husband, Richard Sear, rector of St Alban, Wood Street, who found it convenient to reside in the College, of which he was President in 1728, had at various times lent the College .1400 at 4^ per cent. I have not found any Toast list belonging to these early Anniversaries, which differ from the Feasts of to-day in little save that the number of " covers " is much greater, without any appreciable addition to the total cost, and that the guest-list is drawn up on more representative lines. We can no longer invite ten or a dozen Bishops who are former Fellows, but we can bring in a number of distinguished laymen to help us " maynetayne love in conversing together." CHAPTER XII ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS Quia vox lamentationis audita est de Sion. Hierem. ix. 19. ONE of the Founder's objects in desiring that the College might be established as a Corporation of Clergy was the "redress of many inconveniences not prejudiciall to the Lord Bishop of London's jurisdiction." He saw that to London or to what was then regarded as London Sion College would mean an unique instrument for focussing clerical opinion. This opinion could either be appealed to by authority or it could make itself heard with emphasis of its own accord, if the crisis were sufficiently urgent. This chapter will therefore include a number of such expressions of view, many of them on subjects that are as dead as the Queen in whose reign Convocation made itself especially conspicuous, while a few of the questions still retain a living interest. The first duty brought home to the College was one to which our Fellows returned again and again to maintain the Protestant Succession and to prevent the establishment of that Roman domination which would come in with the advent of the Pretender. The College register of 1715 contains a long Pastoral from John Robinson, Bishop of London. It is ad- dressed "to his Clergy w th in y e Bills of Mortality," and is so characteristic of the i8th century that some extracts from it will not be out of place here. I am well assured [says the Bishop] that you take part w th me in y e very sensible concern I am under at y e frequent disorderly and dangerous tumults that have lately happened in this City; the Governm 1 wherof in matters concerning Religion is by Divine permission devolv'd upon 208 ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS me in general, tho' unworthy of so high a trust, & upon you as my Substitutes w th in ye extent of your severall Cures. We have y e greater reason to be thus concerned when we consider that some part of this blame is attributed, tho' I trust w th out just reason, to y e want of due care in us, as if we were deficient in our Endeavours to recommend by our Example, promote in our conversation, & press in our more solemn discourses, the duties of peace and Quietnes Now tho' notwithstanding y e Surmises of others to y e Contrary, I have good reason to be persuaded, that not only you together with myself pray daily for y e peace of our Sion, but are afflicted at y e appear- ance of any disturbances, as seriously considering y e Tendencies of y m , and in how high a degree they may endanger our Constitution both in Church & State ; and prove in y^ End introductive of Popery & Arbi- trary Power Labour to convince y m [your Hearers] of y e dutiful obedience we all owe to our Lawfull & Rightfull Sovereign King George, (whom God long preserve), of y e high Reverence for his sacred person, and for the whole Royal Family, that is due from us in all our thoughts words and Actions ; of y e great security of our holy Religion under a Protestant Prince, and under y e Prospect of a long and lasting Succession in that Protestant line. Employ y e Authority of y e Word of God, of y e Laws of this Realm, and of y e Voice of Reason to these Purposes ; and fail not to enlarge upon our manifold Obligations to live peacable and Quiet lives in all Godlines & honesty. . . . There is much more in the same strain and the date is "Somerset House, June /th, 1715," where Queen Anne had granted him apartments. The President thereupon summoned a General Court for 17 June 1715, and the terms of a reply were only agreed to nemine contradicente\ possibly because some insidious Jacobite abstained from a contrary vote 1 . The Fel- lows thanked the Bishop for his "pious and seasonable letter" and for his "favourable and just opinion of us y e Clergy of this City." They assured him that "notw th standing y e surmises of any others to y e Contrary we are much afflicted at those disorderly and dangerous tumults w ch have lately happened." They doubted not "but that your Ldship will have y e satisfac- tion to find in us all a dutifull Compliance w th your truly Christian and Apostolical Instructions." But our College, like the rest of the English world outside, had not finished with Pretenders when 1715 was overpassed. For on 27 February 1744 the Fellows "resolved to address his 1 Francis Atterbury had ceased to be a Fellow in 1713. ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS 2Og Majesty [George II] on the Invasion that is threatened abroad in favour of the Pretender." The document is so rich in the phrases and thoughts that occupied the minds of the English Clergy in general till Catholic Emancipation was accomplished, that some of its passages are worth giving as they stand. We... beg leave to express our hearty and unanimous abhorrence of the attempt that is carrying on to invade y r Kingdoms & advance a Popish Pretender to yo r Throne ; and to assure yo r Majesty that we have the justest sense of this great indignity offer'd to yo r Majesty and yo r Royal Family, and of the terrible consequences to Church and State, which would unavoidably attend the success of such a bold & desperate undertaking. Under these Impressions, and from a true sense of the Duty we owe to yo r Majesty, we shall not fail in our several Stations to enforce upon the people committed to our care, the obligations they are under in point of conscience, to preserve an inviolable fidelity to your Majesty our rightfull & lawfull Soveraign. At the same time we will endeavour to keep in their minds a due sense of the blessings we enjoy under yo r Majesty's mild & auspicious government ; and to possess them with a just abhorrence of Popery, as the great corruption of Christianity ; and with a firm belief & persuasion, that as a Popish Prince on the Throne is utterly inconsistent with the Religious laws and liberties of these Kingdoms, so the only means this Nation has, under God, of securing these invaluable Blessings to themselves & their Posterity is the Pro- testant Succession.... It is possible at least, the registers include nothing to the contrary that this was the first of many occasions on which the College addressed the Crown ; and the appetite for such loyal courtesies grew apace. But the contemporary volume contains no reference to any congratulations on what would be the next natural event, the accession of George III. Fortunately Thomas Reading, who was assistant Librarian and Clerk, has left a care- fully docketed bundle of letters, which throw some interesting light on the occasion and on the men concerned in it. We begin with his copy of a missive sent by him on 25 October 1760 George II had died that day to the President, Dr Thomas Newton, who, though Canon of Westminster and rector of St Mary-le-Bow, was residing at York, of which he held the precentorship till a year later, when through the influence of Lord Bute he was promoted to the see of Bristol. I find [writes Reading] that on extraordinary occasions it has been usual for My Lord Bishop & the Clergy of London to address his p. 14 210 ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS Majesty, of which I thought it my Duty to acquaint you ; I intend to-morrow morning to wait on D r Nicholls to know the Bishops pleasure on the present occasion, which I hope you will approve. On 29 October T. Reading received a letter dated "Barnes" from Dr Ferdinando Warner, assuming that an address would be presented " as soon as possible after the Accession " and desiring to know the arrangements. He was rector of Barnes and of St Michael, Queenhithe, and is an instance of the way in which College office sat lightly on the pluralists of that time. For his next letter to Reading, after expressing his sorrow that "the Presi- dent happens to be at York at this juncture," continues thus: I see by the List of Sion College in the City Register that I am Senior Dean : & I should be obliged to you if you would inform me whether I am so or not ; that in case D r Newton is not coming imme- diately, I may, as next in office, summon the Clergy upon this Occasion. For our Address should follow that from the Mayor & Common Council. ''You will therefore," he concludes, "be so good as to acquaint me by the Bearer sent on purpose whether I am Senior Dean or not." The poor man was doomed to have his sudden interest in the affairs of the College damped, for Reading's reply, which does not survive, must have told him that he had, indeed, been Senior Dean in 1759, but had been now out of office for some six months. It is, perhaps, only fair to Warner to admit that the times were not addicted to a strenuous heed of business, and it is clear that his election to be an Assistant was not carried out in a way that would rouse in him that interest in the affairs of the College which he ought to have been acquiring for himself. There is, in the same parcel, a previous letter from him to Thomas Reading, which throws a flood of light on things as they then were. It is dated 18 April 1758 and says : I received yesterday your summons to Sion College for the 3i st of the last month ; & asking my Clerk why he did not send it me as soon as it came to his Hands, he said that they were never delivered till the day before the time of meeting 1 , & it was therefore to no Purpose as I live out of Town to send them to me. 1 Cf. the minute of 1729: "Many of the Clergy complain'd they had no summons. This was owing to y e neglect of their Clarks, to w m our Porter deliver'd them." ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS 211 I see by the printed Account of Sion College this Year, and I know it by no other Way, that I am one of the Assistants. I think I should have had Notice of it from somebody or other before this Time. But if there is any Attendance required or any Duty to be done, I desire the Favour of you to inform me by a line directed to me at M r Shacklefords in Trinity Lane Queenhithe. The rest of Reading's docket consists of letters from Dr S. Nicholls written from Piccadilly to make arrangements for the presentation on the Bishop's behalf. Nicholls was rector of St James, Piccadilly, and Sherlock's chaplain. The arrange- ments show that, though the presentation of the Address was not technically a Sion College function, yet our Corporation was the natural means of bringing the Clergy of London together. Nicholls, who has consulted the Archbishop, writes on 6 November : It is agreed to do all at one Meeting, and that at the Chapter House in St Paul's Church Yard, to sign the Address & immediately to proceed to Court in a Train of Coaches, with the Archbishop at the Head of us. ...It will be extremely proper and usefull to us that you [T. Reading] should attend us at the Chapter House and at St James's and I desire you will be there. I must rely upon you for the bringing the Clergy together on the Day....N.B. not only Rectors, but Lecturers and Curates will be admitted into the Train. Nicholls wrote again the day following to say that the ceremony was fixed for Monday next, when the King would "receive the Address on his Throne, at Half an Hour after One. Therefore it will be necessary for us to set out from the Chapter House at Twelve o'Clock,"and "we shall afterwards wait upon the Princess of Wales with a Compliment." Reading must "bring the whole London Clergy together if you can," and must have a suitable paragraph inserted "in the Publick Advertiser To-morrow, and in the Daily Advertiser on Monday." Reading uses the spare space on Nicholls' sheet of paper to make a draft of his summons to the Clergy of London and Westminster to come at the time and place appointed "to sign an address to his Majesty and to proceed with it in Coaches to St James house." He does so "by order of the Right Rev d the Lord Bishop of London" and adds: "This Notice to be laid in the Vestry to be seen by all the Clergy belongs to the Church," though how this would ensure the attendance of City incumbents who like Warner were at 142 212 ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS Barnes or like Newton were at York, does not appear. The incident closed with a brief note from Nicholls, two days after the event, asking Reading to make out "a Bill of the whole Expence attending these Addresses, that I may carry it to the Bishop for the Charge of it will be defrayed by him" an arrange- ment which doubtless procured for Bishop Sherlock a numerous train of clergy, and at the same time accounts for the occasion being passed over in silence by our Court, which did not meet between the anniversary of 1760 (29 April) and 24 March 1761 ! This omission to make an official record extenuates the un- certainty that was felt in 1786 as to the part the College should play in the presentation of another address to George III, when an attempt was made on his life by a maniac. This time the President, James Trebeck, enters in September a memo- randum to the effect that on 26 August he summoned the clergy to meet their brethren, "by the advice of the Visitor 1 , to consider and sign, together with the Dean and Chapter of St Pauls and the Clergy of Westminster, an address to his Majesty on the Pre- servation of his Person from the late insane Attempt to injure it." But there was understood to be no precedent for such joint action. "The Address originated not from [the Court], as they expected it to do"; so it was agreed that they might sign not as members of the Court but "as Parochial Clergy of the City and Diocese of London." The deputation, therefore, was "attended by some of the Clergy, who proceeded from London House to St James's, Where We had the Honour to Kiss his Majesty's hand being graciously received." This point of procedure will come up again. Meanwhile it is worthy of record that, including these two, no less than eight addresses were presented by the College to George III at various suitable moments in his long reign. The third occasion requiring the assembly of a General Court 20 March 1789 was the King's recovery from illness, when they congratulated both George III and his Queen, having, as to the latter, first consulted the Visitor, who "advised them to suspend the bus ss of addressing her Majesty till further information was obtained." Both addresses were "fairly transcribed on Vellum by the 1 Bishop Lowth. ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS 213 Rev d M r Watts," who, indeed, reaped a small harvest by his caligraphy 1 during the next half century. It is a pity that the minutes do not settle the question whether the College was officially invited to the Thanksgiving Service held on 25 April 1789 in St Paul's Cathedral. All we are told is that The President was also requested to make enquiry at St Paul's whether the Fellows of Sion College did not attend as a Corporate Body, when her late Majesty Queen Ann went thither. The President, Henry Fly by name, was a Minor Canon and probably his inquiries had the desired effect ; but the matter is worth mention because on 29 June 1911, when an effort was made to include in the great congregation at the Coronation Service representatives of nearly every corporation of any stand- ing in the country, no invitation to the Cathedral was sent to the President of Sion College, though our foundation is unique in its representation of the London clergy and is at least older than most of the Nonconformist bodies, whose representatives were quite properly included in the invitation list. The fourth occasion, 1 8 June 1792, was "the late Proclamation," when our clergy expressed their gratitude for "national happi- ness, prosperity, and tranquillity, unexampled in the history of mankind," but freely enjoyed under his Majesty's "mild and auspicious Government." The memorandum of the President of that year, Dr Kettilby, of St Bartholomew the Less, describes his inquiries as to the proper mode of procedure. He had waited on the Secretary of State, who told him that the Address might either be presented to the King at a Levee or be left at the Secretary of State's office. "And being informed that the former mode was the most respectful I attended [with two others]... at the next Levee, being on Friday the 22 d of June 1792" with the customary and gracious result. George Ill's "providential escape from the late outrage of- fered to his Royal Person" in 1792 brought our Governors a fifth 1 Robert Watts had other acceptable ways of adding to the family resources. About 1817 it was the custom to give his wife " a gratuity of Five Guineas " for " her care and attention in providing the Court Dinners for the past year," and when she deceased the like acknowledgment was made to " Miss Mary and Miss Emily Watts." In 1807-9 t* 16 Governors had paid him one hundred guineas for an "Index to the Court- Registers of Sion College." 214 ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS time to Court, and now their language lacked nothing in vigour, as they dilated on their horror at "doctrines, subversive of every principle religious, moral and political, which have been for some time past by every possible means disseminated with incredible industry and mischievous zeal among your Majesty's subjects." In 1800, when there was another attempt on the person of the sovereign, they improved on the precedent of 1760 and resolved (28 May) that the intended Address from the Bishop, the Dean and Chapter, and the Clergy of London and Westminster did not supersede the necessity of a separate Address from the College, which was presented by John Moore of St Michael, Bassishaw, at the Levee on 30 May. The seventh Address was political in its character and must be dealt with under the head of toleration to Roman Catholics. The last Address was con- cerned with the King's Jubilee and was drawn up at a General Meeting on 19 October 1809. I ts tone ' ls curiously Jewish both in reference and in sentiment. It expressed the hope that "the number of your years, like those of the pious Hezekiah, through the favour of indulgent Heaven, may still be extended," and it went on in the following terms of quite Hebraic Schadenfreude: We desire to be for ever thankful to Almighty God, who, when his judgments have gone forth and surrounding nations have felt the chastisements of his rod, has manifested his mercy towards us the favoured people.... The tide of commerce has been turned to our advantage, new avenues have been opened to wealth & prosperity, and the proud invader's vaunts have hitherto ended in disappointment. These personal occasions may be, perhaps not very gloriously, concluded by recording that an Address was also submitted to the Prince Regent (5 March 1817), when "the Bishop, the Pre- bendaries of St Paul's, the Archdeacon, the President of Sion College, and the Doctors in Divinity and Law were presented and had the honour to Kiss His Royal Highness's hand" and to congratulate him on his "providential escape from the atrocious attack of lawless and traitorous persons." Nor need it be added that since then the College has had repeated occasion to offer its sentiments of loyalty and devotion to the Throne. But, it will be said, these Addresses to the Throne rarely involve questions of internal politics, and that there was even a Hanoverian sense in which the Crown is above such questions. ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS 21$ Was there nothing more definite, with which a General Court of Sion College might suitably concern itself? The idea evidently occurred to the minds of the Fellows, as the i8th century drew to a close, and they may have put it thus to themselves: if the College can really focus clerical opinions, why not endeavour to do so on questions that vitally concern us ? Now it appears that this inspiration came first to a wigged and somewhat hawk-eyed patriarch, whose portrait hangs in the vicar's vestry at Christ Church, Newgate Street, and who is buried beneath its sanctuary floor. Judged by our parish registers, Rowland Sandiford was a diligent and a resident vicar, and he filled the chair of the College in 1772. A Motion was made [27 April 1779] by the Reverend M r Sandiford That the President... be desired to summons a General Court of the Fellows... to consider whether as a Corporate Body they will present a Petition to Parliament relative to a Bill now depending, Intituled a Bill for the further Relief of Dissenting Ministers & Schoolmasters. . . . which Motion was agreed to by the Court. It was resolved, however, that the Visitor should be consulted before the meeting as to the expediency of such application. On the day of the General Court, 30 April, the President reported that he had waited on his Lordship, who replied "that in the present late Stage of the Bill... it was his opinion that such Petition was inexpedient." Nevertheless a motion was moved and seconded that the Bill should be amended or, alternatively, should not be passed into law during the present session, but this was disposed of by a successful proposal of the "previous question," and the Court adjourned. The next morning my predecessor returned undaunted to the fight. A Motion was made by M r Sandiford & seconded by M r Heckstall [St Anne & St Agnes], that the Presided Deans and Assistants & Fellows of Sion College as a Corporate Body do Petition the House of Lords against the Bill. . . . But "it was carried in the negative, 10 to 7." The Act referred to was 19 George III c. 44, and what the would-be petitioners were agitating for was that the word "whole" should be "restored to the sentence of the said Declaration." It is worth mention that the Visitor who discouraged this first protest of the College against legislation that might seem favourable to Nonconformity 2l6 ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS was Bishop Lowth, of whom it is recorded that he refused to be placed above Mr Wesley at table, "May I be sitting at your feet, Sir, in another world 1 !" But the last had not been heard of the demands of Noncon- formity for the redress of grievances. We pass to the movement for the repeal of the offending Acts in 1790. On 1-3 February a General Court was held "to take into consideration the intended application of the Dissenters to Parliament for the Repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts," when the following resolutions were "unanimously agreed upon, and ordered to be published in the News Papers: Viz 1 " I That the repeated Attempts of the Protestant Dissenters to obtain a Repeal of the Corporation & Test Acts are a just Cause of Alarm to every Friend of the Established Church and of the Civil Consti- tution. II That the Acts above mentioned were professedly made (as the Preamble of one of them states) for the Preservation of the public Peace, in Church & State, and the experience of more than a Century has shown that they are admirably well calculated for this Purpose. Ill That every Civil Society has a perfect Right inherent in itself to prescribe the Terms on which its Members shall be admitted to Places of Trust & Power, and consequently that no Individual can have a Right inconsistent with that public Right. IV That the Dissenters are already in Possession of a compleat Tolera- tion in all matters respecting Religion & are at perfect Liberty to worship God agreeably to the Dictates of their own Consciences. V That the Repeal of the Acts in Question would not make the least Addition to this Religious Liberty and therefore the present Attempt appears to us to be a Contest for Power, which may eventually prove dangerous to the united Interests of Church & State. VI That there are obvious & weighty Reasons which seem to mark out the present Moment as of all others the most improper for trying Experiments in the State, and throwing down the firmest Bulwarks of public Peace & Security. 1 Cf. Abbey and Overton, 7^he English Church in the Eighteenth Century (ed. 1902), p. 336. ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS Now there is nothing original or even remarkable in these sentiments, which were, indeed, habitual with the ordinary High Tory clergy of the time. But a page of a Sion College register is an interesting and illuminating document, because it gives the names of those who were present, and who contributed to the unanimity of these resolutions. Let us take three men of very various outlook, "D r Vincent," "M r Feilde," and "M r Romaine." Here is William Vincent, at present rector of All Hallows the Great and All Hallows the Less, and Headmaster of West- minster School, where many a young Whig passed beneath his heavy and conservative governance 1 . Here too is Matthew Feilde, a Grammar School usher at Christ's Hospital 2 , rector of St Anne and St Agnes (1788-96), and vicar of Ugley, Essex 3 , who, according to Charles Lamb, "was engaged in gay parties, or with his courtly bow at some episcopal levee," and whom Leigh Hunt describes as "languidly bearing his cane as if it were a lily." But if Feilde's opposition to the Repeal is not surprising for he was but an elegant trifler Romaine's 4 is astonishing till we remember his agitation in 1753 against the proposal to naturalise the Jews, and his statement that he would never again enter a pulpit if the prayer of the Feathers Tavern Petition (1771) were granted. There were, of course, moments at which the sense of patriotism in a national crisis rose above the defence of eccle- siastical prestige, and would not be suppressed in the clergy any more than in their lay brethren ; sometimes they could let themselves go and sometimes they were convinced against their will that even in such crises there is a "time to withhold." Thus in 1798 there was mooted a suggestion "to consider the propriety of a subscription from this College in its corporate capacity, in common with the general Publick subscrip ns towards the support of Government in the present alarming circum- stances of the times." But the Court convinced themselves 1 Cf. John Sergeaunt, Annals of Westminster School (1898), pp. 207 ff. 2 Cf. Annals of Christ's Hospital (E. H. Pearce), 2nd ed. 1908, pp. 54, 8889. :i For a short time he was a Prebendary and Dr White's Divinity Lecturer at St Paul's. 4 " Only M r Romaine," said John Wesley, "has shown a truly sympathising spirit, and acted the part of a brother. " 2l8 ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS that this was not the proper business of the corporation. On the other hand, when the City went rejoicing over the Peace of Amiens, the College must needs do as the City does. "Ordered," therefore, 26 April 1802, "that a Board be put up in Front of the College with Lamps to be Lighted on the Night of General Illumi- nation on the occasion of the Peace"; and again in 1814, with even more detail, "that the Front of the College be illuminated on the Evenings of the 9 th , io th and i I th of June instant, by two rows of Lamps on the Cornice of the College Gate-way in London Wall." For the most part, however, our brethren confined themselves to matters that were of proper concern to the ministry of the Church of England, and one of these certainly came very near home. They had expressed their objection to the extension of privilege to dissenters; they would soon be deep in the struggle against Roman Catholic Emancipation; for the moment they became an object of direct attack themselves. To watch this, we take our seat at a General Meeting of London clergy assembled at Sion College on 26 April 1800. Many Clergymen present having stated to this Meeting that Actions had been commenced against them on the Penal Statute of 2 1 Henry 8. for Non-Residence : Agreed that so general an Attack calls for an Application to Parlia- ment to modify the Statute of Henry 8. with respect to the Power granted by that Act to common Informers to recover the Penalties for Non-Residence. Thereupon a committee was appointed "for drawing up an Address to our Diocesan on the subject." This address said that, while the clergy were "ready to confess that there should exist a Power of enforcing Residence," yet it was a serious grievance that a suit could be entered against an Incumbent under the Statute by any person distant from or unconnected with the parish, "to gratify private resentment perhaps, or merely to obtain the penalties." They went on to point out that many of the London clergy had no parsonage-houses, "and many others such as are not fit for a Clergyman to reside in, and too small to accommodate a family." The hardship is increased by "the narrowness of our incomes" under the Fire Act. Very few amount to 200; several do not exceed 50 or 60 p. ann. Shortly afterwards the attack became more ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS 219 definite; for the "Rev d M r Cooper, Rector of St Michael Wood St and St Mary Staining," reported [13 May 1800] that a suit for non-residence had been instituted against him in the Court of Common Pleas; and it was felt that the College should help with evidence in such a case, the Librarian being ordered to produce at the trial Brian Walton's "Manuscript Abstract of Tithes 1 &c. in London anno 1636, preserved in the College Library." The register of 1814 contains a very interesting account of the circumstances of twenty-two of the City clergy in respect of their non-residence without a licence. From this it appears that it was in some cases the City which suffered; thus the incumbents of St James, Duke Place, St Mary, Abchurch, and St Vedast, Foster, represented that they were "con- stantly resident" in their respective second benefices of North Cray, East Barnet, and Chislehurst; but these were the worst instances. The Vicar of St Bartholomew the Less gave eight or nine months to the City, and the remainder of the year to Inworth in Essex. Four clergy had received notice of non-residence in their Cathedral Prebends, but their replies are mostly as reason- able as that of Robert Watts, who could say that he was resident in our Librarian's house, "which is situated in his own Parish of St Alphage." The rest were not serious cases, if we may take Samuel Crowther, of Christ Church, as an example, for his abode was in Ely Place, Holborn, a few minutes' walk from his church. The question of tithe is for the clergy partly a domestic and partly a public question; certainly it becomes the latter when it tends to involve them in disputes with their parishioners. Brian Walton's Treatise, of which mention has just been made, dealt with matters as they existed before the Fire; but it was regarded as a very precious locus on the whole subject, and when the question of tithes again became acute at the beginning of the iQth century, the document was produced before a Parlia- mentary Committee. The care that was taken of it appears in the following order of the Court (1820) and in Robert Watts' memorandum, which accompanies it: 1 See Chapter xm. p. 244. 220 ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS That the Librarian make the following Indorsement on the back of the Manuscript preserved in the Library... marked 26. 2. and entituled "An Abstract of the yearly Values of the Glebe, Tythes...&c., Anno 1636," and that the Librarian do also mark each Sheet thereof on the back with his Initials. This Document, consisting of 14 Sheets of Paper, each of which is marked on the back thereof with my initials, was produced by me as Librarian of Sion College before a Committee of the House of Lords, sitting on the London Clergy Bill, the n th of July, in the year 1804. Robert Watts 1 . It is thus no wonder that they were jealous in giving per- mission to outsiders to copy it or to take extracts from it. John Moore, of St Michael, Bassishaw, who was President in 1800 and 1 80 1, hoped to have brought out a new edition of Walton's treatise and the Court subscribed for five copies "for the use of the Library." But when in 1811 Henry Woodthorpe, the Town Clerk of the City, asked "to have or take a copy of the Account of Tithes in London," he was told that "the Governors do not think themselves at liberty to permit a copy... to be taken by any person," though they "are ready to permit M r Woodthorpe to inspect it upon application to the Librarian." Similarly in 1830, when there arose a controversy about tithes between the rector and the parishioners of St Andrew, Holborn, the Court furnished "an authenticated copy of the Heading of the Document and of such part of it as relates to the parish of St Andrew, Holborn." Now there are two occasions on which our registers become seriously concerned about the collection of tithes by Fellows of the College. One was in 1713 and must be dealt with in some detail. In March 1713 two Fellows, Mr Montague Wood of St Michael Royal, and Mr William Savage 2 , of St Andrew by the Ward- robe, reported to a General Court of the College that the Lord Mayor, Sir Richard Hoare, "has refused to grant a Warr 1 of 1 Our present catalogue contains no entry of this manuscript under Brian Walton's name, nor did William Reading's, and I was for some time afraid that it might never have returned from the House of Lords ; but R. Watts' careful entry of what he had written above has been the means of finding it among the Archives. 2 That Savage was no skinflint is proved by his generous aid to clerical poverty. Cf. E. H. Pearce, The Sons of the Clergy (1904), pp. 33, 81. ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS 221 distress in a case of Tithes as he is Authorized and required by Stat. of 22 and 23 of Carol: 2 d ," the refusal being "in case of empty houses or for Arrears of Tithes for a former inhabitant." Being waited upon by a committee of Fellows, his lordship per- sisted in his refusal and it was decided "to Petition y e L d Keeper for redress... as y e Act of Parliament directs." The petition, which was drawn up and signed by the President and Fellows at a General Court on 17 August 1713, pointed out that the Lord Mayor's action "does not only Affect our two Rever d Brethren aforesaid, but likewise all the Rectors and Vicars within the extent" of the Fire Act. Then the President, William Whit- field, of St Martin, Ludgate, tried his hand at a further appeal to the Lord Mayor, but only roused his wrath by requesting him not to "go out of Yo r Mayoralty without doing us justice." "These are harsh sayeings," replied his lordship; "I shall in- deavor as much as I can to keep a Conscience voyd of Offence towards God and all Men, and I hope that those Gent, that teach men the way to Heaven will show us all that Example by their constant Practice, and by doeing as they wold be don unto." The case came before the Lord Chancellor (Harcourt) and Barons Bury and Price in December, 1713, with the result that the right of the clergy to recover arrears from the present tenants by distress was completely upheld. The other, which belongs to 1799, concerns John Moore, the would-be editor of Walton's Treatise, and has its amusing side. M r Moore [then Senior Dean] produced the following letter, which he had received by the Penny Post. Bedford Sq. Monday morning (viz: 28 Oct. 1799) Sir, In conversation with several brother Members the other day on the subject of Tythes, the peculiar situation under which you & the other Clergy of London remain, since the Fire-Act, became the topic of conversation. The result was that there never was greater reason, and a better period, for petitioning the House for a fresh Act, than the present. To relate the whole conversation... would be too long for a letter. For my own part I acknowledge my arguments were principally taken from an ingenious Tract published by Deighton in Holbourn " On the Rights of the Clergy to Tythes, upon principles of Equity," & an excellent Letter 222 ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS on the subject in the y th number of the n vol. of the Anti-Jacobin. To these may be justly added the high price of every article of life, above what they were in the reign of Charles the 2nd. Meet then in as quiet a manner as possible at your College, enter a subscription for a new Act, and by throwing yourselves on \&t Justice of the House, & the great propriety of your cause, at the same time letting your demands be moderate, We all agreed to support you, & trust me you will if you persevere most assuredly succeed. Yours A Member of the Lower House. The President reported in due course that he had waited with this letter on the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London, the former referring him to the latter, and that the Bishop had asked for "a statement of the case of the London Clergy whose livings are regulated by the Fire Act." That statement occupies three and a half folio pages in our Minute Book 1 . On 8 February 1800, the President announced that he had recently been received by the Primate who "delivered it as the Opinion of the first Authority that the Anonymous Letter was not written by a Friend, but was intended probably to bring forward again the Question of Tithes, which had been at rest for some months; that great pains and management were necessary a short time since to stop the progress of the Act intended to settle a commutation ; and that bringing forward the case of the London clergy might revive that matter and produce much mischief, without a probability of success." As to the Fire Act not being intended to be permanent, his Grace gave it as "the opinion of the first Lawyers in the Kingdom that the Act bears the strongest marks of the contrary intention," and that the idea of applying for relief should be given up for the present. So the General Court contented itself with entering the whole business on the minutes. We pass now to the long and fiercely resisted question of Roman Catholic emancipation. It opens for us on 3 April 1807. Rennell, who was Dean of Winchester and Master of the Temple, received a requisition signed by Van Mildert, Samuel Crowther of Christ Church, and six others, asking him to call a meeting 1 Register C, 249 253. ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS 223 to consider "the alarming circumstances with regard to the Bill now before the House of Commons, for admitting Papists into the Army and Navy &c." The meeting resulted in an unanimous resolution to petition the House of Commons against the Bill, the Fellows present "conceiving that if the said Bill were passed into a Law, it would be productive of the most injurious con- sequences to the Constitution in Church and State." The formal Petition "produced" by the President appealed to "the ever memorable Bill of Rights" as "the basis of our laws and liberties." It went on to make the customary contention that Rome is always the same. "Those who have ever abused power, when they have possessed it, to the purposes of founding their own dominion on the destruction of the civil and religious liberties of mankind, and the true principles of Christian tolera- tion, would be inclined, if circumstances permitted, to pursue the same conduct." Hence the peril of "placing military trusts and commands" in their hands. Now once more, as in the matter of the repeal of the Test Act, it was agreed that the world at large must be made aware of the fears that prevailed in the minds of the Fellows, and it was Resolved, that a Paragraph be immediately inserted in the Newspapers called " The Times " and " The Morning Post " in the following words : " Yesterday at a Numerous Meeting of the President & Fellows of Sion College, it was unanimously agreed to petition the House of Commons against the Bill enabling Papists and others to hold places of trust and power." The address with regard to the Bill just mentioned was scarcely sealed before the President received on 9 April 1807 another request to summon a Meeting of the Fellows signed by seven incumbents, of whom five had subscribed the previous requisition. This time their object was to go to the King himself and to express "Thanks to his Majesty for the noble stand he has recently made in protection of the Established Church of this Kingdom." The reference is, of course, to the King's dismissal (18 March 1807) of the "Ministry of all the Talents/' which had gone further than his Majesty was willing to go in the direction of Roman Catholic Emancipation. The resolution in favour of an address was carried unanimously and Rennell, the President, 224 ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS was again ready with a "form," which only required "a very few alterations" to make it generally acceptable. "Sire," said one of its paragraphs, "we are fully aware of all the dangers and confusions, which must arise from depriving the Established Church of that mild and tolerant ascendancy, which equally prevents the ruinous conflicts of contending sects and the overbearing supremacy of a foreign spiritual jurisdiction, inconsistent either with liberty, or toleration, or genuine allegi- ance to a Protestant Prince." They closed with a prayer "that you may late inherit the unfading crown, which is reserved in Heaven for the protectors and defenders of the sincere and uncorrupted faith of Christ," and they again announced their sentiments to the public through the medium of The Tunes and the Morning Post. Let us pursue the subject to what seemed then its bitter end. The burden of the Anglican contention was that the Church could be trusted but that Papistry could not. In 1812 the College memorialised Mr Perceval and the Visitor, urging That taking off the Restraints and Disabilities to which Roman Catho- licks are subjected by the existing Laws, would be productive of the most injurious consequences to our Constitution in Church and State. That were the Roman Catholicks permitted to become Members of the Legislative Body and to hold high offices, there is reason to appre- hend lest their religious tenets should lead them to use the Power intrusted to them, to the destruction of the civil and religious Liberties of this Kingdom. Another petition to Parliament, 23 April 1819, embodied their "serious apprehensions of the Dangers, to which the Religious and Civil Rights and Liberties of His Majesty's Pro- testant Subjects would be exposed, by the Repeal of the Statutes in question"; it expressed their desire "that the Benefits of our invaluable Constitution should be extended to every Class of His Majesty's subjects, so far as this can be done, without endangering its general safety"; and it went on to state the usual objections in the sphere of politics to "the Character of the Roman Catholic Religion," which "has been tried in this Nation, and been proved by actual experiment, to be utterly inconsistent with the genius of the British Constitution," urging that "no satis- factory Evidence has been brought forward to shew, that any ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS 225 change has taken place either in the Tenets or the Spirit of that Religion, since the memorable Period, when the Statutes, complained of, were first enacted." Every time the question recurred the Fellows reiterated their objections. " The distinctive character of the Roman Catholic Religion is to prevent all freedom of discussion, and to tyrannise over human opinion" (16 March 1821). The admission of Roman Catholics to seats in Parliament would be inconsistent with "liberty -and the Constitution," and they knew it because they had "been so taught by history and by experience and by a succession of enlightened Statesmen from the period of the Revolution down to this day" (17 February 1829). All this time Alderman William Thompson 1 , the member for the City, and the Bishop of London were frequently employed in presenting the views of the Fellows to the Commons and the Lords, till on 12 March 1829 one last General Meeting was held to face what all felt to be a "very alarming crisis." Should they try a loyal address to the King, praying him not to sanction "any further concessions to Papists"? They were unanimous there was, indeed, one petition, 2 April 1825, from which there were "two only dissentient" but they must rest content with their addresses to Parliament. After this the denouncers of Catholic Emancipation, like the ^Equi and the Volsci of Roman History, appear in the registers no more. We return to questions of more domestic concern to the Clergy. There comes word, 5 May 1808, of "A Bill (as amended by the Committee) for making more effectual Provision for the maintenance of Stipendiary Curates in England, and for their Residence in their Cures." Sion College, it will be remembered, has from the first extended certain of its benefits to the curates of the Fellows, and its treatment of the curates of Larger London to-day is equally thoughtful. It is true that in the social inter- course of College festivities the line was apt to be firmly but courteously drawn between rectors and vicars on the one hand, and lecturers and curates on the other 2 . But the provisions of this Bill, which was, of course, regarded as one of the current 1 Alderman of the Ward of Cheap and President of Christ's Hospital. Cf. E. H. Pearce, Annals of Christ's Hospital, p. 64. 2 For an instance see under "Anniversary," p. 203. P. 15 226 ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS series of efforts to molest the beneficed clergy, served to con- vince the most sympathetic incumbent that he was still an incumbent, and must criticise its provisions accordingly. This, then, is the summary of his grievances: That all these circumstances the unmerited degradation of the Beneficed Clergy by the taking of the Curate out of the hand of his immediate employer 1 , and the unprecedented encroachment even in spirituals on the heretofore acknowledged rights and privileges of the Incumbent and others ; the disclosure upon oath of the value of Bene- fices, which must also often be accompanied with other disclosures relative to the pecuniary concerns of the clergyman and his family ; the appointment of Curates vested almost necessarily, not in those whom they are to represent, but in the Bishop, together with the power given him of allotting a stipend, which in many cases it might be ruinous to the clergyman to pay ; the want of discrimination as to the causes of Non- residence ; the calling for the interference of Churchwardens as to the Curate's salary ; the injurious impressions which the said Bill is calcu- lated to produce upon the Publick mind relatively to the Established Church ; the probable effect which it will have in discouraging the education of respectable persons for Holy Orders ; the great deprecia- tion of Ecclesiastical property ; and, lastly, the summary authority granted to the Bishop, render the said Bill highly objectionable, uncon- stitutional and oppressive. Another particular in which the incumbent was, and is still, vulnerable was his possession of the parochial registers and his relation towards the marriage in church of those who decline to be of his flock. An effort in the former direction was made by the promoters of a Bill "For the better regulating and preserving Parish and other Registers of Births, Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials; and for establishing general repositories for all such Registers in England." It is true that the Bill failed to make progress; Sion College issued its protest on 23 December 1811, and on 12 March 1812 the Visitor quietly called off the dogs of war. But what matters is the attitude of the clergy to such a proposal. The objectionable features on which they fastened in this Bill occupy two folio pages of the minutes, but may be briefly summarised as follows: They objected to the requirement that the contents of the registers should be verified annually, on oath before a magistrate, by the clergy whose signature had 1 A recent legal decision by Mr Justice Parker (The Times, 17 July, 1912, p. 3, col. i. ) has completely disposed of this phrase. ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS 22/ hitherto been deemed sufficient. Section 14, they held, meant the infliction of an ecclesiastical punishment by the civil power and was thus "an infringement of the Episcopal Jurisdiction of the Church of Christ." In consideration of "the liability of the impositions to which the Clergy must be continually subject," they were, indeed, relieved from the punishment of transporta- tion, but they were still open to "the ignominy and danger of being prosecuted as felons." The Bill, by taking the registers out of the hands of the clergy, deprived them of fees " which in populous Parishes constitute a considerable source of income." Lastly, "the receiving and transmitting of the Memorandums of the Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, of all denominations of Dissenters did not, as they conceived, appertain to their clerical functions, and ought not to-be imposed upon them." The latter point arose again on 9 April 1825 with respect to what the General Court called "the Unitarian Marriages Bill," of which the full title was "A Bill for granting Relief to certain Persons dissenting from the Church of England, in relation to the Solemnization of Marriages." Here it is easy to sympathise with their plea that "to call upon the Clergy of the Established Church to publish the Banns of Marriage and to register the Marriages of those who profess such opinions, will also afford... apparent sanction to the opinions themselves." How far we have travelled in such directions since then may be gleaned from a protest raised by the College in 1839 against Clause 14 of the Prisons Bill, which made it lawful to provide out of public funds suitable "Teachers or Clergymen" for nonconformist prisoners. It is one thing, said our brethren, to permit such prisoners to receive the free instruction "of those Teachers whose doctrines may be in accordance with their own sentiments," but there is an "important difference between the Toleration of such Instructions and the actual Establishment of Teachers by the payment of a salary out of Public Funds." ; So the old bulwarks fell one after another. Church rates were attacked by Spring Rice's Bill in 1837 and in reply to the thanks of the College for Howley's and his own efforts against this measure in Parliament Blomfield avowed that "it is no time for silence on the part of those who are the only accredited * 2 228 ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS organs of the Church in Parliament." But, it may well be asked, were there no questions that excited a general meeting of the College except questions of privilege? Had an assembly of London Clergy no positive plans for the glory of God and the welfare of His creatures? There was the Day of Rest, for instance, with its primitive sanctions already undermined so much so that Lady Huntingdon, according to the well-known story, complained to George III because Mrs Cornwallis, the Primate's wife,gave routs on Sunday evenings. By 1 838 Mrs Corn- wallis was a tradition, but the Post Office was becoming more and more of a reality, and there was a demand that its activity should be maintained on seven days in the week, as to a large ex- tent it still is. It may be said that the clergy came in late with their appeal of that year to "the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury," and that what they then did was only to signify "our entire concurrence in the opinion expressed to your Lordships by the Bankers of the Metropolis." It may be said, too, that their whole argument was a hysteron proteron, when they urged that "to the total cessation of Business in the Post Office on the Sunday is to be attributed in a great degree the rest, which is enjoyed by the trading classes on that day." But at least they went on to add : We however consider this rest to be specially valuable as being necessarily connected with the religious observance of the Lord's day ; and we are persuaded, that such observance of it operates most bene- ficially Therefore, as ministers of Christ's Religion, we humbly but earnestly beseech your Lordships, that no measures whatever may be adopted in the department of the Post Office, which may have a tendency to Desecrate that day, which it is the bounden duty of Christians to keep holy. But already there was need to be concerned for Divine Worship as well as for the Lord's Day. It was just six months after Keble's Assize sermon (14 July 1833) that by special arrangement an address was diawn up (17 January 1834) to Archbishop Howley by the clergy, not of our College only, but of the entire Archdeaconry of London. It lay at Sion College for signature, and ninety-five clergy subscribed it. Those who drew it up did not see all the signs of their times, but at least they were desperately anxious and may be allowed to say why: ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS 229 At a time, when events are daily passing before us which mark the growth of latitudinarian sentiments, and the ignorance which prevails concerning the spiritual claims of the Church, we are especially anxious to lay before your Grace the assurances of our devoted adherence to the Apostolical Doctrine and Polity of the Church... and our deep-rooted attachment to that venerable Liturgy, in which she has embodied, in the language of ancient piety, the Orthodox and Primitive Faith. And while [we] most earnestly deprecate that restless desire of change which would rashly innovate in spiritual matters, we are not less solicitous to declare our firm conviction, that should anything from the lapse of years or altered circumstances require renewal or correction, Your Grace, and our other Spiritual Rulers, may rely upon the cheerful co-operation and dutiful support of the Clergy in carrying into effect any measures, that may tend to revive the discipline of ancient times, to strengthen the connection between the Bishops, Clergy, and People, and to promote the purity, the efficiency and the unity of the Church. Certainly they did not then lack leadership in the diocese of London; but leadership often proceeds upon definitely partisan principles, which not even Blomfield could altogether avoid. His charge of 1842 is a case in point. It excited great interest, and in Sion College it led to a requisition for the calling of a general meeting, which was signed and the names are signi- ficant by Thomas Dale, Vicar of St Bride; John Harding 1 , Rector of St Andrew, Wardrobe; E. D. Legh, Incumbent of St Botolph, Aldersgate; W. Weldon Champneys, Rector of St Mary, Whitechapel ; J. P. Robinson, Rector of St Andrew, Holborn; and Mich 1 Gibbs, Vicar of Christ Church, Newgate Street (then in the first year of his long incumbency). Their purpose was that the College should "take into consideration the best mode of securing uniformity in the celebration of Divine Worship, especially on the points alluded to in the Bishop of London's charge." The meeting was held on 25 November 1842, and it was there and then unanimously resolved "that in the opinion of this Meeting it does not fall within their province to enter into the consideration of the business which has been brought before them at the instance of the requisitionists." So fruitless a result was, perhaps, bound to follow in a College in which, as opinions grew keen, disputatious questions were perilous to the peace of Sion. But there was enough left in the backward condition of religious life in England to keep them all together. 1 Afterwards Bishop of Bombay. 230 ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS Church extension, for instance, was imperatively called for on a large scale and they could all muster to the support of Sir Robert Inglis when in 1840 he brought forward a motion on the subject in the House of Commons. As to this the College urged that Though there has been an unexampled increase of the Population of the Kingdom, so that inconsiderable Towns & Villages have become places of importance, no corresponding exertions have been made to supply the Inhabitants with Religious Instruction through the medium of the Established Church. For the moment, too, they were agreed that the Church must maintain its ancient privilege not only as the arbiter and guide of public worship but as the fount and source of national education. On 25 May 1839, under the strong influence of Dr Russell, the College, whose connexion with the early days of the National Society 1 has already been noted, summoned its Fellows to discuss the proposals attached by Lord John Russell to the increased Government Grant of ^"30,000, which under an Order in Council dated 10 April 1839 was to be administered by a Committee of the Privy Council that has developed into the Board of Education. Upon this the main opinions of our Fellows were thus expressed: That the Scheme proposed for the guidance of the Committee of Privy Council appointed to superintend the application of any sums voted by Parliament for the purpose of promoting Public Education is on many accounts highly objectionable. That not only ought the basis of Education to be laid in Religion, but wherever there is a National Church in conformity also with the Religion of that Church, but that the proposed Scheme holds out encouragement to every variety of Dissent, and even to Scepticism and Infidelity. That all religious instruction to be effective ought to be conducted uniformly according to known principles ; but that the proposed scheme introduces a fanciful distinction of Religion into general & special. For these and other reasons their petition prayed that any grant which shall be made for Public Education may be accompanied with such Conditions and Restrictions as shall uphold the Established Religion, and provide that in Schools for the training of Children whose Parents belong to the National Church the Religious Instruction of all be given exclusively in accordance with its Liturgy, Catechism, and Articles ; and that in those Schools no other than the Authorised Version of the Holy Scriptures be used. 1 Chapter n. p. 30. ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS 231 All this interest in past questions begins to have a more pathetic and personal significance when the Sion protestants are found to include men whom we ourselves have known or whose names are connected with fresh and honoured memories. In December 1847 the President (J. J. Gelling, of St Catherine Creechurch) received a requisition to summon a meeting in opposition to the admission of Jews to Parliament. Among those present were Mr Abbiss, of St Bartholomew the Great, Mr Auriol, of St Dunstan-in-the-West, Mr Michael Gibbs, of Christ Church, and Mr Josiah Pratt, the second, of St Stephen, Coleman Street. "After much conversation" the meeting agreed to a form of protest in which it was gravely set forth That desiring all good to the Jews your Petitioners dare not as Christians recognise the principle of giving Legislative Power to a Body of Men existing in declared enmity to the Christian Religion who following the Tenets of their Forefathers pronounce the Lord Jesus Christ an Impostor and whose exertions would be directed to the over- throw of the Church of England and to the extinction of Christianity in the British Empire. History has seldom proved more conclusively than in this case the vanity of human prophecy. THE LIBRARY CHAPTER XIII JOHN SPENCER "He hath from his Childhood conversed with Books and Bookmen." T. Fuller. IF at some period as remote from to-day as to-day is from the foundation of the College another investigator arises to carry on this record, he will be struck by the scant attention to Library affairs in the proceedings of the present Courts. He will have no difficulty in explaining the fact to the Court's credit. There will be files of bills to show him that nearly 400 a year is being spent in books, and there will be the minutes of the Library Committee to prove that now for the first time the collective knowledge of the Court together with that of the experts who give them assistance is brought to bear on the choice of new volumes. It is thus only on rare occasions that the President and Governors have to do more than confirm the proceedings of the Library Committee, or make financial arrange- ments for printing a further instalment of the catalogue. The reasons for the paucity of information about the Library in the minutes of the primitive Courts must be sought in other directions. To begin with, the Library formed no part of the Founder's intention. He was, indeed, a man of learning, to whom books meant much, but his intentions stopped short at a College and an Almshouse, and his College was to be more for the sake of his Almshouse than the contrary. Therefore he ordained the appointment of a "Clarcke" but said nothing about a Librarian. JOHN SPENCER 233 In the second place, the Library started with an adequate collection of books but with no funds for the purchase of additions. There was, therefore, little opportunity here for adding agenda to the business of the Courts. Nevertheless, history was made in both these respects. Let us take them separately. The meetings of the Courts began in 163 1 1 . Hospital, hall, Library were by that time finished, and on 4 June John Simson M r of Arts was by the aforesayd Governours chosen Upper Library-Keeper in the Colledge. The choice, it may be supposed, was rather a compliment to the first Librarian's father, Dr John Simson, to whom, as already explained 2 , the Library owed its inception, than a tribute to the personal merits and capacities of the son. For at the same meeting John Spencer Stationer was by y e said Governours chosen Under- Library-Keeper in the Colledge aforesaid w th allowance of one Chamber next adjoyning to the Library stayre foote on the left hand towards the Garden and to have stipend p. annum 5^ In actual fact John Simson's reign barely outlasted his father's life. In just over two years' time (September 1633) ft was agreed that he should receive no stipend ; while, on the contrary, John Spencer, his assistant, " in respect of his cares & paynes in the library 3 /' found his income multiplied to 20, and began a long and chequered career as " Library Keep " the usual designation in the earlier minutes which lasted till his death in the summer of 1680. The light in this chequering belongs to his excellence 1 The Library was well known to one great Orientalist before this time. In the Life of John Lightfoot prefixed to the folio edition of his works (cf. ed. 1825, i. p. 47) it is stated that between May 1628, when he married, and the spring of 1630, when he settled in Staffordshire, Lightfoot "removed to Hornsey, near the city of London, for the sake of the library of Sion College, to which he often resorted." This is the earliest reference that I know of to the actual use of the Library. This date is confirmed by the fact that in 1629 a legacy was received from a "sometimes Ostiarye," cf. p. 67. The book of Admissi ad stiidendum is dated 1629, but its first entry is in 1632. - See Chapter I. p. 17. 3 Spencer had already set to work at a list of books, which still survives and to which he gave the title: Catalogus Librorum omnium quotquot in hoc Bibliotheca Collegij Sionensis in studiosorum vsum extant. Per Joh: Spencer Bibliothecarium (quanta potuit diligentia) ordine Alphabetico collectus. Deus nobis haec otia fecit MDCXXXII. 234 JOHN SPENCER as Librarian, the dark is concerned with the goods of Mr Na- thaniel Torporley, the astronomer and mathematician. It is recorded of him in the Dictionary of National Biography that "he seems to have resided chiefly in Sion College, London," whereas Spencer goes no further than to say in the Vellum Book that he was " sometime Student of this Colledg " ; and, as lie died in 1632, his connexion must have been very brief. Torporley 's gifts to the Library (entered by Spencer under date 1633) included about 200 works of various sizes ; some manu- scripts of his own such as Conges tor Analiticus and Atomorum Atomia demonstrata ; and " a Faire Clock standing att the upper end of the Librarie." Spencer's misfortunes in respect of Torporley's effects gave some natural trouble to the Governors, whose action seems to have been dictated by their sense of his usefulness to the Library quite as much as by their regret at the trouble in which he had become involved. Spencer was "suspended from any further possesson of his said place of Library Keep r " in the month of May, 1634, on the ground that "he is desired by the lord privy scale to give satisfaccon for Tarporleys goode," but he was restored in June on producing proof that he had satisfied the authorities. But a year later (May, 1635) he was obliged to approach the Court with an admission that " the lord privy scale hath decreed him to pay damages." But the Governors still hoped he might weather the storm. He must " deliver upp the keyes of the library & be suspended from that place," but they " will not dispose thereof till he be further heard." However, by July it was realised that " the Colledge hath sustained much Scandall." Spencer must be "absolutely dismissed and dis- charged." Thus for the third time in four years it was necessary to elect a Librarian. It was a matter not for the Fellows as a whole but for the Court as the Fellows' representatives, and the meeting which discharged Spencer went far to settle who should succeed him. As a matter of form they fixed the election for 7 September 1635, but, if intending candidates could have seen the following minute, they would probably have spared themselves the trouble of an application : JOHN SPENCER 235 In the mean tyme (it runs) those that are suytors for the place are to make themselves known to the Goven rs ; the Governors resolveing to give their voyces either for M r Reeues or for M r Leech who were now suitors for the place. Indeed, it was so much of a foregone conclusion that on the ap- pointed day not one of the Assistants troubled to be present. Evidently there were two facts that operated in favour of Thomas Leech. His father was a Fellow, who may safely be identified with Jeremiah Leech, Rector of St Mary-le-Bow, 16 17-44*, and he was recommended by the Bishop of London, a course in which, as will appear 2 , Juxon was less fortunate than Henry Compton. Here, then, is the Governors' record of their action : This day being appoynted for the choice of a new Library Keep in the Roome of M r Spencer lately dismissed There mett only the President & the twoe deanes whoe takeing into consideracon the meritt of M r Thomas Leech as a man very fitt for the place & being the Sonne of a worthy Brother amongst them & especially recommended to the place by their most worthy diocesan & visitor the Lord Bpp of London have and doe as much as in them lye make choice of the said M r Leech to be Keep of the Library aforesaid to haue hould and enioy the same with all p'fitts thereto belonging unto the said Thomas Leech so long as he shall well & honestly use & behaue himselfe therein And because the fower Assistants were now absent (though the Govern 1 " 5 now present doubt not that they will assent thereunto) yett yf any question shall arise concerning the same then they doe humbly submitt the same to the said Lord Bpp being their Visitor. Little is chronicled of Mr Leech's career save a perfunctory order that "the Catalogue of the Bookes in the Library be p'fected And all Bookes chayned to be putt in the Library," and the dismal story of his dismissal in 1639. The following Minute gives the main facts which compelled the Court to take drastic action (11 April 1639): fforasmuch as Thomas Leech Keep of the Library hath for the space of dayes together now last past (without any order or consent of the Govern rs or any of them) kept the Library doore locked & shutt .& not suffered any Student or other p'son to goe into the same And this day being called before the Govern' 5 & asked the reason thereof hee did not giue or showe any just or reasonable cause for the same But being requyred by the Govern rs to deliver up the Keys of the said Library to them he peremptorily refused so to doe And therefore and for other 1 Hennessy, Noviim Repertorium, p. 305. 2 Chapter xv. p. 267. 236 JOHN SPENCER causes them moveing the said Govern rs now present have thought fitt to dismiss & discharge... the said Thomas Leech of & from the said place of Keeper of the said Library And order & direccon is given unto him to make & deliuer unto the said Govern rs A Cattalogue & Accompt in everything according to his Indenture & Covenant. From this also will be seen the system which they adopted for the management of the Library. The Keeper was given a free hand. The keys were delivered to him and he gave a bond in sufficient securities for his safe custody of the books. The Governors took stock only on an emergency, and there was certainly an emergency now. ii April 1639. M that the day & yeare above-written the Govern 1 " 5 of Syon Colledge caused the library Doore to be opened by a Smyth (being denyed the key by M r Leech late Library Keep) & took a View of the Books remayning in the seuerall Stalls wherein they found the Nomber of Books in the seuerall stalls w ch are aboue expressed And afterwards they caused the said doore to be shutt upp and bolted on the inside & so departed out of the said Library through M r Leightons chamber & 'brought the key of that doore with them w ch was lefte with M r Winter- borne [the Clerk] in the presence of us James Halsey Tho. Hudson Samuel Sharpe George Kent 1 . It may be guessed that Leech, either for the sake of his father, the rector of St Mary-le-Bow, or through the protection of his patron, the Bishop of London, was not a man to be lightly dismissed. But there is more reason to fear that the Governors did not at the moment know the worst. They had ordered a catalogue, but had it been completed ? All they could do when they had forced the door was to count the books that were left. They found 1694 volumes arranged in nine "stalls" on each side. Eight days later they accepted the culprit's penitence in these terms : Uppon the humble submission of Thomas Leech... it is thought fitt and agreed.... That he be restored agayne to the place of Library Keep for the space of one whole yeare from this day & noe longer on condicon neuerthelesse that he shall (according to his covenant & bond 1 These names have been added in another hand and are not certainly to be identified ; e.g. Halsey, the contemporary rector of St Alphage, was called John, not James. (Novutn Repertorium, p. 87.) JOHN SPENCER 237 & as he now faithfully promises) cause to be bought & provyded & restored to the Library before the second daie of May next all such Books as have byne defaced or eloyned & taken from hence synce the Date of that Indenture & Bond And att the end of the said yeare he is quietly to surrender & leaue the said place without further con- testaccon or trouble.... s d Tho. Leech. The decision gave them time for investigation. On 10 June 1639 they ordered the books to be "viewed & examined"; in December they resolved " to call M r Leech to Accompt for the bookes wanting"; in January 1640 he was ordered to make the losses good before Lady Day ; in February it was suggested that it might be better to restore Spencer to his keepership again and to let the " pension " due to Leech " paie for the Bookes." It was a generous proposal, but the leisurely habits of our Governors had infected Leech and he "desyred tyme to consider of it." However, his tenure of office, though not the effects of it, came utterly to an end on 30 March 1640. John Spencer was then admitted in his place with a warning, based on their experience of Leech's neglect, that he must not, without permission, " absent himselfe from the said Colledge and Library above the space of two daies together at any one tyme or above the space of twelve daies in the whole yeare (Sundaies and holydaies only excepted)," or immediate dismissal will be the result There is no record of Spencer asking for leave, but presum- ably the Court entertained the limited ideas of the period about vacations ; for half a century later (July, 1697) there is an order that William Nelson, the Librarian, have leave to goe into the Countrey for a week or 10 Dayes for Recovery of his health provided he leave some carefull and good person to officiate in his place in the meane time. Having relieved their anxieties by reinstating Spencer, the Governors, who in this somewhat agitating year were presided over by Dr Richard Houldsworth, Rector of "St Peter le poore" and afterwards Dean of Worcester, turned their attention to the losses caused by the carelessness it was, perhaps, nothing worse of Thomas Leech. Let it be remembered that the Library had probably not yet become a "lending" one. The 238 JOHN SPENCER first record of books being allowed to be taken out dates from the Commonwealth, and concerns Mr Wickins, (intruded) rector of what the Commonwealth pleased to call " Andrew Hubbard," who, being then Junior Dean, was permitted in 1653 to borrow, one at a time, five "volumes of the Councills." So all the Librarian had to do was to watch readers at their work and proceed with his catalogue. Nevertheless, there was a dismal report that the books eloyned and embeazelled...or torne or defaced sithence the said M r Leech came to the same... as by the p'ticulars may appeare amounts unto 34^. 6 s . 7 d . The way to ensure restoration was to impound his salary. So they assigned 10 out of his 20 "for buying and getting agayne of the said Bookes," the other 10 to be paid to John Spencer, who was also to receive 4. a year as ostiary. But they parted from Leech as men who thought him more sinned against than sinning. " Out of their love & respect " and " as a remembrance of their loves " they gave him 4. Nor was the loss quickly made up. Five years later (1645) tnev paid 12. 5-y. 6d. for books "lost whilst M r Leech was Library Keep" and it was only in 1658 that the account was finally closed. Henceforward, as far as the business of the Library is con- cerned, John Spencer went steadily on in the service of the College till his death. He evidently experienced a certain measure of personal difficulties, but there seems to have been no disgrace about them. Sometimes he owed money to the College, so that in 1653 the outgoing Governors recommended their successors " to satisfy M r Spencer for his paines Extraordinary done to the Library out of the money owing by him to the Colledge " ; while in the following year it was resolved that M r John Spencer library Keep be forgiven the some of 6 . 13 s . 4 d . which he oweth to the Colledge & that M r Winterborne pay him Twenty Nobles more in consideracon of the 5^ he is yett out of purse for printing the catalogue of the bookes of the library and for wryting of diverse Catalogues & other services he hath done to the Colledge. Sometimes, as in the straitened circumstances resulting from the Great Fire, it was the College which owed money to him. In 1668 both he and his masters were obliged to endure hardness. JOHN SPENCER 239 Agreed (says a Minute) that the present Governo rs doe Lend xxxv s apeece to M r Spencer /..for the supply of his present necessityes To bee repaid out of his Salary as the College moneyes shall come in. Even in 1674 the arrears due to him "for this severall yeares last past" amounted to over ^18, and as "noe accompt [had been] hitherto stated thereof" he may or may not have received all that was due. The comparative fortuitousness of his modest stipend only serves to emphasise the fidelity of his services, and the dignity that he added to an office which was on its trial when he took it up was deservedly marked in 1663 when the "Library Keep" was "allowed ffyve pounds to buy him a gowne." Moreover, the Governors, having realised their former neglect, kept a close watch over the Library. They may or may not have surveyed it twice yearly, in May and November, in accordance with a resolution passed during the long Presidency of James Cranford in 1654, but it is on record that when they did so in 1657 there were " fower bookes " missing; and in 1661, when the College Beadle was sent to give notice to the President and Senior Dean to conduct the examination on a Monday and to the other members of the Court to continue the process on the Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday following, there were only a few items wanting. In each case Spencer made the losses good "according to his security," and in the second in consideracon of his care & paynes It is ordered that the sume of ffyve pounds bee payd him as a gratuity. For the rest they used him as a good Librarian must expect to be used. Indeed, good or bad, a Librarian was expected to make his own book-list, and Spencer was called upon to make several. For instance, in 1648 an order went forth for An exact Catalogue of all the bookes in the library to be forthwith drawne out by the Library Keeper and the Library to be examyned thereby. That the Coppy of the Catalogue be delivered to M r Roberts [then 4th Assistant, and rector of "Augustynes"] to be printed by a friend that proffers to doe it gratis. This was, of course, our first printed catalogue, and the College possesses but a single copy of it 1 ; indeed, from its 1 Arc. L. 26. i. The inscription is dated 1651. 240 JOHN SPENCER inscription in the handwriting of Lazarus Seaman, President of Sion and Master of Peterhouse, it might seem that there were only two copies. This booke [it says] is for the use and Custody of the Governors of Sion Coll from yeare to yeare for the time being, to examine the Library by, And a counterpart thereof is in the custody of the Library- Keeper : when any new bookes are brought in, they are to be entered into the Registers in ffolio, one of Vellome bound with silver clasps, and two others in paper the one whereof is in the Governors keeping, the other in the Library Keepers, and from thence to be transcribed into this. When the new Governors are chosen, they are entreated at they r entrance in the presence of the Governors for the yeare past to examine the Library according to this Catalogue. The book was issued " ex officina typographica Rob. Leybourni M. D. C. L." and it may be that Leybourne was the friend who proffered " to doe it gratis." On the other hand a phrase on the title-page, which follows, might be taken to imply that Spencer paid for the work himself. Catalogus Universalis Librorum Omnium in Bibliotheca Collegi Sionii apud Londinenses. Una cum Elencho Interpretum SS. Scri- pturae, Casuistarum, Theologorum, Scholasticorum, &c. Omniaper]. S. Bibliothecarium (quanta potuit diligentia) ordine Alphabetic disposita, in unum collecta & propriis sumptibus in Studio- sorum usum excusa Deus nobis haec otia fecit. The book is liberally interleaved and the additions were duly and neatly entered up in Spencer's handwriting at various intervals, according to his marginal notes on the title-page : Continuatus usq. ad ult. Jan. 1656. JOHN SPENCER 241 Jam vero multorum Voluminum additionibus locupletior factus. Julii 4 to 1664. Iterumq. continuatus usq. ad primum Septembris. Anno 1666, that is to the week of the Great Fire. Spencer had to repeat the process again in 1658, when he was called upon to write a Catalogus Librorum omniu &c. & likewise a Catologue of those Bookes that came from Pauls & of all the other Manuscripts that are in the Library, and some months afterwards he (Jan. 1659) received 40^. " for his paynes in wryting it." Secondly, Spencer was himself a bookman in a small way, and our Library possesses a folio volume 1 , in which the reader may find cause for his notion that Spencer was a victim of unmerited misfortune. It is called " KAINA KAI IIAAAIA. Things New and Old, or a Store-house of Similies, Sentences, Allegories, Apothegms, Adagies, Apologues, Divine, Morall, Politicall, &c. With their severall Applications, Collected and observed from the Writings & Sayings of the Learned in All ages to this present. By John Spencer, a lover of Learning & Learned Men." It is dedicated (in Latin) to the Clergy and People of England, and the author signs the dedication. " I. S. De Utchester StafTordiensis, & Collegii Sionii apud Londinenses nunc Bibliothecarius, minime dignus." But he is not one whit more modest about himself than Thomas Fuller is apologetic on his behalf in an address to the reader " From my Chamber in Sion Coll. London, Jan. io th , 1657." In this he defends Spencer from the charge that it was " presumption in him, no Scholar by Profession, to adventure on such a design." " He hath from his Childhood conversed with Books and Book-men " and " what he lacks in Learning he hath supplyed in industry." The fact is that Spencer, though a layman, was an adequate Latinist, as his catalogue shows, and that he has produced in this book an anthology of the Christian wisdom of all ages, as well Puritan as patristic ; for myself, I would rather read his elegant extracts than consume as many pages of William Reading's parochial sermons. > Arc. K. 33. i. p. 16 242 JOHN SPENCER Nor should it be forgotten that in spite of his financial difficulties and his small salary he was a constant and generous benefactor to the Library. Even if we only reckon those which he entered under I. S. B. C. S. (John Spencer, Bibliothecary of Sion College), he presented the shelves with 220 volumes between 1631 and 1658, when as a final gift he brought in his "Things New and Old." These various sets of donations are of a mis- cellaneous character that is sometimes miscellaneous of set purpose ; for instance, he entered under 1648 his prompt gift of a copy of Eikon Basilike, but shrewdly weighted it with one of Stephen Marshall's Fast sermons entitled " Meroz Cursed." I doubt whether this is the whole story of his generosity and suspect that we also owe to him the considerable gifts which he entered under " Donavit Musophilus," a probable variant for his favourite description of himself. It was therefore natural that this " Lover of Learning & of Learned Men " should be encouraged to take up the pen of the chronicler. So in 1659 he was instructed to "putt downe in writing what hee knowes of the College from the foundacon & the Governmente thereof." By the next meeting he had his "Narrative" ready; whereupon it was examined and handed back to him " to bee perfected." The College had been at work nearly thirty years and it was time, they felt, that its story should be on record. " I never saw it," says Reading 1 , " printed nor written." But, thirdly, a diligent Librarian can always be judged by the readiness with which the possessors of books, or of money wherewith to buy books, add to his charge. In this respect John Spencer can give a good account of himself. We are able to follow the process of Library enlargement by- gifts of volumes or of money through " the Booke of the Bene- factors," a vellum tome, in which all such donations were inserted. At one time it was " placed on the Deske at the East end of the Library " to encourage the others. It is, indeed, a magnificent volume, even without the silver clasps, the theft of which is alleged against the Cromwellian soldiery. Whoever took them off did so in haste, for the silver bosses and corner pieces remain 1 Cf. W. Reading, State of Sion- Library, p. 51. JOHN SPENCER 243 intact. The book is too familiar to need description in this place, but it may be noted that Spencer set the example of making it a record of College life as well as of Library benefac- tions. For instance, we have little documentary evidence of John Simson's efforts as founder of the Library except on Spencer's ornate title-page, where it is stated of him that also for the perpetuall memory of such well disposed Christians as shall eyther by Bookes, Monyes, or otherwise be beneficiall to this Library he gave this Book, wherein y e names of all such Benefactors togeather with theyr severall guifts are particularly recorded to Posterity. Having donne this good Work he finished his owne course, August the twenty fowrth day, Anno Dom. 1633. The Vellum Book has been completed up to the year 1888 and contains the signatures of King Edward VI I and Queen Alexandra which they entered when, as Prince and Princess of Wales, they opened the new Library on the Thames Embankment, 15 De- cember 1886. But the existence of this register of benefactions did not prevent a fairly frequent reference to specific donations and additions at the meetings of the Court. The earliest of these is of great interest. Walter Travers, the famous opponent of Richard Hooker at the Temple, he who preached " Geneva " in the afternoon, to the other's " Canterbury " in the morning 1 , was not a Fellow of the College, and is entered by Spencer simply as " M r Gwalter Travers, Minister of Gods word." Dr White, as vicar of St Dunstan in the West, was his near neighbour, but Dr White's Puritanism was hardly stout enough to secure the admiration of Travers, and we are left without evidence of what it was that drew Travers to our College. What we are now concerned with is that in 1635, before Leech had ousted Spencer for a time, Richard Houlds worth, the Senior Dean, and an ardent Royalist, was desired in conjunction with a colleague "to view M r Travers bookes and to consider which are fitt for the college according to the will." The actual extent of Travers' enrichment of the Library cannot be stated, because at the end of an entry (1636) in the Vellum Book, over three columns in length, Spencer adds cum aliis ; but it consisted of at least 150 works and 1 Cf. I. Walton, Life of Mr Richard Hooker, ed. Oxford, 1875, p. 41. 16 2 244 JOHN SPENCER included Rabbinics, alchemy, medicine, Patristics, Bibles and dictionaries in six or seven modern languages, and a " Prognostica finis Mundi." But the Fellows of the College included among them men of sound learning and of fame in sacred or secular letters, and it has been an honourable custom that Fellows who publish books should offer a copy for the acceptance of the Court. Brian Walton, for instance, was Junior Dean in 1636 and Senior Dean in 1640. It was in the latter year that he made what was, perhaps, the first benefaction of the kind, though it was in manuscript and has never been printed : This day D r Walton presented to the Govern 1 " 5 a Booke written on paper called a Historicall Narracon of the tythes of London, w ch he desired might remayne in the library as a guifte from him for the publique good of the Clergy, & M r Spencer to haue 46 s giuen him as a guifte from the Govern 1 * towards the wry ting thereof. Eighteen years afterwards some one who had, perhaps, been looking through the minutes asked at a Court what had become of this interesting document and in October 1658 Spencer produced it and it was ordered to be "putt in the Coll e Library 1 ." But there is a possible reason why the matter had been allowed to lapse till that moment. Brian Walton did not become President, probably owing to his devotion to his studies, and he was promoted in 1660 to the see of Chester. The progress of the Polyglot Bible was closely watched in our College 2 , and early in 1659 the Governors were aware that he had his great opus nearly ready for publication ; so that it was enjoined on Mr Spencer that he " doe speake to D r Walton about the Biblia Polyglotta for the use of the Library"; but it was not till January 1661 that "the Poly-glott Bible" was actually brought in " as the Guift of D r Walton Bpp of Chester." Spencer was told to " attend the Bishop with the hearty thanks of the Governo rs "; the bearer, Mr Theobald, was recompensed with ten shillings ; and it was ordered "that M r Paybody take care of the well bynding thereof." Another addition is more mysterious in its origin and was 1 For its subsequent importance see Chap. XII. p. 219. 2 See Chapter xiv. pp. 263-5, re Dr Castell. JOHN SPENCER 245 not properly noted in the minutes at the time. How the Cathedral books came to be at Camden House I have not discovered, but here is the formal certificate bearing the signatures of Dr Cranford and other members of the Court in 1653: The manuscripts & books menconed in the Catalogue or wryting hereunto annexed were in the yeare 1647 by order of the Lord Maior or such others as then had the disposall thereof as wee are informed by our predecessors... brought from Cambden house into the library of the said College there to remayne for the publique use of the said College (they being as wee are likewise informed the Remaynes of the Library late belonging to the Cathedrall Church of St Paul in London) And this wee thought good to certifye to the Trustees appoynted by Parlia- ment. . . . It is not stated in our register what ultimately became of them. Spencer made with his usual care a Catalogus Librorum e Bibliotheca Paulina London ad hanc Sionensem transmissorum, Martii 13 1647, an d this appears at the end of his list of the archive-books which perished in the Fire. Reading assumes that this was the fate of the Cathedral books. What is certain is that they are not in our Library. But this is not the last occasion on which the placing of books in Sion was thus thought to put them more at "the publique use," than if they were entrusted to the Dean and Chapter. Dr Cranford, it may be added, not only collected a certain amount of money at one time he had 30 " for the good of the Library" but he appears to have acquired in December 1652, on his own initiative, "the king of ffrance's bible," and the Governors, being anxious that this treasure should come into the Library "for publique use," agreed to refund his disbursement " out of the next money that shall be given by Benefactors." Unfortunately, too little is known of Cranford's further effort, which was to apply himself "to any of M r Seldens exec rs & move them in y e Name of the Governo rs that they would be pleased to dispose of all or p'te of Mr Seldens Bookes to Sion College Library." But still the gifts came in, now from members of the Court such as Mr Blackmore 1 , the incumbent of St Peter upon Cornhill, 1 See Chapter in. p. 42. 246 JOHN SPENCER who in 1660 was serving the office of Senior Dean and who brought in " as his free guift a large folio Booke, being a Col- leccon of flowers in Colours Alphabetically arranged "; or from booksellers such as Mr Bee 1 , whose "free guifts" were at once frequent and valuable "the Critici Sacri in Nyne volumes" (1660-1) "one fayre folio book well bound viz 1 Mich. Glycae Annales &c. printed att Paris MDCLX" (i'663) "two Volumes of Procopius concerning the Bizantine storyes" (1664) "Opera Procopij in two Volumes Folio well bound"; or some- times from tenants of chambers in the College. One such case is worth notice. When Old Fuller's chamber passed into the occupation of Mr Dugard, the new tenant "promised to give Tenn pounds worth of Bookes to the Library." There need be no great hesitation in identifying this College resident with the well-known headmaster of Merchant Taylors' School, who, as an expert printer, may have been attracted to the place 2 by the presence in it of such men as Mr Bee. Dugard's unique folio register of the boys admitted to the School was at once entrusted to our Library, where it still remains. This fact coupled with the agreement of the entry now following with date of his death (3 December 1662) fairly establishes the headmaster's identity with the tenant of Fuller's rooms ; for the latter kept his promise in his testament and on 6 April 1663 Edward Waterhouse Esq.... did deliver att this Court as the guift of the said M r Dugard by his last will these Bookes following, viz 1 s. d. Eustathius in Homeru vol s 4 att 08 . oo . oo Victorij varia Lect. fol. att oo . 08 . oo Missale Romanu fig. gilt att oo . 16 . oo Dionisius de scitu orbis &c. att oo . 10 . oo EschyP Traged &c. att oo . 06 . oo The incident is partly worth giving as an instance of " book prices current," but more because the executor was so well pleased at his dealings with the College that he added a " free guift " of his own, no less than " the first pt of Monasticu Anglicanu," which was issued in 1655. What most strikes the student of the Book of Benefactors is 1 For his misfortunes through the Great Fire see Chapter vi. pp. 121 f. 2 " Guil. Dugard, Coll. Sidn. Cantabr." was admissus ad stndendum in 1642. JOHN SPENCER 247 the great variety of the donors and the wide extent of the desire, of which the Library was an expression, that the London Clergy should have this opportunity for research and erudition. Gifts of money or sets of books came from the Viscount and Vis- countess Sudbury, the Viscountess Campden and Sir George Croke, "one of his Ma ties Justices of his Highnesse Pleas before him assigned to be holden." Sir Paul Pindar presented manu- scripts, as he had previously to the Bodleian. Clergy like George Walker, of St John the Evangelist, Watling Street (;iio), and Richard Watson of St Mary, Aldermary (24), were able to " give or procure to be given by [their] Parishioners and other Christian friends" sums which could only have been collected on the ground that the Library met a public need. The bene- factors include school-masters and undergraduates. Here is Thomas Hayne 1 , " late Schoole-m r of Christs Hospitall London," while the little group of gifts from Peterhouse men is perhaps due to the tendency of Lazarus Seaman, the intruded Master of that College, to love the gates of Sion more than all the dwellings of Cambridge' 2 . Here are Stationers and Haberdashers and Merchant Taylors, doctors and lawyers, as well as clergy of various views. Perhaps the Library's greatest treasure may be taken as a good instance of the unaccountableness of some of these gifts. For our magnificent and unique York Breviary, long held by our Librarians to be of little account, came to us in 1655 as the gift of Simeon Ashe, whose benefice of St Au- gustine was the reward of eager service as chaplain with the Parliamentary forces. Ashe was a man of some property, so that we need not speculate as to the particular marauding expedition of the Parliamentarians which yielded him this priceless piece of loot. Just two centuries later (Ecclesiologist, Oct. 1855) some experts, visiting the Library to witness the reforms that were being initiated under the presidency of Michael Gibbs, discovered that what had long been entered in the 1 Spencer was in the habit of writing descriptions of the donors and pasting them in the books. As in private duty bound, I give this as a specimen : Tho Hayne nuperrime Scholae Londinensis in Orphanotrophio Christi Moderator. On Hayne, cf. E. H. Pearce, Annals of Christ's Hospital, p. 69. 2 Cf. J. Bass Mullinger, The University of Cambridge, ill. p. 503. 248 JOHN SPENCER catalogue as a Sarum Missal "was one of the long lost, and often sought, copies of the Use of York"; for the calendar contains, as red letter days, the festivals of certain York saints ; there is a sequence in praise of St William; and the I5th century obits deal with Yorkshire families. But already the collection was also becoming of value to the producer of books, and was beginning to realise the delight experienced by every great Library when learned students desire permission to copy its treasures. Thus in 1659 it was resolved that M r Ekins the Bookseller being about to print M r Hugh Broughtons vvorkes, have the use of M r Broughtons AeiKoi/ upov 1 and the other Manuscript, giving such bond as shall be thought fitt. And then there came a woeful pause. The Great Fire of 1666, as elsewhere explained 2 , was a grievous visitation for Sion College. The minutes, indeed, do not devote space to a de- scription of the disaster as regards its effect upon the Library, but the vellum Book of Benefactors becomes pardonably dithy- rambic in its entry of " the dismall fire which consumed this famous City of London and this College with the Library and a third part of the books therein conteyned." Probably nothing but a shortage of labour caused the loss of volumes to be so great. For the course of the Fire was such as to give Sion due notice of its approach. All we can do is to think of John Spencer, who had watched the growth of the collection from its infancy, superintending sadly but vigorously, while as much of it as time permitted was placed upon carts and conveyed along London Wall, past St Giles' Church, westward to Aldersgate Street, and thence to the friendly shelter of the Charterhouse, apparently at no greater cost to the College, apart from the cartage, than a consideration of 5^. to the Charterhouse Porter, which he received from Spencer in the following February. But the personal cost to Spencer, for which no adequate reward was forthcoming, appears pathetically in the two careful Catalogues 1 Spencer entered this in his 1632 Catalogue as Lexicon sacru continens Hebraea quae No: Test: donat Hellade; opera Hug: Broughtoni et proprio illius manu scriptu; and he includes it in his list of the books removed to the Charterhouse in 1666, which is evidence that Mr Ekins took care of it. On the other hand Broughton's ' ' View of the Scripture " (Lond. 1604) was among the " amissi " in the Fire. - See Chapter vi. JOHN SPENCER 249 which he at once prepared of the saved books and the lost. They bear these titles : Catalogus Librorum a Bibliotheca Collegij de Sione ad Hospitium Suttonianum (vulgo Charterhouse) Londino conflagrante Calendis Sep- tembris Anno MDCLXVI transmissorum. Catalogus librorum aut Incendij tempore inter portandum amissorum aut flammis perditorum : qvorum si qvis defectum modo qvamvis tenui suppeditaverit, Reipub. literariae gratum faciet. It took four years to make ready for their return, but at last on October 3, 1670, it could be agreed That from this day the Books of the Library belonging to this Colledge bee in a Readines, and that Care bee taken for their disposall from the Charterhouse where now they are to the said Library as soone as conveniently may bee. That the Library bee singly shelved round and that two of the Windowes bee lyned. More time still elapsed before the benefactions of books began to flow in again. In 1673 the Court received a small foretaste of a very large legacy, which would come to their successors six and thirty years later : M r Sherwood an Assistant of this College [Rector of St Martin, Orgar] brought a Bible of the Danish 1 Languish (sic) given to the Library here by John Lawson of the College of Physitians London D r of Physicke. Lawson was an eminent practitioner in the City, and it was possibly of considerable importance to the future development of our Library that among the friends of this President of the College of Physicians was one " TJto. Tenison, B.D. Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty, and late Fellow of Corpus- Christi Colledg in Cambridge*? who dated his first published work "From Dr Lawson s house in Mincing Lane in London, March 16, 1677." Possibly Mr Richard Mills who gave " Nine volumes of Calvins workes" in 1674 was a relative of Mr Daniel Mills, Pepys' parson at St Olave, Hart St, whose services to the fabric 1 Wm Reading entered this (A. x. 19) as " Biblia, Danice, 4to Kishinghafa. 1647'" (where " Kishinghafa" is his version of Kiobinghafen or Copenhagen). The edition was that of Hans Svaning, Bishop of Zealand. Cf. Bible Society's Historical Catalogue of Printed Bibles, pt. II. p. 280, no. 3162. 2 See title-page of Tenison's " Of Idolatry : a Discourse." For Lawson's subse- quent bequest, see Chapter xiv. p. 262. 250 JOHN SPENCER of the Library after the Great Fire are noticed elsewhere 1 . Anyhow, as "Trear of the Hospitall of St Bartholomew London 2 ," he could be regarded as conveying a compliment from one civic foundation to another. Let us hope that he realised how Calvin, having ceased somewhat since the Restoration to bestride English theology like a Colossus, still had his rightful and considerable place in a liberal education. Nor was the ordinary City tradesman one whit behind the City philanthropist in his desire to benefit the clergy. Witness a legacy of $ (1675) from Mr Litler, an Apothecary at " the Golden Lyon in ffan- church Streete," together with a parcel of books that included " Joh: Gerhardi Loci in 4 volumes, an Ebrew Bible in Octavo of Geneva, and an Arrabicke booke [it was a Pentateuch] in quarto." One other addition, interesting because of its origin rather than through its intrinsic importance, was concerned with the library seized in the study of a Jesuit at Holbeck in 1679, during the presidentship of Dr Ambrose Atfield, rector of St Mary Somerset. It was agreed That the presid 1 D r Dove Deane & D r Pettis Assistant and such others of the Governo rs as please be Desired to waite on his Grace the Arch Bishopp of Canterbury to pray his Assistance and Direction in obteyninge of his Majesty the Jesuits Library of Bookes to be given to the Library of this College And what charges the Governo rs are at therein are to be paid by this College. There is no further reference to the success of this mission in the Court registers. Nevertheless, success was achieved, and Dr Atfield was soon able to distribute a notice, a copy of which survives, informing the "rector, vicar, lecturer, curate, and reader" of each constituent parish that " His Majesty having bestowed a forfeited Library on Sion-College, London, and given order for the sale of the duplicates, and with the product to defray the charge of bringing them in and to buy other books 3 ," the Jesuits' 1 See Chapter vi. p. 122. 2 Richard Mills was nominated Alderman of the Ward of Bridge Without in 1662 ; but was excused on the score of being over 74 years of age and of having been " singularly useful and beneficial " in his treasurership. Cf. A. B. Beaven, Aldermen of the City of London, p. 65. 3 W. Reading (State of Sion-Library, p. 36) gives an account of the books and we possess what seems to be the catalogue to which he refers. JOHN SPENCER 251 treasures would be " exposed at the Library of the said College by way of auction, and you and the rest of the clergy in and about London shall have the refusal of them." For some years past there has been no reference to John Spencer. The influence of his work continued, but his age must have been advanced, for he had joined the first staff in 1631, and now, 1678, we take up his story again with the pathetic memorandum Lend Mr Spencer o . 10 . o and the Jesuits' books could hardly have come in before he was dead. It is strange that we cannot recall Spencer more definitely, and that the many scholars who used the Library in his time should have taken him as a matter of course. In 1629 he procured a little quarto manuscript book, in which to enter the names, academic qualifications, and payments (generally half a crown 1 ) of the students who were admitted to read in the Library. The first entry, which was not made till 1632, was that of Edward Rainbow, who became Bishop of Carlisle (1664-84); between this name and Spencer's last entry in 1677 more than nine hundred readers enjoyed at the same modest fee the benefits of his attention; they included men of fame such as William Dell, afterwards Master of Gonville and Caius College (1632); Samuel Mather, "e Coll. Harvard in Nov- Anglia" (1651); William Sancroft (1655); Peter Gunning (1656); William Beveridge (1657); Henry Compton (1658); John Til- lotson (1660); William Sherlock (1661); Denis Grenville, after- wards Dean of Durham (1662); and Richard Cumberland, afterwards Bishop of Peterborough (1673). Students came to him from other lands ; " e Coll. Glagvensi. Scoto-Britannus " ; " Academ. Dublinens. apud Hibernos"; " Natione Scotus Abri- donensis " ; " in Academia Leydensi studiosus " ; " Borussus Dantiscanus " ; " ex vico Providentia dicto in Nova Anglia " such are some of their descriptions; not to speak of Danes and Dutchmen, Frenchmen and Helvetians, and Germans from 1 Each student ' ( Bibliothecario Coronati Anglici dimidium ut admissionis suae feodum in manu persolvet." 252 JOHN SPENCER Heidelberg or what Spencer enters as " de Regio monte Prus- sorum." With all these polyglot demands upon his attention he did well to put up his rules in Latin, and we can get our best idea of him from a copy of these (dated 1651) which he pasted in the front of his Admission Book : Vnusquisque Admissus quiete & ut modestum decet se gerat, nee molestis ambulationibus aut improba canorave garrulitate caeteros inter turbet aut offendat, immo potius studiis incumbat sub silentio ; super libros cubitis brachiisve non reclinet, sed notas chartamque exceptoriam super pluteos ipsos omnino reponet, apertos non dimittet, sed classibus ordinibusque propriis sine omni morosa catenarum intricatione reponet ; libros etiam caeterumque cultum sic tractabit ut superesse quam diutis- sime possint. Vnusquisque studiosorum deniq: statutis horis ad sonitum cam- panae, ostii verberationem, vel aliud signum usitatum discedat. Neither his moods nor his particles are quite impeccable, but some of his hints can still be commended to those who use our Library to-day. There is only one further sign of his worth to take note of; it meant confidence then, as it would now. During his reign the College received two legacies, the interest to be laid out each year in the purchase of books for the Library. The first came by the will of Mr Abraham Colfe, of Lewisham 1 , which was proved on 25 January 1657. Colfe was a man whose career is worth a word or two. He was appointed in 1609 by the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury, where his father was a prebendary, to the rectory of St Leonard, Eastcheap, which he held till he was supplanted by a Presbyterian in 1641, so that he became a Fellow of our College at its foundation. His bequest to the Library shows that his interests were not entirely absorbed in his other benefice of Lewisham, where he lived from 1604 till his death in 1657. His will was wholly occupied with charitable benevolence and it may be well to give at this point the clause which applied to our College, though it was many years before it was properly entered in the register. Also my Will is that Twenty shillings of lawfull money of England shall be payd... every yeare...to the President Deanes and Assistants... of Sion College... for the buying of one or two or three Divinity Bookes 1 For the affairs of his Grammar School, cf. pp. 58-59. JOHN SPENCER 253 well bound in folio or great Quarto every yeare...to be put into the publick Library there for the use of all Godly Ministers. And that this Gift and the Names of the Bookes shall be Recorded... in their Booke of Records appointed for such purposes, And the Keeper of the Library that Records it shall have also Twelve pence for his paynes therein. The Library still receives annually the sovereign from the Leathersellers' Company, and the shilling "for his paynes therein" still goes to the proper person. But historically it was some time before the matter began to work smoothly. More than two years after the proving of the will, on 4 March 1660, the Clerk was bidden to go to " the Prerogative Office " and obtain an extract of the legacy to the College. Then it was necessary "that M r Colfes Executors be spoke to about settling the xx s p. ann. to the Library for the better & surer receiving thereof." Apparently it was the Clerk's business to attend and receive the money at Leathersellers' Hall on quarter-day. But within a brief space regularity of payment was established. Unfortunately neither the College nor the receiver of Mr Colfe's shilling showed equal regularity in buying books. It is true that in the locus for the finances of Sion College in the i;th century, the pre- sentment made to Bishop Compton at his visitation, Mr Colfe's guinea appears on both sides of the account, the Governors to that extent assuring the Visitor that they regarded it as their duty to lay it out as well as to receive it. But nearly ten years afterwards (April 1705), according to their common custom at that time, they made a catalogue of their duplicates, had it " fairly written," and resolved " with the moneys arising thereby to buy some Bookes to supply M r Colfe's gift." As this set of duplicates fetched 30, it is to be hoped that they had something over, when they had satisfied the figure, if not the letter, of Mr Colfe's testament. The other legacy had a still more precarious career. The donor in this case was a Mr Wyn, or Wynn, or Wynne, whose will was heard of in July 1673, when Mr Daggett, the Clerk, was bidden to make inquiries. Early in 1676 Mr Offiey, the executor, was requested to pay over ;ioo to the College, "and that such a writeing or Covenant as shall be reasonably desired be made for secureing 6^ a yeare for ever to be laid out in 254 JOHN SPENCER Bookes according to the will of the testator." Obviously the best security was a judicious investment of the principal, but, as our story of the Great Fire shows, the College was hard put to it to find ready money in 1676, and 70 ^Mr Wynn's 100 went straight into the hands of bricklayer and carpenter. There was thus a perpetual insecurity about the 6's worth of books yearly, notwithstanding that in 1677 "a pay booke" was ordered to be "affixed... in some convenient place in the Library to register the bookes to be bought on the guift of Mr Wyn." Certainly, their intentions were good at the start, for in 1679 the President, George Gififord, of St Dunstan-in-the-East, was " desired to by such Bookes for the Library of the guift of Mr Wyn as to him shall please And that he shall be allowed the price that he agrees for the same out of the rents or Stocke of the College." But before ten years had passed the Court was ordering accounts to be made of the fulfilment of this bequest, "that it may appeare what is in arreare thereof," and a sum of ,36 was " laid out for Books for six yeares arreares" (1682-88). The obliga- tion was not concealed, any more than Colfe's gift, from Bishop Compton, who sternly bade the College consider the annual payment a debt, being apparently under the impression that no purchase of Wynn books had ever been made. But in the absence of an actual ad hoc revenue of 6 they did the best they could. There was another great sale of Library duplicates in 1701 and the price obtained was"applyed towards the discharge of the 100^ owing on bond from the College" an entirely independent matter and the interest thus "discharged" was used in "making good M r Wynnes Gift of 6 p. ann." a doubly precarious expedient. Thenceforward for a long time the obli- gation lapsed. Even William Reading, though he brought Wynn's gift to the Court's remembrance in his State of Sion-Library, 1724, seems to have made little impression on their minds, for in 1738 he reported having " found that y e interest of M r Wynne's hundred pounds given to the Library at 6 p. cent is due for 40 years past, viz 1 from Lady day 1697 to Lady day 1737," and his balance sheet for 1742, which lies before me, shows that he then made pathetic allusion to the neglect, adding " See my JOHN SPENCER 255 printed State of y e Library p. 38." But it was the Governors of 1755 who suddenly realised, like Josiah receiving the discovered Book of the Law, that the Library was being annually defrauded, and this is how they describe their feelings : It appearing by the Account of the State of Sion Library printed at the end of the catalogue, that M r John Wynn gave by will One hundred pounds to the Governors of the College on condition that six pounds p. Ann. should be laid out in Books for the use of the Library, and part of the said Money having been afterwards paid towards rebuilding the College, in the year 1695 D r Compton Bishop of London in a Visita- tion of the College Ordered that the Arrears should be charged as a Debt to be laid out in Books for the Library when the College should be in better condition. The Gov rs considering this affair & observing that no Books have been bought for many years past with the Interest of this Money, & that the affairs of the College are at present in good Condition. Agreed and Ordered that Six Pounds be paid this year out of the College Stock for the purchase of such Books as the Governors shall think proper. It is comforting to be able to add that, though the matter then slept till 1791, for a long time past Mr Wynn's "6 p. ann" have been faithfully laid out in accordance with his directions, and that in 1908 the Governors purchased sufficient New South Wales inscribed stock to bring them in the requisite income. Why the principal thus sunk must needs be nearly double the amount of Mr Wynn's benefaction is a mystery, which the City can solve more easily than Sion College. But it is hard to repress a regret that our predecessors of two centuries ago did not buy with the gift a small parcel of ground in their immediate neighbourhood. CHAPTER XIV GREAT BENEFACTIONS So much for matters that may be said to belong to the Spencerian era. We move on towards the more spacious times of William Reading, though there are some lesser folk to be considered first. Spencer's immediate successor was a complete failure, and his brief but inglorious career can be soon disposed of. He was elected on 23 August 1680, being possibly identical with William Lewis, who was incumbent of All Hallows, London Wall, from 1660 to I683 1 . In January 1681 it was agreed that he should give a bond for 500 in respect of the treasures entrusted to him, and, as became those leisurely days, the Court waited nine months before instituting inquiry about his sureties. When it came to February 1682 they found that securities were not forthcoming, and in the meantime the general conduct of Mr Lewis had roused considerable suspicion. Indeed, the Presi- dent, no less a man than Dr Beveridge, of St Peter-upon-Cornhill, and his colleagues, proceeded at once to draw up a minute which may be taken to imply their distinct dissatisfaction : That the office of Library Keeper be executed & p'formed by the Library Keep in his owne p'son & not by any deputy or any other under him And that he dilligently Attend the houres the Library is open And psume not to lend or carry any bookes out of the Library without leave under a Governo rs hand And that he nor any other keepe any schoole within the College. Still they were patient with him ; issued their orders that 4( Chaines be bespoke for the Library," as many " as will make up what is already 20 dozen " ; gave him the command laid, with sublime indifference to the need for continuity, upon every Librarian in succession, to compile a fresh catalogue and to have " a Noate made of what is wanting, and that search be 1 Cf. Hennessy, Novum Repertorium, p. 83. GREAT BENEFACTIONS 257 made for that Catalogue that is said was made by M r Spencer a little before his Death," and about which the reader is better informed than they. Probably Lewis cared for none of these things, but he was in the hands of men who had an enthusiasm for the College and some little knowledge of its interests. Beveridge was succeeded by William Bell, of St Sepulchre, who thus entered the presidential office for the fourth time, and, as 1682 went out, the blow fell : That M r Lewis be from henceforth discharged from the office of Library Keeper... for that he hath not executed the same office according to orders & rules formerly made nor given nor can give security as was ordered and is demaunded And for that there is greate losse susteyned in the Library by his willingnesse or negligence & great omissions cornitted by him in the due execution of the said office And that another person be elected.... The same meeting that disposed of Mr Lewis 1 (13 December 1682) chose Mr William Nelson as Library Keeper "during the pleasure of the P 1 , Deans, & Assistants." His securities were forthcoming within a week, and he entered on one and twenty years of the happiness which knows no history. Indeed for fifteen years the Courts did no business in the matter of the Library that was important enough to go on the minutes. By 1696 the investigator of our predecessors' doings thinks that he is in promising pursuit of some information about the condition of the Library, for the Court is about to make an inspection ; but, alas, the Governors came only to the resolve That in regard of the extreame Coldnes of the Weather at present the veiw of the Library be deferred till it be more seasonable. But this apparently quiet epoch was by no means unfruitful to our collection. The City publisher was beginning to take an interest in it and the prudent Governors soon decided to foster that interest by judicious invitations to the leading members of the trade to the Anniversary feasts 2 . For instance it was ordered in 1697 that W T illiam Nelson should carry the catalogue of the Library to M r Chiswell the Bookseller in Pauls Church yard who desires to see the same having promised to give soome Bookes that he finds wanting in the Library. 1 If the above identification is correct, Lewis died in January 1683. 2 See Chapter xi. p. 194. P. 17 258 GREAT BENEFACTIONS Chiswell, of the " Rose and Crown," was at the head of the publishing trade of his time and his interest meant no small compliment to the public importance of our Library. But meanwhile the treasures of the College had been added to by a patron of much higher social standing, of whom some grateful record is here needed as one of our scribes sometimes notes in his margin in perpetud rei memorid. George, ninth Baron and first Earl of Berkeley, had close connexions with the City. His wife was a daughter of John Masingberd, Treasurer of the East India Company ; he was himself Master of the Trinity House Corporation and Governor of the Levant Com- pany. Of our College and its members he must have heard not a little when in 1660 he was included in the Commission that went to the Hague to invite Charles II to return, and, as F.R.S. from 1663, he was brought into contact with some of our Fellows. But Berkeley had a strong element of devoutness in his character, which deserves a more discerning appreciation than it gets in Dr Beveridge's address to be noticed directly. In 1670 he put out a little book entitled Historical Applications and Occasional Meditations upon Several Subjects. Written by a Person of Honour*. Some of it is, indeed, superficial and of the style of Martin Tupper ; but there is a shrewd simplicity of religious purpose running through it all ; and if, when he comes to pray for his King, he styles Charles II " Delicium humani generis," and likens him to Vespasian, "qui neminem demisit tristem," we need not question that he thus emerges with skill from a position of difficulty. Waller wrote a prefatory ode in which he urged the importance of these lay meditations in high society : Divines are pardon'd, they defend Altars on which their lives depend; But the Prophane impatient are, When Nobler Pens make this their care. For why should these let in a Beam Of Divine Light to trouble them ; And call in doubt their pleasing thought, That none believes what we are taught? 1 Cf. Diet. Nat. Biog. s.v. Chiswell, Richard, the elder (16391711). 2 Sion Coll. Library, A. 62. 3 (B. 45). GREAT BENEFACTIONS 259 The benefaction with which we are dealing was not, indeed, of Berkeley's own collecting. The books in question had been gathered by Sir Robert Coke, the son and heir of the great Chief Justice who founded the Leicester family. Sir Robert had married Theophila Berkeley, sister to our Lord Berkeley's father, and in the Book of Benefactors it is stated that this Library "was at first collected by S r Rob 1 Cook for the use of the London Clergy in the troublesome times." Even so, the Earl, having assigned the books to our College, retained them at the Durdans during his life. The reader must have these facts in his mind as he passes on now to the sealed letter in which a greater than Berkeley acknowledged the Earl's benevolent intention : The Copie of a Letter sent & Delivered to the Earle of Berkley. My Lord, Yo r lordships noble & generous inclinations to every thing that 5 greate & virtuous have so signally recomended themselves to public notice, that he must be a greate stranger to the affaires of this Age that can be unacquainted with them ; And as there is scarce any Order or rank of men whom y r Lordshipp hath not some way obliged, soe have you bin pleased upon all occasions to expresse a more particular regard for the Loyall & Regular Clergy of the Church of England and especially those of this City Witness after other demonstracons the princely guift of that choise & excellent Library collected heretofore by the Care & cost of that pious & honourable Gentleman Sir Robert Cooke for the accomodation of those of the City Clergy whom the iniquity of the tymes had stript of everything but (what could not be taken from them) theire Religion Loialty & learneing The disposall hereof being devolved upon yo r Lordship you have freely bestowed the best & most usefull part in present and the rest by Will as a Noble Addition to the public Library of Sion College.... So greate favours already received encourage us to make this request That you would please to give us leave to honour o r Library with yo r Lordships and Sir Robert Cookes pictures That those whoe shall hereafter read yo r Bookes may at the same tyme behold the p'sons to whose Memories they are obliged for so illustrious a Benefaction.... Sealed with the Comon Scale Signed W m Beveridge D.D. president [and the rest of the Court]. Beveridge had been for four years Bishop of St Asaph a responsibility which did not prevent his regular presence at 172 260 GREAT BENEFACTIONS the annual College Feasts before this donation came to the gates of Sion in 1698*, when the Governors considered in a practical way its safe transport : M r Harris & M r Geary reported they had been at Durdans the Ld Berkleys house and viewed the Bookes given by him to the College Library, and that they were about 300 folios and a Competent number of smaller Bookes and might be about weight, and be brought in one Cart, at about Three & twenty shillings Charge, And as they had undertaken they were by this Court desired to procure the conveyance of the said Bookes to the College.... Various other matters of detail had to be settled before this magnificent bequest could be considered to be safely arranged. First, the Governors, having a frugal mind, went through them to ascertain how many were duplicates, and in March 1700 a sum of 28 was obtained by the sale of these. This enabled them to face the cost of " a sufficient number of Chaines for the L d Berkleys Bookes... & see them fixed." It was also well that visitors to the Library, especially if they had collections of their own which they might desire to commit to safe custody after their death, should know that Sion honoured its benefactors. So it was ordered that his lordship's books should be inscribed with the following " title": E Bibliotheca Durdanensi Honoratiss: D: Georgii Com: de Berkley. The Court had before it in June 1703 a proposal from Mr Philip Stubbs, Rector of St Alphage, who dwelt in the College and became Archdeacon of St Albans, that they should find " some expedient for the buying and obtaining the Library of D r Stillingfleet the late Bishop of Worcester." It was " well received & approved," and the Bishop's son was " asked to give a catalogue thereof... together with the lowest price he would take." It would have been an acquisition at once valuable and appropriate, for Stillingfleet had been a Fellow of the College for a quarter of a century as rector of St Andrew, Holborn. But apparently the project fell through, and, indeed, at the 1 William Reading has entered the books in the Book of Benefactors under the year 1682, instead of 1698. They numbered 150 works in folio, 213 in 410 and 192 in 8vo and 121110, and included books in many classes and several languages. GREAT BENEFACTIONS 26l moment the Court's hands were full. For at the same meeting (February 1704) at which it was resolved to approach Stilling- fleet's representatives there was an announcement that William Nelson was dead. Apparently his health had long been feeble ; anyhow they proceeded at the same meeting to elect one Samuel Beardmore or Berdmore in his room, one of his securities being " M r Thomas Beardmore Vicar of Aldenham in Hertfordshire." Berdmore had scarcely started to make his catalogue before it was found that the fabric of the Library was badly in need of repair. It required "New Ripping"; it was necessary to have "the Battlements round the Building... new worked," and also " the Coping of the Gabell End to the South " ; there was " Plaistering, Glasing, Painting, and Smiths Worke " to be done ; and the whole would cost " one hundred & twenty odd pounds." So they called a General Court in order to raise the money and at the same time drafted some rules which throw light on the conditions then prevailing : Ordered That the Library Keeper doe attend evry Incumbent upon his Induction to any Living within the City of London or Suburbs thereof to desire him to bestow a Booke to be placed in and for the use of the College Library. That in regard the leaves of severall Bookes have been cutt or torne out, and others wholly taken and carryed away, for the future no person be admitted to Continue in the Library without an order from some one of the Governo rs for the time being. And That no Booke be at any time lent out of the Library without an Order from the Presid 1 for the time being under his hand, and a Note under the hand of the person so borrowing the same to returne it againe in a fortnight. The interest of this brief set of rules is that practically it represents the principles which still govern the administration of the Library and that it was in force before the important advent of William Reading. First, the Court took upon itself to urge upon every Fellow of the College his duty to add to the Library by his personal gifts. To the advantages of Sion as a Corporation every incum- bent within the pomerium however it may be drawn has an indefeasible right, qua incumbent, by virtue of Dr White's testa- ment. But the Library was added afterwards by the efforts of 262 GREAT BENEFACTIONS clergy who wished to build upon Dr White's foundation, and the collection of books would have been the merest shadow of its present self, or even of itself in 1700, if it had not been for the keenness of those who were on the watch to receive benefac- tions and for the liberality of those who gave them. Moreover, it has been again and again established that the Court has full power to appoint the Librarian and administer the affairs of the Library 1 . Up to the passing of the Libraries Act, while bound to give every Fellow the right of the College hall for any pur- poses that can be comprised within Dr White's injunction that the clergy are " to maynetaine truthe in doctrine " and " love in conversing together," the Court was under no obligation to place the Library books freely at their disposal. Still, the suggestion that each Fellow on his admission should give a book was put as a "desire," not as a command. As late as 1772, when the plan of each Incumbent, one book, had been for convenience' sake modified to each Incumbent, one guinea, it was spoken of as " the custom." Its revival in some form would add to the interest taken by the Fellows in the Library at the present time. Secondly, at whatever risk to the books themselves, the Court had constantly regarded it as natural to admit students to read in the Library, if they were properly introduced. As their benefactors were by no means all clergy, there was no need to insist that the beneficiaries should be all clergy. Laymen in the early days were permitted to rent " chambers " in the College with the idea of being near the books. The action subsequently taken by Parliament in admitting the College to the benefit of the Libraries Act was itself a testimony to the fact that the Library was at the service of the public. Thirdly, the difference between the ordinary student and the privileged Fellow is at this time clearly marked by the per- mission given to the latter to take books out for use at home. The only change effected as between the rules enjoined at the appointment of Berdmore and those which were promulgated when Reading came was a regulation " that no Book be lent to 1 Cf. the judgment of Blomfield as Visitor, 20 July 1855, par. 5 : " The right to appoint the Secretary, Librarian, and Porter, belongs to the Court of Governors." GREAT BENEFACTIONS 263 any person not living within 5 miles of y e City of London," no doubt, in consequence of the growing tendency for Fellows to hold other benefices in addition, and to prefer residence in their vicarage at Hampstead or Tottenham or at some still greater distance. It is allowable here to anticipate matters in order to watch the growth of the " lending " activities of the Library. It can be seen in the need for such restrictions as (1746) : That for the future no Book be lent out of the Library, unless the person who borrows it deposits the value ; or in the following orders which date from 1769 : Y e Secretary to advertise in all the Newspapers (viz. the four Daily Papers) to desire that all Books lent out of the Library may be returned before the i st day of Jany next. That every Person who shall hereafter borrow any Book or Books from the Library shall give into y e Book deposited there for that use, an acknowledgment in writing of what Book or Books he shall have bor- rowed ; specifying also for how long time they are borrowed ; or in this of the year 1771 : All books to be returned on the Q r Day immediately following the time of their b s borrowed. A brief mention of three important gifts and of the great event of the Libraries Act will bring us to the Librarianship of William Reading. In 1705 the College received noo volumes by the bequest of Dr John Lawson, who has been already mentioned 1 . It has more than its intrinsic interest because the Court resisted an attempt to have the books separately arranged. M r Berdmore the Library Keeper acquainted the Governo rs present That D^Lawsons Library of Bookes lately given by him to Sion College Library were sent and receaved and are now in the College Library, But that the Executo rs of D r Lawson by reason of some such Intimation in his Will, did desire That all his Bookes might be kept separate. Which being contrary to the Method hitherto used... wherein Bookes of different faculties are kept by themselves : Ordered that D r Bradford 2 one of the Deanes present be and is desired to represent to the said Executors how impracticable it would be to keep all those Bookes together, and to desire they may be disposed according to the Method of the Library, wherein however care shall 1 See Chapter xin. p. 249. 2 Samuel Bradford, of St Mary le Bow, afterwards Bishop of Rochester and Dean of Westminster. 264 GREAT BENEFACTIONS be taken to distinguish those Bookes from all others therein, which D r Bradford promised to doe. The books were, of course, distinguished by a suitable in- scription. Lawson's gift meant a splendid addition to the treasures of the Library, as anyone may see who notes how often the initials " J. L." occur in Reading's Catalogue, and it is gratifying as proving the interest of the non-clerical citizen in our collection. As already stated, Lawson had been friendly with Archbishop Tenison, when the latter was a young College don. Reading 1 , who probably knew the facts, says that "he was disposed [to the College] by his Acquaintance and conversing with M r William Strengfellow [President 1721] Rector of St Dunstan's East," and it may be added that Strengfellow received his benefice from Tenison. It is tempting to reflect how easily this great benefaction might have gone elsewhere. For Lawson, who was admitted a pensioner of Queens' College, Cambridge, in 1648, was one of the men on whose behalf Oliver Cromwell used his prerogative in order to have them made Fellows. He sent a mandate to Queens' for Lawson's election in January 1657, but the College " resolved by the major part of the Fellowes that M r Lauson be not admitted fellow... till further addresses be made to his Highness in that behalf 2 ." A greater complaisance on the part of Queens' might well have altered the destination of the books which found their way to our shelves. The second gift (1707) was due to Henry Compton, Bishop of London, and was one in which the separate arrangement of the volumes presented no difficulty, as they belonged to one faculty. It was announced to the Court that the Visitor was about "to make a Present to the Library... of such Bookes as D r Castle made use of in composing his Orientall Polyglott Lexicon," and that they were to " be kept separate and apart by themselves." The " D r Castle" here named was, of course, Edmund Castell (1606 1685), about whom the late Professor Mayor 3 has collected a mass of interesting information, which 1 State of Sion- Library, p. 43. 2 Cf. J. Bass Mullinger, The University of Cambridge, ill. (1911), p. 519. 3 Cf. J. E. B. Mayor, Cambridge under Queen Anne (Deighton Bell, 1911), pp. 487530. GREAT BENEFACTIONS 265 reveals the appropriateness of this particular bequest. Castell, who became Professor of Arabic at Cambridge in 1666, was one of Brian Walton's helpers in the preparation of the " Polyglott," to which his own lexicon is usually appended 1 . Among John Lightfoot's correspondence there are several letters from Castell, one of which (22 February 1664) tells the learned Master of u Catherine Hall " : "I am now upon my remove to Sion College 2 , where I hope to be fully settled within a week or two." On 1 6 August 1664, Castell again writes to Lightfoot from Sion College, describing how he had received a gift of " this learned and much longed-for work you have now published," and how for joy thereof he had read it right through, " notwithstanding the... clamour of all the workmen, correctors, compositors, press- men &c." from which, even allowing for exaggeration, we may assume that his studies produced a certain feverish activity within our walls. He seems to have made Sion College his headquarters thenceforward till the summer of 1666. "Young Professor Buxtorf," he writes to Lightfoot, 13 June 1666, "pre- sents his humble service to you. A lodging is procured for him not far from Sion College." But by July 1667, after a gap of twelve months in the correspondence with Lightfoot, he is lodging " at M r Roycroft's house, a printer, in St Bartholomew's Close, London." For the Great Fire has made Sion a desolation, and has apparently robbed Castell of some precious volumes. " My cabalistic and rabbinic books," he writes, 20 August 1667, "(ex- cepting what I lost by the fire) are most at Higham Gobion 3 ." " A good quantity," he proceeds, " I have at the Charter-House, but could never yet get any time to catalogue them ; some very choice books there are, but lie all in confused heaps." From this it may be assumed that, when the Sion Library was hastily removed to Charterhouse to escape the ravages of the Fire, Castell's were taken with them. The subsequent trials of this much-tried but untiring scholar do not concern us, but by his will (proved 8 January i686) 4 he made bequest to Bishop Compton of one hundred of his lexicons, with all his Bibles and 1 John Lightfoot's Works (ed. Pitman), 1824, xin. p. 366 n. 2 He had been " Admissus ad studendum " in the Library since 1657. 3 Castell's vicarage in Bedfordshire. 4 J. E. B. Mayor, op. cit. p. 523. 266 GREAT BENEFACTIONS all other oriental parts of Holy Scripture, which latter were afterwards handed to our College by the legatee. This valuable treasure came into the Librarian's hands in May 1708, when " M r Stubs [of St Alphage] delivered at this Court forty-seven books given by y e L d Bp of London," and they were ordered to be " placed in y e closet at y e Upper end of y e Library, among y e other books given by his LordsP." But it is a matter of some interest that, as a courtly and elegant recognition of the Visitor's kindness was needed, the Governors laid this duty upon their junior member, who had been elected in special circumstances 1 a month before, and " D r Atterbury was desird to draw up a letter of Thanks to y e L d Bishop... for his benefaction 2 ." Thirdly, in 1711 came a large gift from Mrs James of " above 3000 Books," subject to the " Condition that they be placed together in a distinct Apartment." This meant no little expense, as well as some lapse of principle, and a General Court was summoned "to consider of proper Methods for defraying y e charge of preparing a place for setting up & chaining y e s d Books." The gift was felt to be worth a general subscription, and we get some light thrown upon the financial aspect of such a donation. Shelves for the 3000 books cost 4. ios., one-yard chains cost 3^. per dozen, ^-yard chains 2s. 6d. per dozen, and "Brass plates and Brass pins... well riveted and fastned," 2s. per dozen. But the most important event in the history of our Library up to its removal to its present home was the movement which issued in the Libraries Act of 1710. It has been explained that our Library started without endowment. It had all along been greatly helped by personal benefactions, but that meant receiving, however gladly, the books which others had collected according to their predilection. The only means by which Sion College could in the same way please itself was the yearly sovereign which it received from Abraham Colfe through the Leathersellers' Company and the ,6 per annum which it was pledged to produce as interest on Mr Wynn's already vanished ;ioo. Now the State was to come to its aid. 1 See Chapter in. p. 65. 2 Cf. H. C. Beeching, Francis Atterbury, p. 162. GREAT BENEFACTIONS 267 The first sign of the coming help appeared on 11 March 1707, when the Court acted promptly on information received. The House of Comons having ordered That it be an Instruction to the Comittee who are to consider of the Book sellers Bill That they receave a Clause that a Copy of every Booke printed in London should be given to Sion College Library and the Comittee being to sitt to Morrow Morning Ordered that D r Blackall and M r Stubs be desired to attend the said Comittee. At the next meeting it was reported that " the said Comittee had receaved the Clause... Nemine Contradicente," and the rest of the story belongs to the days of William Reading. CHAPTER XV WILLIAM READING "A very retired and sober student." W. Reading on himself. WILLIAM READING, then, though his is the great name in the Library's progress during the eighteenth century, came to it in many ways felix opportunitate. Private gifts and the early prospect of State-directed enlargement combined to set his feet in a large room. It was on 7 May 1708 that the Court heard of him first, and then for the second time the choice of a Librarian was due to the intervention of the Visitor. In the previous case Juxon recommended Leech and the result was disastrous. Now Compton, whose zeal for the Library was more according to knowledge, urged the Court to think of Reading. The office was not actually vacant in May 1708, but Berdmore, who was Clerk and Librarian both at once, was on the way to his resigna- tion, which took effect soon after. Here, then, is the somewhat momentous Minute : M r Elstob [St Swithin, London Stone] produc'd a letter from y e Lord Bp of London directed to y e Reverend the President & members of Sion College to recomend M r Reading to be chosen Library Keeper of Sion College in y e Room of M r Berdmore when hee resigns y e said place ; Order'd that M r Berdmore doe keep y e said letter and offer it to y e Governours w n y e place becomes void. Thus on 15 November 1708, one week after Berdmore's resig- nation, the Court elected Mr William Reading, " who was recomended by the L d Bp of London." Reading, who was at that time thirty-four years of age, having been born at Swin in the parish of Wombourne, Stafford- shire, on 17 September 1674, stands out in a period when WILLIAM READING 269 pluralism was rampant as a man of ability and industry who received no benefice or dignity not so much as a prebend in the diocese of London or any other, though this was, perhaps, not for want of asking. His father is stated to have been a refiner of iron 1 , and he graduated in 1697 from University College, Oxford. From time to time after his appointment as Librarian he held Lectureships at St Alphage, London Wall, at St Michael, Crooked Lane, and at Christ Church, Newgate Street, in the rather noisy days of the Rev. Joseph Trapp, D.D. For Reading's peace of mind it is to be hoped that he had not listened to Trapp's denunciations of George Whitefield, to which Whitefield himself listened from one of the pews 2 . As man rather than as Librarian he stands revealed in the three volumes of his sermons 3 and still more in their prefaces. The sermons were mostly preached at St Michael, Crooked Lane, and St Alphage, London Wall, so that in the latter case our Almsfolk had the advantage of hearing them. His own estimate of their value varies ; sometimes it stoops even to the modest hope, expressed in a dedication to a Member of Parlia- ment, " that, if they are patronized by you and your Friends, they may be received into good Families, and prove of some use, especially to Children and Servants, as being short and mostly historical, and therefore pretty easily read & remember'd." But those who cherish his memory as Librarian of Sion and it ought to be cherished warmly had better leave his prefaces 1 Diet. Nat. Biog. s.v. 2 Cf. George Whitefield's Journal, Sunday, 29 April 1739. " At ten > went to Christ Church, and heard Dr Trapp preach most virulently against me and my friends. ...God gave me great serenity of mind; but alas! the preacher was not so calm as I wished him.... I pray God... grant that that sermon may never rise up in judgment against him." Trapp was President of Sion College, 1 742. 3 (i) Twenty Three SERMONS of Mortification, Holiness, and of the FEAR and LOVE of GOD, Lately Preached in London, By WILLIAM READING, M.A., Keeper of the LIBRARY at Sion-College (London, 1724). (2) Fifty Two SERMONS for every SUNDAY of the YEAR MDCCXXVII, Preached out of the First Lessons at Morning Prayer (1728). (3) Fifty Eight SERMONS Preached out of the FIRST LESSONS for Every SUNDAY in the YEAR at Evening Prayer, &c. (1730). They were reprinted in four volumes in 1736 and Reading has inserted in the first of these a statement that ' ' This and the following three vol s were given to Sion Library June 3O th , 1737 By the ingenious & pious M r Robert Poole of Islington." 270 WILLIAM READING alone. The first and second series were dedicated to Archbishop Wake, and it is in his protestations to him that Reading, then 50 years old and upwards, makes himself appear as a somewhat querulous and disappointed man. " My only patrimony," he says, " was the prayers of my parents, who lived by my assistance for a great many years." He had brought up his family " without running into debt, or begging the benevolence of others," but now, having u exerted all [his] industry to make provision for them, but without success," he could only hope " that their native country, which hath proved a step-mother to their father, will be more natural to them, whenever I am parted from them." The exercise of his ministry had " been with much hardship and great obscurity, always destitute of any Ecclesiastical Dignity or Revenue," though he had " for many years been assiduous in the ministration of daily Prayers and weekly Sacraments, and such other duties as belong to the Cure of Souls." He had got on as well as he could " by composing such books as were suitable to my profession, and by assisting in the editions of learned authors ; which your Grace knows is a painful, but not a profitable imploy- ment." All this and much more is in the dedication of 1724, but in that of 1728 to the same Primate our Librarian gets still nearer to his mark. Things are all amiss with the Church, he feels, in this matter of preferment. " I cannot but wish to see the Day, when the Imployment & Benefits of my Profession shall be the certain Reward and Encouragement of those, who shall most heartily endeavour to be qualified for them." Instead of this, what was to be witnessed but " those wretched Addresses for Preferment, those unchristian Competitions, those absurd Compositions of Ministers in your Churches, where there is often seen green Youth at the Head, and gray Hairs at the Feet"? Let the Archbishop set himself to remedy this injustice and he would "do more than a great CORPORATION 1 , in making more honourable, more plentiful Provision for our Widows and Orphans." For our purpose it is enough to think of the diligent Librarian and the business-like Clerk of the College ; indeed, this was how Reading consoled himself. Life had disappointed 1 Obviously, the Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy. WILLIAM READING 2/1 him, but, he tells Wake, " if I may be allowed to make a virtue of necessity, it hath fixed me to my Library, and obliged me to be a very retired and Sober Student." Even so, the thought of the Library's needs did not exclude the companion thought of how easy it would be to give him some public reward for his work. In his State (p. 50) he explained that he was expected to do two men's work, and urged at least, that some Provision be made for the Library- Keeper, to enable him the better to attend himself, and to encourage another to be faithful in this Business. And this is easily done, so long as the Keeper is a Clergyman, by some Benefit from the Cathedral, or some other Church. But the " benefit " never came. Reading is alone among our Librarians in having himself done solid editorial service to the knowledge of Christian litera- ture. In the catalogue which he printed in 1724 there stand first in the class called " Historici Ecclesiastic! in Folio" (numbered S. Ill) the three volumes of his " Eusebii et aliorum Hist. Gr. Lat. post Hen. Valesium recensuit 1 Guil. Reading, Cleri Lon- dinensis Bibliothecarius, in 3 vol. Cantabrigiae per Corn. Crown- field 1720" ; the words Abr. Calf, which are added, showing that this admirable edition of Eusebius, Sozomen, Socrates, and Evagrius was purchased out of Mr Colfe's annual gift of twenty shillings 2 . There is room for suspicion that Reading used some wariness in bringing about this purchase, for in the year before the issue of his great work there was an order of the Court that the Librarian should " receive y e money due on M r Calfs Gift to y e Library to purchase an Ecclesiastical History or any other Book y l y e Governors shall approve of." Be that as it may, the volumes were at that time well worth their price and their space, and credit could hardly fail to attach to a Library which had their editor as its Keeper. The other publications of his in the Library are : " The Christian's Companion in the Principles of Religion, and the Concerns of Human Life " (8vo, London, for J. Hooke, 1716); "The History of our Lord Jesus Christ, and 1 F. A. Heinichen (Eusebius, Leipzig, 1827 8, 1. p. xxv) writes: Textum quidem Eusebii summa fide et cura exprimi curavit Readingus. 2 See Chapter xm. p. 251. 2/2 WILLIAM READING his Apostles and Evangelists, by William Reading, M.A. 1 " (12 1716) ; and a Sermon " at Westminster Abbey, January 30, 1714 " on i Samuel xxiv. 5, 6. It is pleasant to think that the invitation to preach in the Abbey on the day .for commemorating King Charles the Martyr may have come to Reading from Francis Atterbury, who was present as 4th Assistant when Reading was elected Library Keeper, and who remained a Fellow of the College as Minister of Bridewell Precinct up to 15 June 17 13 2 . At the same time we must interpret our Reading in the light both of Atterbury's choice of him and of the sentiments expressed on an occasion which would almost compel a man to reveal his attitude towards national controversies. His Abbey sermon was printed in 1715 by Henry Clements at the Half Moon in St Paul's Churchyard with a thick mourning border and an explanation that the issue of it was due to the fact that " when this Sermon was lately preached at Westminster Abbey, a Person of no mean Figure and Character there, very heartily desired me to give it him in print," and that " I thought I should not shew good manners, nor a due sense of the great Honour he did me, if I did not comply/' To say the truth, it does not strike a modern reader as a powerful or original utterance. Some thirteen pages on " the discourse and practice of Holy David have fully resolved us in this Point, That it is a most detestable and damnable Sin, to stretch forth our hand in any case, against our Sovereign the Lord's Anointed" ; and the sermon concludes neatly enough with three reflections suggested by King Charles' words spoken on the scaffold. Such a man took no long time in making his influence felt upon the life of the Library. In view of an interesting piece of contemporary evidence we may register a" hope that inci- dentally he made it his duty to do or to initiate some general cleaning and dusting. In the characteristic volume 3 of documents bearing upon the state of Cambridge University about this time, ? Dean Hook thought well enough of this work to edit and reprint it at Leeds in 1849-50, commending its information as to "Jewish customs, and facts related by Josephus and contemporary historians." 2 Cf. H. C. Beeching, Francis Atterbury, 1909, p. 194. 3 J. E. B. Mayor, Cambridge under Queen Anne (Deighton Bell, 1911), p. 362. WILLIAM READING 273 which has been issued since its learned editor's death, Professor Mayor enables us to follow Zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach, the Frankfort bibliophile, into our College on a Saturday morning in the summer of 1710, less than two years after Reading's advent. The traveller had first paid a visit to Francis Hawksbee, a mechanician in Fleet Street, and on our way back we saw Sion College. The books are well arranged, chained, but scarce to be touched for smoke and dust ; indeed, wherever I examine London books, I make my ruffles as black as coal. Our guide knew nothing, least of all of MSS, yet I think there must be some. From which it may be gathered that our books were not in worse case than other books in London and that the learned German was not fortunate enough to have Reading as his cicerone. However this may be, Reading saw, first, that in spite of the books resulting from the Act of 1710 everything must be done to encourage the steady inflow of personal gifts. So he set to work to bring the great Book of Benefactors up to date, and within two years of his coming to Sion was "allowed three pounds for writing y e Great vellum Register from 1678 to this Present year" (1710). That is to say that, while John Spencer had attended to this duty till his health failed, it had been altogether neglected by Lewis and William Nelson and Berdmore. Reading continued to perform it, even when he had his edition of the Ecclesiastical Historians in the press; for in 1719 he acquainted y e Governors y l he had taken a great deal of pains in Registring y e Names of y e Benefactors to y e Library & y e severall Books given by y m . Y 1 he wrote as much as a Writing Master would have 1 2 for & therefore hoped y e Governors would Allow him y e said sum. Accordingly it was Agreed y l i2 should be given him as a recompence for his trouble & pains & y l he should receive the said sum from M r Archdeacon Stubs being subscription money... remaining in his hands. The hand-writing in the Book of Benefactors makes all this quite easy to reckon up. The 3 for the years up to 1710 meant 26 and a half pages of two columns each beautifully inscribed, and the 12 up to 1719 meant 101 pages more. Let us gladly acknowledge that he never relaxed this custom of perpetuating the memory of good deeds done to his dear Library. He died p. 18 2/4 WILLIAM READING 10 December 1744, but he had entered a benefaction of 12 Sep- tember of that year, and in all he was responsible (with the occasional help of his son Thomas) for 157 pages of the Vellum Register, including those which commemorate the largest of our benefactions, Thomas James's and Edward Waple's. This care to acknowledge past benefactions was amply justified by a continuance of valuable gifts, and the first with which Reading had to deal was large enough to embarrass the recipients. On 8 June 1712, after nearly thirty years' incum- bency of St Sepulchre, Edward Waple, Archdeacon of Taunton, departed this life and was buried, as he wished, in the outer chapel of St John's College, Oxford. He is not known to fame, but he loved our College, which he served as Assistant in 1685 and 1687, as Dean in 1689, and as President in I7O4 1 . " Item," says the clause in his will which concerns us, "I give and bequeath my Study of Bookes to y e Library of Sion College in y e City of London, y e place of my Birth, School Education 2 , and Ministry, desiring y e Presid 1 & Governo rs of y l College to accept of it and to sell those Books in it (and no others except they shall judge it convenient to do so) of w ch they have already better Duplicates in y r Library, and to purchase other Books w th y e money they shall receive for those Books of mine w ch they shall think fit to part w th ." Reading was authorized to receive this fine legacy from the executors on 3 July 1712, and on 18 August it was ordered "y l M r Berdmore be employed to chain M r Waples books at 2 s p. doz:" and " y l M r Wells provide a 1000 Chains at 3 pence p. Chain." The books which it was decided to keep, the Library having no copy of them, numbered about 1860, and their titles occupy 54 pages of the Book of Benefactors. Reading entered the bequest in 1718 and added: "the forementioned Books are now in y e Library. But some others have been stollen ; and some of these are liable to be stollen, notwithstanding their chains, and all possible care besides." It must be remembered that the good Archdeacon was not as systematic as our Librarian. 1 See Chapter m. p. 47. 2 He was the son of Christopher Waple, citizen, was born in Holy Trinity-the-Less parish, and entered Merchant Taylors' School, 1656. WILLIAM READING 2/5 " An elderly German," says Reading, " who lived with M r Waple, and was well acquainted with his Study, certified me that there never was any written Catalogue of them (they were all letter'd on the back, either by y e Binder or by writing on paper pasted on)." Then came the task of setting aside the duplicates, upon which Mr Reading makes some illuminating remarks 1 . " I con- fess," he says, " I never took any pleasure in finding of Duplicates. 'Tis absurd and prejudicial to a Library, to take up the Room of it with Books of the very same Edition, so that there is a necessity for vending them ; and they create so much Trouble and Waste of Time to the Library- Keeper (four times as much as other Books) in examining and comparing them with others, making a Catalogue of them, laying them before the Governors, proposing them to Booksellers, and buying others with the Money which they produce ; and there is such Disproportion betwixt selling and buying, a large Parcel sold returning com- monly in a very small one, that I am glad for my own sake as well as for the Publick, that the Catalogue of our Library is printed, to the Intent Gentlemen may see what we have, and give us nothing but what we really want." A little ungrateful, all this, when applied, as it was, to good Mr Waple, for on 17 October, when his duplicates, which num- bered about 300, had been " viewed by severall Booksellers," it was resolved "that y e s d Bookes be sold to M r Bateman 2 at y e Price of 155^ and to be delivered to him upon Paym 1 of y e money." Some of this very acceptable sum had to go at the moment towards the cost of chaining the other books, but Reading admitted in 1724 that "most of it has at several times been... laid out" in the purchase of new books, "and some Part still remains." A benefactor who enables a Library to acquire what its managers feel they need *is certainly not less to be had in honour than one who gives it the volumes he happens to have bought to suit himself. And then came the bequest of Henry Compton, Bishop of London, interesting as an act of confidence in an institution 1 Cf. State of Sion- Library, London, 1724, p. 37. 2 For Waple's friendliness to the booksellers see Chapter xi. p. 194. 18 2 2/6 WILLIAM READING which it had been his duty to overhaul. He had procured important gifts for the Library during his life, and when he died (7 July I i7 I 3) it was found that he had remembered the City Clergy in his will, and in September 1714, Philip Stubbs, of St James, Garlickhithe, Archdeacon of St Albans (then in the diocese of London), " acquainting y e Governo rs at y e desire of y e present BP of London [Gibson] y l y e late Bp of Londons Books bequeathed by Will to y e College Library are ready to be delivered y e Governo rs desired M r Stubs to wait upon General 1 Compton to receive y e s d Books & give a receipt for y e same." But the General evidently knew that Archdeacon Stubbs was not an officer of the College and demanded a receipt " from y e Library Keeper himself." The bequest, as Reading tells us 1 , consisted of " all his Commentators upon Holy Scripture, and some other Books " ; as the duplicates alone produced 36, it was a welcome gift. And let it be remembered to Bishop Compton's credit that his bequest included commentaries pub- lished in the very year of his death, such as "Conciliatio locorum ex vetere Testamento in Novo allegatorum Secundum veterum Theologorum Hebraeorum formulas allegandi et modos inter- pretandi, auctore Guil. Surenhusio Amstelaedamensi. 4to. Amstel. Boom 1713." One of the works purchased out of the duplicate money was the Repertorittm of Richard Newcourt, who had accompanied the Bishop as Diocesan Registrar when he visited the College formally in 1695. Two other small additions belong to this early period in Reading's reign. The one is fragrant with memories of the dawn of modern Indian missions 2 : The Presid 1 [1716, D r Lilly Butler] brought two Books w ch he received from y e Rev d M r Mayo as a Present from y e Society for Promoting Xtian Knowledge to y e Library. . . vizt. Quatuor Evangelia et Acta Apostolorum ex originali Textu in Linguam Danulicam versa in usum Gentis Mala- baricae. Opera et studio Earth: Ziegenbalg et Jo: Ernest Grumbler \scil. Griindler] apud Indos Orientales Missionariorum MDCCXIV Grammatica Danulica seu Malabarica quae inter Indos Orientales in usu est Authore Bartholomaeo Ziegenbalg MDCCXVI 1 State of Sion- Library , p. 37. 2 Cf. George Smith, The Conversion of India, 1893, pp. 95, 173. Eugene Stock, History of the C.M.S. I. p. -25. The version is described in the Bible Society's splendid Historical Catalogue of Printed Bibles, pt. IV. p. 1567. WILLIAM READING 277 The other suggests controversies at home and sinks into a record of poverty. Francis Bugg does not figure in the Vellum Register, but in his day (he was born in 1640 and died about 1724) he was a notable and violent pamphleteer against the Society of Friends, and not the less violent because from his youth up he had been a member of that body. But in 1717 he had fallen on evil days, and, as his efforts had added books to our shelves, he came to the Court for assistance : M r Bugg applying to y e Governo rs by Letter brought by M r Reading for a consideration for y e Quakers Library collected by him for y e use of y e London Clergy and laid up in y e College Library They agreed in regard of his present Illnes & necessities to make him a Present of 8 Guineas w ch they ordered y e Reg r to pay for his use out of y e money he has in his hands for Duplicates. Certainly the Library is rich in the tractates of Quaker con- troversy. Reading classified them under two heads : Sociniani, A riani, Quakeri, A nabaptistae, cum Scriptoribus oppositis in Folio > F. vii, and Controversia Quakeriana, F. XI, F. XII (according to size) ; and it appears that they numbered about 250 separate publications, a large proportion being written either by Bugg or in answer to him. " Quakerism struck Speechless, by F. B." is a mild title for Bugg's tracts ; he preferred such as " The great Mystery of the little Whore unfolded, by Fran. Bugg, 1705." It may be added here that in 1804 "the Society of People called Quakers... presented to the Library 17 volumes of Different sizes, relating to that Description of People, the Titles of which [were] entered in the Register of Donations to the Library." The expression used about these excellent persons was, perhaps, not intentionally supercilious ; but it is noticeable that on this occasion there is no record of a vote of thanks. But though they were glad to accept private benefactions, they knew also how to refuse them. In 1731 there was need for an interview with " M r Yardley D r Lewis Atterburys Exec r about some books left by the Doctor either to Christs Church in Oxford or to Sion College Library, as his Exec 1 " should think fit." The books were at Highgate, and a month later the Court acted on a report of Mr Reading's visit, which was as follows : 2/8 WILLIAM READING He went to Highgate...and carried the Library Catalogue with him;... there are about 200 vols bound in parchment & pasteboard, xi vols fol., most 4 to , some few 8 vo ;...they are generally Sermons or small Tracts of English Divinity, mostly modern: 27 political Tracts, loose Acts of Parliam 1 , some few poetic, physic, Music, mostly modern ;... he doth not believe they are all together worth more than 20^;... the charge of bringing them in, placing them by themselves, composing and printing a compleat Catalogue of them will amount to 30^ at least. So the legacy was declined on the ground that " the will of the Donor happen'd to be so inconsistent with that Method which their Library had always been kept in." It is, perhaps, only fair to Lewis Atterbury to say that, in spite of his efforts to secure patronage and of his eminence as a preacher, he did not enjoy the good fortune of his brother Francis 1 . He held at the same time only the chaplaincy of St Michael, Highgate, the rectory of Shepperton, and the rectory of Hornsey, but in earlier life he had been a lecturer at St Mary-at-Hill, which introduced him to our Library, and to certain privileges in our College. Reading continued, of course, to be aided in his augmenta- tion of the collection by its small and neglected endowment and by the equally precarious gifts of newly inducted incumbents. He did his best to render this last a more regular source of help by a hint given in his State of S ion- Library' 2 : " Several of the present Clergy have thus given, and others are disposed to give, when upon Perusal of the foregoing Catalogue, they shall see what is wanting"; and at his instigation the hint was occasionally repeated at the Anniversary Feasts. But all these sources were mere trickles beside the steady stream which issued from the Libraries Act 1710, or rather the various revising Acts which have followed, up to the present time 3 . We have seen that the first signs of it appear on our registers before the advent of Reading. A measure was before the House of Commons, which is there called " the Booksellers Bill." Its fuller title was a " Bill for the better securing the Rights of 1 Cf. H. C. Beaching, Francis Atterbury, p. 3. " M r Yardley," the executor, is no doubt Edward Yardley, who succeeded Lewis at Highgate. (Hennessy, Reper- torium, p. 219.) 2 P. 39- 3 On the whole subject, cf. E. Edwards, Memoirs of Libraries, 1859, n - PP- 5 8 3 ff - WILLIAM READING 279 Copies of Printed Books," and it came before the House in the Session of 1706-7. The fortunes of our Library were briefly and fatefully secured by a resolution which thus appears in the Journals of the House 3 : Ordered that it be an Instruction to the Committee to whom the Bill for the better securing the Rights of Copies of Printed Books is committed, that they do provide, that one Book may be delivered to the Library of Syon College, in the City of London. The Bill returned from the Committee on 18 March, amended accordingly, and no more was heard of it that Session. The negotiations between the booksellers and other interested parties need not detain us. The name of our Library was in the draft of the proposed legislation, which emerged again in the Session of 1709-10 in the shape of a Bill "for the Encouragement of Learning by vesting the Copies of printed Books in the Authors or Purchasers of such Copies during the Times therein men- tioned." The House of Lords finished its consideration of the Bill on 4 April 1710, when the Bishops present included Compton of London, our Visitor, Moore of Ely, and Manningham of Chichester, who had each been Fellows of our College as successive rectors of St Andrew, Holborn, Manningham having been Junior Dean in 1699, and Fleetwood of St Asaph, who as rector of St Augustine had been Junior Dean in 1697. They had been honoured in their generation at the College as City clergy, and, as we have seen, they were not forgotten as Bishops when the Feast days came round. They could, therefore, be trusted, if need were, to stand by the College. But our position as a privileged Library, along with the Royal Library, those of Oxford and Cambridge and the four Scottish Universities, and the Advocates' Library in Edinburgh, does not seem to have been imperilled after the acceptance of the original instruction to include us. There were a few differences to be adjusted on the last day, and a joint committee was appointed to consider them in " conference... presently in the painted Chamber 2 ," Mr Addison, it is pleasant to remember, being one of the selected 1 Journals of the House of Commons, A 1706 Merc' 5 die Martis A 5 An ae , p. 322. 2 House of Lords Journals, 5 April 1710. 280 WILLIAM READING Commoners. But the inclusion of the College was not among the debated points and on the same afternoon, 5 April 1710, Queen Anne came to the Upper House and gave her consent to the Bill in person. But the question remains, who was responsible for the inser- tion of the Library of Sion College along with the others by a special instruction to the Committee on the Bill ? It is natural to think first of the Archbishop of Canterbury, whose official relation to the Stationers' Company is close and important, and Thomas Tenison showed a consuming and practical zeal for the foundation of Libraries both for the clergy and the people. John Evelyn, who knew him well, describes 1 how on 15 February 1684 Tenison invited the help of the diarist and Sir Christopher Wren with a view to his proposed library at St Martin-in-the-Fields. " He told me there were thirty or forty young men in Orders in his parish, either governors to young gentlemen or chaplains to noblemen, who being reproved by him on occasion for frequenting taverns or coffee-houses, told him they would study or employ their time better, if they had books." What was in Tenison's mind is indicated also by a memorandum in the contemporary vestry-records of the parish, in which after a reference to these clerical parishioners the future Archbishop adds: As also that there is not in the said precinct (as in London)... any noted Library, excepting that of St James (which belongs to his Ma tie and to which there is noe easy access) That of S r Robert Cottons (which consisteth chiefly of Bookes relating to the Antiquities of England) and the Library of the Deane and Chapter of S l Peters Church in Westm r : (which is as the others are inconvenient for the use of the said Precinct by reason of its remoter scituacon) 3 . It is not difficult to see from this that Tenison was aware of the advantage which " London," that is, the City, enjoyed over Westminster, and that he was anxious to spread the privilege to other centres 3 . Though he had never been a Fellow of our College, he had been for a short time Archdeacon of London 1 Diary, ed. 1862, II. p. 204. 2 See Minutes of the Vestry of St Martin-in-the-Fields under date 27 March 1684. 3 Cf. the " Bill to preserve Libraries that have been or shall be erected by Charitable Contribution in small Parishes in England " (7 Anne c. 14), of which there is a draft, with Tenison's own marginal amendments, in Lambeth Palace Library (MSS. 929. 117). WILLIAM READING 28 1 (1689-92), and in earlier life he was closely associated with John Lawson, the City physician 1 , who was one of the four or five great benefactors who enlarged the Library after the Great Fire. It is quite true that at the actual time when the Act of 1710 was being led up to and passed into law, the Archbishop was not frequently in his place in the House of Lords. " The confinement which my tedious fit of the gout occasioned," so he wrote to Harley, 23 February i/o/ 2 "has made me so tender that I have not been a long while at the Council " ; and on 2 April 1711 the malicious Stratford asked Harley: "Can you send me no news of the Archbishop ? Can his Holiness get on yet his slipper on his toe?" Indeed, during the whole period it seemed to matter less and less quid cap ut stertit grave Lambethanum 3 . But it was only seeming, and the grave old man had his say in most of the events of his time. His portrait was placed in the College Hall at a time when no Archbishop otherwise uncon- nected with the foundation had been similarly honoured before. It may be taken for granted, then, that at this important moment he stood out as our friend. But the Visitor must be allowed no less credit, especially as he was present in the House of Lords during the discussions on the Bill and was, besides, related nearly to the member of the Lower House who was in charge of the negotiations and was specially interested in the subject. In the Townshend MSS. 4 there is a letter from Tenison to Spencer Compton, asking for an interview about the " Bill to preserve Libraries &c." as to which Compton and others had been "named... for the bringing of it in." The Committee of the House of Commons on the abortive Bill of 1706-7 was also headed by " M r Compton 5 ," and at the last moment before the Act of 1710 sprang into life it was " M r Compton " who negotiated on behalf of the Lower House " in the painted Chamber 6 ." With a Compton in the 1 See Chapter xin. p. -249. 2 Welbeck MSS. iv. 386. 3 Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, 1812, i. p. 3. * Hist. MSS. Commission Xith Report, App. pt. IV. 5 House of Commons Journals, 1706, p. 320. 6 House of Lords Journals, 1710, 5 April. 282 WILLIAM READING Lords, whose interest in our Library was worth one of the finest of the benefactions it has received, and a Compton in the Com- mons already committed to the promotion of Libraries for the Clergy and others, Sion College was in safe hands. Yet, if tradition speaks truly, the insertion of ours among the privileged Libraries was an afterthought. The story has reached me in a form which, thus far, I have failed to sub- stantiate that, when the clause which gave the names of the Libraries was before the Upper House, it contained the Library of St Paul's Cathedral, and that Archbishop Tenison moved to substitute Sion College on the ground of its being more accessible to the public than the Chapter Library. But William Reading has another version, which is at once con- temporary and to the credit of William Reading : Some one or more of the Z^Wiw-Clergy (as I understood, for I was but a Stranger) had recommended it to a City Member to take care that our Library should be one of the nine,... and a Report was spread, that it was obtained for us. But after the Bill had been read a second Time, I was assured that our Friend in the House either had not mentioned us, or at least not prevailed for us, but that another Citizen had caused the Library of St Paul's Cathedral to be inserted in the Bill. This News I carried immediately to our President, D r John Gascarth, Rector of Alhallows Barkin, and attended him, with M r Samuel Baker of St Michael's Cornhill, and one or two more, whose Names I haye forgot, to the Lobby of the House of Commons. There the President found a Member of his Acquaintance, and told him our Business. The Gentle man answered, that the best Advice he could give us was, to apply to M r Ward, and get him to represent our Case to the House ; and presently caused him to come and speak with us at the Door : who having heard us, directed me to come next Day to his house in Portugal Row in Lincolns- Inn- Fields, and give him an account of the Foundation, Design, and publick Use of our Library : which he represented so effectually in the House of Commons, that it gained our Point, and brought &'f-Library into the Bill This Service M r Ward performed of his own meer Generosity, and good Affection to the Clergy, without putting us to the least Expense in the whole Management of this Affair 1 . Reading lived in times when "every man had his price" and was a little surprised that Ward sent in no account for services rendered, but does his memory serve him well in this interesting record ? Certainly the Committee stage of the Act of 1710 fell 1 W. Reading, State of Sion- Library, 1724, p. 39. WILLIAM READING 283 within Gascarth's term as President, and Samuel Baker was then rector of St Michael, Cornhill, and so remained when Reading published his folio. On the other hand, it is curious that Reading, who was elected Librarian in November, 1708, should, say he "was but a Stranger" in March and April 1710, whereas he was a complete stranger to the College in 1706, when, as we have seen, Offspring Blackall, afterwards Bishop of Exeter and a Peer of these particular Parliaments, and Archdeacon Stubbs were sent to move the Committee to insert the College Library, and succeeded. Reading describes Mr Ward as "that eminent Gentle- man of the long Robe," and the Commons Committee on the Bill of 1706 consisted of the Members named 1 "and all the Gentlemen of the long Robe," whereas the Committee nominated for the Bill of 1710 did not include Ward and did include "all that serve for the Universities," instead of "the Gentlemen of the long Robe." There is thus a fair probability that Ward was at one time instrumental in helping the College towards the position it has since held among the privileged Libraries, and also that Reading's memory does less justice than is due to those who moved and carried the instruction to the House of Commons Committee of 1706-7. The Act came into force on 10 April 1710. Let us try to see the evil it was intended to remedy. The booksellers of London had for some time been the victims of pirate-printers. Sermons, pamphlets, poems, and the like were upon publication at once reproduced in smaller type and on poorer paper by- persons who had not to pay authors' dues or establishment charges. Penalties were now enacted, the forfeiture of these cheap issues and a fine for every sheet. But those publishers who wished to be thus protected were obliged to " enter at Stationers' Hall " in that Worshipful Company's register the title of the books which they published and for which they desired protection. At the same time they were to deposit nine copies of each book with the Warehouse-Keeper of the Com- pany, one for each of nine privileged Libraries, of which ours was one. The Libraries must put in a claim, either per alium or 1 Ward was not among these. 284 WILLIAM READING per se, within ten days of publication for any book they might wish to have, and they could only expect to receive it in sheets. At the expiration of that brief period, very brief, when the small facilities of communication at the beginning of the eighteenth century are taken into account, the Company's official was under a large penalty for retaining the books which had not been claimed by the Libraries. It will be noticed that the publisher was not bound to register. If he felt that an elaborate and expensive work was safe from the chance of piracy, he could risk it, and the Libraries lost their copy. The result was that the books " entered " were more likely to be of the slighter and cheaper sort. It is thus no matter for surprise that, writing in 1724 after about fourteen years' experience of the Act, Reading should estimate the advantage to our Library at "about five Pounds per annum, one Year with another 1 ." His Catalogue has the following note : Unam notulam paene praeterieram, nempe St. denotare libros illos qui ex Aula Stationariorum Londinensium, authoritate Parliamenti, in Bibliothecam nostram inseruntur. It has seemed worth while to go right through Reading's Catalogue of 1724 and to take note of the number and character of the publications received from the Stationers' Company up to and including the year 1723. The process yields the following result There were thus received 92 publications in folio, 48 in 4to, 546 in 8vo, and 54 in 121110 a total of 740 in fourteen years, or slightly over one per week. But the actual result in what can be called books was very different, for 68 of the 92 in folio, 31 of the 48 in 4to, 380 of the 540 in 8vo, and 20 of the 54 in I2mo, were publications of small contents pamphlets, poems, sermons, broadsides, sheets of music, and the like which were bound up in bundles of three, four, a dozen, or even a score, as the case might be. Large numbers of them were not worth the cost of binding except to a Library which must have every publication in every subject. The inclusion of our Library in Queen Anne's Act was, indeed, rich in possibilities of great things in the future, but the first results were inconsiderable and the system was fertile in chances of controversy with the publishers. 1 State of Sion- Library, p. 38. WILLIAM READING 285 For instance, in November 1726, the chief Libraries were already in a state of suspicion that they were not being strictly dealt with by the trade : The Register acquainted the Court that he had seen an Advertise- ment in the Gazette of Oct. 15 last, wherein the University of Oxford demand more Books from Stationers Hall, than have been hitherto sent them upon the Act of the 9 th of Queen Anne ; and our Library having the same claim, the Register desired the advice of the Governors upon it : whereupon they order'd him to inform himself from time to time, what success the said University have in this Affair. Henceforward, as realising the advantage conferred on our Library by Queen Anne's Act, the Governors remained vigilant of every opportunity to uphold it. In 1732, when it was about to expire, they made overtures to a friendly Member of Parlia- ment, Mr Oglethorp, asking him to move in the House for the renewal of the Act "with such amendments as the House shall see fit," and were told that it lay rather with the booksellers to make the application. Again, in 1735, when no less a scholar than Thomas Mangey, the learned editor of Philo, was in the presidential chair, he put into M r Readings hands a printed Bill then depending in the house of Cornons For the better encouragem 1 of Learning, and for the more effectual securing the Copies of printed Books to the Authors or purchasers of such Copies, during the times therein mentioned. In w ch Bill M r President had taken care, by much application to members of the house of comons, to secure a share of Books for our Library : and had also obtained, That the President of Sion College for the time being should be nominated one amongst others, who should have power to limit and settle the prices of Books, as there shall be occasion. But y e Bill unhappily miscarried in the house of Lords. Thus, when Reading's long period as Librarian and Clerk came to a close, Sion College was still in its position of privilege under the Copyright legislation, and it sufficed, as Reading's carefully arranged bundles of receipts show, to give a yearly gratuity of half a guinea to " M r Simpson Warehousekeeper " at Stationers' Hall in order to be kept informed of the books that had been " entered " and could be claimed. The subsequent developments of copy-tax legislation belong to the days of Robert Watts, and we may return for a moment from this examination of the Library's sources of increase to a brief consideration of Reading's method in caring for the collection. 286 WILLIAM READING Here he was not long in making his influence felt. In 1714 there was a suggestion that, " if possible, there be an Index Materiarum written on one side only, that there may be room for further additions on the other." In 1719 the Court accepted his proposal for " some new shelves to be set up in y e Library for y e placing of severall Books y 1 are at present in y e Closets & for putting y e Library in a good method & order." Next year, 5 September 1720, Reading placed his plan before the Court, which accepted it but neglected to have it entered in full in the register. But it stands revealed in his printed Catalogue of I724 1 and explained in his not inelegant Latin preface. He there states that, when his edition of the Church historians was off his hands, that is in 1720, the date of his "proposal" just referred to, he began seriously to consider the need for some rearrangement. The recent increase in the number of books had brought two disadvantages ; firstly, that many books could not be found in their proper place ; secondly, that, as the Library had the appearance of being over full, the flow of benefactions was interrupted. More shelves were urgently required, and, as we have seen, an order was given to make this provision. Three shelves, he explains, were added at the top of each book-case, or bay, or, as Daniel Mills would have called it, "desk," these shelves to accommodate books of less than folio size, while six shelves were added below for books of the largest size. Even so, there were bays which proved too small for what they ought to contain, and in which the octavos were occupying space due to the quartos. This was especially so in the department of con- troversial and practical Theology. But Reading expresses the hope that, whatever be the occasional confusions, "studioso tamen lectori... jucunda simul et utilis haec methodus videbitur." Such a reader would be able to run his eye along one set of shelves and see all the authorities on the subject with which he was dealing, and if he were still in a fix (" ceterum ubicunque haerebit "), he could always consult the alphabetical index. 1 Its full title is : Bibliothecae Cleri Londinensis in Collegio Sionensi Catalogus, duplici forma concinnatus. Pars prior exhibet libros juxta ordinem Scriniorum distributes, et ad proprias classes redactos. Pars altera Omnium Auctorum nomina, et rerum praecipuarum capita ordine alphabetico complectitur. WILLIAM READING 287 Reading's period and, perhaps, if we knew the facts, Reading's personality settled for good and for all the future of the Library as an institution managed not for the clergy only but for the general benefit. Even before his time the Governors and Librarians had been widely hospitable in their arrangements, though it were sometimes to their own hurt, as the following incident will show. It came to my notice some years since during a study of the splendidly preserved records of Christ's Hospital, and I give it as it stands in the Hospital's committee- book, under date 11 July 1707, shortly before Reading came into Berdmore's room : M r Beardsmore, a Clergy-man, who is Keeper of the Library in Sihon Colledge, exhibited a complaint against two lads of this House, namely Edm d Massey and David Humphreys, for that on Saturday last in the afternoon the Lads came to the Library under pretence of reading some books there (as they had done several times before) and he understanding they were designed for the Universities very readily admitted them ; but on Saturday aforesaid they found an opportunity to steal and convey away two bookes, and he immediately missing them pursued the lads, and at the Hospitall he met with them and charged them with the books ; they at last confessed the fact and restored the books. The said M r Beardsmore said that he thought it his duty to let the Governors be privy to this villainous action, but for himselfe and the rest of the gentlemen belonging to the said Colledge, intreated the Governors to show mercy to the lads and not cast them quite away. The sequel of Mr Berdmore's kindliness belongs to the story of Christ's Hospital, but our College may care to know that, though there was a solemn assembly of the school in its Great Hall, while the delinquents, "one after the other, stood upon a table and repeated aloud their horrible villany," yet both were shortly afterwards sent with school exhibitions to Trinity College, Cambridge 1 , by reason of " the ill consequences that may happen by keeping young men of that age and stature in the House." Nor did their subsequent career disgrace the clemency that was extended to them. Humphreys gained a Trinity Fellowship, and died a Doctor of Divinity. Massey became a diligent student and editor of Plato and held the 1 Cf. Christ's Hospital, List of University Exhibitioners, 15661885, by A. W. Lockhart (1885), p. 27. 288 WILLIAM READING Hospital's benefice of Gainscolne in Essex for nearly half a century 1 . Nor was Reading himself free from similar troubles. Among the possessions which we owe to Dr Lawson is a Second Folio Shakespeare (1632)*, which lacks seven plays, and the following note inserted at the back of the volume tells its own tale: These leaves have been lately cut out. Tis the Interest of every Student here to clear themselves to me and to endeavour to detect so mischievous a person. W. R. Once more, in 1729 Reading complained to the Court that books of various kinds were missing, and it was resolved that Students be warned by a Note affixt on the Library door, to restore such Books to their proper Places before next Court day : otherwise they will proceed to make stricter enquiry, a form of threat which was in itself a reflection on the efficiency of the supervision. The outstanding fact is that, probably as the result of Parlia- mentary aid, the Library was henceforth more and more at the service of the general student. The first reform in this direction was the abolition of the chains. It dated from Reading's " Pro- posal... ab 1 Settling y e Library" in 1720, and for years the disused manacles were kept in the College, till in 1729 the Librarian consulted the Court as to how to dispose of them, and must have thought himself suddenly embarrassed with riches when "the Governors considering them only as so much old iron, were pleased to make a present of them to M rs Reading, the Library- Keepers wife, who had pasted on the titles of the Books." Reading himself admits that he witnessed the disuse of the chains " with the less Regret, because we had found by Experi- ence, that Chains were not a Security against thievish Hands ; and without them Books maybe much more commodiously used and collated with others," and he goes on to describe the system adopted instead of the old plan of consulting books at their place on the shelves : 1 I regret to say that early in his incumbency the watchful Governors of the Hospital were obliged to rebuke him because "he wholly lives in town/' Cf. E. H. Pearce, Annals of Christ's Hospital, 2nd ed. 1908, p. 281. 2 Reading, Catalogue, Z. I. 12. WILLIAM READING 289 There will be a round Table and Chairs placed at the upper End, where Strangers may sit down, and by the Catalogue call for such Books, as they have real Occasion to peruse, which the Ostiary will fetch them, and carry back again, when they have read or transcribed what they wanted. This surely [he adds] will content any modest, reasonable Person, who comes with no other Design, but to make an honest Use of the Books 1 . But Reading also had dealings with some famous students whose wants were not met even by the "round table" at "the upper end," for they were preparing great works at home. Thus in 1726 M r Charles Wheatly, now residing here in the Presidents Lodgings, & being about to republish his Illustration of the Book of Comon Prayer, applied to y e Court for leave to have Books out of the Library to his Chamber upon this occasion : The Governors granted his Request, provided he exceed not ten Books at one time, and restore them in a month or sooner, if the Library Keeper demand them. But much greater giants still are suggested in the almost con- temporary orders " that the Library Keeper lend D r Dan. Water- land Wickliffs Bible for 10 days 2 " and "that D r Mangey 3 one of the present Assistants, who is preparing a new Edition of Philo Judaeus, should have liberty to borrow any one Book at a time out of the Library though he dwells at present out of the limits of the Govern 1 " 5 ." In each case the assistance thus rendered to great scholars appears somewhat stringently limited, especially in the case of Thomas Mangey, then rector of St Mildred, Bread Street, who became President of Sion in 1734. It implies that even in his old age, when he was obliged to trust to an assistant, Reading's policy was to keep the possessions of the Library steadily within its walls for purposes of consultation on the spot by duly qualified persons. Two cases in point have a more than merely administrative interest. The great Dr Bray, as minister of St Botolph, Aldgate, became our President in 1727 and was a generous friend to the College. One of his gifts illustrates the system by which the Copyright Acts worked, for it consisted of " M r James Blair's 1 See State of Sion- Library, p. 50. 2 In 1728. Waterland was at that time inter alia rector of St Augustine and St Faith. 3 The great edition of Philo appeared in 1742. P. 19 290 WILLIAM READING Sermons on our Saviours Sermon on the Mount, in five vols 8. Lond. 1724. The Sheets from Stationers Hall, the binding given by himself." But he also made over to the College a number of records relating to " Mary-Land," where he had served the Church as Commissary to the Bishop of London. In 1730 " the Rev d M r Smith, a member of the Society for propagating y e Gospel in foreign parts," made application for such of these as might be of use to the Society. The answer of the Governors was " that anything may be transcribed out of Books at the Library, but that they have no power to part with any thing that has once been given to it." Bray's gift, it is pleasant to think, has since then been placed at the disposal of American investigators. Thus in 1836 The Rev Hawks, D.D., rector of St Thomas's Church in New York... being commissioned by the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America to explore the Archives of the Archbishop of Canterbury and other Repositories in London containing Documents relating to the early History of the said American Church, and requesting permission to make any Extracts which may be necessary from the Manuscripts in the Library of this College, and particularly from those which were given to the College by D r Thomas Bray, for an Historical Work which D r Hawks is preparing for the Press ; a request which was of course readily complied with. The other case gave rise to constant applications for the same purpose from across the Border. On I February 1736 there appears in the Minutes a resolution that Reading should write to the Hon. Archibald Campbell " that the Governors do with all thankfulness accept his kind offer of the M.S.S. Acts of the Scotch-Kirk Assemblies, and will use all care to preserve them in their Library." Reading adds : " he writ Feb. 4." Consider- able negotiations followed before Mr Campbell was finally satisfied and the manuscript delivered. I have come upon the cost involved in obtaining possession of this document which was ultimately to prove a cause of much more expense. It appears in Reading's balance-sheet for 1737. For Coach-hire June 17. 1737 for the Presid 11 M r Abbot & myself, to wait on M r Archibald Campbell in Marsham Street 1 Edward Arrowsmith, of St Olave, Hart Street. WILLIAM READING 29! beyond Westminster Abbey, about 3 MSS in folio of Acts of Scotch Assemblies, w ch he proposed to give to o r Library o. 5. 6. For attending him again with a Draught of the Deed of his gift o. 5. o. For the Deed & Counterpart engrost i. i. o. For waiting on M r Campbell with y e Deed sealed with o r College Seal and bringing back the Counterpart executed by him, with the three books to the Library o. 6. 8. At various times this manuscript excited curiosity and was the cause of anxiety to the Court. Mangey wished to borrow it in 1747, but leave was refused. During the nineteenth century applications began again. In 1822 Dr John Lee, "rector of St Andrews University 1 ," approached the Bishop of London, asking " permission for the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland to take a Copy of the Records of the General Assembly of the Kirk in 3 volumes folio in Manuscript from the year 1560 to the year 1616." Whereupon the Court brought out Mr Campbell's deed of covenant, examined its provisions, and according to its terms replied that their Scottish brethren might inspect the manuscript and might make extracts, but that this was all that could be permitted. In 1824 there was a further application on the part of " Thomas Thomson Esq. Deputy Clerk Register," in 1828 another on behalf of the General Assembly from " M r Secretary Peel," and this time the College consulted the Solicitor General, after which leave was again refused. In 1829 the question occupied the attention of the House of Lords in circumstances which the minute-book may describe in its own words. It having been intimated to the Court, by the Lord Bishop of London, their Visitor, that Lord Haddington had given notice in the House of Lords, that he should present a Petition to that House from the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, praying that Measures might be taken for the preservation of certain Records of the Acts of Assembly in possession of the said College :... Resolved that upon application by the General Assembly to this College, Permission be granted to them to have a Copy of the said three Volumes of Records, to be made at their expence [on certain conditions which are minutely specified] 1 A well-known and very learned Scots pluralist ; afterwards became Principal of Edinburgh University. 192 292 WILLIAM READING And it now [26 May 1824] appears, that, on Lord Haddington's making such motion, the Bishop of London stated the resolution of the Court to the House: and afterwards, on Friday the 5th of June, 1829, M r Spottiswoode^ Solicitor for the General Assembly, together with five Scotch gentlemen, by appointment met, at the College, D r Hollingworth [St Margaret, Lothbury], and M r Faulkner [St John, Clerkenwell], to- gether with M r Tilson, the College Solicitor and his son ; and M r Spottis- woode and the other Scotch gentlemen then and there inspected the Manuscripts, and admitted that the principal one was only a Copy. But even so the difficulty was not settled, and in 1834 these Campbell manuscripts brought our College into touch with a per- sonality of surpassing interest. On 24 April " M r A. Johnston, the Rev d D r Lee, & the Rev. D r Chalmers of London (sic), deputed by the Committee of the House of Commons on Church Patron- age in Scotland, came to the Library and there inspected the three volumes presented to the College by the late M r Campbell, and also the Deed of Trust." The Rev. Robert Watts, Jr., had also received a summons from the Committee to produce the volumes. True to its former policy, the Court expressed its inability to let the books pass out of its custody, while offering any other facilities ; but bade Mr Watts attend the Committee the next day, taking with him the Deed of Trust and giving the opinion " of Sir Nicholas Tindal, when Solicitor General." However, on Friday, 2 May, the Parliamentary Committee, having inspected the trust deed, made an order for the produc- tion before them of the preciously guarded manuscripts, and members of the Court with friends in the House, Mr Beresford 1 , for instance, "had seen Lord Sandon," reported that the Speaker's opinion was in favour of such production. So the books were taken to Westminster and the Clerk of the Committee " gave to the Assistant Librarian a Receipt in writing for the same." The references in our minutes to " the Hon. Archibald Camp- bell," to whom the Clerk assigns no other designation, conceal a personality which interested Dr Johnson without greatly impressing him. The Doctor, says Boswell, was " so good as to write with his own hand, on the blank page of my Journal" a paragraph giving the substance of what he had said about 1 Of St Andrew, Holborn. WILLIAM READING 293 Archibald Campbell at the Duke's table at Inveraray 1 . Johnson summed Campbell up as " a man of letters, but injudicious ; and very curious and inquisitive, but credulous " ; and it is not easy to sum up a man who, as a Non-juror, was chosen in 1721 Bishop of Aberdeen and in 1724 resigned that office in order to start a schism within a schism. His actual biography does not concern us here, and it may suffice to say that he was the second son of the second son of Archibald, the ill-fated Marquis of Argyll (1598 i66i),his mother being a daughter of the third Earl of Lothian, and that his course through life, though less notorious than his grandfather's, was hardly less wayward. The point for us is that in later years, while not in communion with the Church of England, he mainly lived in London, and we have seen William Reading paying him a visit at his house in Mar- sham Street, behind Westminster Abbey. I am even inclined to think that his dealings with our College may be due to his personal knowledge of and confidence in Reading, whose Abbey sermon on the Royal Martyr suggests a rather lukewarm attachment on the preacher's part to the House of Hanover. And now it is necessary to say something about the treasures thus entrusted to the safe and sedulous keeping of the President and Fellows of Sion. The " Booke of the Universall Kirk of Scotland" comprised the original and authenticated records of the General Assembly from 1560 to 1616, of which the Church of Scotland to-day possesses only manuscript " Abbreviates " or abridgements. The originals became a natural prey of the enemies of the Kirk, and between 1580 and 1587 they fell into the hands of Patrick Adamson, Archbishop of St Andrews, who was accused by the Assembly of mutilating them in the interests of prelacy. The next certain date in the career of the manu- script is 1638, when the three volumes were laid on the table of the General Assembly which met at Glasgow in November. One volume was then attested by " A. Jhonston, Cl s . Eccl." and the others by Thomas Nicolson, both well-known Clerks of the Assembly, whose signatures appear on documents now in possession of the Kirk. After that the books can be traced to. the care of Lord Balcarres, and at the Revolution they had 1 Boswell, Life of Johnson (ed. G. B. Hill, 1887), v. p. 357. 294 WILLIAM READING once more fallen into the hands of a Scottish prelate, John Pater- son, Archbishop of Glasgow. Then they were obtained by a son of Archibald Johnston, Lord Warriston, the Clerk who had attested the first volume in 1638, and who was executed at the market-cross in Edinburgh in 1663. His son, James, commonly called " Secretary Johnston," was a cousin of Gilbert Burnet, whose inquisitiveness could not resist the temptation to borrow them. But James Johnston, I suspect, is also responsible for their ultimate arrival into the possession of the Hon. Archibald Campbell ; for it must be remembered that Johnston's father and Campbell's grandfather had suffered the last penalty at Edin- burgh for offences in which they were friends and confederates. Now in 1733, or thereabout, Archibald Campbell wrote to William Grant (afterwards Lord Prestongrange), Procurator and Clerk of the Assembly, offering to surrender the records for a large sum of money, so soon as they had been printed and published under his direct supervision, and with the proviso that no member of the Kirk was to correct the proofs. On behalf of the Kirk Grant resented these conditions, claiming that Archibald Campbell had no right to be in possession of what he was thus ready to sell ; but, while the Kirk was endeavouring to bring him to reason, Campbell took the resolve to entrust the books to Sion College as already related. Henceforth, as far as the carefulness of the College could guard them, the precious volumes were safe ; not even the most powerful and learned member of the Court could get permission to remove them from their place. In fact, both the officials of the College and the authorities of the General Assembly did their duty, the latter, under Dr John Lee's inspiration, making application in 1828 and subsequent years to the Legislature as the only authority which could annul Archibald Campbell's stringent deed of covenant. I have endeavoured in vain to find this deed at the College, but its stringency has already been proved out of the minutes. I can detect no support in our records for Dr Lee's statement that " if [the Archbishop of Canterbury's and the Bishop of London's] advice had been promptly followed by the College, we would have had the Books in our possession ten years ago." The sense of fraternity WILLIAM READING 295 between the English clergy and the ministry of the Church of Scotland was doubtless not as keen a century ago as it has since happily become ; but in this matter I can see no sign in our books that ecclesiastical controversies had any effect upon the course of the negotiations. Here were these admittedly priceless volumes ; here, too, was the covenant expressing the conditions upon which alone the volumes could be inspected. Dr Lee and his colleagues came to Sion and asseverated the absolute genuine- ness of the writings, which had suffered no hurt while in our possession. The moment they left the College, they ran into danger. Taken to the House of Commons, as already stated (3 May 1834), and not being safely returned to the College at the close of each day's deliberation of the Committee on Church Patronage, sudden destruction came upon them unawares, and they perished (together, perhaps, with Campbell's deed of covenant) in the disastrous fire of 16 October 1834. The loss to the Church of Scotland was great, and Sion College was the poorer for losing the satisfaction of seeing these treasures restored to their original owners by a proper exercise of Parlia- mentary authority 1 . And here we may take leave of William Reading, with a sense that it is impossible to exaggerate the value of his services in the two capacities of Librarian and of Clerk ; about the latter something is recorded elsewhere 2 . For some years before his death on 10 December 1744 he was assisted as Clerk by his son Thomas, who hoped to succeed him in both offices and whose zeal for the College was not less than his father's. But the Governors decided to separate the functions. Thomas Reading was continued as Assistant Register or Clerk, and on 28 January 1745 the Rev. Wm Brakenridge, D.D., rector of St Michael, Bassishaw, was chosen " Principal Librarian, Clerk, and Register " ; it being arranged " that he have a salary of 40^ per annum, with the same house M r Reading liv'd in, adjoyning 1 I am indebted to the learned Dr William Mair for the references which justify this record John Lee, D.D., Lectures on the History of the Church of Scotland, edited by W. Lee, 1860, n. 38792 ; The Booke of the Universall Kirk of Scotland, edited by Alexander Peterkin, 1839, i xii. It is curious that the other duplicate of the same records, having been taken south by Cromwell, should have perished by water. 2 Chapter iv. p. 83. 296 WILLIAM READING to the Library." But it appears that he did not occupy the house and his non-residence may account for the impression derived from a perusal of the minutes that he never amounted to as much as his predecessor in the life of the Library. On the contrary, Thomas Reading continued to live in the paternal home; for in 1746, "some of the Gover rs complaining that the Key of the Library was not kept at the House adjoyning to the Library," there was an order " that the Key be lodged in the said House in the hands of Thomas Reading." I have before me letters of 1759 and 1760, which show by the address, "M r Reading, Librarian, at Sion College," that the son was felt to be no less the keeper of our treasures than the father had been. Indeed, the fact that Brakenridge was, perhaps, less of a personage than William Reading, had the result of causing the Court to take a closer interest in Library affairs. Here, for instance, is an injunction (1746) "that pen, Ink, and paper be left in the Library for the use of the Fellows"; another (1749) directs " that for the future no Books be Bought for the Library without the Direction of the President for the time being," an arrange- ment that roused grave objections just a hundred years later. In 1746 a Fellow, John Berriman [St Alban, Wood Street], "came to the Court & acquainted the Gov rs that there is an Auction of Books at St Pauls Coffee House, among which are several will be very usefull in the Library." The Court desired Berriman, and not their Librarian, to buy them and he "laid out" fifty shillings. One of Brakenridge's last acts was to make out a catalogue of " some Books in the Closet at the upper end of the Library under the Picture of King Charles, said to be Duplicates & Books of small value," which had been asked for by " the Associates of the late D r Bray " and which a General Court granted them " as a present from the London Clergy." Braken- ridge died in 1762 and once more Thomas Reading's hopes rose. The election of a successor took place on 20 December 1762 and Reading has left the well-written petition, dated that very day, in which he put his case. " I take the liberty," he said, " to represent to you that my Father served the London-Clergy, in the offices of Librarian and Register, about thirty six years ; and on his Decease D r Brakenridge and my self being appointed to WILLIAM READING 297 succeed him, I have had the Honor to serve you Eighteen years, and have done the whole Business of the College, I assure you Gentlemen, to the best of my Capacity and as an honest Man." He was willing to accept the Librarianship "without any addition to my present Salary, or other Pecuniary advan- tages whatsoever, which will be the means of saving to the College Fifty pounds a year." I have already given reasons for believing that herein he was speaking truly ; but again the office he desired was taken by another in the person of " the Rev. M r W m Clements, Lecturer of St Stephen, Walbrook." Clements succeeded as Clerk when Thomas Reading died in 1768, and as this chapter has occupied itself so much with the fame of a single family, the little that need be said about Clements may belong to the next stage of the Library's story. CHAPTER XVI ROBERT WATTS. " Your venerable Librarian." (Bishop Blomfield.) WILLIAM CLEMENTS' period as Librarian (1762-99) was almost exactly equal to that of William Reading, but it was in no sense as eventful or impressive as the other. Neither the unusual fact " that the Bishop of Rochester 1 had this day [12 May 1767] put into his hands a Ten Pound Bank Note to buy books for the Library," nor the providing of "a Brasier" and " one Pound yearly for Charcoal " for " airing & drying the Library and Hall," is sufficient to render his reign remarkable. But it is evident that the gains from the Libraries Act were increasing, for in 1772 Mr George Hawkins, warehouse-keeper of the Stationers' Company, had his fee of half a guinea doubled " as a gratuity for his trouble in Sorting & Delivering the Books Demandable by Sion College." This gradual increase in the stock of books brought more visitors and led to a systematising of the Library rules both for its use by the Fellows and for the admission of strangers. The first formal set of standing orders, though, as we have seen, there were preliminary ventures in the same direction, belongs to Clements' time and is dated 1784. It runs as follows : i st That every Fellow of the said College who borrows any Book, or Books, from the Library shall return the same within the Space of Two Calendar Months on the Penalty of forfeiting Two Shillings & Sixpence for the use of the Library. 1 Zachary Pearce, Dean of Westminster, formerly of St Bartholomew-by-the- Exchange, a constant attendant at the Anniversary Dinner. ROBERT WATTS 299 2 dl y That no Fellow... shall borrow any Book from the Library till after two Calendar Months from the Time of Its having been Entered and placed there. 3 dj y That the Librarian on lending any Book to a Fellow... shall take His acknowledgement under his Hand, of his having borrowed such Book, with a Promise to pay 2 s 6 d as above mentioned, in case He fail to return it within two Months. 4 [ y That Whoever returns any Book or Books so borrowed shall not borrow the same again till after the Space of One Week, to the Intent that Other Fellows... may have an opportunity of borrowing the same. 5 J y That in future when any Book or Books are kept beyond the Limited time, the Librarian write to every Person detaining such Book or Books desiring Him to return the same ; And in failure of Comply- ance to report it to the next Court. 6 l y That no Fellow... be permitted to take any Book, or Books, of Prints or Plates out of the Library without Leave from the President or Court. These orders were to be " fairly written, Framed, and placed in the Library " and, as if to prove that they were no respecters of persons, and that there is no time like the present, the Court ordered Clements to " write to the Rev d M r Archdeacon Heslop 1 [St Peter le Poer] to return such Books as he has borrowed out of the Library, and Kept beyond the limited Time, together with the Fines due on the same." The increase in the public use of the Library soon necessitated some addition to the accommodation, and in 1792 it was Resolved That the Room up one pair of stairs over the Gateway should be converted into a Reading Room, with a communication into the Library. At the same time the following regulations were adopted for the use of the Library : 1. That the Librarian do make out a List of all Books which are in the present Catalogue, but not found on the Shelves. 2. That the deficiency be made up as far as may be thought proper. 3. That the propriety of an Application to the Trustees of the several Libraries entitled to a copy of every Publication entered at Stationers Hall, respecting the imposition in Authors entering part only of their works, be taken into consideration. 4. That no Bibles, Lexicons, Dictionaries or Concordances be lent out of the Library to any person. 1 Archdeacon of Buckingham. 300 ROBERT WATTS 5. That Leave for Strangers to read in the Library, which may be granted either at a Court of the Governors of the College, or by the President himself, to be communicated by him to the next Court, be always for a limited time of three, six, or twelve months. 6. That all the present Permissions... do now cease, until renewed upon fresh application 7. That the Book in which Entries are made of Books borrowed & returned be kept by the Librarian, and not laid upon the Table; each person who borrows a book writing the title and mark of reference on a paper, which he is to give to the Librarian, and which, when the book is returned and entered, may be given back or destroyed ; the respective entrances to be made by the Librarian. 8. That when the term for the loan of a book is expired, the Librarian do give notice thereof to the person who has borrowed such book. 9. That the Entrance Book be produced at every Meeting of the College Officers. The reading-room was ready by 1794 and the regulations for the opening of it are a striking indication of the change in national habits. They enacted among other things two vacations, during which the room was to be shut ; one lasted from a week before to a week after Christmas ; the other from a week before to a week after Whitsunday. "All Church holidays, for which there is an Epistle & Gospel in the Service," and " all Wednesdays & Fridays throughout the year " were to be dies non for the reading- room ; with these considerable exceptions, it was opened daily from 1 1 a.m. to 3 p.m., until the death of Clements in 1799, upon which it was arranged that the room should be available whenever the Library was open. This period brought to the collection both gains and losses. In 1778 "the Lord Bp. of London" [Dr Lowth] was "pleased to present his Isaiah to the College Library." In 1787 the Trustees of the British Museum received the " most respectfull thanks of the President and Fellows " for their gift of " a Copy of their Catalogue of Printed Books." In 1794 the University of Cambridge sent a printed copy of " Beza's Manuscript." Against these marks of gain through public favour we may set a resolu- tion of the Court (1789) "to subscribe to the Rev d M r Moore's 1 1 I.e. Charles Moore, M.A., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, A full Inquiry into the subject of Suicide, i vols. 4to, London, 1790. ROBERT WATTS 30 1 book on Suicide for the use of the Library," and the practice of selling the music brought in with other publications in accordance with Queen Anne's Act, 1710. This was suggested in 1792 by Theophilus Lane, rector of St Michael, Crooked Lane (Pre- sident, 1791), and in a paper in his handwriting preserved at the College there is an estimate that "on the supposition that a dealer w d give one fifth only of the selling price [of the musical publications delivered since the Act came into force], the money arising from the sale would be 30^." It ought to have occurred to him and to the Court that the object of the Act was certainly not that the College should cut the prices charged by the trade. When William Clements' will was proved on 27 April 1799 it was found that he had bequeathed to the Library all his printed books, 50 towards the repair of the building, and " the Portrait of the Royal Martyr King Charles the First, in order to accompany that of his son King Charles the Second already fixed therein." He also left 50 of which the Almsfolk were to receive the interest half-yearly. The choice of a successor presented no difficulty, for the man was already there. In 1785 Clements had asked leave to "employ an Assistant," and was allowed, " in consideration of his long and faithful services," to " engage the Rev d M r Watts in that capacity." Clements paid him 30 a year till 1792, when the Court agreed to relieve him of the charge and to pay Watts itself. The fact is that Watts, with his beautiful penmanship and his untiring dili- gence, had already commended himself to the College. For in June 1785 it was resolved "that a new inter-leaved Catalogue be provided, and bound in two volumes, and that the Rev d M r Watts be employed to make a fair Transcript of the Whole, which he has agreed to do for Fifteen Guineas." Before the end of April 1786 the first volume was ready. In 1789 he finished his task, which " had employed much more of his Time and Labor than he had reason to expect when he first engaged in it." He suggested a payment of thirty guineas, but " the Court was so well satisfied with M r Watts' execution of what he had under- taken" that they made the gratuity thirty-five guineas. Therefore, when it came to the election on 26 April 1799 of Mr Clements' successor, the conclusion was foregone, and if 302 ROBERT WATTS to Watts' 33 years as Librarian we add the period from 1785 when he began to be employed at the Library, we arrive at a unique service of 56 years' duration 1 . Unlike Reading, to whom he is a serious rival, Robert Watts was somewhat of a pluralist, and two of the posts held by him would have involved a close connexion with our College, even if he had never become Librarian. He was born in or about 1750, and in 1785 became Assistant Librarian at Sion. Nothing is said about any ecclesiastical office that he then held, or how the Court came to desire his services. In 1794 he was made Lecturer of All Hallows, Bread Street; in November 1795 he was admitted to the rectory of St Helen, Bishopsgate, on the nomination of the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's; and in January 1797, being then Assistant Librarian, he was collated by Bishop Porteous to the prebend of Ealdstreet in St Paul's Cathedral in succession to Matthew Feilde 2 . In 1799, four months after his election as Librarian, Porteous, who must have held him in high esteem, gave him, most appropriately, the rectory of St Alphage, so that he became the parish parson of the College. Once more, in April 1817, he was chosen Divinity Lecturer of St Paul's Cathedral, an office also formerly held by Matthew Feilde and maintained in part by the rents of the Manor of Bradwell 3 . He held these three posts together with the Librarianship till his death. He came to the control of the Library at a time when it was being more and more used by students who, though they had no connexion with the College, yet experienced no difficulty in obtaining access to its benefits. Indeed, it may be of interest to give a selection from the many names which were now recorded meeting by meeting in the minute-books under the head of " permission to read " : the Rev. Josiah Pratt (from November 1798 onwards); "the Rev d Mr Villette, Ordinary of Newgate" ; the Rev. Wm. Agutter 4 ; " the Rev d Mr Ubele, Minister of a German Lutheran Congregation in London " (John Christian 1 According to the Gentleman's Magazine he was in his p2nd year when he died. 2 See Chapter xn. p. 217. 3 See Chapter vn. p. 146. Also W. J. Sparrow Simpson, Registrum, p. 155. 4 Diet. Nat. BiQg. s.v. A well-known London preacher, but not beneficed. ROBERT WATTS 303 Christopher Ubele, who in 1833 was still using the Library and writing a Latin letter to the President asking for permission to transcribe an oriental glossary) ; the Rev. Wm Tooke, author of a history of Russia ; Thomas Frognall Dibdin, D.D. (1805) ; " the Rev d Christopher Wordsworth, D.D. Dean & Rector of Bocking " (1810); "the Rev d Daniel Lysons, Author of 'The Environs of London' &c." (1811); "the Rev d M r Abauzit, Minister of the French Episcopal Church in Martin's Lane" (1812); John Stafford Smith, Master of the King's Choristers ; " I. dTsraeli Esq r of the King's road, Gray's Inn Lane" (1813-19); the Rev. Frederick Nolan of " the Free Chapel in Hackney " (1814 he was Boyle Lecturer that year) ; the Rev. R. S. Ten Harmsen, of the Dutch Church in Austin Friars (1815); Charles Grant, M.P., Charles Grant, Jr., M.P. [afterwards Lord Glenelg], and R. Grant, all of Russell Square (1816); "the Rev d James Currey, B.D. Preacher of the Charter House" (1818); " M r Ollivant, Junior, of the University of Cambridge and son of M r Ollivant, a tenant of this College... at his Father's request" (1818-27), apparently the future Bishop of Llandaff; "the Rev d D r Sleath, Master of St Paul's School" (1819); "Dr [Joseph] Phillimore, of Doctors Commons"; Bishop Van Mildert "during such time as his Lord- ship shall be resident in his Deanery House of St Paul's," and the Rev. Richard Harris Barham, Minor Canon of St Paul's (1821); "S. T. Coleridge, of Highgate, Esq rl , recommended by the Rev d D r [Henry Butts] Owen" (1823); the Rev. Edward Churton, of the Charterhouse, afterwards Archdeacon of Cleve- land (1824) ; the Rev. J. R. Pitman (1820), the Rev. Edward C. Tyson, "mathematical teacher" (1822), Thomas Poynder, trea- surer (1823), and the Rev. William Trollope (1827), all of Christ's Hospital ; " M r Isaac Taylor, Junior, of Stanford Rivers, Essex, a gentleman engaged in literary pursuits" (1829); "George Crabb Esq r , of No. i Pump Court, Temple, Author of many Philological Works" (1832); "Michael Gibbs, Jun r , Esq re , of Caius College, Cambridge," a future President of Sion and a Fellow till 1882 (1832); the Rev. J. W. Blakesley, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge (1833), afterwards Dean of Lincoln ; "A. [Abraham] Hay ward, Esq r , Barrister at Law, of No. I Pump 1 Derwent Coleridge received similar permission in 1837. 304 ROBERT WATTS Court, Temple," recommended by Barham (1834); " M r Henry Scrivener, of Trinity College, Cambridge, residing at No. 272 in Bermondsey," the future Reviser of the New Testament (1834) ; " the Rev d Frederick Maurice, Resident Chaplain of Guy's Hospital," and "James Robert Hope Esq r [afterwards Hope- Scott], Fellow of Merton College, Oxford" (1837); Roundell Palmer, of Lincoln's Inn [called, 1837], William Selwyn, Bencher of the same Inn, and " M r Benjamin Webb, of Trinity College, Cambridge" (1838). Such and such are some of the miscellaneous and afterwards notable students to -whom our Library was of service in the days of Robert Watts. The list might easily be prolonged, for, apart from a Fellow's recommendation, there were almost no restrictions, though there were conditions as to sex and as to age. In 1813 a lady [Miss Maria Hacket, of Crosby Square] requested to have access to the Library, but in vain ; in 1 824, when permission was granted to a young Pauline, it was decided to restrict the privilege to boys over eighteen, except in special circumstances. It is good to reflect that all these readers experienced Watts' " ready attention and courtesy to the frequenters of the Library," to which the Court bore witness when they raised his salary in 1817. But, in spite of their distinguished guests, the Court were as jealous as ever of their principal treasures. For example, " D r Charles Burney, of Greenwich," who in 1 807 had received their thanks "for his valuable Present to the Library of D r Richard Bentley's Letters," applied in 1814 "to have the use, at his own House, of the Liturgies of the Greek Church... contained in 13 volumes folio," but was told that the "scarcity and value" of the books was too great and that he must be content to examine them at the College. This carefulness had its reward in a national recognition of the Library as one to whirh official publications could be properly entrusted for the general good. In July 1802 the President [Mr John Brand, of St Mary-at-Hill, the well-known antiquary] informed the Court that he had written to Lord Pelham, the Secretary of State, to say that Sion Library, "which is so much resorted to and so extremely useful to the whole ROBERT WATTS 305 Body of the London Clergy... has by whatever accident been overlooked, when the Doomsday-Book and the Rolls of Parlia- ment were published." These publications are "too expensive to be purchased by us... are most particularly wanted in a Clerical Library, and... are perpetually inquired for at Sion College in vain." As if this plea were not pathetic enough, the President described the Clergy of the College as a body of men, "who, if it were only for their uniform and unshaken Loyalty, during the Pressure of the late unhappy Commotions, should seem to be not entirely without a claim to such a mark of the Indulgence of Government." In a week's time Lord Pelham replied signifying the King's pleasure to make the gift and enclosing an order " under a flying Seal " for the delivery of the volumes. At the same time (9 July 1802) the President received from Mr John Topham 1 , Secretary to the Commissioners appointed by his Majesty on the Public Records of the Kingdom, a message that the Library had been placed " on the List of those to which the Works printed under their Direction are to be sent," and forwarding four volumes already published. Topham was granted on the spot a perpetual permission to read in the Library, "notwithstanding the Standing Order" which confined such permission to limited periods. In the following year Brand, being still President, tried again and secured from the Crown 33 volumes of the Journals of the House of Lords, a complete set of those of the Commons, two volumes of the Sessional Index, four volumes of Reports, and five of the General Index. The privilege meant a total of 99 volumes, which cost the Library 40. 19^. 6d. for binding, but it was welcomed as a mark of public confidence, for it was a condition of the gift that the books must not be sold or taken out of the Library. But the shadow of Copyright legislation and of the possibility that the Library might be robbed of its privileged position lay across the path of the foundation. It had appeared in Clements' time, when they consulted Bishop Terrick in 1774 as to a petition to Parliament "praying that the College might continue 1 Cf. Diet. Nat. Biog. s.v. P. 20 306 ROBERT WATTS secure in their Right of Books entered at Stationers' Hall," receiving from the Visitor an assurance that no such petition was needed. But in the days of Watts the prospect became much more anxious. On I December 1812 the Court noted the " late Decision of the Court of King's Bench, in favour of the University of Cambridge, respecting the Right of that University to Copies of all Printed literary publications." In June 1814 there was anxiety about a Bill 1 brought in by Mr Davies Giddy ; so the Visitor and the Members for the City were asked to support " the right of the College," and in August there was an expression of the Court's gratitude to Mr Giddy " for his open and liberal conduct during the progress of the Bill." Meanwhile the receipts under this " right " had increased so much that new arrangements had to be made with the " Warehouseman of the Company of Stationers," one George Greenhill. His predecessor's fee had been raised from half-a- guinea to a guinea. Greenhill in 1814 received 5 guineas, in 1815 10 guineas and in 1816 15 guineas, "as a Compensation for his Trouble in demanding Copies of Books... and for the delivering to the Librarian from time to time Lists of the several entries made at the said Hall." In 1815 the mere cost of removing the Library books to the Hall during repairs, and cleaning and replacing them, was ^51 ; the work being carried out by the firm of Leigh and Sotheby 2 , who had been similarly employed in 1801. The Act of 1814, to which reference has been made, led to an interesting co-operation between the privileged Libraries, in which our officials and our College-buildings bore no little part. On 22 April 1816, the President, Dr Rose, reported that a conference had been held at the College between various Library authorities interested in securing strict compliance with the Copyright Act, 1814, on the part of publishers. " H. Monck Mason Esq r , Librarian of the King's Inns Library in Dublin," came to represent the two Irish Libraries ; " the Rev d M r [Bulkeley] Bandinell," Bodley's Librarian, and Professor Edward 1 54 Geo. III. c. 156. 2 Cf. Diet. Nat. Biog. s.v. Sotheby, Samuel (1771 1842). ROBERT WATTS 307 Christian, who had long been free of our Library, and "M r Gatty," of Cambridge, attended for the two Universities ; on behalf of the British Museum there came "the Rev d M r [H. H.] Baber, Keeper of the Printed Books," and "the Rev d M r Bean, his Assistant"; while a solicitor in Parliament Street was present on behalf of the privileged Libraries in Scotland. A series of resolutions resulted. It was felt that the evasions on the publishers' part demanded prosecution, in the first instance on the ground of non-entry. Four simultaneous suits should therefore be entered, one for each of the English, one for the Scottish, and one for the Irish Universities, but our College, as affording accommodation for the committee's meetings and providing a secretary in the person of its Librarian, Mr Watts, should stand aside from the task of prosecution. It is of interest to note that among the persons incriminated were " Murray," " Dibdin, the author," " Lackington & Co. for Dugdale's Monasticon in particular," and " Rivingtons," and that it was estimated that, while " 8000 titles of Books are published in one year," "not above 1000" were "entered." Some of the correspondence of this important juncture still survives. It shows that after the above conference, which was held in March, 1816, matters moved rather too slowly for the Irish representative. Mr Monck Mason wrote to Watts from 24 Kildare Street in June : " My marriage since I saw you has occupied my time or I should have before this urged to a vigorous prosecution before summer." He wished proceedings to be taken at once " for us in Ireland against M r Dibdin," and he added that, "tho' the British Mus. will stand alone, they are to inform us whom they select before we can safely proceed." Thereupon Watts sought an interview with Baber of the British Museum, and found that other expedients were being first tried. Seven or eight booksellers had received letters from the Solicitors to the Museum warning them to comply with the Act, and the result had been the receipt of books to the value of from 200 to .300. Baber mentioned two booksellers who would have writs served on them in two days if they were still recalcitrant, and, as he had promised to forward their names 20 2 308 ROBERT WATTS if things came to the worst, Watts felt that in the absence of such information he could now write to Monck Mason at Dublin, to Bulkeley Bandinel at Oxford, to Christian at Cam- bridge, and to the Solicitor of the Scottish Libraries, describing the issue and postponing all idea of prosecution till the next legal session. As showing how our College became a clearing-house for the problems of the privileged Libraries, Watts adds a hint about " one book of value which has been sent to the British Museum, but is not entered. It is Murphy's 1 Arabian Anti- quities which sells for 40 guineas it is published by Cadell and Davies." Early in 1818 the question came upon them again and I find Watts' draft of a letter to the City Incumbents, dated 20 April and adopted by the Court on the next day, in which he explains that the professed object of the [amending] Bill is to compell the Libraries which by the Act are entitled to a Copy of any Book published, to pay for it at a rate to be fixed by Parliament ; and goes on to make request on behalf of the Court, if you have any friends in Parliament, that you will be so kind as to mention to them the extensive benefits of this Library, which you are aware contains upwards of 17,000 volumes, besides Manuscripts &c., and is as open as any Public Library in the Kingdom, being free for all the clergy of London... and to any other Person of character, whether of the Clergy or Laity, properly recommended to the Court or the President. At the same time the Court arranged that, as the Bill was then in Committee, " each Member present should in turn attend at the House of Commons this week during the sitting of the Committee on the Copyright Bill." The brief minutes of the Syndics of the Cambridge Library, which were kindly produced for me, show that Mr Edward Christian came up from Cam- bridge for the same purpose. The Scottish Libraries, on the other hand, preferred the plan of being legally represented, but Watts has kept a candid letter (22 December 1818) from the Sion College lawyer, Thomas Tilson of Coleman Street, in which he suggests informing the Scottish authorities that "we [Sion College] attended the Committee every day during the 1 Diet. Nat. Biog. s.v. Murphy, James Cavanah (1760 1814). Our copy came to hand on i June 1815. ROBERT WATTS 309 last Session and advising not to apply to be heard by Counsel, but to stir up their ffriends the being heard by Counsel does nobody good but us lawyers." The immediate effect of this co-operation was to draw the privileged Libraries together for the purpose of securing "all Books newly published to which they may be entitled... and not entered at Stationers' Hall." On 3 February 1819 Dr F. J. Hubbersty wrote to Watts from Queens' College, Cambridge, to say that the Library Syndics had that day agreed to this proposal and suggesting that the expense should be divided " upon the same Principle as is observed in regard to M r Green- hill for works entered." Baber of the British Museum "would endeavour to procure a proper person and would lend him any assistance in his Power." What actually resulted at the moment is not quite clear, but by 1825 the College was paying 20 a year to Mr William Turner, of the British Museum, no doubt recommended by Baber, as its collector ; he was also to receive "the expences of printed Receipts and other incidental charges" and an additional consideration for collecting published works that were not yet in the Library. There is the further effect revealed by Watts' correspondence that the College became keenly alive to its own interests in the matter of published books. One instance will show that it even anticipated its rights. On 16 January 1819 Watts writes to " John Murray Esq r " asking him to " deliver to the Bearer John Linnit a copy of each of the undermentioned Books for the use of Sion College Library under the late Copyright Act," the books specified including "A View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, by Henry Hallam Esq r " (published in 1818). The letter was opened at Albemarle Street in Mr Murray's absence and a reply was sent to the effect that the books had all been "entered" and "will be delivered immediately when ordered by M r Greenhill the warehouse Keeper." " This," it was added, " is the way in which M r Murray has been in the habit of delivering his Books for the Libraries." Another instance may stand to the credit of the College as not being inclined to harshness where the Copyright Act bore very heavily on particular authors. I take it from a letter addressed to Watts 310 ROBERT WATTS by W. B. Cooke 1 , of 13 Judd Place East, New Road, and dated 19 July 1819. Evidently the Librarian had applied for a copy of a work entitled " Pompeij," and Cooke replied : I have as yet published only one Number of the Work of Pompeii, and that has cost me no less a sum than Twelve Hundred Pounds. Upon my representing this to the Librarians of the British Museum they in the most handsome manner immediately declined pressing me for the Work, and I fully trust you will be equally liberal. If I had received only one Quarter of my expenditure, then with pleasure I would have forwarded the Number. To declare the truth I was in hopes that the Act which above all others is the most oppres- sive to me and to my Brother Artists would have been done away with this Sessions. Believe me as this Work almost consists of Plates and those engraved by my own hand it would fall extremely hard upon me as the Publisher, indeed as the Act now stands I have been much blamed for entering upon so serious a speculation. Led by the British Museum, our Court took a reasonable view of the case. " They cannot," wrote Watts, " relinquish the claim of Sion College to a Copy of your book of Pompeij, but are not disposed to press the immediate delivery thereof." Nor, in fact, did the College ever receive one. It is thus time for us to realise that these developments had caused a large increase in Robert Watts' labours. Nor was the College slow to acknowledge his untiring assiduity 2 . In 1816 he received 20 guineas as " a small acknowledgement for his trouble and care" in making a catalogue of Bishop Gibson's volumes of tracts. But in the following year the minute-book gives us a more elaborate statement, from which we may gain an idea of what it meant to hold his office. The statement can be thus abridged : The labours of the... Librarian have of late much increased.... Previous to the commencement of the operation of the [Copyright] Act, the Number of the new Volumes placed in the Library annually were on an average from about 60 to 65, which usually came in at different times.... Subsequently... the average number has increased to 387 volumes 1 Diet. Nat. Biog. s.v. Cooke, William Bernard (17781855). 2 A good instance of Watts' thoroughness is afforded by our copy of Newcourt's Repertorium. At the end of the first volume the compiler gives a list of about 400 errata ; Watts has put a neat tick against each of these in token that he has made the necessary correction in the text, besides adding some which had not struck Newcourt. ROBERT WATTS 311 per annum, besides Pamphlets, which is more than six times the former number received, and... there does not appear... reason to expect that they will decrease. ...The business of the Librarian... with respect to the New Books... is to examine the Parcels and take account of them as they come in from the Publishers and Stationers' Hall, which they usually do once in two months and sometimes monthly; to stamp each Book & Pamphlet with Printer's ink on the back of the title with the College stamp to inspect arrange and class the different Books to make double Catalogues of them, the one Alphabetical and the other numerical as they stand on the shelves to check them with the monthly Lists to select such as are proper to be put upon the shelves from such as are useless or improper to arrange such as are to be bound to make lists thereof to instruct the Binder and to attend the delivery thereof to and receipt thereof from him to examine his account, and to watch the expenditure on that account, that it may not exceed the sum the College may have at command to make an Alphabetical Index of the Books & Pamphlets, which are to be put away as useless or improper for the Library to take an Account of the Pamphlets intended to be admitted into the Library and, when sufficient in number or bulk to make a Volume, to arrange them and instruct the Binder to take an account of all such Books and parts of Books, as he shall discover to have been published from time to time and not delivered to the College, and occasionally to represent the same & correspond with the Publishers or Printers, and with the Warehouse Keeper at Stationers' Hall, and others, on the subject, and if need be to report the default to the Court. With a just tribute to his "great ability, punctuality, & diligence" and to his " ready attention and courtesy to the frequenters of the Library," they raised his stipend as Librarian to 90 a year, besides 40 as Secretary, and five guineas yearly "for Stationery &c." In 1825 they gave him an assistant at 60 a year in the person of "his son, Robert Watts, B.A. 1 ," and from 1829 onwards they presented the old man with an annual gratuity of ^50 " in consideration of long, faithful, & valuable services." No Librarian in the history of the College had received half his wages, but none more richly deserved what he received, though he probably clung too long to his College offices. The son resigned his post in 1838, and then the father's zeal for the good of the College was once more exemplified. For he " expressed his earnest wish that in the present low state of the finances of the College the Court would not appoint him an Assistant." The new Copyright Act, of which more presently, would, he believed, 1 Rector of St Benet, Gracechurch Street, 1829 1840; predeceased his father, 20 Nov. 1840. 312 ROBERT WATTS have the effect of diminishing his labours. He would apply to them for help, if " upon trial he should find it more than he might be equal to." The question arose again in 1840. The Visitor (Blomfield) was referred to and recognised in his reply " a due degree of consideration for the feelings of your venerable Librarian." An effort was made to secure the services of Barham, of the " Ingoldsby Legends," then rector of St Mary Magdalen, Old Fish Street, and, failing him, the choice fell on the Rev. Henry Christmas, to whom we must return in the next chapter. The Court recorded good old Watts' death (19 January) on i February, 1842, and it only remains to notice that the latter years of his reign were of the greatest moment to the interests of the Library. They saw their little troubles, but they saw also the placing of State subvention on a sound and stable footing. As to the troubles, even Watts' vigilance was not sufficient to prevent the pilfering of books. Here is a record of 1831 : It appearing that depredations have from time to time been made on the Books in the Library, It was agreed that it be referred to the next Court to consider of excluding the Readers in the Library in future from immediate access to the shelves : and that M r Hardwick be desired to calculate the Expence of inclosing the Bookcases with Doors. To judge by the minute-book nothing was done in this direction, but there survives a letter, written at the College on 16 January 1832 by Samuel Birch, D.D., John Newton's successor at St Mary, Woolnoth, in which he enters his " most decided protest against the Measure now in Progress of closing up the Book shelves in the Library against the Members of the College, both as questioning the right of the Court to direct any thing so materially affecting the Privileges of the Body at large and the expediency itself of having recourse to a step so hostile to their feelings & to the feelings of the Parties admitted to read within its walls." Clearly, then, some such measure was taken, but it cannot have been persisted in. But the troubles paled before the event of 1836. The Act 6 and 7 William IV c. 1 10 had as its purpose to repeal so much of the Act of 1814 respecting copyrights " as requires the Delivery of ROBERT WATTS 313 a Copy of every published Book to the Libraries of Sion College, the Four Universities of Scotland, and the King's Inns, Dublin." The new Act 1 proceeded by way of an annual sum in com- pensation for the loss of the " rights " hitherto enjoyed by these Libraries, and it is doubtless for this reason that its passage through Parliament caused no apparent heart-searching in our College. In fact, there is no reference to it in the minute-books until we come to a letter dated 6 September 1836 from Mr A. G. Spearman of the Treasury. He was commanded, he said, by the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury to refer the Court to the Act of 6 and 7 Wm 4 c. no, "under the authority of which the delivery of a copy of every published work to the Library of Sion College has ceased." Their Lord- ships now had to settle " the amount of the Compensation to be awarded by this Board under the 2 nd Section of the said Act to such of the Public Libraries as will be deprived by its operation of the advantages which they enjoyed under the Act of 54 George 3." What was wanted of our Court, therefore, was "a Return of the Books which the Library of Sion College has actually received during each of the last three years ended 30 June 1836, shewing the titles of the several Books and the names of the Publishers, together with an account of the expense" of agency, carriage, and other outgoings. It thus seemed as if there was nothing to do except to draw up the list and to receive the figure at which the total came out. To secure an accurate list, the Court employed Joseph Greenhill of Stationers' Hall, and paid him twenty guineas for it. But the compensation under the Act did not eventually amount to the total at which Greenhill arrived. Mr Spearman's letter informing the College of the amount of compensation to which it would be entitled (17 February 1837) conveyed the opinion of their Lordships "that such Compensation cannot justly be computed upon the publishing price of the Books at the Rates which are stated in the Return." All the Treasury can consider, 1 This Act was repealed by the Copyright Act, 1911, section 34 of which enacted that the annual compensation to the privileged Libraries, ours included, should continue to be charged on the Consolidated Fund. Cf. L. C. F. Oldfield, The Law of Copyrigh t, 1912. 3 14 ROBERT WATTS he says, is " the price which would have been paid for such works delivered in Sheets at Stationers' Hall." This made an average difference of 63^ per cent, between the price thus calculated and the price as returned by the College, and it brought out the amount of annual compensation due to the Library at ^400. iSs. 6d. But, he added, even the price of the books in sheets did not represent the net advantage hitherto obtained by the College under the Copyright Act, for there were the costs of collection to be deducted, and "the average amount of these expences appears from the Return prepared by you to have been ^37. $s. 4^." " The amount of Compensation to be awarded is therefore ^363. 15^. 2d." and hereafter this, said Mr Spearman, would be paid (as it still is), " immediately after the 2O th of August in each year." It is the custom to speak of this result as if it were due to "the previous remissness of the College 1 " and to contrast our neglect with the thrifty vigilance of the Scotsmen who managed the Library of St Andrews University and who established a claim to compensation at the rate of ^630 yearly. This comment is, no doubt, strictly justified. But it has to be remembered that, though placed at the public service, our Library had the London clergy as its chief constituency and that their needs lay then, as they still lie, mostly in the direction of theology and humane letters. The Librarian might, as we have seen, apply for a valuable book on Pompeii, because it was of interest to his clients. But, if he and his Court decided to be reasonable in not pressing for that particular volume, there would naturally be hundreds of volumes published yearly, as to which their reasonableness, not their remissness, would show itself in making no application at all. Whether the figure fixed by the Treasury is considered satisfactory or not, there can be no question of the immense advantage gained by a mainly theological Library in having a certain sum to spend, rather than the published books of the year to draw upon. Selection, as Lord Rosebery has recently hinted to us, is of the life-blood of a healthy Library. Besides, the Copyright Act's writ did not run upon the Continent or in the United States, and from 1 W. H. Milman, Sion College, p. 59. ROBERT WATTS 315 both quarters during the intervening years theological literature has been vastly enriched with books which can be included in the list sent annually to the Treasury but which under the previous system could only be acquired as the small income of the College allowed. A contemporary case in point will show how this fact operated to the improvement of the Library. In 1831 the minutes contain in Robert Watts' careful script " a List of the best Editions of the Fathers, which are not in the Library." It included nineteen editions of the Greek Fathers, all of them published abroad, Rome, Paris, Heidel- berg, Hamburg, Venice, and elsewhere ; and twenty-one editions of the Latin Fathers, of which only one was English, the Cambridge edition of Minucius Felix, 8vo, 1712. It was there- upon agreed to procure " the best Edition of the Works and Hexapla of Origen" and to buy the others "as opportunity may offer." But on the very day in 1837 tnat brought news of the fixing of the Treasury grant, Watts called to mind his patristic list of six years earlier and it was at once resolved that, as soon as the money was forthcoming, "the President be requested to procure for the Library such of those Books as he may meet with, and which may not have been already purchased." The old man was well over eighty when he recorded this motion, but he must have felt that, though he would only write minutes for a few years more, his still beautiful hand trembles out of the register in the summer of I839 1 yet after his days the Library, if its resources were as worthily husbanded, would be able to achieve a useful independence. Carpent tua poma nepotes. 1 But, alas, he recorded in the Book of Incumbents kept at the College the death of his son Roberts Watts, of St Benet, Gracechurch Street, in November 1840. CHAPTER XVII HENRY CHRISTMAS AND MILMAN "This is one of the most venerable institutions of this country." (Lord Campbell.) THE long reign of Robert Watts over the affairs of the Library closed with his death on 19 January 1842. Like all long reigns which depend for their efficiency on the maintenance of unimpaired vigour, its declining years were marked by a corresponding decline in the daily and delicate care which is due to such treasures as ours ; but a corporate body like the Court of Sion College, which never dies, and to which the perils of old age do not attach, must share the responsibility for the some- what dismal record which now ensues. If we could not look the whole world in the face and say that amends have been made, it might be better to suppress the record altogether ; as it is, the claims of candour can be met. Watts had been in office so long, that to arrive at the conditions of the appointment necessitated a search among the records, which satisfied the Court " that the Election to those Offices [Secretary & Librarian] has uniformly been with the Governors of the College alone." They fixed the salary at 150 per annum, "without any perquisite" but with the occupation of the President's House, except the dining-room and drawing-room, which the Court furnished for its own purposes, permitting the Librarian " to enjoy the use of the Furniture on his keeping it in good repair and condition." On 15 February 1842 they had before them two candidates, the Rev. Henry Christmas, M.A., F.S.A., and the Rev. James Reynolds, B.A. Both were men of scholarly attainments in HENRY CHRISTMAS AND MILMAN 317 different directions, Reynolds as a Persian and Arabic scholar and Christmas as a numismatologist. The minutes give no hint as to the supporters of these two candidates. It must be sufficient to say that the ruling spirits on the Court at that time were R. H. Barham, of the Ingoldsby Legends, and Dr Russell, rector of Bishopsgate, and formerly of Charterhouse School. Even if Mr Christmas enjoyed the support of some potent champion, the Court as a whole was not without knowledge of him, for in December, 1840, owing to the debility of Robert Watts, he had, as we have seen, been appointed Sub-Librarian at a salary of 80. As usual, the question of a new Catalogue was mooted at the outset of his career, and this time under experienced auspices; for on 20 June 1842 "The Court subsequently dined together, at which dinner the Rev d Thomas Hartwell Home 1 was present and conversation took place concerning a New Catalogue for the Library. M r Home furnished the Librarian with a paper of hints." Six months later Christmas was directed to " prepare a specimen of the proposed Catalogue" for the Court's approval. By the following February he was ready with his specimen and his estimate of the cost, which would be 200 at the rate of 50 a year, and he was told to proceed. Let every allowance be made for all his difficulties ; he had succeeded to the office of a careful and industrious man, who could not arrest temptts edax rerum ; he had to do his work in a building which the passing of the years and the miscellaneous nature of the institution were bringing into grievous peril 2 . He had to deal with a strong Court who were not inclined to let him choose for them the books to be bought out of the Treasury compensation grant. His salary, or a large part of it, was im- perilled by an Act of 9 Victoria (1846) which authorised the College to raise ^5500 by way of annuity for the rebuilding of the Almshouses. The office of Secretary was thereupon abolished, and as an Order in Council, dated 23 March 1846, required the attendance of the Almspeople in the College Hall, 1 At that time Senior Assistant in the Department of Printed Books at the British Museum; rector of St Edmund the King; President, 1851. 2 Cf. S. P. Cockerell's report, Chapter v. p. 106. 3l8 HENRY CHRISTMAS AND MILMAN morning and evening, for family prayers, the Court, " regarding M r Christmas as placed in the situation of Head over the College Family," appointed him Chaplain at the salary he had received as Secretary. But the ^75 which he received as Librarian was jeopardised, because the Act specified that the balance of the income, after payment of the interest on the loan, must go towards "the maintenance and support of the said College, Almshouse, and the other buildings belonging to the said College, and other necessary purposes of the said College." Now, while the Library was, indeed, a part of the buildings, it was open to doubt whether a Librarian came within "other necessary purposes," and the receiver appointed by the Court it must in candour be admitted that he was a son of Dr Russell, the Treasurer, was told by the Master in Chancery that " the term ' maintain ' applied only to the Fabric of the Building, and not to the keeping up the College in an efficient state as a public Library." But, while this conundrum was still in solution, there came at the anniversary of 1 849 a resolution that " the affairs of the Library generally" needed to be investigated, and it is to the long report of the committee appointed ad hoc, which is part of the minutes of the Court of 15 June 1849, that we now turn, rather sadly, for a description of the Library as it was then found to be. After noticing that there were two sets of rules, not quite identical and needing some conflation and some modifying those, namely, of Reading's State of Sum-Library^ p. 52 and those " in M r Watts' handwriting, which are, or which were lately, suspended in the Library," and after a mild suggestion "that Tickets, properly ruled in Columns... might be printed, in place of the present irregular scraps of paper," the Committee plunge into a description of the prevalent conditions. Important rules, they found, were being systematically neglected " to the imminent danger, and occasional loss, of the Library." To begin with, the vital rule for the regular at- tendance of the Librarian had not been carried out " with a due consideration of the respect and credit which ought to attach as much to the London Clergy and their Librarian as HENRY CHRISTMAS AND MILMAN 319 to that noble Library which the piety of their Predecessors has bequeathed to the constant use of the Fellows of Sion College." Mr Christmas, in fact, was " represented " by a lad, or occasion- ally two lads, under the age of 20, who were believed to be in his employ. Without any authority from the College they had full control of the books, archives, and manuscripts, and they were so familiar a feature " that some Students in the Library and its Visitors have even not been aware that Sion College had any other Librarian than these young Persons." The Com- mittee would like to have put questions to these unauthorised deputies, but Mr Christmas, very unwisely, refused to permit it. As with his daily attendance, so with his keeping up of the classified list of each year's additions to the Library. This, they say, was the well-known practice of former times. Mr Christmas had completely omitted it. Further, the Committee had delegated to some of their number the task of inspecting the Archives " certain Books of great rarity and value, early printed Books (Caxtons and Wynkyn de Wordes), valuable English works of the period of the Reformation, Evangelistaria, Greek Service and Office Books in M.S., curious collections relating to English History &c." This sub-committee reported that many of these volumes, " each of the value of from 20 to 50, and in many instances much more," were falling to pieces from dirt or neglect. Not more than one volume in ten was " in even decent, scarcely one in creditable, repair." Few had the title on the back. Their arrangement was in great confusion and, when called for, they took long to find. They must be at once rearranged and repaired and catalogued ; for Mr Christmas, it seems, had taken Reading's interleaved Catalogue to pieces for the purposes of his own venture in that line, and these leaves, or such of them as were not lost, must be " smoothed out and rebound." In fact, with the exception that " the Books in the Upper Library are for the most part arranged," the same condition of things applied to the entire collection. Even in the Upper Library the books were " in a state of almost indescribable dirt " ; " an immense number " wanted binding ; all seemed " daily perishing." As for the Lower Library, it was a building wholly 320 HENRY CHRISTMAS AND MILMAN unsuited to its purpose. " Little better than a cellar," it was " damp, dark, and entirely without ventilation or any means of warming it." Yet all additions, whether new books or old ones purchased to supply lacunae in the collection, went into this lower room and became a prey to mildew. Having given their lurid description of things as they found them, this Committee proceeded to enlarge their " general inquiry into the affairs of the Library" by attacking the question of finance. Where was the 30 a year which used to be appropriated to the repair and the binding of the books ? It had been lost, along with the Librarian's salary, owing to the Act of 1846, and the Committee begin to show their real sentiments when they express their regret that this measure was put into execution, and presumably also was laid before Parliament, " by the Court without consulting the general body of Fellows." The work of the Committee is thus dimly seen to be part of a revolt against Dr Russell, who was the prime mover in the matter of the Act of 1846, and this attitude of theirs may serve to explain their complaint "that we were not favoured with an inspection of the Minutes of the Court." Finance, they continued, was responsible for many of the Library's troubles. The rooms over the Gateway were let to a policeman and his family for what they would bring in, whereas they should provide more accommodation for the Library. The walls of the fabric were cracked, and even the Upper Library was showing signs of damp, but there were no funds for repairs owing to that fatal Act of 1846. Still, there was the Treasury grant of 363. 15^. 2d. per annum, there were Colfe's and Wynn's gifts, there was "the customary payment of 2. 2s. by new Fellows on their admission," and to this extent the augmentation of the Library was assured. But how, the Committee asked, is this aug- mentation managed? And they give their own answer, as men who are to some extent at issues with the Court of Governors. " We do not view with satisfaction the present custom by which it appears that the President of the College for the time being orders all the new Books 'upon his own responsibility, and upon his own judgment." HENRY CHRISTMAS AND MILMAN 321 On this point they made some cogent comments, which in our day are fully and anxiously recognised and accepted in the administration of the Library. The nature of the Treasury grant, they urged, " renders the Library in some degree open to public enquiry." Additions purchased with public money must be chosen with some regard to " the general interests of Literature " and " to the peculiarly clerical and learned character of the Books which ought to form the staple contents of the Library of the London Clergy." They were in a position to point their moral somewhat forcibly without being indebted to the Court for their information; for in February 1849 the Court had been summoned to make a return to the House of Commons of the names of the books purchased since 1841. This return was public property and the Committee, as they perused it, came sadly to the conclusion that " the selection of Books might be entrusted to other hands than those of the Annual President singly, or of the Court collectively, which generally attains Office by seniority." The instances which they added out of the, return are only too convincing, and amid the security of to-day's sounder methods are not without their comical element. In one year, out of 136 books purchased with the grant, "there were 30 per cent, of Novels, and works of the lightest literature of the day." In another, as showing the excessive influence of " the private studies of the party ordering the Books," the " purchase of very expensive foreign works on Numismatics " coincided with " some questionable specimens of French Novels " and " only three works of Theology " the last " mere pamphlets of the Season," costing six shillings. Even in a subsequent year, " while we are glad to mention a gratifying improvement in the selection of Works of a better stamp, we still find in that single year the purchase of 10 Novels by M r James 1 , 3 by M rs Trollope 2 , 15 by M rs Gore 3 and 2 by Lady Blessington 4 : 30 in all." Nor had any attempt been made " by watching the Book- market" to make up incomplete sets or to secure perfect instead of incomplete copies or to fill departments, such as that of liturgiology, in which there were many gaps. Recent 1 G. P. R. James (17991860). 2 Frances Trollope (17801863). 3 Catherine G. F. Gore (1799 1861). 4 Marguerite, Lady Blessington (1789 1849). P. 21 322 HENRY CHRISTMAS AND MILMAN action was entirely unfavourable to any hopes in this direction. " The Fellows," the Committee felt, " will probably share our surprise at learning that an individual has very recently been appointed ' College Bookseller,' who has certainly neither that position in the Trade, nor that technical knowledge of, and familiarity with, scarce and valuable works of Theology, which alone could qualify him for an Office so difficult and responsible." Here again we can perceive that Dr Russell has provoked animosities, for the reference is to the resolution of the Court a few weeks before (13 March 1849, when "Rev. D r Russell, Treasurer," was present, though he could have had no voting rights, not being a member of the Court) " to appoint Sophia Walker, Bookseller of Charterhouse School, Bookseller and Stationer of Sion College"; and "it was ordered that all future Orders for Books and Stationery proceed from the Court, and that they be communicated to M rs Walker through the Treasurer," thus creating a quite indefensible imperium in imperio. The Committee closed with some constructive recom- mendations. They dismissed the cataloguing proposals of Mr Christmas as confusing and impossible, his estimate of the cost as absurd, the handwriting in which the catalogue was being executed as " so excessively minute and crowded that its perusal is a work of difficulty," and its continuation by the illiterate person then entrusted with it as only likely to " reflect discredit upon the College." There must be as soon as possible a renewed effort in the direction of an alphabetical catalogue, a "classi- fication according to subjects " having " been abandoned in the best and most recent catalogues ; in the new Catalogue of the Bodleian Library for example, and in that of the British Museum now in progress." For this purpose, as well as for binding and repairing books and for ventilating and warming the Lower Library, a considerable sum of money must be collected, for which purpose " neither less nor more than the united exertions of the London Clergy are required." Their remaining recommendation concerned the future management of the Library and cut right down to the roots of the foundation. It proceeded upon the very doubtful opinion that " the two institutions [the College and the Library] are HENRY CHRISTMAS AND MILMAN 323 entirely separate in principle and constitution." " The College and Library," they went on, "have separate Founders, White and Simpson," a statement historically correct but without constitutional significance. Holding the Library quite rightly " to be for the benefit of the whole body of the London Clergy," they urged the establishment of a Library Committee, to consist of the President and the two Deans, with six Fellows to be elected at the Annual General Meeting, and to be capable of re-election. This committee should meet monthly and have its secretary, and it should make a financial report to the General Court as to the books purchased during the year. With this main proposal the report came to a close. In view of its unique importance it may be well to add that it was signed by J. Abbiss, rector of St Bartholomew the Great (1819 1883), chairman ; Lancelot Sharpe, incumbent of All Hallows, Staining (1802 1851); Wm Johnson, rector of St Clement, Eastcheap (1820 1864); J. J. Ellis, rector of St Martin, Outwich (1821 1855); J. W. Worthington, vicar of Holy Trinity, Gray's Inn Road (1838 1879); Wm Scott, vicar of Christ Church, Hoxton (1839 1860), and of St Olave, Jewry, (18601872); Richard Wood, vicar of St Sepulchre (1843 1850); and John Edmund Cox, rector of St Helen (1849 1873). Of these Scott (1858), Worthington (1859) and Cox (1865) afterwards served the office of President In one way the result was speedy and decisive. The report was received on 15 June 1849, the Court held a conference with the committee on 2 October, at which it was agreed that Mr Christmas must go, and on 18 October the Court resolved that his services "whether as Librarian or Chaplain be dis- continued." But the proposal about the Library Committee raised some constitutional difficulties, for it affected the supremacy of the Court. To save the constitutional situation the Court undertook at each Annual General Meeting to report the names of the three Fellows " whose habits and acquaintance with Books peculiarly qualify them to have charge of the Library," an arrangement which on the other hand tended to fetter the free choice of Governors by the main body of the Fellows. Still, as a vacancy by death happened at the moment (29 October 1849) 21 2 HENRY CHRISTMAS AND MILMAN and there was a contested election in which Wm Scott 1 , one of the signatories of the Library report, was successful, it may be realised that the investigators had not laboured in vain, while at the next Anniversary there was appointed a Library Committee of "five Fellows not Members of the Court," with instructions to report to the Court from time to time any matters of importance connected with the Library. It included Abbiss, Worthington and Scott, who signed the Report, and Josiah Pratt the younger. But the Court found that it had still to reckon with Mr Christmas, who had the keys of the Library and was in occupation of the President's house. The former were somehow obtained in spite of him by Dr Russell, and the Rev. William John Hall, rector of St Bennet, Paul's Wharf, minor canon of St Paul's, and father of the President of the College for i88i 2 , was appointed (honorary) Librarian, 16 February 1850. But Mr Christmas kept possession of the President's house, which was his official residence and which he had let to one Gibletts, a milkman. The Court came to an arrangement with Gibletts, which Mr Christmas nullified by turning him out and putting in other tenants. Finally the Court took legal advice and a cause for ejectment came on their behalf before the Queen's Bench (Campbell, C. J.), 28 June 1850. It was a curious and com- plicated case and Lord Campbell's summing up was eminently characteristic of the man. He left the jury to decide " whether, at any reasonable time, M r Christmas has been guilty of negligence as Librarian and Chaplain," and he told them they could give their opinion on " either one or the other, or both." The jury found that he was guilty of negligence as Chaplain but not as Librarian ; whereupon Lord Campbell directed a verdict to be entered for the lessors of the plaintiff, that is, for the College, with liberty for the defendant to enter a non-suit. This result, in the face of the Judge's statement of opinion " it seems to me there is very important evidence to shew that 1 We owe both to him and to Dr Russell large collections of contemporary tracts and pamphlets. 2 The Rev. W. J. Hall, also minor canon of St Paul's, and rector of St Clement, Eastcheap; died 29 November 1910. HENRY CHRISTMAS AND MILMAN 325 he has been guilty of negligence in both characters" bears witness to the freedom and independence of a British jury, but what concerns us more is that Lord Campbell prefaced his remarks by the following remarkable testimonial to the value of our College to the English public : This is one of the most venerable institutions of this Country, the Library being very splendid, and one that has been of very great service both to literature and to science ; it is most excellent, and I think the public are indebted to the Governors of Sion College in seeing that the public have the full benefit of that noble Library. By the following Autumn a compromise had been arrived at. Mr Christmas sent the Court a letter of resignation ante-dated " 16 February 1850," and on 30 October Lord Campbell made an order staying all further proceedings by consent, Mr Christmas to accept 5 in satisfaction of his claims for salary, &c., and to surrender the premises immediately, and each party to pay its own costs of the action. Meanwhile the College was left with an honorary Librarian and without the wherewithal to make the office stipendiary. An appeal issued in 1851 brought in subscriptions amounting to ,50 and it was agreed to offer a salary of 75 (of which ^45 was for the Librarianship and 30 for the Chaplaincy) and the President's house. Mr W. J. Hall resigned his honorary office and on 20 December 1851 the Court chose the Rev. Thomas Pelham Dale, rector of St Vedast, Foster Lane. But the Library Committee continued to be appointed and to be of good service. On 8 June 1852, a set of rules was formulated not differing in any vital particular from the present practice. The committee also pointed out that " the ancient Rule which requires the retiring President to hand over the keys of the Library to his successor certifying that all books were in the Library, was not complied with ; neither have the Books been called in previous to the closing of the Library 1 ." 1 In recent times it has seemed unnecessary to call in all the books before the Anniversary, and the only key formally handed over by a President to his successor was that of the wine-cellar. The latter custom appears to date from the election as President of my predecessor at Christ Church, Mr Michael Gibbs, who reported to the Court, 9 May 1855, that he had found in the cellar " 3 doz: of sherry and 6 doz: 3 bottles of port." Whereupon it was resolved ' ' that the Key of the Wine Cellar be 326 HENRY CHRISTMAS AND MILMAN Mr Dale's name afterwards became familiar to the public in quite another connexion 1 , but to Sion College his service, while useful in respect to the catalogue, was soon clouded by a mis- understanding that arose out of a neglect on the part of the Court to prescribe his duties exactly. The trouble first appeared in February 1855, when Michael Gibbs, the President, who was himself untiring in his efforts to extend the usefulness of the College and the Library, was requested to ask Mr Dale how the catalogue was progressing, how many books on an average were catalogued each day, and why "the Librarian's duties were generally discharged by substitutes." To show that they meant business, the Court gave Mr Dale a week to formulate his answer, which proved partly to his credit and partly against it. In the last six months he had catalogued about 4000 volumes. All new books were catalogued and the old might soon be finished with a little assistance, which was the more needed as "the number of Fellows who now attend the Library has so much increased and the interruptions are so great that it is impossible for the Librarian to give that undivided attention to the work of cataloguing which is essential to any real progress." On this point there was agreement and a small committee of inquiry at once reported that a second person, an Ostiary, was required to hand readers their books and for " keeping an eye on what is done by the visitors and for otherwise acting under the Librarian." But on the point of the Librarian's attendance opinions differed, as they had differed in the case of Mr Christmas. Mr Dale's view was that he did " not agree to give unremitted personal attendance"; if he was not in the Library, he was in his house during Library hours, ready to be called by the Porter or his own hired servant and busily trying to " pay the debt of uncatalogued matter left " him by his predecessors. The Court, however, remained unconvinced that this was to fulfil the compact and Mr Dale tendered his resignation to take effect at the end of the year (1856). in the custody of the President " ; for whose official responsibility as wine-buyer, see Chapter XI. p. 202. 1 Cf. R. T. Davidson and W. Benham, Life of Archibald Campbell Tait, 3rd ed. II. p. 421 ff. HENRY CHRISTMAS AND MILMAN 327 With the election of the Rev. William Henry Milman as Librarian and Chaplain on i October 1856, we come to a personality that is vividly and affectionately remembered by most of the present Fellows of the College ; the circumstances that brought him to Sion to begin half a century of continuous work are thus of general interest In the month of July 1856 advertisements appeared in the Ecclesiastical Gazette, the Guardian, and the Record for a Librarian and Chaplain at ";ioo a year with a small residence," applications to be addressed to the President, Mr Michael Gibbs, at the vicarage house in which this chapter was written. There were forty-eight candidates and the Court selected what in the Kirk they call a " short leet " of six, including Philip Hedgeland, F. G. Lee (no doubt, the well-known Lambeth incumbent, whose last days were the subject of some interesting rumours), and Milman. But in the end the choice evidently lay between Hedgeland and Milman, and there is some reason to believe that the Court inclined towards the former. Philip Hedgeland, who was a native of Exeter and at the time of this election was rather more than thirty years of age, travelled up from Penzance, where, however, he was destined to pass the rest of his many days, being then curate of the mother church at Madron. If Milman in his old age seemed like a patriarch in a Michael Angelo painting, Hedgeland had the features of Dante. But, what mattered more to Sion College, he had a passion for books and a zeal for the promotion of Libraries, and he recently be- queathed his own collection to a library in Penzance to which he had long been a benefactor. From a letter addressed by him to the President after his return to Cornwall it may be gathered that he found the official house of the Librarian too small for his needs, and that he keenly regretted his inability to accept the appointment. " Very likely," he adds prophetically, " a vacancy may not again occur for years,'' and in fact he was fourscore and four years of age when the vacancy did occur, but in such an event he was willing to serve in what would be to him " a work of love," if " the Court have been able in the meanwhile to effect any alteration in their house arrangements." In 1860 he became vicar of St Mary, Penzance, whose square 328 HENRY CHRISTMAS AND MILMAN tower overlooking the harbour is a well-known Mount's Bay landmark. Bishop Phillpotts made him a prebendary of Exeter in 1868 and as an Exeter man he decided not to be transferred to a stall in the new foundation at Truro. He died in Penzance in his 86th year on Easter Monday, ipii 1 . His rival, W. H. Milman, had some natural advantages over an unknown West Country curate, however qualified for the post. His father at the time of this election had been for eight years Dean of St Paul's and for fourteen years before that Canon of Westminster and rector of St Margaret ; he had been known for forty years as a poet and his famous History of Latin Christianity had been recently issued (1855). Young Milman was brought up in Ashburnham House, in Little Dean's Yard, Westminster, a building of great architectural interest 2 , formerly occupied by Prebendaries of the Abbey and now part of Westminster School. He was naturally sent to the school, where his headmaster was Richard Williamson, an "accom- plished scholar" but ineffective chief, and his second master was George Preston, who was also vicar of Christ Church, Newgate Street, and something of a scourge to the parish, which till now has rarely been fortunate in the appointments made by the Dean and Chapter of the Abbey. But Milman laid at Westminster a good foundation for classical attainments and general culture and, though at Oxford he did himself more credit on the river than in the Schools, he maintained through life a wide yet discerning appreciation of books and a considerable zest for and knowledge of art. It may also be suspected that his candidature was warmly supported by his then vicar, Mr William Scott of Christ Church, Hoxton (President, 1858), who was one of the chief supporters of Michael Gibbs in the movement for the reform of the Library and for the extension of the usefulness of the College, and who must somehow have overcome the Evangelical scruples felt by Gibbc with regard to Milman's early reputation for " extreme " Churchmanship 3 . Milman entered upon his duties on I January 1857. Just a 1 See The Times, 19 April, 1911. 2 Cf. John Sergeaunt, Annals of Westminster School (1898), p. 256. ;{ See The Times obituary, 10 June 1908. HENRY CHRISTMAS AND MILMAN 329 year later he was appointed by his farrier and the Chapter of St Paul's to the rectory of St Augustine and St Faith, and in 1859 he obtained the seventh Minor Canonry at St Paul's (Senior Cardinal, 1875), holding these offices with the Librarian- ship of our College till his death in 1908. Whatever may be said by the opponents of pluralism against such a career, neither College nor Library ever had any reason to complain that they were being neglected by him in favour of other responsibilities. Whether at London Wall or on the Embankment he became so inseparable a feature of the daily life of the foundation, that even to-day it is almost inevitable to expect him at an Anni- versary Meeting to rise and read the operative clauses in the Charter or day by day to be busy at his books in the corner of the Librarian's room. The College is fortunate in having on the wall of its Hall an admirable portrait of Milman in his old age, painted by Sir William Richmond, R.A. Of his actual career as Librarian it is not now necessary to write at length. At the outset, in view of previous misunder- standings, he was presented with a clear statement of his duties drawn up by Michael Gibbs, Alexander McCaul, of St Magnus the Martyr, the learned Hebraist, and William Scott. This document prescribed that Milman must " perform his duties in person and not by deputy, and remain in the Library during the hours it is open," besides giving minute directions as to his technical responsibilities. In the Governors' report to the Fellows in April 1858, which was the first opportunity of reviewing the results of the appointment, it was stated that " M r Milman continues to discharge his office as Chaplain and Librarian, to the great advantage of the College," a verdict which he never ceased to deserve as long as his powers remained undiminished by age and growing infirmity. How soon he began to look ahead and make plans for the removal of the institution to some more central site may be gathered from his manuscript report to the Governors for the year 1864-65. No notice is given to its contents in the min- utes, but he has left it lying in the book as if to claim the ultimate recognition of his foresight. Observing that the number of volumes issued to subscribers had materially diminished, he 33O HENRY CHRISTMAS AND MILMAN attributed this fact, among other causes, to "the very in- convenient and inaccessible locality in which the Library stands, separated by a Labyrinth of narrow and intricate streets from any main thoroughfare, so that adventurous students from the more distant parts of the Metropolis, however delighted they may be with the contents of the Library, cannot carry away the Books they desire to borrow without adding the expense of cab-hire to their annual subscription." He therefore records his opinion " that the utility of the Library would be vastly increased, could it be removed to some central position nearer to the West End of the Metropolis, and, what is still more important, could it be brought close to some main artery by which Omnibus communication with the various quarters of London could be secured," which is as near to a vaticination of the trams on the Embankment as our blind humanity can come forty years before the event. CHAPTER XVIII THE COLLEGE AND THE LIBRARY TO-DAY In convertendo Doininus captivitatem Sion. (Ps. cxxvi. i.) WE have tried in these chapters to recall the life and the doings of the old Sion College and of the Library which was added to the original scheme, and we have been mainly helped so to do by the records which the Governors have left us of their formal deliberations and decisions. Those records con- tinue to be kept with no less faithfulness than of old, and, indeed, with considerably more, when the comparison is made with certain periods in the past. Milman, whose career as secretary covered so large a portion of the more modern era, was a voluminous minute-writer, and, if his penmanship had only exhibited the consistent care and beauty of that of Thomas Reading or of Robert Watts, the chronicler of the new era would have a delightsome task. But that task is not for the present writer. Exoriare aliquis. Our business is with days that are past, and we may be content to lead up to the change of work and of abode and to give a general description of the new system. Those who have read what has been already recorded about the buildings their lack of architectural distinction and their constant need of expensive repair; about the Almsfolk their narrow tenements and scanty allowances ; and about the Library its lack of room to expand and the deplorable state into which the collection was generally falling will not wonder that projects of reform and removal should have been mooted , at least as early as Queen Victoria's Accession, if not before. 33 2 THE COLLEGE AND THE LIBRARY TO-DAY Taking these features one by one, we come to consider the buildings and their position. The City was going through those changes which revolutionised its entire existence, as compared with what it had been in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. A considerable proportion of the City clergy had never resided in their glebe residences, nor laboured to provide such, where there were none. But at the time with which we are dealing the City merchants whose homes were over their shops were being equally impressed with the policy of living elsewhere. The Ward of Cripplegate became increasingly the home of vast piles of warehouses, whose height testified to the augmented value of the land on which they stood, and whose closeness to their opposite neighbours gave the district its character of " danger zone " in fire insurance offices. If the City clergy had been generally resident and had been alone concerned, the position of the old College was easily accessible on foot. But Bishop Blomfield's decision admitting more of the extern incumbents to the privileges of membership was a call to consider the placing of the College on some more obvious high- road. It could never have been the "centre" that it now is, if it had remained at London Wall. To none, however, was a change of greater advantage than to the poor folk, whom it had been the Founder's chief desire to benefit. We have seen that in the spacious times of Dr Russell (1845) a more convenient building was substituted for their old rooms under the Library. The College impoverished itself for many years in advance in order thus to improve their condition. But the changes of the times were working for a still greater improvement. As the City ceased to be a place of ordinary habitation, it became more and more dull and unsuitable as a milieii for Almsfolk, nor was the neighbourhood of the College lavishly provided with " open spaces " to which the old people could stroll in order to sit and sun themselves. The College, of course, must needs remain in the City or close to its boundary in order to accommodate a membership that was drawn from a prescribed area ; but no such limitation applied to the old people, of whom some, indeed, belonged by residence to City parishes ; but equally some belonged to Bristol and none needed THE COLLEGE AND THE LIBRARY TO-DAY 333 to live in the City. Thus it came to be a matter of debate whether the Alms-rooms could not be better situated out in some ampler aether and in more generous surroundings. Nay, was it not conceivable that Parliament might be induced to vary the form of Dr White's bequest and allow the maximum of possible pension without rooms to be substituted for a much smaller allowance with rooms. Public opinion was distinctly making in the latter direction. Therefore in 1875 an Act 1 was passed authorising the drawing of a scheme for this dissolution of partnership, though not of friendship, between the College and the Hospital. As regards endowments, the Hospital received as its share a quarter (but that quarter a most valuable portion) of the site in London Wall, along with Beeches Manor and Farm, and its appurtenances, and Coxal Farm and* Wood (Essex), and Tyler's Causeway Farm (Herts), the last of which is about to be sold at a fair price to a neighbouring landowner. The College received the remaining three-quarters of the City site, and of course retained its proportion of the profits of the manorial rights and rents at Bradwell in the Hundred of Dengey, Essex. The property being thus divided and the College divested of its ancient and often very anxious responsibility for the payment of the old folks' money, it was natural that our Court should no longer be the sole arbiter in the selection of the pensioners nominated to it by various bodies. The new Act therefore set up a body called the Trustees of Sion Hospital, consisting of eight Fellows or ex-Fellows of our College selected by the Court of Governors and four appointed by the Charity Commissioners, who are wont to remember the bodies and places formerly privileged to nominate candidates, viz. the Merchant Taylors' Company, the Trustees of the Bristol Municipal Charities and the parishes of St Dunstan in the West and St Gregory by St Paul. The civil chanties in the case of the two last ultimately passed under the control of the Trustees 1 38 and 39 Victoria, Session 1875. "An Act for enabling the President and Fellows of Sion College within the City of London to grant Building and Improving Leases of certain Lands in the said City and to sell the same Lands and to acquire other Lands and for carrying into effect an arrangement relating to Sion Hospital and for other purposes." 334 THE COLLEGE AND THE LIBRARY TO-DAY of the City Parochial Charities, and the duty of recommending candidates for pensions has devolved upon that body. Happily the business of Sion Hospital is still closely connected with Sion College, where meetings of the Trustees are held once a quarter, being followed by such modest hospitality as Dr White desired to associate with the practical affairs of the foundation. But the greatest benefit of all has resulted to the pensioners. In consequence of the value of the London Wall ground-rents and of the prudent administration of the rural properties, the Hospital can provide pensions of ,36 or thereabouts for 40 persons, in the place of the 3 or 4. once paid to twenty tenants of the Aims-rooms. Moreover, as it is now the wise policy of the Trustees to insist that their beneficiaries shall take advantage of the Did Age Pensions provided by the State, much the same effect can often be attained by a grant of 2 1 yearly, with the consequence that after a while more persons will be assisted in their declining years. But still, like the Court in old times, the Trustees insist that they must be able to make a real choice and that a sufficient number of cases must be presented to them for that purpose. Great care is exercised by the nominating bodies ; for example, the governing body of the City Parochial Charities provides that the circumstances of each applicant shall have been thoroughly investigated by the Charity Organisation Society. Whatever advantage, then, was derived from the family life of the oddly assorted company dwelling beneath the roof of the old College, and it has been shown that this advantage was by no means universal, it can be safely main- tained that it is outweighed to-day by the greater numbers deriving benefit from a much larger income and by this benefit being enjoyed without the wrench of leaving the society of their home for the doubtful pleasures of an alms-room in London Wall. But, when the relation of the President and Governors to Dr White's Almsfolk was thus profoundly modified and the Almshouse, which the Founder desired above all else, trans- mogrified into the more appropriate form of pensions, there remained no good reason why the Fellows should not lay plans for the development of what the Founder called "the Corporacon," THE COLLEGE AND THE LIBRARY TO-DAY 335 that is, the association of the Clems Londinensis in one place for purposes that concern their calling and for the pursuit of any aims or studies that will help them to make full proof of their Ministry. It was as fulfilling one of these purposes and as an assistance to certain of these aims and studies, that John Simson had caught up the suggestion about the Library long ago, and carried it through ; and with the expansion of the Library we must deal presently. For the moment we can be content to insist that the " Corporacon," the College as a social organism, needed development and that to this end an exodus from the cramped conditions of London Wall was pre-requisite. The tide of pedestrian traffic has laws which have yet to be elucidated ; it must suffice to say that the quarter of the City with which the College was so long associated became more and more of a backwater, as far as the constituency of the College was concerned. The creation of Queen Victoria Street and the Thames Embankment were destined anyhow, even if the College had never found its home on the latter, to make the parish of Cripplegate seem out of the way to those who are not engaged in its thriving activities. Let it be understood that the old College, quite apart from its Library, had its full chance to become a social centre. As early as 1855, which was the first year of the important Presi- dency of my predecessor at Christ Church, Mr Michael Gibbs, the possibilities of the College as a club began to be seen. He and his colleagues, having at their November meeting remodelled the rules for the Library, devoted their meeting of 3 December 1855 to the compiling of rules for what they called "the Reading Room." This was no less than the College Hall, which was henceforth to be opened daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. (except Sundays, Good Friday and Christmas Day) as a reading room for members of the College, and was to be provided with " the periodicals of the current month or quarter, some newspapers, the University Calendars, the Clergy List, the Post Office Directory, and such other books as the Court from time to time directs." There is a regulation, entered but erased, that members, " tho' not required to pay a subscription, shall be requested to make a donation occasionally towards defraying the necessary 336 THE COLLEGE AND THE LIBRARY TO-DAY expenses of the Room"; so that we are at least some way towards the present admirable plan by which the College welcomes as paying guests not only the clergy of the diocese of London but those from a largely undefined area outside it 1 ; for already in 1855 "members" included the subscribers to the Library, that is, "any clergymen residing in the Metropolis." It may be of interest to add that the first set of newspapers supplied to the room consisted of The Times, the Morning Post, the Standard, the Guardian, the Athenaeum, and the Saturday Review. But if the Hall could be used for the purposes of a newspaper room, it could equally be cleared and become the venue of numbers of clergy for purposes of mutual edification ; and in 1854, as the result of pressure from Michael Gibbs and others, it was proposed to spend 1$ in "fitting the Hall with gaspipes, two Chandeliers, and a Lantern over the door." Presently (23 October 1855) there is an entry on the Court register, in the handwriting and during the presidency of Michael Gibbs, of a circular asking the pleasure of the company of the clergy at the College at eight o'clock on five Tuesday evenings of that winter. "After the subject of the Evening has been brought forward," it says, " the remarks of any Fellow will be gladly received. Tea and Coffee will be brought into the Hall at the close of the business." As this was the beginning of what has become a characteristic feature of College life and an anxiety to each succeeding President, it is worth while to give the list of the subjects and speakers "A Church Mission to the Irreligious of London" (the Rev. W. Denton, St Bartholomew, Moor Lane); " The Reformation of Fallen Women, and how to assist it " (the Rev. F. G. Blomfield, St Andrew, Undershaft, President, 1869); " The Mutual Feeling between a Pastor and his Flock, and how to promote it" (the Rev. Edward Auriol, St Dunstan in the West, President, 1862); "The preparation of Candidates for Con- firmation, and how to conduct it " (the Rev. W. W. Champneys, 1 Early in 1856 the Court received a letter from Walker King, Archdeacon of Rochester and father of Edward King, Bishop of Lincoln, asking that the clergy of his archdeaconry on account of their proximity to London and of the "very limited extent " of their Cathedral library, might be admitted to the benefits of our College. For the moment it seemed enough to enter the letter on the minutes. THE COLLEGE AND THE LIBRARY TO-DAY 337 then rector of Whitechapel, and Canon of St Paul's, though the canonical title, according to the custom of the time, was not added to his name) ; and " The state of Education in the City & Suburbs of London, and how to improve it" (the Rev. W. Rogers, at that time incumbent of St Thomas, Charterhouse, President 1867). It will be noticed that all the speakers were actual Fellows of the College, and that the subjects came strictly within the Founder's desire that the " Corporacon " should concern itself with " the glorie of God, the good of his Churche, and redress of many inconveniences not prejudicial to the Lo. B. of London's jurisdiction." But as the choice of speakers was restricted to Fellows, so, on account of the small size of the Hall, was the audience. The use of the College for these practical aids to the cause of religion in general was a great step in advance, but it was bound to lead to a desire for greater space ; and that desire finds some satis- faction to-day, when the College possesses a hall in which a large proportion of the six hundred incumbents of the diocese could be accommodated without much discomfort. Besides, at the time with which we are dealing the Fellowship was being claimed and obtained by an increasing number of clergy. In 1849 the Rector of Stepney having applied to be a Fellow of the College,, the Court considering that the Incumbents of Whitechapel and Spital- fields, formerly parts of Stepney Parish, had always been considered Fellows, held that the Rector of the Mother Church was equally entitled to be so considered, and unanimously acceded to the application. In 1851 the rector of Bow, E., pleaded that his parish "prior to the reign of Queen Anne formed a part of the parish of Stepney or Stebenheath," and was similarly welcomed. In 1852 the rector of Poplar came in, "as included in the limits of Old Stepney," and was accompanied by the incumbents of various daughter parishes in Stepney and Bethnal Green. The organi- sation of these new cures led to an increase in the number of assistant curates at work within the College area, and the year 1855 witnessed a recognition by the Court of the chartered rights of Lecturers and Curates to be summoned to General Courts, though, equally according to the Charter, the Court P. 22 338 THE COLLEGE AND THE LIBRARY TO-DAY could allow them " no right to choose or to be chosen Governors." Again, the College, true to its old interest in elementary education and especially in Peter Joy's school, began in 1859 to extend its influence by holding an examination of all the boys in the Ward and National Schools in the City and within the range of Sion College, and made the College Hall the scene of the ordeal. Seventy-five boys attended from thirty-one schools. Papers were set by a Charterhouse master ; the answers were examined by Governors such as Edward Auriol and Michael Gibbs, and a viva voce test was conducted by Charles Mackenzie, the ex-President, who made out the result and assigned the thirteen prizes (of the value of ten guineas), bound and stamped with the College arms. On 3 May 1859 the College Hall witnessed the public presentation of these prizes, when in the audience of the Fellows, of the treasurers of the schools and of a number of the school-masters, the examiners pointed out the deficiencies in elementary education which they had noted in the various schools. Naturally, all this and other kinds of fresh activity produced a sense of being cramped for room, and of how much more might be done in ampler conditions. At the same time the steady rise in the value of London Wall property inspired the notion that the means of expansion was there ready to the Governors' hands, if they could only use it. The idea found its most definite expression in the year of the school-children's first examination, 1859, when Dr James William Worthington 1 , of St Jude, Gray's Inn Road, being then President, "directed attention to the present value of the College Property, and stated his intention of bringing under their consideration a scheme for far more extensive uses and the possible disposal of the City Property to realise these important issues." Worth- ington's main notion came to its own, when the Sion College Act, 1875, settled the division of the London Wall property as between the " Corporacon " and the Almshouse and gave the President and Governors leave to develope their share. The next step was to decide the question of remaining as a College 1 The Court have lately accepted a bust of him, to be kept in the College. THE COLLEGE AND THE LIBRARY TO-DAY 339 on London Wall or moving to some more suitable site. Feeling worked comparatively quickly, but, of course, in an ancient and conservative body, by no means unanimously in favour of removal, and in June 1879 the College empowered the Court to purchase a site on the Thames Embankment, the Corporation of the City, who were the vendors, giving their assent to the bargain through their City Lands Committee in the following October. There followed delays on both sides. The City showed some apparent intention of going back on the bargain. The more conservative of the Fellows wanted to recall the authority given to the Court to proceed. We may shorten the story here by recording that the Sion College Act, 1884, authorised the purchase by the College and the sale by the City of a specified site on the Thames Embankment for 31,625. The reader of these annals would, no doubt, like to witness the effect of mentioning such a figure either to John Simson, who chose the site, or to Dr Lake who saw its buildings ruined by the Great Fire, but our business is to realise how it could be contemplated as the price of a plot of ground for the Sion of the future. The sale under the 1875 Act of frontages on Alderman- bury Avenue and London Wall and of the other available freehold property produced over 57,000. Thus with some effort the College was able to set up on its new site a building designed by Mr (afterwards) Sir Arthur Blomfield, son of a former Fellow and Visitor of the College, at a cost of a little over ^,"28,000. For all the purposes of the " Corporacon " it has proved capable of giving the moribund Society of Sion a fresh lease of useful life ; indeed, in some respects, for example, its culinary installation, which afforded some harmless amusement to those gentlemen of the Press 1 who were admitted to inspect the new establishment, the provision was in excess of what has proved to be necessary. But in its Common-room, its Porch- room, its Court-room, and its Hall there is space for the satis- faction of present needs, even if the subscribing membership continues to increase at the prevailing rate. I have before me a statement dealing with the year before the hegira, 1884-85 ; it 1 E.g. The Standard, 15 December 1886. 22 2 34O THE COLLEGE AND THE LIBRARY TO-DAY shows that 21 Incumbents, 8 Curates or Lecturers within the area, and 6 other clergymen were subscribers. The similar paper for the year 1911-12 shows a subscribing list of 75 incumbents within the area, 273 curates, and 209 extern incum- bents and other clergy. The income from such subscriptions was 21 in 1884-85, and was 420 in 1911-12. It is only fair to add, first, that the year 1884-85 was an inevitably lean year owing to the imminence of the removal, and, secondly, that, the removal once accomplished, it became possible to extend the privilege of subscription to the assistant-curates, the incumbents and the other clergy resident in a much larger area ; but that is in itself no small justification for the Court's policy. It is unnecessary to describe here the proceedings of 15 December 1886, when the new buildings were formally opened by their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales (afterwards King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra) in the presence of the Lord Mayor, the Archbishop of Canterbury (E. W. Benson), the Lord Chancellor (Halsbury) and a distin- guished company. Of the Court which received them Mr Septi- mus Buss (President, 1889) is the sole survivor. What concerns us, as we pass now to the development of the Library amid its new conditions, is that the President of that year (Mr Richard Whittington, of St Peter upon Cornhill) was able to remind the Prince of Wales that on the occasion of a recent disastrous fire in the Wood Street quarter, which His Royal Highness had watched from the roof of the old College, he had himself called attention to the risks run by so priceless a collection of books in a district so liable to similar outbreaks. What had happened in the meantime to the Library and its treasures ? Owing to the necessity of realising the value of the site, the books were removed in August 1884 under Milman's supervision to the Pantechnicon, where they remained till the new Library could receive them in July 1886, and the interval was devoted to a re- consideration of the whole question of classification. Let us give the result in Milman's own words : At length after looking at the matter from every point of view, it seemed to him that an adaptation of M r Melvil Dewey's plan of classifica- tion, combined with M r Cutter's system of shelf-marking, might work THE COLLEGE AND THE LIBRARY TO-DAY 341 satisfactorily ; and an experience of ten years has only served to deepen his conviction that he did well in coming to this conclusion The system has much to recommend it, if only because (i) it seems to give particular facilities for general classification, and for the grouping together books upon particular subjects; (ii) it provides for the indefinite expansion of each division or sub-division, without any alteration of the press marks of works already on the shelves ; (iii) it also makes it possible, whenever it is found desirable, to remove a whole division or part of a division from the shelves which they may at present occupy to other shelves in the same or another room, without affecting the order of classification and with the least possible disturbance of the press marking 1 . At the time of the removal it was reckoned that the collection consisted of 62,000 volumes (exclusive of pamphlets, which number about 30,000); by 1897 it had risen to 66,000. Milman himself saw 30,000 added to it in the first forty years of his Librarianship. To-day the total stands at about 100,000. Of these 30,000 are arranged in the noble room at the top of the building ; the rest are housed in rooms that stretch far down below the ground-floor ; so far, indeed, that at certain very rare heights of the Thames tide there has once or twice been a slight trouble with water. But this is no longer a danger, and room is left for the still further expansion of the collection. It only remains to be added that two changes marked the declining years and the death in a good old age of William Henry Milman. First, a permanent Library Committee con- sisting of the Court and certain scholarly assessors, to whom the College is much indebted for their aid, took over the choice of the books, and in the multitude of counsellors there is peace from the old anxiety that the collection might somehow reflect too much the personal tastes or views of a single arbiter. Secondly, on Milman's decease, the Court, to whom all such matters were definitely adjudged by a decision of Bishop Blom- field (20 July 1855), decided to make the Librarianship an honorary office, in order that an increase of the junior staff might meet the larger daily needs of students. They were fortunate in obtaining the services as Librarian of Mr Charles O. Becker, of St Botolph, Aldersgate. Our latest Librarian, like 1 W. H. Milman, Brief Account of the Library of Sion College, July I3th, 1897 pp. 6, 7. 342 THE COLLEGE AND THE LIBRARY TO-DAY John Spencer, the self-styled Protobibliothecarius, is a " Lover of Learning and of Learned Men," and his frequent presence at the College, without binding him to the long hours of Milman's daily labours, enables him to put his sympathy and his knowledge at the service of those who may need it. Here, then, our record may fitly close. We have brought the Founder's Almshouse out into a wealthy place and seen it equipped with an admirable system of out-pensions. We have seen the College as a Society rejoicing in a central and roomy habitation, in which there need be no complaint for some time to come that "the place where we dwell... is too strait for us." We have looked on while the splendid collection of books has become housed and re-arranged in a building, which is capable of receiving accessions and in which the College can welcome duly accredited readers, lay as well as clerical, in confidence that its annual subvention is wisely expended in the purchase of the best and most suitable books. There may be anxieties connected with the finances, for the splendid position of the freehold is accompanied by heavy responsibilities in the way of rates and taxes 1 . There may be restless ambitions, of which the writer of this story is himself conscious, that some such change in the constituency of the Fellowship may yet be achieved as would make it, as it once was, synonymous and coterminous with the Clerus Londinensis. But the future of the old foundation is bright with hope, because its present is full of usefulness as a centre to which the clergy may resort "with their faces thitherward " and find peace within its walls, and as an armoury from which they may borrow the latest weapons for their spiritual warfare. It has years of blessing behind it and years of work before it. Those who know it best and therefore love it most do not hesitate to say : " Diligit Dominus portas Sion." 1 In 1911 12, out of an income of about ,2200, the College paid >6\i in rates and taxes. APPENDIX A LIST OF PRESIDENTS NOTE. In this list the style, names and benefices are given as they appear in the Minutes. The figure in the left-hand margin shows the date of the man's election as President; thus 1631 would mean that he served the office from the Anniversary of 1631 to that of 1632. 4 A. 3 A. 2 A. i A. = fourth, third, second and first Assistant. J.D. = Junior Dean. S.D. = Senior Dean. (D) after a President's name implies that there is a notice of him in the Dictionary of National Biography. Charter. John Gifford, D.D. (D). Rector of St Michael Bassishaw. 1631, 1632. Thomas Westfield, D.D. (D). Rector of St Bartholomew y e Great. 1633. John Hackett D r in Divinitie (D). Rector of St Andrew Holborne and Archdeacon of Bedford. 1634. Thomas Worrall D r of Divinitie of St Buttolphes Bishopsgate. S.D. 1631. 1635. [William] Fuller D r of Divinitie (D). [Vicar] of St Giles with- out Criplegate. 1636. 1637. Jonathan Browne D r of Divinitie. Dean of Hereford, Rector of St Faiths. 1638. William Broughe D r of Divinitie (D). Rector of St Michaell Cornehill. i A. 1634, 1635. 1639. Richard Houldsworth D r of Divinitie (D). Rector of St Peter le poore. 3 A. 1633. S.D. 1634, 1635. 1640. Michael Jermyn D r of Divinitie. Rector of St Martyns Ludgate. i A. 1633. 1641. John Grant D r of Divinitie. Rector of St Barthew neare the Exchange. 1642. Mathias Stiles D r of Divinitie. Rector of St George Buttolphe Lane. 4 A. 1637. J.D. 1641. 1643. James Marshe D r of Divinitie. Rector of St Dunstanes in the West [sequestered]. 344 APPENDIX A 1643. Andrew Janavvay Bachelour of Divinitie.- Rector of All Hallows on the Wall. 3 A. 1637. 1644. John Ley Bachelour of Divinitie (D). Rector of St Mary Hill. 1645. M r George Walker (D) Bachelour of Divinitie. Rector of St John Evangelist. 3 A. 1631. J.D. 1643. S.D. 1644. 1646. M r Arthure Jackson [B.D.] (D). Rector of St Michaell Wood- street. 2 A, 1644. J.D. 1645. 1647. 1648. Cornelius Burges, D r of Divinitie (D). 2 A. 1631. 1649. W m Gouge D r of Divinity (D). Anne Blackfryars. 1650. Edmond Calamy (D) of Mary Aldermanbury. 3 A. 1643. J.D. 1644. S.D. 1649. 1651. 1652. D r Lazarus Seaman (D) of All Saints bread st. 1 S.D. 1645. J.D. 1647. 1653, 1654, 1655. James Cranford (D). Rector of Christophers behinde the Exchange. S.D. 1646, 1647. 1656, 1657. M r Samuel Clarke (D). Minister of Bennet Finck. J.D. 1654. S.D. 1655. 1658. M r Charles Offspring. Minister of Antholins. i A. 1645. J.D. 1646, 1650. 1659. D r [Edward] Reynolds (D). Minister of St Lawrence Jury. 1660. M r [Matthew] Haviland. Minister of Trinity Parish. 4 A. 1650. 2 A. 1651. J.D. 1655. S.D. 1659. 1 66 1. 1662. D r Robert Pory (D). Rector of St Buttolphs Bishops- gate. 1663. D r Christopher Shute. Rector of St Vedast, Foster Lane. S.D. 1662. 1664, 1665. D r Samuell Bolton. Rector of St Peters Poore. 1666. D r [Matthew] Smallwood. Rector of St Martine Outwich. J.D. 1661. 1667, 1668, 1669. D r John Lake (D). Rector of St Buttolph Bishoppsgate. 4 A. 1664. 1670, 1671. M r Daniel Mills. Rector of St Olave Hartstreet. 3 A. 1661. i A. 1662. 2 A. 1663. J.D. 1667. S.D. 1668, 1669. 1672, 1673, 1674. D r William Bell (D). Vicar of St Sepulchres, i A. 1666, 1667. J.D. 1668, 1669. S.D. 1670, 1671. 1675. Charles Mason, D.D. (D). Rector of St Peter the Poore. S.D. 1663, 1664. 1676. D r John Meriton (D). Rector of St Michaell Cornehill. 2 A. 1656, 1657, 1658. 1677. 1678. M r George Gifford. Rector of St Dunstan in the East. 4 A. 1661. 2 A. [662. 1 In 1652 he is styled " Rector of Breadstreet. " APPENDIX A 345 1679. D r Ambrose Atfield. Rector of St Mary Somerset. 4 A. 1667. S.D. 1678. 1680. M r Robert Grove (D). Rector of St Mary Ax. 2 A. 1672. i A. 1673. J.D. 1674. S.D. 1675. 1681. D r William Beveridge (D). Rector of St Peters Cornehill. i A. 1676. S.D. 1677. 1682. D r [Clement] Zanchy. Rector of [St Clement, Eastcheap.] Dec. 4. Declined to serve. D r William Bell [Vicar of St Sepulchre]. See 1672. 1683. William Sherlock, D.D. (D). Rector of St George, Buttolph Lane. 4 A. 1673. 2 A. 1674, 1675. S.D. 1680. 1684. 1685, 1686. Benjamin Woodroffe, D.D. (D). Rector of St Bartholomew the title neare the Exchange. 2 A. 1679. J-D. 1683. 1687, l688 - D r Henry Dove (D). Vicar of St Brigetts alias Brides. 1 A. 1678. S.D. 1679. 1689. M r Jeremy Dodson. Rector of St Katherine Coleman. 4 A. 1668. 3 A. 1669. 2 A. 1670. i A. 1671. S.D. 1672, 1673. 1690. Edward Fowler, D.D. (D). Vicar of St Giles without Criple- gate. 4 A. 1676. J.D. 1677. 1691. 1692, 1693. John Williams, D.D. (D). Rector of St Mildreds Poultry. 3 A. 1676. i A. 1677. S.D. 1681. 1694. John Hall (D). Rector of St Christophers [le Stock], i A. 1672. J.D. 1679. 1695. Francis Thompson, D.D. Rector of the United Parishes of St Mathew rfryday Street and St Peter Cheap. 4 A. 1677. 1696. Thomas Greene, D.D. Rector of the United Parishes of St Olave Jewry and St Martins Ironmonger Lane. 4 A. 1680. 2 A. 1681. S.D. 1686, 1687. 1697. Edward Lake, D.D. (D). Rector of the United Parishes of St Mary At Hill and St Andrew Hubbard. 3 A. 1683. i A. 1684. S.D. 1685. 1698. Thomas Whincop, D.D. Rector of the United Parishes of St Mary Abchurch and St Laurence Pountney. 3 A. 1684. i A. 1685. J.D. 1686, 1687. 1699. M r Edward Smith. Rector of St Michaell Bassishaw. 4 A. 1683, 1684. S.D. 1689. 1700. M r Joshua Richardson. Rector of Alhallowes on the Wall. 3 A. 1687. J.D. 1691, 1692. 1701. Richard Lucas 1 , D.D. (D). Rector of St Stephen Coleman- street. 1 This election was quite unconstitutional, Dr Lucas not having served any office on the Court. 34-6 APPENDIX A 1702. M r John Grant. Vicar of St Dunstan in the West. 2 A. 1691. S.D. 1697. 1703. M r Lionell Gatford. Rector of St Dionis Back Church. 4 A. 1685. 3 A. 1686. J.D. 1688. 1704. M r Edward Waple. Rector of St Sepulchres. 3 A. 1685. i A. 1687. J.D. 1689. 1705. M r Marmaduke Hopkins. Rector of the United Parishes of St Vedast alias ffoster and St Michaell Quern. 3 A. 1693. i A. 1694. S.D. 1699. 1706. Thomas Lynford, D.D. (D). Rector of the United Parishes of St Edmond the King and St Nicholas Aeons. 4 A. 1687. i A. 1688. S.D. 1691, 1692. 1707. John Mapletoft, D.D. (D). Rector of the United Parishes of St Laurence Jewry and St Magdalen Milkstreet. 2 A. 1688. 1 A. 1689. S.D. 1694. 1708. M r Humfrey Zouch. Rector of Alhallowes Lombard Street. 3 A. 1691. S.D. 1696. 1709. John Gascarth, D.D. Rector of Alhallows Barkin. 4 A. 1689. 2 A. 1690. J.D. 1693. 1710. M r William Stonestreet, Rector of the United Parishes of St Stephen Walbrook and St Bennet Sherehog. 4 A. 1692. 2 A. 1693. J.D. 1698. 17-11. William Bedford, D.D. Rector of the United Parishes of St Botolph Billingsgate and St George, Botolph Lane. 4 A. 1696. 3 A. 1697. J.D. 1701. 1712. M r James Gardiner (D). Rector of St Michael Crooked Lane. 4 A. 1700. 2 A. 1701. S.D. 1704. 1713. M r W m Whitneld. Rector of St Martins Ludgate. 4 A. 1697. i A. 1698. S.D. 1703. 1714. 1715. Lilly Butler, D.D. Minister of St Mary Aldermanbury. 3 A. 1708. i A. 1709. S.D. 1710. 1716. Samuel Bradford, D.D. (D). Rector of St Mary le Bow. 4 A. 1699. 2 A. 1700. S.D. 1705. 1717. Robert Lasinby, A.M. Rector St Antholin and St John Baptist. 4 A. 1703. 2 A. 1704. J.D. 1707. 1718. George Martin. Rector of St Mildred Poultry. 3 A. 1705. i A. 1706. S.D. 1709. 1719. Roger Altham, D.D. Rector of St Botolph, Bishopsgate. 3 A. 1704. i A. 1705. J.D. 1708. 1720. John Hancock, D.D. Rector of St Margaret, Lothbury. 4 A. 1705. 2 A. 1706. J.D. 1709. 1721. W m Strengfellow, M.A. Rector of St Dunstans in y e East. 4 A. 1704. 2 A. 1705. S.D. 1708. APPENDIX A 347 1722. Rich d Roderick, D.D. Rector of St Michael Bassishaw. 4 A. 1706. 2 A. 1707. S.D. 1712. 1723. Sampson Eastwick [or Estwick], B.D. (D). Rector of St Michael Queenhithe. 3 A. 1707. i A. 1708. J.D. 1713. 1724. M r [Montague] Wood. Rector of St Michael Royal and St Martin Vintry. 3 A. 1712. i A. 1713. J.D. 1715. 1725. M r Samuel Baker. Rector of St Michaels Cornhill. 4 A. 1715. i A. 1716. S.D. 1718. 1726. M r Tho. Cooke. Rector of St Bennet Pauls Wharf, i A. 1720. S.D. 1721. 1727. Tho. Bray, D.D. (D). Minister of St Botolphs Aldgate. i A. 1719. J.D. 1720. 1728. M r Rich. Sear. Rector of St Albans Wood Street and St Olaves Silverstreet. 4 A. 1720. 2 A. 1721. J.D. 1722. 1729. Edward Oliver, D.D. Rector of St Mary Abchurch and St Laurence Pountney. 3 A. 1722. i A. 1723. S.D. 1724. 1730. W m Butler, LL.B. Rector of St Anne's Aldersgate and St John Zachary. 3 A. 1723. 2 A. 1724. J.D. 1725. 1731. John Hay, D.D. Vicar of St Stephens Colemanstreet. 3 A. 1724. i A. 1725. S.D. 1726. 1732. M r Tho. Spateman. Rector of St Bartholomews the Great near Smithfield. 2 A. 1729. J.D. 1730. J733- Joseph Watson, D.D. Rector of St Stephens Walbrook. 3 A. 1729. i A. 1730. S.D. 1731. 1734. Thomas Mangey, D.D. (D). Rector of St Mildreds, Bread- street. 4 A. 1729. 2 A. 1730. J.D. 1731. 1735. Francis Barnard, D.D. Rector of St Bartholomews Exchange. 3 A. 1730. i A. 1731. S.D. 1732. I 73 6 - Joseph Roper, D.D. Rector of St Nicholas Coleabby. 4 A. 1730. 2 A. 1731. J.D. 1732. 1737. Edward Arrowsmith, M.A. Rector of St Olave, Hart Street. 4 A. 1731. i A. 1732. S.D. 1733. 1738. Ralf Skerret, D.D. Rector of St Peters Poor. 3 A. 1737. 1739. Anthony Ellys, D.D. (D). Rector of St Olave Jewry. 4 A. 1732. J.D. 1733. 1740. William Crowe, D.D. (D). Rector of St Botolph, Bishopsgate. 1 A. 1733. S.D. 1734. 1741. W m Berriman, D.D. (D). Rector of St Andrew Undershaft. 2 A. 1733. J.D. 1734. 1742. Joseph Trapp, D.D. (D). Vicar of Christ Church and Rector of St Leonards Foster Lane. 3 A. 1733. l A - J 734- S.D. 1735- 1743. Thomas Moore, D.D. Minister of St Botolphs, Aldersgate. 4 A. 1733. 2 A. 1734. J.D. 1735. APPENDIX A 1744. John Denne, D.D. (D). Vicar of St Leonards Shoreditch. 4 A. 1734. 2 A. 1735. J.D. 1736. 1745. D r Reuben Clarke. Rector of St Magnus. 4 A. 1736. 2 A. 1737. J.D. 1738. 1746. D r Buncombe Bristowe. Minister of Allhallows Staining. 3 A. 1738. J.D. 1739, 1740. 1747. M r Richard Biscoe (D). Rector of St Martins Outwich. 2 A. 1738. S.D. 1739, 1740. 1748. D r William Best. Vicar of St Lawrence Jewry, i A. 1739, 1740. S.D. 1741. 1749. M r William Reyner. Rector of St Mary Magdalen, Old Fish Street, i A. 1741. S.D. 1742. 1750. M r William Warneford. Rector of All Hallows Bread Street. 2 A. 1741. i A. 1742. 1751. Edward Cobden, D.D. (D). Rector of St Austin by St Pauls. 1 A. 1742. S.D. 1743. 1752. William Sandford, D.D. Minister of St Mary Aldermanbury. 2 A. 1743. J.D. 1744. J 753- D r Theodore Waterland, Minister of St Bennet Finck. 4 A. 1747. i A. 1748. S.D. 1749. 1754. Cutts Barton, M.A. Rector of St Andrew Holborn. 2 A. 1748. J.D. 1749. 1755. Samuel Smith, LL.B. Rector of All Hallows London Wall. 3 A. 1748. 2 A. 1749. S.D. 1750. 1756. D r Fifield Allen. Rector of St Anne Aldersgate. 3 A. 1749. J.D. 1750. 1757. Rev. M r John Cooksey, Rector of St Antholin. [He was only elected on 6 February 1758, owing to several refusals.] 4 A. 1751. 2 A. 1752. J.D. 1753. 1758. Rev d D r Thomas Birch (D). Rector of Saint Margaret Fattens, Rood Lane. 2 A. 1753. i A. 1754. S.D. 1755. r 759- J onn Thomas, D.D. Rector of St Peter, Cornhill. 4 A. 1753. 2 A. 1754. J.D. 1755. 1760. Thomas Newton, D.D. (D). Rector of St Mary Le Bow. 3 A. 1754. i A. 1755. S.D. 1756. 1761. William Brakenridge, D.D. Rector of St Michael Bassishaw. Librarian from 1745. 3 A. 1752. 1762. Jeremiah Milles, D.D. (D). Dean of Exeter and Rector of St Edmund the King. 3 A. 1755. i A. 1756. S.D. 1757. 1763. The Rev d M r Theophilus Lewis Barbauld. Rector of S l Vedast Foster Lane. [He was only elected on 26 March 1764.] 2 A. 1755. J- D - J 75 6 - 1764. Ferdinando Warner, D.D. (D). Rector of St Mich. Queen- hythe. 3 A. 1757. i A. 1758. S.D. 1759. APPENDIX A 349 T 765. John Doughty, M.A. Minister of St James Clerkenwell. 4 A. 1757. 2 A. 1758. J.D. 1759. 1766. Thomas Kemp, D.D. Rector of St Michael's, Crooked Lane. 3 A. 1759. i A. 1760. S.D. 1761. 1767. Benjamin Newcome, D.D. Rector of St Mildred Poultrey. 4 A. 1760. 2 A. 1761. J.D. 1762. 1768. Nicholas Fayting, M.A. Rector of St Martin Outwich. 3 A. 1761. i A. 1762. S.D. 1763. 1769. The Reverend James Townley, M.A. (D). Rector of St Bennet Gracechurch. 4 A. 1761. 2 A. 1762. J.D. 1763. 1770. The Rev. Arnold King, LL.B. Rector of St Michael Cornhill. 3 A. 1762. i A. 1763. S.D. 1764. 1771. The Reverend John Blakiston, M.A. Rector of St Ethelburga. 2 A. 1764. J.D. 1765. 1772. The Reverend Rowland Sandiford, M.A. Vicar of Christchurch. 3 A. 1764. i A. 1765. S.D. 1766. 1773. The Reverend Daniel Burton, D.D. Rector of St Peter le Poor. 3 A. 1765. i A. 1766. S.D. 1767. 1774. The Reverend William Parker, D.D. (D). Minister of St Catherine Creechurch. 2 A. 1770. S.D. 1771. 1775. Tne Reverend Anthony Webster, LL.D. Vicar of St Stephen Coleman Street. 4 A. 1767. 2 A. 1768. J.D. 1769. 1776. The Reverend Ben Mence, M.A. Rector of Allhallows, London Wall. 4 A. 1771. 2 A. 1772. J.D. 1773. 1777. The Reverend Henry Owen, M.D. (D). Rector of St Olave Hart Street. 3 A. 1773. i A. 1774. S.D. 1775. 1778. The Reverend Guyon Griffith, D.D. Rector of St Mary at Hill. 4 A. 1776. 2 A. 1777. 1779. The Reverend Joseph Williamson, M.A. Vicar of St Dunstan in the West. 4 A. 1777. 8.0.1778. 1780. The Rev d James Waller, D.D. Rector of St Martin Ludgate. 3 A. 1777. J.D. 1778. 1781. The Rev d John Douglas, D.D. (D). Rector of St Augustin. 2 A. 1778. J.D. 1779. 1782. The Rev d Peter Whalley, LL.B. (D). Rector of St Margaret Pattens. 3 A. 1779. i A. 1780. S.D. 1781. 1783. The Rev d Samuel Carr, D.D. Rector of St Andrew Undershaft. 4 A. 1780. 2 A. 1781. J.D. 1782.' 1784. The Rev d Henry Whitfield, D.D. Rector of St Margaret Lothbury. 4 A. 1781. 2 A. 1782. S.D. 1783. 1785. The Rev d Owen Perrott Edwardes, M.A. Rector of St Bartholomew the Great 3 A 1782. J.D. 1783. 1786. The Rev d James Trebeck, M.A. Rector of St Michaels Queen Hythe. 4^1782. 1^1783. 8.0.1784. 350 APPENDIX A 1787. The Rev d Thomas Moore, M.A. Minister of St James Dukes place. 4 A. 1784. i A. 1785. J.D. 1786. 1 788. The Rev d Henry Fly, M.A. Minister of Trinity in the Minories. 3 A. 1785. 2 A. 1786. J.D. 1787. 1789. 1790. The Rev d William Morice, D.D. Rector of Allhallows Bread Street. 3 A. 1787. i A. 1788. 1791. The Rev d Theophilus Lane, M.A. Rector of St Michael Crooked Lane. 3 A. 1788. S.D. 1789, 1790. 1792. The Rev d Samuel Kettilby, D.D. Vicar of St Bartholomew the Less, i A. 1789. J.D. 1790. S.D. 1791. 1793. The Rev d Henry Jerome de Salis, D.D. Rector of St Antho- lin's. 3 A. 1789. i A. 1790. J.D. 1791. S.D. 1792. 1794. The Rev d Benjamin Underwood, M.A. Rector of St Mary Abchurch. 3 A. 1789. 2 A. 1790. i A. 1791. J.D. 1792. S.D. 1793. 1795. The Rev d Edmund Gibson, A.M. Rector of St Bennet's, Paul's-Wharf. 4 A. 1790. 2 A. 1791. i A. 1792. J.D. [793. S.D. 1794. 1 796. The Rev d Robert Anthony Bromley, B.D. Rector of St Mildred's in the Poultry. 3 A. 1792. i A. 1793. J.D. 1794. S.D. 1795- 1797. The Rev d William Gilbank, M.A. Rector of St Ethelburga. 4 A. 1792. 2 A. 1793. I A. 1794. J.D. 1795. S.D. 1796. 1798. The Rev d William Vincent, D.D. (D). Rector of Allhallows, Thames Street. 4 A. 1793. 2 A . J 794- I A - r 795- J-D- 1796. S.D. 1797. 1799. The Rev d Charles Barton, M.A. Rector of St Andrew's, Holborn. 3 A. 1794. 2 A. 1795. x A. 1796. J.D. 1797. S.D. 1798. 1800. 1 80 1. The Rev. John Moore, LL.B. (D). Rector of St Michael's, Bassishaw. 4 A. 1795. 3 A. 1796. i A. 1797. J.D. 1798. S.D. 1799. 1802, 1803. The Rev d John Brand, M.A. (D). Rector of the United Parishes of St Mary Hill and St Andrew Hubbard. 4 A. 1796. 2 A. 1797. i A. 1798. J.D. 1799. S.D. 1800, 1801. 1804. The Rev d George Avery Hatch, M.A. Rector of St Matthew Friday Street and St Peter Cheap. 3 A. 1798. 2 A. 1799. i A. 1800, 1801. J.D. 1802, 1803. 1805. The Rev d George Gaskin, D.D. (D). Rector of St Bene't Grace- church and St Leonard Eastcheap. 4 A. 1799. 2 A. 1800, 1801. i A. 1802, 1803. S.D. 1804. 1806. The Rev d Thomas Rennell, D.D. (D). Dean of Winchester and Rector of St Magnus and St Margaret Fish street. 3 A. 1800, 1801. 2 A. 1802, 1803. i A. 1804. S.D. 1805. APPENDIX A 351 1807, 1808. The Rev d James Simpkinson, M.A. Rector of St Peter le Poor. 4 A. 1800, 1801. 3 A. 1802, 1803. 2 A. 1804. J.D. 1805. S.D. 1806. 1809. The Rev d Henry Meen, B.D. (D). Rector of St Nicholas Cole- abbey and St Nicholas Olaves. 4 A. 1802, 1803. 3 A. 1804. 1 A. 1805. J.D. 1806. S.D. 1807, 1808. 1 8 10. The Rev d Thomas Robert Wrench, M.A. Rector of St Michael's, Cornhill. 3 A. 1804. 2 A. 1805. i A. 1806. J.D. 1807, 1808. S.D. 1809. 1811. The Rev d Richard Lendon, M.A. Rector of St John's Clerkenwell. 4 A. 1805. 3 A. 1806. 2 A. 1807. i A. 1808. J.D. 1809. S.D. 1810. 1812. The Rev d William Antrobus, B.D. Rector of St Andrew's Undershaft. 4 A. 1806. 3 A. 1807. 2 A. 1808. i A. 1809. J.D. 1810. S.D. 1811. 1813. The Rev d William Goode, M.A. (D). Rector of St Andrew Wardrobe and St Anne Black Friars. 4 A. 1808. 3 A. 1809. 2 A. 1810. i A. 1811. J.D. 1812. 1814. 1815. The Rev d John Rose, D.D. Rector of St Martin's, Outwich. 4 A. 1809. 3 A. 1810. 2 A. 1811. i A. 1812. S.D. 1813. 1816. The Rev d John Hutchins, M.A. Rector of St Anne and St Agnes, and St John Zachary. 4 A. 1810. 3 A. 1811. 2 A. 1812. J.D. 1813. S.D. 1814, 1815. 1817. The Rev d Robert Hamilton, D.D. Vicar of St Olave's, Jewry, and Rector of St Martin's, Ironmonger Lane. 3 A. 1813. 2 A. 1814. i A. 1815. S.D. 1816. 1818. The Rev d James Blenkarne, M.A. Vicar of St Helen's. 3 A. 1814. 2 A. 1815. J.D. 1816. S.D. 1817. 1819. The Rev d Samuel Crowther, M.A. Vicar of Christ Church and Rector of St Leonard Foster Lane. 4 A. 1814. 3 A. 1815. 1 A. 1816. J.D. 1817. S.D. 1818. 1820. The Rev d Henry Budd, M.A. (D). Minister of Bridewell Precinct. 4 A. 1814, 1815. 2 A. 1816. i A. 1817. J.D. 1818. S.D. 1819. 1821. The Rev d William St Andrew Vincent, M.A. Rector of All- hallows the Great and Allhallows the Less. 4 A. 1818. i A. 1819. S.D. 1820. 1822. The Rev d West Wheldale, M.A. Rector of Christ Church, Spitamelds. 3 A. 1819. i A. 1820; S.D. 1821. 1823. The Rev d Tindal Thompson Walmsley, D.D. Rector of St Vedast, Foster Lane, and St Michael Querne. 4 A. 1819. 2 A. 1820. J.D. 1821. S.D. 1822. 352 APPENDIX A 1824. The Rev d Henry George Watkins, M.A. Rector of St S within London Stone and St Mary Bothaw. 3 A. 1820. i A. 1821. J.D. 1822. S.D. 1823. 1825. The Rev d William Parker, M.A. Rector of St Ethelburga's. 3 A. 1821. 2 A. 1822. i A. 1823. J.D. 1824. 1826. The Rev d Daniell Mathias, M.A. Rector of St Mary's, White- chapel. 4 A. 1821. 3 A. 1822. 2 A. 1823. i A. 1824. S.D. 1825. 1827. The Rev d George Shepherd, D.D. Rector of St Bartholomew's, Exchange. 4 A. 1822. 3 A. 1823. 2 A. 1824. J.D. 1825. S.D. 1826. 1828. The Rev d Samuel Birch, M.A. Rector of St Mary Woolnoth and St Mary Woolchurch. 4 A. 1823. 3 A. 1824. i A. 1825. J.D. 1826. S.D. 1827. 1829. The Rev d Thomas Leigh, M.A. Rector of St Magnus and St Margaret, New Fish Street. 4 A. 1824. 2 A. 1825. i A. 1826. J.D. 1827. S.D. 1828. 1830. The Rev d Samuel Wix, M.A. Vicar of St Bartholomew's the Less. 3 A. 1825. 2 A. 1826. i A. 1827. J.D. 1828. S.D. 1829. 1831. The Rev d Thomas Home, B.D. Rector of St Katharine Coleman. 4 A. 1825. 3 A. 1826. 2 A. 1827. i A. 1828. J.D. 1829. S.D. 1830. 1832. The Rev d John Banks Hollingworth, D.D. Rector of St Margaret's Lothbury and Minister of St Botolph's Aldgate. 4 A. 1827. 3 A. 1828. 2 A. 1829. J.D. 1830. S.D. 1831. 1833. The Rev d William Elisha Law Faulkner, M.A. Rector of St John's, Clerkenwell. 4 A. 1828. 3 A. 1829. i A. 1830. J.D. 1831. S.D. 1832. 1834. The Rev d Allatson Burgh, M.A. Vicar of St Laurence Jewry and Rector of St Mary Magdalen, Milk Street. 4 A. 1829. 2 A. 1830. i A. 1831. J.D. 1832. S.D. 1833. 1835. The Rev d James William Bellamy, B.D. Rector of St Mary Abchurch, and Minister of St Laurence Pountney. 3 A. 1830. 2 A. 1831. i A. 1832. J.D. 1833. S.D. 1834. 1836. The Rev d Lancelot Sharpe, M.A. Minister of All Hallows Staining. 4 A. 1832. 3 A. 1833. i A. 1834. J.D. 1835. 1837. The Rev d Thomas Gilbank Ackland, D.D. (D). Rector of St Mildred Bread Street and St Margaret Moses. 3 A. 1834. i A. and J.D. 1835. S.D. 1836. 1838. The Rev d Gilbert Beresford, M.A. 1 Rector of St Andrew's Holborn. 4 A. 1834. 2 A. 1835. J.D. 1836. S.D. 1837. The Rev d John Abbiss, M.A. Rector of St Bartholomew's the Great. 3 A. 1835. I A - l8 3 6 - J- D - l8 37- S - D - ( for z month) 1838. 1 Vacated office on losing the qualification for Fellowship of the College. APPENDIX A 353 1839. The Revd William Johnson, B.D. (D). Rector of St Clement Eastcheap and St Martin Orgars. 4 A. (Jan. n) 1836. 3 A. 1836. 2 A. 1837. J.D. (June 8) 1838. 1840. The Rev d James William Vivian, D.D. Rector of St Augustin and St Faith. 4 A. 1836. 3 A. 1837. 2 A. 1838. S.D. 1839. 1841. The Rev d John Joseph Ellis, M.A. Rector of St Martin's Outwich. 4 A. 1837. 3 A. 1838. J.D. 1839. S.D. 1840. 1842. The Rev d Richard Harris Barham, B.A. (D). Rector of St Mary Magdalen, Old Fish Street, and St Gregory, i A. 1839. J.D. 1840. S.D. 1841. 1843. Tne Reyd Sir J ohn Page Wood, LL.B. (D). Rector of St Peters, Cornhill. 2 A. 1839. i A. 1840. J.D. 1841. S.D. 1842. 1844. The Rev d William Stone, M.A. Rector of Christ Church, Spitamelds. 3 A. 1840. i A. 1841. J.D. 1842. S.D. 1843. 1845. l8 4 6 - Tne Reyd J orin Russell, D.D. (D). Rector of St Botolph, Bishopsgate. 4 A. 1840. 2 A. 1841. i A. 1842. J.D. 1843. S.D. 1844. 1 847. The Rev. John James Gelling. Perpetual Curate of St Catherine, Cree Church. 3 A. 1841. 2 A. 1842. i A. 1843. J--D- 1844. S.D. 1845, 1846. 1848. The Rev. Robert Monro. Minister of Bridewell Precinct. 3 A. 1842. 2 A. 1843. i A. 1844. J.D. 1845, 1846. S.D. 1847- 1849. The Rev. James Lupton, M.A. Rector of St Michael Queen- hithe. 4 A. 1842. 3 A. 1843. 2 A. 1844. i A. 1845, 1846. J.D. 1847. S.D. 1848. 1850. The Rev. Henry Roxby [afterwards Maude], LL.B. Rector of St Olave's Jewry. 4 A. 1845. 3 A. 1846. 2 A. 1847. i A. 1848. J.D. 1849. 1851. The Rev. Thomas Hartwell Home, B.D. (D). 4 A. 1846. 3 A. 1847. 2 A. 1848. i A. 1849. S.D. 1850. 1852. The Rev. Richard H. Ruddock. Minister of All Saints, Bishopsgate. 4 A. 1847. 3 A - 1848. 2 A. 1849. J-D. 1850. S.D. 1851. 1853. The Rev. George Croly, LL.D. (D). Rector of St Stephen, Walbrook. 3 A. 1850. i A. 1851. S.D. 1852. 1854. The Rev. William Goode, M.A. (D). Rector of All Hallows, Thames Street. 4 A. 1850. 2 A. 1851. J.D. 1852. S.D. 1853- 1855. 1856. The Rev. Michael Gibbs, M.A. Vicar of Christ Church, Newgate Street. Subsequently J.D. 1858. 3 A. 1859. 2 A. 1860. i A. 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865, 1866, 1867, 1868. 1857. The Rev. Charles Mackenzie, M.A. Rector of St Benet, Grace- church St. 4 A. 1851. i A. 1852. J.D. 1853. S.D. 1854. P- 23 354 APPENDIX A 1858. The Rev. William Scott, M.A. (D). Vicar of Christ Church, Hoxton. i A. 1849, I ^55> I 856, 1857. 1859. The Rev. James William Worthington, D.D. Incumbent of Holy Trinity, Gray's Inn Road. 3 A. 1857. i A. 1858. 1860. The Rev. John Vigden Povah, M.A. Rector of St Anne and St Agnes, Aldersgate. 2 A. 1858. J.D. 1859. 1 86 1. The Rev. Thomas Simpson Evans, M.A. Vicar of St Leonard, Shoreditch. 2 A. 1859. S.D. 1860. 1862. The Rev. Edward Auriol, M.A. Vicar of St Dunstan-in-the- West. S.D. 1859. J.D. 1860. S.D. 1861. 1863. The Rev. James Jackson, M.A. Vicar of St Sepulchre. S.D. 1855, 1856, 1857, 1858. 1864. The Rev. Thomas Rochford Redwar. Perpetual Curate of St Thomas in the Liberty of the Rolls. 4 A.. 1859. 3 A. 1860. 2 A. 1861. S.D. 1862, 1863. 1865. The Rev. John Edmund Cox, M.A. Rector of St Helen, Bishopsgate. 4 A. 1861. J.D. 1862. 1863. S.D. 1864. 1866. The Rev. William Charles Fynes Webber, M.A. Vicar of St Botolph, Aldersgate. 2 A. 1863. J.D. 1864, 1865. 1867. The Rev. William Rogers, M.A. (D). Rector of St Botolph, Bishopsgate. 4 A. 1864. 2 A. 1865. J.D. 1866. 1868. The Rev. John Henry Coward, M.A. Rector of St Bennet, Paul's Wharf. 3 A. 1866. S.D. 1867. 1869. The Rev. Frederick George Blomfield, M.A. Rector of St Andrew, Undershaft. 4 A. 1865. 2 A. 1866. J.D. 1867. S.D. 1868. 1870. The Rev. Henry Irwin Cummins, M.A. Rector of St Alban, Wood Street. 3 A. 1867. 2 A. 1868. J.D. 1869. 1871. The Rev. Frederick Simcox Lea, M.A. Perpetual Curate of Holy Trinity, Stepney. 4 A. 1866, 1867. J.D. 1868, 1869, 1870. 1872. The Rev. Charles Frederick Chase, M.A. Rector of St Andrew by the Wardrobe with St Anne, Blackfriars. 4 A. 1868. 3 A. 1869. S.D. 1870. J.D. 1871. 1873. The Rev. George Townshend Driffield, M.A. Rector of St Mary, Stratford, Bow. i A. 1869, 1870. S.D. 1871, 1872. 1874. 1875. The Rev. William Henry Milman, M.A. Rector of St Augustine and St Faith. 4 A. 1869. 2 A. 1870. 3 A. 1871. J.D. 1872, 1873. 1876. The Rev. William Hearle Lyall, M.A. Rector of St Dionis Back- church. 3 A. 1870. 2 A. 1871, 1872. S.D. 1873. J.D. 1874. S.D. 1875. 1877. The Rev. Charles Creaghe Collins, M.A. Vicar of St Mary, Aldermanbury. 4 A. 1872. 2 A. 1873. i A. 1874. J.D. 1875. S.D. 1876. APPENDIX A 355 1878. The Rev. William Sparrow Simpson, D.D. Rector of St Matthew, Friday St. 3 A. 1873. 2 A. 1874. i A. 1875. J.D. 1876. S.D. 1877. 1879. The Rev. Joseph William Reynolds, M.A. Vicar of St Stephen, Spitalfields. 4 A. 1874. 3 A. 1875. i A. 1876. J.D. 1877. S.D. 1878. 1880. The Rev. Lewis Borrett White, M.A. Rector of St Mary, Aldermary. 3 A. 1874. 2 A. 1875, 1876. i A. 1877. J.D. 1878. S.D. 1879. 1881. The Rev. William John Hall, M.A. Rector of St Clement, Eastcheap. 4 A. 1876. 3 A. 1877. 2 A. 1878. i A. 1879. S.D. 1880. 1882. The Rev. John Russell Stock, M.A. Rector of All Hallows the Great. 4 A. 1877. 3 A. 1878. 2 A. 1879. J.D. 1880. S.D. 1881. 1883. The Rev. William Windle, M.A. Rector of St Stephen, Walbrook. 4 A. 1878. 3 A. 1879. i A. 1880. J.D. 1881. S.D. 1882. 1884. The Rev. Alfred Povah, M.A. Rector of St Olave, Hart Street. 4 A. 1875. 3 A. 1876. 2 A. 1877. i A. 1878. J.D. 1879. S.D. 1883. 1885. The Rev. John Fenwick Kitto, M.A. 1 Rector of St Dunstan, Stepney. 3 A. 1880. 2 A. 1881. i A. 1882, 1883. The Rev. Henry George Scawen Blunt, M.A. Rector of St Andrew, Holborn. 4 A. 1879. 2 A. 1880. i A. 1881. J.D. 1882. S.D. 1883. 1886. The Rev. Richard Whittington, M.A. Rector of St Peter upon Cornhill. 4 A. 1881. 3 A. 1882. 2 A. i883 2 . J.D. 1884. S.D. 1885. 1887. The Rev. George Barnes, M.A. Perpetual Curate of St Barnabas, Bethnal Green. 1888. The Rev. Main Swete Alexander Walrond, M.A. Vicar of St Laurence Jewry. 1889. The Rev. Septimus Buss, B.A., LL.B. Vicar of St Leonard, Shoreditch. 1890. The Right Rev. Robert Claudius Billing, D.D. (Bishop Suffragan of Bedford). Rector of St Andrew Undershaft. 1891. The Rev. George Purves Pownall, B.A. Perpetual Curate of St John Baptist, Hoxton. 1 Vacated office on losing the qualification for Fellowship of the College. 2 This election was the last occasion on which a Governor once elected to the Court failed (in the person of Mr Thornhill Webber, afterwards Bishop of Brisbane) to retain the confidence of the Fellows and so suffered defeat. It may henceforward be assumed that the progress towards the Chair was normal. 232 356 APPENDIX A 1892. The Rev. Samuel Flood Jones, M.A. Vicar of St Botolph, Aldersgate. 1893. The Rev. Charles Neil, M.A. Vicar of St Matthias, Poplar. 1894. The Rev. William Robert Sharpe, M.A. Vicar of St Chad, Haggerston. 1895. The Rev. James Weston Pratt, M.A. Vicar of St Stephen, Coleman Street. 1896. The Rev. William Martin. Vicar of St Dunstan-in-the- West. 1897. The Rev. John Henry Rose, M.A. Vicar of St James, Clerkenwell. 1898. The Rev. Arthur John Ingram, M.A. Rector of St Margaret, Lothbury. 1899. The Rev. William Benham, B.D. (D). Rector of St Edmund the King. 1900. The Rev. Blomfield Jackson, M.A. Vicar of St Bartholomew,. Moor Lane. 1901. The Rev. William Wallace, D.D. Perpetual Curate of St Luke, Stepney. 1902. The Rev. William Ostle. Vicar of St Bartholomew the Less 1903. The Rev. George Henry Perry, M.A. Rector of St Luke, Old Street. 1904. The Rev. Frederick Thorne. Vicar of Holy Trinity, Gray's Inn Road. 1905. The Rev. Sir Borradaile Savory, Bart., M.A. Rector of St Bartholomew the Great. 1906. The Rev. Percival dementi-Smith, M.A. Rector of St Andrew by the Wardrobe. 1907. The Rev. Dacre Craven, M.A. Rector of St Andrew, Holborn. 1908. The Rev. John Nelson Burrows, M.A. Vicar of St Augustine, Haggerston. 1909. The Rev. Joseph Miles, M.A. Vicar of St Catherine, Cree Church. 1910. The Rev. Ernest Courtenay Carter, B.A. Vicar of St Jude, Whitechapel. 1911. The Rev. James Francis Marr, M.A. Vicar of St Botolph, Aldgate. 1912. The Rev. Ernest Harold Pearce, M.A. 1 Vicar of Christ Church, Newgate St. 1 Vacated office on losing the qualification for Fellowship of the College. APPENDIX B 357 1912. The Rev. James Francis Marr, M.A. Vicar of St Botolph, Aldgate. Looking back over these 282 years, we notice that 12 of the Presidents rose to the Episcopal Bench at home (besides one who became Bishop of Bombay); n received Deaneries; and at least 14 were made Archdeacons. I reckon that 73 of our 256 past Presidents have been held to deserve a notice in the Dictionary of National Biography. The custom of describing Fellows of the College simply as "M r " and without initials appears to date from a subscription list of 1859. APPENDIX B LIST OF LIBRARIANS Date of Appointment. 4 June 1631. 2 September 1633. 6 February 1636. 30 March 1640. 23 August 1680. 13 December 1682. 21 February 1704. 15 November 1708. 28 January 1745. 20 December 1762. 26 April 1799. 15 February 1842. 1 6 February 1850. i January 1852. i October 1856. 12 January 1909. Rev. John Simson. John Spencer, Stationer. Rev. Thomas Leech. John Spencer. Rev. Lewis. William Nelson. Rev. Samuel Berdmore. Rev. William Reading. Rev. William Brakenridge, D.D. Rev. William Clements. Rev. Robert Watts. Rev. Henry Christmas. Rev. William John Hall. Rev. Thomas Pelham Dale. Rev. William Henry Milman. Rev. Charles Otto Becker. 358 APPENDIX C APPENDIX C LIST OF CLERKS OR REGISTERS OR SECRETARIES 5 March 1631. 6 May 1633. 28 April 1656. 28 April 1673. 1 8 October 1692. 15 November 1708. 15 October 1724. 28 January 1745. 8 November 1768. 30 April 1772. 2 December 1779. 8 January 1803. 15 February 1842. John Spencer, Stationer. John Winterborne. Andrew Nicholson, Scrivener. George Daggett. Edward Green, Scrivener. Thomas Sheppard. Rev. William Reading. Rev. William Brakenridge, D.D. Thomas Reading, Assistant. Rev. William Clements. Isaac Gregory. Thomas Simpson. Rev. Robert Watts. Rev. Henry Christmas. INDEX Abauzit, Rev. Theophilus, French Pro- testant minister, frequents the library 303 Abbiss, Rev. J., opposes admission of Jews to Parliament 231 ; signs library report 323; appointed member of the library committee 324; President 352 Abbott, Rev. E., elected Assistant 36; preaches Latin sermon 177-8 Adams, Sir Thomas 164 Adamson, Archbishop Patrick 293 Ad Clerum, see Latin sermon Addison, Joseph, and the Libraries Act, 279 Addresses to the Bishops of London 26- 7 ; their cost 32 ; written out by Robert Watts 32 ; to the Crown 209-14, 225 Adison, Thomas, ostiary, bequest to the library 67 Admissi ad studendum, book of, 251 Advocates' Library, Edinburgh 279 Agutter, Rev. W., frequents the library 302 Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, after- wards Edward VII, formally opens new Sion College 243, 340 Aldworth, R., Town Clerk of Bristol J 33 Alexandra, Princess of Wales, afterwards Queen, formally opens new Sion College, 243, 340 Allen, Dr Fifield, President 26, 348 Allen, Judith, admitted an alms woman J 54 Almsfolk 149-68; attend Divine Service at St Alphage 70, 149, 155-6, 180-1; employed by the College 75 ; pensions paid quarterly 78 ; allowed use of garden QO-I ; rents from Beeches Farm insufficient for maintenance 128-30 ; Brewer's bequest 130-1 ; Governors' right to elect inmates 153-5; monitor and matron selected 155; receive the Holy Communion 156-7; amount of pensions 157-8, 334; "remainder" of Governors' dinners given to 158, 198 -9; various gifts to 158-9; entitled to assistance from their parishes 159-60; misbehaviour punished 161-6 ; new quarters provided 168 ; lodge in St Alphage church 175 ; fines for not attending Divine Service 187-8; Rev. W. Clements' bequest 301 ; attend family prayers twice daily 317-18; out-pensions substituted for in-pensions and rooms 333-4 ; Trustees appointed by Act of Parliament 333-4; present system of selecting 334 Alnls-rooms, 2, 96-7 ; Dr White's pro- vision for 7, 127-8, 150-1; number 16; repaired 106 ; sanitary condition 1 66 ; precautions taken against fire 167-8; London Wall property divided ' with the College 338-9 America, Episcopal Church of, "Mary- Land" MS. 290 Anniversary 19-20, 189-206; the Visitor's payment for cost of feast 24-5; elec- tion of Governors 35-7; Latin ser- mon preached at 57-8, 169-79, 191 ; gift to almsfolk 158; date fixed by Dr White 189-91 ; cost of dinner 189 -90; 199-205; form of invitation 191-2 ; visitors invited 192-8 ; a lady invited 197; Latin grace 197-8; "remainder" given to almsfolk 198-9; the cook's duties 199-200 ; President responsible for the wine 199-200, 202 ; menu -200 i ; caterers 202 ; how paid for 2034; collection at "Bason" 204-6 "Antient Brother," Bristol almsman called 155 Archbishops of Canterbury attend Anni- versary dinner 20, 196 Ashe, Simeon, presents York Breviary to the library 247-8 Assistants, election of 13, 35-6, 44; see also Court, Governors Astray, Dr, refuses Presidentship 50 Atfield, Dr A., obtains books from a Jesuit library for Sion College 250-1 ; President 345 INDEX Atterbury, Francis, Assistant 65, 208 n. ; letter of thanks to Bishop Compton 265; and W. Reading 272; and Lewis Atterbury 278 Atterbury, Lewis, his bequest of books rejected 277-8 Auriol, Rev. E., opposes admission of Jews to Parliament 231 ; lectures at Sion College 336 ; acts as examiner at Ward schools examination 338 ; President 354 Baber, Rev. H. H., and the Copyright Act 307 Baker, Dr Samuel, President 26, 347 Balcarres, Lord 293 Balmeford, Rev. Samuel 115 Bandinell, Dr B., and the Copyright Act 306-7 Bank Coffee- House 202 Barbauld, Rev. T. L., President 57, 348 Barham, Rev. R. H., Divinity lecturer at St Paul's 147 ; frequents the library 303; member of the Court 317; Pre- sident 353 Barrow, John, porter 74 Barton, Rev. Cutts, President, 26, 348 " Bason" collection made at Anniversary dinner 204-6 Bateman, Rev. Thomas, refuses Pre- sidentship 55-6 Bates, Timothy, tenant 100 Baynes, John, conveys Brad well estate J 34 Beadle, his duties 75 Becker, Rev. C. O., librarian 341-2, 357 Bedford, Dr W., a tenant 100 ; Pre- sident 346 Bee, Cornelius, publisher, his house de- stroyed in Great Fire 121-2; gifts to the library 246 Beeches estate 128-30 ; rents devoted to almsfolk 157-8, 333 Bell, Archdeacon W., President 43, 45 -6, 257, 344-5; raises funds for the rebuilding 124 Benefactors, Book of 67, 234, 242-3, 246-7, 260, 262, 273-4; silver clasps stolen 112 Benson, Archbishop E. W., attends opening ceremony of new Sion Col- lege 340 Berdmore, Rev. Samuel, elected clerk 83; librarian 261, 357; resignation 268 Berkeley, George, Earl of, bequest to the library 258-60 Berriman, Rev. J., purchases books for the library at an auction (1746) 296 Best, Dr W., President 52, 201, 348 Beveridge, Dr W., President 46, 251, 2 5^~7> 345 '> attends Anniversary dinner 193 ; address to the Earl of Berkeley 259-60 Bible, belonging to the King of France 245 ; Danish 249 : Polyglot 244, 264 Bible Society 31, 249 ., 276 n. Bill of Rights 223 Birch, Dr S., President 312, 352 Birkenhead, Sir John 120 Biscoe, Rev. Richard, reasons for re- fusing Presidentship 5 1 ; appointed to administer Bradwell estate 137; unable to preach Latin sermon 174-5; Pre- sident 348 Bishops, attend Anniversary dinner 195-6 Blackall, Bishop Offspring, attends An- niversary dinner 193 ; in the House of Lords 282 Blackmore, Rev. W., elected Junior Dean 42-3 ; gift to the library 245-6 Blake, Rev. Anthony, pluralist 3 n. Blakesley, Dean J. W., frequents the library 303 Blind, Mrs West's offer of a charity for 61 Blomfield, Sir Arthur, architect of new Sion College 9, 339 Blomfield, C. J-, Bishop of London, con- gratulatory address 32-3 ; invites the members of the Court to dinner at Fulham Palace 33-4 ; his decision en- larging the Fellowship 66 ; opinion about Church rates 227; his tribute to Robert Watts 312 Blomfield, Rev. F. G., lectures at Sion College 336; President 354 Bodleian Library, Oxford, 279, 285, 306 -14; catalogue of 322 Bolton, Dr Samuel, President 43, 344 Book of Benefactors 67, 234, 242-3, 246-7, 260, 262, 273-4 Books, entered at Stationers' Hall 283-4 Booksellers, pirate-printers fined 283-4 Booksellers Bill 278-80 Bowes, Paul, opinion about power to lease 99 Bowling alley 90 Bradford, Dr Samuel, President 65, 102 ~3> 263, 346; at Anniversary 205 Bradwell Manor 21, 58, 127-8; income from 129-40; desire to sell 133-4; large number of trees felled 135-6 ; Assistants specially appointed to ad- minister 136-7; damage by sea 139; visited by members of the Court 139- 40; "Free Warren" 143-4; dispute over shooting rights 144-5; St Paul's Cathedral lectureship 146-8 INDEX 361 Brakenridge, Dr William, President 27, 348; elected clerk 83-4, 358; librarian 2 95> 3575 death 296 Brand, Rev. John, preaches Latin ser- mon 179 ; applies for publications issued by the Public Records Com- mission 3045 ; President 350 Bray, Dr Thomas, President 195, 347 ; gifts to the library 289-90; "Asso- ciates" of 296 Brewer, Samuel, his bequest 130-1, 157 -8 ; makes passage out of St Alphage into the garden 186 Bristol, Dr White's bequest to 128 ; St Werburgh parish 7, 149 ; Temple parish 149 ; interested in Beeches Farm 128-9, 131-4 ; Temple Hospital founded by Dr White 149 ; method of electing inmates 153-4 Bristol Corporation, connexion with Sion College 133-4; inspect Brad well estate 141-2 Bristol Municipal Charities, monument erected to Dr White 9 ; present Dr White's portrait to Sion College 10 ; and Sion Hospital 333 Bristow, Dr D., President 51, 199 ;/., 348 ; appointed to administer Brad well estate 137 British Museum, gift to the library 300 ; and the Copyright Act 279, 307; cata- logue of 322 Brook, Rev. S., Rector of St Alphage 1 80 Brookes, Dr Samuel, nominated Dean in first Charter 13 Broughe, Dr W., preaches Latin sermon 177 ; President 343 Browne, Dr Jonathan, preaches Latin sermon 177; President 119, 343 Browne, Sir Richard 164 Bugg, Francis, and the Society of Friends 277 Building fund 122, 124, 126 Bulkley, Raphe, elected porter 67-8 Burges, Dr Cornelius, elected Assistant 36-7 ; preaches Latin sermon 177; President 344 Burney, Dr C., gift to the library 304 Burton, Dr John, preaches Latin sermon 1 73~4 Busby, Dr, his gift 126 Buss, Rev. Septimus, his gift 87 ; attends opening ceremony of new Sion College 340 ; President 355 Butler, Dr Lilly, elected a Governor 65 ; President 276, 346 Byfield, Adoniram (?) 191 Calamy, Dr E., permission to use the College garden granted 91-2; elected an Assistant 109-10; deputation to Charles II 118; preaches Latin ser- mon 176-7; President, 112, 344 Calfe, or Colfe, Mr, bequest to the library 21-2 Cambridge University, donation to the library 300 ; and the Copyright Act 279, 306 Camden House, books belonging to St Paul's Cathedral removed to library from 245 Campbell, Lord, his praise for Sion College 325 Campbell, Hon. Archibald, presents MS. of "Acts of the Scotch-Kirk Assem- blies" to the library 290-5 ; Dr John- son's opinion of 293 Carpenter, Mr, property leased to 99 Carter, Rev. E. C., gift of silver key of library 202 ; President 356 Cartwright, Thomas i Castell, Dr Edmund, studies in the library 263-4 > his books bequeathed to Bp Compton 265-6 Caxtons in the library 319 Chained books, chains discontinued 235, 256, 260, 266, 274, 288 Chair purchased for the President 51 Chalmers, Rev. Dr, inspects MS. of Acts of Scottish Kirk Assemblies 292 Chambers at Sion College 93-8; tenants to present a book to the library 96; destroyed in Great Fire 989 Champneys, Rev. W. W., lectures at Sion College 336-7 Chaplain, the almspeople's 168, 318, 3 2 ?. Charities 41 Charity Commissioners, appoint trustees for Sion Hospital 333-4 Charles I, first charter given to College by 10 ; portrait of 301 Charles II, Charter of 10-13; Governors' address to 118-9; portrait of 301 Charter, 1626, 10-13; ^30, 19; 1664, 10-13, ^7. i9 37. 56, 63 Charterhouse, 75; Courts held at, 121 ; library books removed during Great Fire to 248-9, 265 Chest purchased 40 ; three keys made 41 ; rine for not bringing key 41 Chibald, Dr W., preaches Latin sermon 177 Chiswell, Richard, guest at Anniversary 194; gift to the library 257-8 Christ Church, Newgate Street, 215, 219, 269 Christ Church, Oxford, Dr White ap- pointed canon 7; Dr White's bequest 8 Christian, Prof. Edward, and the Copy- right Act 306-8 362 INDEX Christmas, Rev. Henry, clerk 86, 358; sub- librarian 312 ; librarian 316-7, 357 ; compiles catalogue of library 317; appointed almshouse chaplain 318; neglects his duties as librarian 318-20; his cataloguing proposals not adopted 322; resignation 323-5; sued by the College for not avoiding his rooms 324-5 Christ's Hospital 44, 45, 143, 217, 225 n. ; boys frequent the College library 287 8 ; John Spencer's description of 247 . Church and education 230 Church extension 230 Church of Scotland, MS. of the " Acts of the Scotch-Kirk Assemblies " pre- sented to the library 290-5 Church registers, proposed general re- pository 226-7 Church services, uniformity of 228-30 Churton, Rev. E., frequents the library .303 City Parochial Charities, recommend pensioners 334 Clark, Dr Reuben, acquires lease of College property 102-4 ; President 348 Clements, Rev. W., clerk 75, 85, 298 ~3 o/2 > 358; bequest to pensioners 158, 301 ; appointed librarian 297 ; his death 301 ; President 357 Clergy, non-resident 51, 218-19, 33 2 > eligible for election as Governors 65 ; present Royal addresses 20914 ; small incomes 218-19 '> oppose Stipendiary Curates Maintenance Bill 225-6 ; pre- sent a book to the library 261-2 Clergy Widows' Society, founded 6r-2, 85 Clerk 76-88 ; election 67, 86 ; to reside in the College 76, 79-81 ; his salary 76-8, 85 ; duties 78 ; office abolished 3 J 7 Clerks, list of 358 Clock, presented by N. Torporley 234 Clothworkers' Company, charity for the blind 6 1 Cockerell, Samuel Pepys, surveyor 106 Coleridge, S. T., frequents the library 33 Colfe, or Calfe, A., schools at Levvisham 58 ; bequest to the library 58-9, 252- 3, 271 College as landowner 12748 College buildings 89-107 ; destroyed in the Great Fire 98-9 Collins, Rev. C. C, preacher of the last Latin sermon 179; President 354 Colton, Rev. George, elected President 56-8 Compton, Henry, Bishop of London, holds a visitation 20-4, 48, 251, 254; bequest to the library 64, 264-6, 275 -6 ; recommends W. Reading 268 ; guest at Anniversary 192 ; Castell's books presented to College by 265-6 ; and the Libraries Act 278-86 Compton, Peter, porter, 68 Compton, Spencer, M.P. 281-2 Cook, election 67-8 ; prepares Anniver- sary dinner 199-200 Cook, or Coke, Sir Robert, his collec- tion of books presented to the library 259-60 Cooksey, Rev. John, President 54-5, 348 Cooper, Rev. Robert, action for non- residence against 219 Copyright Act, books supplied to li- brary unbound 284, 289-90; disputes with the libraries 305-10; increased number of books received by the College 306 ; the privileged libraries 306-7, 313; conference held at Sion College 306-7 ; difficulty in obtaining the books 306-8 ; money received instead of books 312-14 Copyright of books 283-4 Cornwallis, Archbishop, attends Anni- versary dinner 196 Cornwallis, Mrs, her Sunday routs 228 Coronation, service at St Paul's, College not represented 213 Corporation and Tests Acts 216-17 Corporation of Sons of the Clergy 50, 174, 220 ., 270 Cotton, Sir Robert, his library 280 Court of Sion College 35-66; first meet- ing 15-16; number of meetings held 38-9, 44; fine for late attendance 41-2 ; competition at elections 42 ; method of election 46-8 ; members fined for not serving as President, 48 -50 ; London clergy eligible for elec- tion 65 ; dinners 68 ; Commonwealth disturbances 108-20 ; Puritans elected no ; meetings held at St Botolph, Bishopsgate 121 ; visits Brad well estate 1 39-40 ; power to elect librarian 262 ; chooses all new library books 322 Cox, Rev. J. E., member of special library committee 323 ; President 354 Coxal Farm, rents devoted to almsfolk 333 Crabb, George, frequents the library 303 Cranford, Dr James 92, 115; President 78-9, 239, 344; obtains gifts for the library 245 Cripplegate Ward School, lease granted to 107 INDEX 363. Cripplegate Ward Within Armed Asso- ciation 117 Croke, Sir George, overseer of Dr White's will 8, ro-n, 16, 150-1 ; donor to the library 247 Crowther, Rev. Samuel, action for non- residence against 219 ; petition against Roman Catholic emancipation 222-3 ; President 351 Cumberland, Bishop Richard 251 Curates, Stipendiary, Bill for the pro- vision of 225-6 ; separate arrange- ments for at anniversaries 203 ; sum- moned to General Courts 337-8 Currey, Rev. J., frequents the library 303 Daggett, George, clerk 48, 81, 83, 138, 358 Dale, Rev. T. P., librarian 325, 357; resigns 326 Davidson, Archbishop R. T., attends Anniversary 196; Life of Archbishop Tait 326 Dean, election of 13, 44; holds one key of chest 41 ; fined for not bringing chest key 41 Dee, Dr P>ancis, elected Assistant 35-6 Dell, Rev. William 251; resided at Sion College 94 Denne, Dr John, acquires lease of College property 102-4; President 348 Denton, Rev. W., lectures at Sion College 336 de Salis, Dr H. J., President 58, 350 Dibdin, Rev. T. F., frequents the library 303 Dinners, held monthly 38-9 ; " re- mainder" given to almsfolk 158-9; preceded by Latin sermon 172; cost of 199-205 Disraeli, I., frequents the library 303 Dissenters, attitude of Sion College to 215-18 Dodson, Rev. Jeremiah, a tenant 100; President 345 Donne, John, Dean of St Paul's 3 ; nominated Vice-president in first Charter j 2 Donne, John, jun., elected Junior Dean *3 Dorset, Richard Sackville, Earl of, patron of St Dunstan-in-the-West 3, 13 Doughty, Rev. John, first suburban Pre- sident 54, 349 Dove, Dr Henry, his appeal for funds 87 ; President 345 Downham, Rev. John, overseer of Dr White's will 8, 10-11 Drake, Dr Roger, his gift 41 Drew, Rev. Robert, acquires lease of College property 102-4 Duck, Dr 151 Dudley, Rev. Sir H. B., the "fighting parson " 142-6 Dugard, Rev. W., gift to the library 246 Duplicate books, W. Reading on 275 Durdans, Lord Berkeley's bequest of books removed from 258-60 Earle, Sir T., advises disposal of Brad- well Farm 133 East India bonds 40 Ecclesiastical questions 207-31 Education and the Church 230; Parlia- mentary grant 230 Edward VII ; see Albert Edward, Prince of Wales Election, of governors 35-7 ; first annual 36-7 ; keen competition 42-3 Elections, method 46-8 ; qualifications for voting 64-6 ; John Sedgwick ques- tions legality of 108-9 Ellis, Rev. J. J., signs library report 323 ;. President 353 Elsing Spital 14-15, 89, 180, 185 Examinations held at the College 338 Fasts, public 190 Fayting, Rev. Nicholas, President, 196,. 349 Feathers Tavern, Cheapside 202 Feilde, Rev. Matthew, lecturer at St Paul's 146; opposes repeal of the Corporation and Tests Acts 217 Fellows, their privileges extended 64-6; suburban clergy admitted as 337 Finances, difficulties 81-2, 86-88, 102-4 Finch, Rev. Edward, formerly resided at Sion College 94-5 Fines, for not serving as Governor, 37; for late attendance at Court meetings 41-2 ; for not accepting office of President 49; for not holding offices 62-3 Fire Act 218-19, 22I ~ 2 Fire of London, 45-6; see also Great Fire Fleetwood, Bishop, 88, 279; attends An- niversary dinner 193 Fly, Rev. Henry, President, 213, 350 Foundation, object of 2 ; Dr White's will 7 Founder's kin, 151-3, 162 Fowler, Edward, Bishop of Gloucester, President 47, 345 ; Divinity lecturer at St Paul's 146 ; attends Anniversary- dinner 193 Fox, John, an almsman 165 364 INDEX Fuller, Thomas, formerly resided at Sion College 95 ; his praise of John Spencer 741 Fuller, Dr William, President 38-9, 343 Garden, the College 68-9, 90-3; tenants and almspeople allowed use of 90-1 ; volunteers drilled in 117; entrance from St Alphage 180 Gas, installation at the College 107 Gascarth, Dr John, President 194, 282-3, 346 Gates of the College, hour of closing 69-70 Gatty, Mr, of Cambridge, and the Copy- right Act 307 Gee, Dr Edward, Divinity lecturer at St Paul's 147 Geekie, Dr William, refuses President- ship 52 George II, address presented 209 George III, restoration to health, 159; address presented 209-10 ; attempted assassination 212 George V, coronation ceremony, College not invited to St Paul's 213 George, John, yeoman, elected Ostiary 67 Gibbon, Rev. Williams, refuses Presi- dentship 53-4 Gibbs, Rev. Michael, Treasurer 86 ; op- poses admission of Jews to Parliament 231; President 168, 325-6, 353; en- quires into librarian's duties 326, 329 ; receives applications for librarian's post 327; starts the reading-room 335; in- stitutes evening lectures 336-7 ; acts as examiner for Ward schools 338 ; fre- quents the library 303 Gibson, Edmund, Bishop of London, Visitor 24-5; his portrait 25-6; his decision about Divinity lecturers 147 ; contributes to cost of Anniversary 205- 6; his tracts catalogued 310 Giddy, Davies, M.P., promotes Copy- right Bill 306 Gifford, Dr G. , contributes towards building fund 126; President 254, 344 Gilford, Dr John, President 35, 37, 44, 343 Godolphin, Dr H., attends Anniversary dinner 193 Gold, Lady, tenant at the College 73, 97-8, 100-1 Gooch, Dr, Bishop of Bristol, refuses Presidentship 50-1 Gouge, Rev. Thomas, formerly resided at Sion College 95 Gouge, Dr W., preaches Latin sermon 177 ; President 344 Governing body 11-13 Governors, list of, in 1695, 21; election 35-7, 46-8, 191-2; fined for not serv- ing 37, 48-50 ; monthly meetings 38-9 ; fine for late attendance 42 ; competition at elections 42-3; fail to attend Court meetings 44-5; qualification for elec- tion 64-6 ; all London beneficed clergy eligible for election 65; present Bible to Charles II 119; attend Latin ser- mon in their gowns 176; oppose Bill for Maintenance of Stipendiary Curates 2256; their right to appoint the li- brarian 262 ; obtain leave to sell Lon- don Wall site 338-9 Gowns, worn by the Governors 176 Grant, Charles, frequents the library 303 Grant, Dr John, preaches Latin sermon 177; President 343 Grant, R., frequents the library 303 Grant, William, afterwards Lord Pres- tongrange 294 Great Fire 45-6, 120-6; rebuilding the College 82-3 ; many of the library books perish 248; books removed to the Charterhouse 265 Green, Edward, clerk 21, 83, 358 Green, T. H., appointed White's Pro- fessor of Moral Philosophy 8 Greene, John, purchases Brad well estate r 34 Greenhill, Joseph, of Stationers' Hall 3 r 3 Gregory, Isaac, clerk 85, 358 Grenville, Denis 251 Grove, Dr R., elected a Governor 45, 46; Divinity lecturer at St Paul's 146; President 193, 345; attends Anniver- sary dinner 193 Guardian, the 336 Gunning, Peter, 251 Gurdon, Archdeacon, refuses President- ship 50 Hacket, Miss Maria, refused access to the library 304 Hackett, Dr J., President 150-1, 343 Half-hour glass purchased 42 Hall, the College 98; in bad state of repair 1067; cost of rebuilding 123-4 Hall, Rev John, President 192, 345 Hall, Rev. W. J., appointed librarian 324; resigns 325; President 355 Halsbury, Lord, attends opening cere- mony of new Sion College 340 "Hand and Hand" Fire Office, property insured with 106 Harcourt, Lord Chancellor, decision about tithes 221 Hardwick, Philip, surveyor 106, 129,. 166-7 INDEX 365 Harmsen, Rev. R. S. Ten, frequents the library 303 Hart, Sir Richard 136 Hayne, Rev. T. , donor to the library 247 Haytor, Thomas, Bishop of London, con- gratulatory address 27 Hayward, Abraham, frequents the library 303-4 Hayward, Sir Rowland, purchases site of Elsing Spital 1 5 ; claim of St Al- phage parish under will of 181-4 Hedgeland, Rev. Philip, selected candi- date for librarian's post 327-8 Herring, Archbishop, attends Anniversary dinner 196 Heslop, Archdeacon, fined for not re- turning books to library 299 Heysham, Robert, gift to the College 88 Hoare, Sir R., Lord Mayor 220-1 Hockley Farm 127-8; income from 129- 32 ; let to Rev. Sir H. B. Dudley 142-6 Hodson, Rev. George, objects to fine for not serving as President 63-4 Holbeck, Jesuit library at, given to Sion College 250-1 Holcombe, Dr Samuel, declines Presi- dentship 51 Hooke, R. , City Surveyor, advises as to rebuilding College 124-5 Hooker, Richard i Hope (Hope-Scott), J. R., frequents the library 304 Hoppner, portrait of Bishop Porteus 30 Home, Rev. T. H., of British Museum, advice re new catalogue 317; Presi- dent 353 Horton and Birch, caterers for the Anni- versary dinner 203 Hospital, placed under separate manage- ment 131, 1 68, 333-4; sanitary con- dition 166; see also Sion Hospital Houldsworth, Dr R., President 237-8, 343 Howe, Rev. James, declines President- ship 51 Howley, William, Bishop of London, consulted about Anniversary 20; con- gratulatory address 312 Hume, Rev. George, ejected 109 Humphreys, David, frequents Sion Col- lege library 287 Hunt, Sybill, a tenant 100 Huntingdon, Lady, and Sunday obser- vance 228 Hutchins, Rev. John, Senior Dean 20; President 351 Income 21-2, 67, 86-8, 101-7 Indian Sachems, attend Anniversary din- ner 194-5 Inglis, Sir R., and Church extension 230 Jackson, John, appointed cook 67-8 James, Mrs, her bequest 197, 266; in- vited to Anniversary dinner 197 James, Dr Thomas, Bodley's librarian 197 Janaway, Rev. Andrew, President 109, 344 Jellybrand, John, repairs College plate 39 Jenkyn, Rev. W., dies in Newgate gaol 178 Jermyn, Dr M., preaches Latin sermon 177; President 343 Jesuit's books from Holbeck deposited at Sion College 250-1 Jews, admission of, to Parliament op- posed 231 Johnson, Aid. Sir John, purchases old plate 40 Johnson, Dr Samuel, his opinion of the Rev. Sir H. B. Dudley 142, 146; of the Hon. A. Campbell 293 Johnson, Rev. W., signs library report 323; President 353 Johnston, A., inspects MS. of Scottish Kirk Assemblies 7 Acts 292 ; Clerk of Assembly 293 Johnston, James 294 Joy, Peter, founds a school in St Ann's parish, Blackfriars 59-61, 85 Judd, Robert, mortgage arranged with 99-100 Juxon, Bishop of London, 19, 151, 235, 268 Keeling, John, executor of Dr White's will 8, lo-n ; Beeches estate leased to 128; his debt to the College 79, 132-3, 190 Kennett, White, Bishop of Peterborough, fined for not serving as President 49 Kettiiby, Dr S., presents Royal address 213; President 350 Knight, Dr James, refuses Presidentship 50 Knight, Sir John, Mayor of Bristol 133; conveyance of Bradwell estate 134-5 Kynaston, Rev. Thomas, declines Presi- dentship 51 Lacy, John, purchases site of Elsing Spital 15 Lake, Dr John, President 82, 121, 135, 344 Lamplugh, Thomas, Archbishop of York, formerly resided at Sion College 94 Land Tax, action of Bishop Porteus upon 30 3 66 INDEX Lane, Rev. Theophilus, proposes sale of music in library 301 Latin grace at Anniversary dinner 197-8 Latin sermon 53, 169-79 ; question of Latin prayers at 170-1; preached by the President 55, 57-8; the first 170-1 ; payment to clerk of St Alphage 171-2 ; number reduced 172; followed by a dinner 172, 191 ; difficulty in obtaining preachers 172-4; date and place of 175-6; discontinued at time of Great Fire 175-6; Governors meet in their gowns 176; fee to preacher 176-8; sermon printed 1 789 ; discontinued 179 Laud, Wm, archbishop, possible in- fluence on first charter 12; first visitor 19 ; consulted about Latin prayers 170 ; recommends an almswoman 151 Lawson, Dr J., bequest to the library 249, 263-4, 281 Leases, Court's power to grant 99-100 Leathersellers' Company and Colfe's School 58 Lecturers, number of, in the City n; decision as to their rights in the Col- lege 64-5 ; separate arrangements for, at Anniversaries 203 ; summoned to General Courts 337-8 Lectures delivered in Sion College 336-7 Lectureship in Divinity at St Paul's Cathedral 146-8 Lee, Rev. F. G., selected candidate for librarian's post 327 Lee, Dr John, requests copy of MS. of Scottish Kirk Assemblies' Acts 291-2 Leech, Rev. Thomas, librarian 19, 235, 357 ; dismissed 235-7 books lost from library 238 Leighton, Thomas, presents plate 39 Lendon, Rev. Richard, President 54, 351 ; treasurer of the Society for the Relief of Clergymen's Widows 62 Lewis, Rev. William, librarian 119- 20, 256, 357; ordered to compile a library catalogue 256-7; discharged from office 257 Lewisham Free School 58 Ley, Rev. Ross, refuses Presidentship 50 Librarian, how chosen 19; salary 78, 239 2 95, 3 3i6, 3i8, 325, 327 ; his garden 91; his rooms at Sion College 96, 296; J. Spencer 234, 237 ; Thomas Leech 235-7 > William Lewis 256 ; Wm Nelson 237, 257, 261 ; Samuel Beardmore or Berdmore 261, 268 ; appointment rests with the court 262; Wm Reading 268; Rev. Dr Brakenridge 295-6 ; T. Reading applies for post 296-7 ; Rev. W. Clements 297; Rev. R. Watts 301-2 ; increased duties through Copyright Act 310-11 ; assistant appointed 311; Rev. H. Christmas 323-4; Rev. W. J. Hall 324-5; Rev. T. P. Dale 325-6; personal attendance necessary 326 ; Rev. W. H. Milman 327 ; duties defined 329 ; made an honorary post 341-2; Rev. C. O. Becker 341-2 Librarians, list of 357 Libraries Act, 257-8, 262-3, 266-7, 278-86, 305-7, 312-14; sale of the music obtained through 301; number of books received through 284, 298, 306 Library, foundation 2, 16-17, 233; be- quests and donations: Robert Park- hurst 14; Bp Compton 24, '64, 264-6, 275-6; Bp Porteus 29; Lady Moul- son 47 ; Aichdeacon Waple 47, 274-5 ; Abraham Colfe 58-9, 252-3 ; Cornelius Bee 122, 246; Governor Nicholson 195; Mrs James 197, 266; N. Tor- porley 234; J. Spencer 242; W. Travers 243-4 Dr Brian Walton 244 ; Rev. W. Blackmore 245-6; Rev. W. Dugard 246 ; E. Waterhouse 246 ; R. Mills 249-50; Dr Lawson 249, 263-4; Mr Litler, apothecary 250; John Wynn 253-5 '> Mr Chiswell 257-8; Earl of Berkeley 258-60; E. Castell 265-6; Francis Bugg 277; Dr Bray 289-90; Bishop Lowth 300; British Museum 300; Cambridge University 300; Rev. W. Clements 301; Dr Burney 304 ; Public -Records Com- mission 304-5; books purchased 21-2, 42, 232; use of not restricted to clergy 22-3, 251-2, 262, 287-9, 3> 3 2 -4> 335-6; Ostiary appointed 67; College tenants to present a book 96 ; built over the almsrooms 96-7; repaired 106, 261, 320; danger of fire 167-8; Archbishop Tenison's interest in 193; used by Dr John Lightfoot 233 ; cat- alogues 233, 238-41, 256-7, 301, 317; chained books 235, 256, 260, 266, 274; use of chains discontinued 288; loss of books 236-8, 287-8, 312; books allowed to be borrowed 238, 262-3, 289, 298-9 ; Governors' inspection 239; Book of Benefactors 242-3, 246- 7 ; opening of new 243 ; Fellows present one copy of their writings 244 ; books brought from St Paul's Cathedral 245; Dr Cranford obtains gifts 245; Bible belonging to the king of France acquired 245 ; effort to obtain Selden's books 245 ; donors 247 ; York Breviary presented 247-8 ; books destroyed in the Great Fire 248 ; books moved to the Charterhouse during the Great INDEX 367 Fire 248-9; catalogue of the books destroyed in Great Fire 248-9 ; books received from a Jesuit's library 250-1 ; register of the students 251-2 ; sale of duplicates 254, 275; Libraries Act 257-8, 262-3, 266-7, 278-86, 305; entitled to one copy of every printed book 266-7, 279-80 ; number of books received through Copyright Act 284, 298, 306; books obtained under Copy- right Act received in sheets 284, 289- 90 ; Copyright Act conference held at Sion College 306-7 ; under new Copy- right Act a grant of money received instead of books 31214 ; gift of Sir Robert Cook's books 259-60 ; pro- posal to acquire Bp Stillingfleet's books 260-1; rules 261, 298-300, 325; books given by the City clergy 261-2, 278; privileges of a Fellow 262-3; dirty condition of books 273; two Indian missionary books presented 276-7 ; Dr Lewis Atterbury's bequest rejected 277-8; Reading's method of obtaining additions 278-9; Reading's method of arrangement 2867 5 frequented by Christ's Hospital boys 287 ; second folio Shakespeare damaged 288; Reading's arrangements for students 289; "Mary-Land" MS. 290; MS. of the "Acts of the Scotch Kirk Assemblies" 290-5; Bp of Rochester's donation 298; more accommodation necessary 299-300 ; period of closing 300; sale of music obtained through Libraries Act 301-; lists of notable students 251-2, 302-4; women not admitted 304 ; in state of confusion 318-20; neglect of Caxtons 319; finance 320 ; all new books ordered by the President 320-1 ; annual Treasury payment 320-1; class of book pur- chased with Treasury grant 321-2; report made to Parliament 321-3; Library Committee established 323-4 ; key handed to new President 325-6 ; proposed removal 329-30 ; reading room started 335-6; books removed 340-1 ; system of classification 340-1 ; number of volumes 341 Library Committee, permanent 341 Lightfoot, John, makes use of the library 233; correspondence with Castell 265 Linnet, John, porter 70 Lisle, Rev. Dr, his excuse for not serving as President, 50 Litler, Mr, apothecary, bequest to the Library 250 "Lloyd's" Coffee-house 117 London, Bishop of, originally nominated perpetual President 12; nominated Visitor ex officio 13; congratulatory addresses 26-7 ; portraits at the College 28-30 ; attends Anniversary dinner 192-3 London Diocesan Board of Education 6r London House 212 London Wall, site purchased for college 14-15; site sold 333-4; property divided between the College and the Almshouse 338-9 Long, John, surveyor 106 Long Walk, the, 94 Lord Mayor of London, his daughter an alms woman 154 Lowth, Dr, Bp of London, Visitor 29, 216 ; donation to the library 300 Lucton School, Herefordshire 59 Lysons, Rev. Daniel, frequents the Library 303 McCaul, Rev. A., defines duties of librarian 329 Mackenzie, Rev. C., acts as examiner at Ward school examination 338 ; President 353 Mangey, Dr T., President 285, 347 ; allowed to borrow books from the library 289 ; refused the loan of the MS. "Acts of Scotch-Kirk Assemblies" 291 Manners-Sutton, Archbishop, at Anni- versary 202 n. Manor Courts at Bradwell 141 Manton, Dr T., deputation to Charles II 118; preaches Latin sermon 178 Mapletoft, Dr J., President 64-5, 346 Marsh, Dr J., President 108-9, 343 Martin, Joseph, porter 72 "Mary- Land" MS. 290 Mason, Dr C., President 43-4, 344 Mason, H. Monck-, and the Copyright Act 306-8 Massingberd, John, Treasurer E.I.C. 258 Massy, E., frequents Sion College library 287-8 Mather, Samuel 251 Matron of the almswomen appointed 155 Maurice, Rev. F. D., frequents the library 304 Mayor, Professor J. E. B., his note on Edmund Castell 264-5, 2 7 2 ~3 Meen, Rev. Henry, Divinity lecturer at St Paul's 146; President 351 Menu of Anniversary dinner 200-1 Merchant Taylors' Company, Dr White's connection with 7 ; interested in Beeches Farm 128-9; appoint trustees for Sion Hospital 333 Merchant Taylors' School, register pre- sented to Sion College Library 246 368 INDEX Meriton, Dr John 43, 46, 176; Presi- dent 44, 344 ; elected to the Court, 46-7 Middleton, Timothy, porter 71-2 Middleton, Sir William, consulted about the water supply for the College 92-3 Milburn, Rev. T., surveys Bradwell estate 140-1 Milles, Dr Jeremiah, Senior Dean 53-4, 56; President 348 Mills, Rev. Daniel, a donor to the rebuilding fund 122-3 ; his house 133-4; President, 344 Mills, R., gift to the library 249-50 Milman, Rev. W. H., Account of Sion College 18, 172, 314; librarian 86, 327, 357 ; his career 328-30 ; portrait in the College 329; death 329; system of classification adopted 340-1 ; expe- rience as librarian 341 ; President 354 "Ministers to be of Sound Religion," Act of 1571 i Monitor for the almsmen appointed 155 Moore, Rev. Charles, his book on Suicide subscribed for 300-1 Moore, Bishop John, attends Anniversary dinner 193 Moore, Rev. John, Latin sermon 178-9; presents Royal address 214 ; his action regarding tithes 221-2 ; President 106, 350 Morning Post, the 142, 223-4, 33^ Mortgage on property arranged with R. Judd 99-100 Mosse, Bridget, tenant at Bradwell Hall 136 Moulson, Lady Ann, her gift to the library 47 Mountaigne, George, Bishop of London, first President 12 Murray, Mr John, and Copyright Act 39 National schools, examinations held at the College 338 National Society, early meetings at Sion College 30-1 Nelson, William, librarian 91, 237, 257; his rooms 100 ; his death 261 Newcourt, the Register 21-3; Reper- torium 22, 276, 310 Newgate, Dr White's bequest to prisoners 7 Newton, Bishop Thomas, President 209- 10, 348 Newton, Sir Henry, Chancellor of Dio- cese of London, 21-2 Nicholls, Dr. S., arranges presentation of address to George III 210-12 Nicholson, Andrew, clerk 43, 80, 358 ; discharged from clerkship 81-2 Nicholson, Governor Francis, attends Anniversary dinner 194-5 Nicholson, Thomas, Clerk of Scottish Khk Assembly 293 Nixon, Rev. Robert, his supposed por- trait of Dr White 9-10 Nolan, Rev. F., frequents the library 303 Nonconformity and Sion College 215-17 Norris, Lady, inherits Elsing Spital 15 Novels, purchase of, objected to 321 Officers 11-13; election of 42-57 Ollivant, Bishop, frequents the library 303 Osbaldistone, Dr, Bishop of London 27 Ostiary, election of 67 Out-pensioners 154-5 Owen, Dr H. B., recommends S. T. Coleridge as student in the library 303 Palmer, Roundell (Lord Selborne), fre- quents the library 304 Parish-clerks, neglect of 210 n. Parker, Dr William, his Latin sermon 176; President 349 Parkhurst, Aid. Robert, gift to the library 14 ; site of College purchased from 14-15, 89 Parliament, appeals of College to 215- 16 Pate, Thomas, porter 56, 73-4 Paterson, Archbishop John 294 Paul's Cross, Dr White's sermons preached at 3-5 Pearce, Zachary, gift to the library 298 Pelham, Lord 304-5 Pensioners ; see Almsfolk Pepys, Samuel 45-6, 122 Peterhouse, Cambridge 240, 247 Phillimore, Dr J., frequents the library 303 Pierrepont, John, founder of Lucton School, Herefordshire 59 Pindar, Sir Paul, donor to the library 247 Pitman, Rev. J. R., frequents the library 303 Plague (1577) 4, 6; (1637) 190; (1665)120 Plate 21-3, 39-41 Popery, Dr White's denunciation 5 ; efforts of the College to discourage 207-9 see Roman Catholics Porter, election of 67 ; duties 67-75 ; wages 72-3; staff provided 74-5 Porteus, Beilby, Bishop of London, his benevolence 29-30; his opinion about the Land Tax 30 Portraits of the Bishops of London 28-30 INDEX 369 Pory, Dr Robert, President 43, 344 Post Office and Sunday observance 228 Potter, Elizabeth, gift of 4 i Powley, Rev., surveys the College pro- perty 141 Poynder, Thomas, frequents the library 303 Pratt, Rev. Josiah, opposes admission of Jews to Parliament 231 ; frequents the library 302 Pratt, Rev. Josiah, jun., appointed member of the Library Committee 3 2 4 Pratt, Rev. J. W., President 356 President, election 12-13, 43~575 Bishop of London nominated Visitor instead of 13, 18-19; objections to perpetual 18-19; holds one key of chest 41; fined for not bringing chest key 41 ; fined for late attendance 42 ; number of candidates for office 44; Dr Zanchy removed from office 45 ; to serve in minor offices first 47 ; fine for not accepting office 48-50, 55, 62-3 ; house, 50, 97-8, 325 ; unwillingness to serve 51-7 ; preaches Ad Clerum sermon 53, 55, 174; his duties 57-8, 62 ; Governor of Colfe's School 58 ; Governor of Lucton School, Hereford- shire 59 ; responsible for wine at Anniversary dinner 199-200, 202 ; selects all new library books 320-1 ; receives library key 325-6 ; receives key of wine-cellar 325-6 ; List of 343-57 President, Vice, nomination 12-13 Prices of food (1743) 200-1 Prichard, Rev. John, refuses President- ship 54 Privy Council and Church education 230 Property of the College 127-48; in- creased value of 15 ; Court's power to grant leases 99-100 ; increased rents received 100-7 ; not let to shop- keepers 105 ; insured against fire 106; arrangements made for visiting country I39-4I Protestant Succession, effort to maintain 207-9 Provincial Assembly of London, Records of no Provisions, their cost in 1743 200-1 Public Records Commission, publications presented to the library 304-5 Punctuality, fines for being late 41-2 Puritans elected to the Court no Quaker Relief Bill 25 Quakers, library rich in boeks on 277 Queen Anne's Act ; see Libraries Act P. Rainbow, Bishop Edward 251 Randolph, John, Bishop of London, his answer to congratulatory address 31 Reading, Thomas, clerk 55-7, 83-5, 104, 139, 160, 165, 197, 209, 295, 358; his bequest 84, 158; applies for post of librarian 296-7 ; death 297 Reading, Rev. William, librarian and clerk 40, 52-3, 59, 60, 98, 116, 254-5, 268-97, 357 ; clerk 83, 358 ; holds lectureships at city churches 269; his published sermons 269-70 ; as an editor 271-2 ; preaches Charles I commemoration sermon in Westmin- ster Abbey 272 ; writes up Book of Benefactors 273-4; death 274, 295; his arrangement of the library 286-7, 289 Reading, Mrs William, old chains given to 288 Rebuilding after the Great Fire 82-3 Receiver nominated by the Court of Chancery 86 Register ; see Clerk Registers, proposed general repositories for parish 226-7 Registration of books 283-4 Rennell, Dean 222-4, 35 Rents, amount received in 100 Restoration, Governors' welcome to Charles II 118-19 Reyner, Rev. William, President 26, 348 ; visit to Bradwell 139 Reynolds, Dr Edward, deputation to Charles II 118; donation after Great Fire 122; President 344 Reynolds, Rev. J., unsuccessful candidate for post of librarian 316-17 Ring and Brimer, caterers for Anniver- sary dinner 202 Robinson, John, Bp of London, address to the clergy 207-8 Roborough, Rev. H., an Assistant no Roderick, Dr R., a tenant 101 ; President 347 Rogers, Rev. W., lectures at Sion College 337; President 354 Romaine, Rev. W. , opposes repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts 217 Roman Catholic emancipation 218, 222-5 Roman Catholicism, efforts of the College to discourage 207-9 Rome, Church of, denounced by Dr White 5 Roper, Dr J., President 25, 347 Rose, Dr John, President 20, 351 Russell, Lord John 230 Russell, Dr J., Treasurer 86; one of the Governors 33, 317, 320 ; President 168, 353 24 370 INDEX "St" the prefix dropped and later re- stored 39, 42 St Alban, Wood Street, Latin sermon preached at 176 St Alphage, London Wall 15, 180-8; almspeople attend service at 70, 149, I 55~7> 1 80- 1, 187-8 ; Latin sermon 170-1, 175 ; clerk's payment after Latin sermon 171-2 ; almspeople lodged in 175; church in bad repair 176 ; re- stored (1624-28) 181 ; bells recast 181 ; claim made under Sir Rowland Hay- ward's will 88, 112, 181-4; payments made by College to i8r-6 St Andrews University 291 ; Library 279, 37> 3*4 St Ann, Blackfriars, school founded by Peter Joy 59-61 St Benet Finck 52-3 St Botolph, Bishopsgate, and its poor 1 60 St Dunstan-in-the-West, Thomas White appointed vicar 3, 6; his bequests 7; Dr White buried 9 St George's Chapel, Windsor, Dr White appointed canon of 7 ; his bequest 8 St Gregory by St Paul, Thomas White appointed rector 2 ; his bequest 7 St James's Palace 113, 211, 212, 280 St Martin-in-the-Fields, library at 280 St Mary, Aldermanbury, annexed to Elsing Spital 14 St Mary, Whitechapel, and its poor 160 St Michael, Bassishaw, churchwardens' bond 159; Latin sermon preached 176 St Paul's Cathedral, Dr White appointed prebendary 6-7 ; his bequest 8 ; finan- cially interested in Brad well estate 129, 137-8 ; Divinity lectureship provided for out of Brad well estate 146-8; Chapter- House 211; claim for College representatives to attend special func- tions 213 St Paul's Cathedral library, Sion College receives books from 245 St Stephen, Coleman Street, Latin sermon preached 176 Salisbury Cathedral, Dr White appointed treasurer 6 Salter, Robert, an almsman 162-3 Salver purchased 40 Sancroft, Archbishop William 122, 251 Sandiford, Rev. Rowland, proposes peti- tion to Parliament 215; President 349 Sanitary condition of College 93 Savage, Rev. W., takes action to recover tithes 2 20- 1 Schools 58-62 ; religious teaching in 230 Scott, Rev. W., signs library report 323; appointed member of the Library Com- mittee 324; defines duties of librarian 329; President 354 Scottish University Libraries 306-14 Scrivener, Rev. Henry, frequents the library 304 Seal 38, 81 Seaman, Dr Lazarus, President 111-12, 344 ; inscription in catalogue of library 240 ; attracts Peterhouse men to the library 247 Sear, Rev. Richard, President 49-50, 59, 347; a tenant 101 ; lends money to the College 206 Searle, Joane, an almswoman 150-1 Seeker, Archbishop Thomas, attends Anniversary dinner 196 Secretary ; see Clerk Sedgwick, Rev. John, his disputes with the College 108-10 ; his wife 162-3 Sedgwick, Dr Wm, refuses Presidentship 55 Selden, effort to obtain his books for the library 245 Selwyn, Wm, frequents the library 304 Sequestered clergy 108-9 Shakespeare, W., second folio edition in the library 288 Sharp, Archbishop J., attends Anniver- sary dinner 196 Sharpe, Rev. L., signs library report 323; President 352 Shenton, Margaret, a tenant 100 Sheppard, Thomas, clerk 83, 358 ; his bequest to almsfolk 158 Sherlock, Thomas, Bp of London, con- gratulatory address 26 ; his portrait in the College 27 Sherlock, Dr William, elected an Assis- tant 44 ; frequents the library 251 ; President 345 Sherlock, Rev. W., jun., refuses Presi- dentship 50 Sherwood, Rev. John, suggestion about Bradwell Farm 133; Divinity lecturer at St Paul's 146 Shippen, Dr, refuses Presidentship 50 Shops, chambers let as 94 Simpkinson, Rev. James, President 29- 3 35i Simpson, Thomas, clerk 85, 358 ; his bequest to almsfolk 158 Simpson, Dr W. Sparrow, Registrum Statutorum, 147 ; President 355 Simson, Rev. John, executor of Dr White's will 8, 10-11;, takes active part in foundation of the library 16-17, 77 ; Dean 35-7, 171 ; pays cost of erecting library 97 INDEX 371 Simson, Rev. John, jun., librarian 233, .357 Sion College, monument erected to Dr White 9 ; Sir Arthur Blomfield, archi- tect 9, 339 ; portrait of Dr White 9-10; object of its institution n ; building preparations 16-17; meetings held at 30-1, no; residents 69, 72-3, 93; gate closed at eight o'clock 69-70 ; clerk's lodgings 76-7, 79-80; financial difficulties 81-2, 88 ; rebuilding after the Great Fire 82-3; built on site of Elsing Spital 89; buildings described 89-107; insanitary condition 93; rents received 100; installation of gas 107; during the Commonwealth 108-20 ; soldiers quartered at 110-14, JI 6-i7; subscribes towards the defence of the country 117; destroyed in Great Fire 12 1-6; rebuilding 122-6; Hospital placed under separate management 113, 168, 333-4, 338-9 ; how connec- ted with Bristol Corporation 133-4 ; contributes towards cost of recasting bells of St Alphage 181 ; claim of St Alphage under Sir Rowland Hay ward's will 1 8 1-6 ; inmates excused holding parish offices 186-7 5 Anniversary Dinner held at 191-2 ; appeals to Parliament 215-16 ; Governors resist Roman Catholic emancipation 222-5; its history compiled by J. Spencer 242 ; reasons for removal 332 ; Act of Par- liament permitting sale of lands 333-4; need of development 334-5 ; its social side extended 335-6 ; used by other than City clergy 22-3, 251-2, 262, 287-9, 3> 30 2 -4 335-6 ; Tuesday evening lectures started 336-7 ; in- creased membership 337-40 ; school examinations held at 338 ; sells London Wall site 338-9 ; Thames Embank- ment site purchased 339 ; new building 339-42 ; opening ceremony 340; danger from fire 340; rates and taxes 342 Sion College Act 338-9 "Sion College Conclave" 100 Sion Hospital, Trustees appointed 333 Site, purchase discussed 14-15 Sleath, Rev. Dr, frequents the library 303 Smith, Christopher, an almsman 163-4 Smith, J. Stafford, frequents the library 303 Smith, Dr Joseph, refuses Presidentship 50 Snape, Dr Andrew, refuses Presidentship 5 S.P.C.K., two books on Indian dialects presented by 276-7 Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, inauguration 194 Society for the Relief of Clergymen's Widows, meetings held at Sion College 62 Society of Friends 277 Soldiers quartered at Sion College no- 14, i [6-17 Solemn League and Covenant uo-n Solme, Andrew, tenant at Bradwell Hall *35 Sparke, Rev. Edward, ejected 109 Spateman, Rev. Thomas, Divinity lec- turer at St Paul's 146 ; President 347 Spearman, A. G., of the Treasury, and the Copyright Act 313-14 Spencer, John, clerk 67, 71, 76, 96, 358 ; librarian 77, 232-55, 257, 357 ; com- piles library catalogue 233, 238-41 ; appointed under-library keeper 233; dismissed 234; reinstated 237; literary interests 241 ; gifts to the library 242 ; compiles history of Sion College 242 ; compiles catalogue of books lost in the Great Fire 248-9 ; death 251 Staff, the 67-88 Staff head 74-5 Stanley, Archdeacon W., attends Anni- versary dinner 193 Stationers' Hall, number of books received from 284 ; Warehouseman's fee in- creased by the College 306; books entered at 283-4 Steele in Spectator on Philip Stubbs' elocution 180-1 Stepney, rector of, admitted a Fellow 337 Stevens, Joseph, a tenant 100 Stillingfleet, Bp 122 ; proposal to acquire his library 260-1 Stipendiary Curates Maintenance Bill 225-6 Strengfellow, Rev. Wm, President 264, 346 Stubbs, Archdeacon Philip 266, 273, 276; tenant at the College 98, 100-1, 180; his beautiful reading 180-1 ; suggests purchasing Dr Stillingfleet's library 260 Sudbury, Viscount, gift to the library 247 Surveyor to the College 106 Swift, Sir Francis, house in Alderman- bury 94 Tansy pudding 201 Tapscott, Samuel, of Clifford's Inn 74 Taylor, Isaac, frequents the library 303 Temple Hospital, Bristol, founded by Dr White 149 ; method of electing inmates 153-4, 188 372 INDEX Tenants 94-8 ; allowed to use the garden 90-1 ; restrictions 93; chambers let as shops 94 ; present a book to the library 96; no shopkeepers accepted as 105 Tenison, Archbishop T., his portrait in the Hall 26, 281 ; his interest in libraries 193, 249, 280-6 ; Governor Nicholson's letter to 195 ; attends Anniversary dinner 196 Terrick, Richard, Bishop of London 27, 305-6 ; his portrait 28 Theatres, denounced by Dr White 5 Thomas, Dr J., a tenant 101 ; President 348 Thompson, Dr F., President, 21, 23, 345 Thompson, Alderman W., and petitions to Parliament 225 Tillingham, St Paul's Cathedral, manor of 132 Tillotson, Dr John, student in library 2 5 T Tilson, T., Sion College lawyer 308 Times The 223-4, 226 ., 328-9 ., 336 Tithes paid by College to St Alphage 1846; controversy about 219-21 Tobacco 20 1, 203 Tooke, Rev. W. , frequents the library 3<>3 Tookey, Mary, a tenant 98 Torporley, N., his bequest to the library 234 Townley, Rev. James, connexion with Rev. Sir H. B. Dudley and the College 143; President 349 Trained Bands muster in College grounds 116 Trapp, Dr Joseph, orders Anniversary dinner 200 ; preaches against George Whitefield 269; President 347 Travers, Walter, plate presented by 40; bequest, 96, 177-8, 243-4 Treasurer, elected annually 86 Trebeck, Rev. James, President 212, 349 Trollope, Rev. Wm, frequents the library 303 Turlis, Henry, porter 73 Turner, Alderman William 164 Twichart, Thomas, porter 75 Tylers Causey estate 130-1 ; almspeople's pensions paid out of the estate 157-8, 333 Tyson, Rev. E. C., frequents the library 303 Ubele, Rev. J. C. C., frequents the library 302-3 Uffenbach, Z. C. von, visits Sion College 273 Unitarian Marriages Bill 227 Vanderbank, portrait of Bishop Gibson 26 Van Mildert, Bp, refuses Presidentship 63; frequents the library 303 Venn, Richard, Divinity lecturer at St Paul's 146 Villette, Rev., frequents the library 302 Vincent, Dr Wm, preaches Latin sermon 178-9; opposes repeal of the Corpora- tion and Tests Acts 217; President .350-.I Vine, in the garden 93 Visitation held by Bp Compton 20-4, 48 Visitor 18-34 ; Bishop of London no- minated ex officio 13, 19 ; attends Anniversary Feast 19-20; his duties 19-20; portraits 25-6; congratulatory addresses 26-7; settles disputes 164; contribution to Anniversary dinner 205-6 Vivian, Dr J. W., Divinity lecturer at St Paul's 147 ; President 353 Voluntary Military Association, Cripple- gate 117 Volunteers, subscription towards main- tenance 117 Wake, Archbishop, and William Reading 270 Walker, Rev. George, elected Assistant 37; gift to the library 247; President 344 Walker, Sophia, appointed bookseller and stationer to the College 322 Wallace, Dr W., his gift 87 ; President 356 Walton, Dr Brian, Polyglot Bible 244, 265; copy given to library 244; Ab- stract of tithes 219-20 Waple, Archdeacon Edward, President 47, 346 ; attends Anniversary dinner 193-4; bequest to the library 274-5 Ward, Mr, M.P., assists in placing the library under the Copyright Act 283 Ward schools, examinations held at the College 338 Wareing, Rev. E., a tenant 180 Warner, Dr Ferdinando, President 57, 348 Warriston, Lord, 294 Waterhouse, E., gift to the library 246 Waterland, Dr Dan., allowed to borrow books from the library 289 Waterland, Dr Theodore, President 52- 3i 348 Water supply, obtained in the garden 9 2 ~3 Watson, Dr Richard, elected Assistant 37 ; gift to the library 247 INDEX 373 Watts, Rev. Robert 38, 219, 298-315; clerk 70, 85-6, 358 ; librarian 97, 301-2, 357 ; Divinity lecturer at St Paul's 146 ; disputes lectureship payment 148; a tenant 180; indexes Court-registers 213; transcribes li- brary catalogue 301 ; holds other ap- pointments 302 ; increased duties through Copyright Act 310-11; death 312, 316 Watts, Rev. Robert, jun., appointed as- sistant librarian 311; death 315 Webb, Benjamin, frequents the library 304 West, Mrs, endows charity for the blind 61 Westfield, Dr T., his Latin sermon 170- i; President 38, 171, 343 Westminster Abbey 15, 272, 291, 328; the Chapter Library 280 Wharton, Lady, a tenant 100 Wharton, Capt. G., property leased to Wheatly, Charles, permitted to borrow books from the library 289 White, Elizabeth, second wife of Dr White 7, 150 White, Fortune, wife of Dr White 7, 150 White, Dr Francis, elected Dean 13 White, John, father of Thomas White 2 White, Dr Thomas, founder of Sion College 1-17; at Oxford 1-2; his re- ligious principles 1-3 ; ordained 2 ; rector of St Gregory by St Paul 2 ; appointed vicar of St Dunstan-in-the- West 3 ; sermons published 3-6 ; his connection with St Dunstan-in-the- West 3, 6; denunciation of Papistry 5 ; appointed chancellor of Salisbury Cathedral 6; his many appointments 6-7 ; prebendary of St Paul's 6-7, 146; his connection with the Merchant Taylors' Company 7 ; his wealth 7 ; Canon of Christ Church, Oxford 7 ; Canon of St George's, Windsor 7 ; death 7 ; his will 7-8 ; his executors 8, 10-1 1 ; monument 9 ; buried in St Dunstan-in-the-West 9 ; portrait 910; his reason for establishing a college 1 8 ; property bequeathed by 127-8 ; Temple Hospital, Bristol, founded by 149; his relations pro- vided for 151-2 White, Thomas, an almsman 162 White, Rev. Thomas, elected to the Court 43 Whitefield, George, Dr Trapp preaches against 269 Whiteing, Robert, of Mayor's Court, Guildhall 80 Whitfield, Rev. William, President 24, 346 ; appeal to the Lord Mayor re- garding tithes 221 Whittington, Rev. R., attends opening ceremony of new Sion College 340; President 355 Williams, John, Bp of Chichester, Presi- dent 21, 47-8, 88, 192-3, 204, 345; Account of Sion College, quoted 100 Williams, Sir John, purchases Elsing Spital 15 Wilson, Dr Thomas, refuses President- ship 54 Winstanley, Thomas, Divinity lecturer at St Paul's 146 Winterborne, John, clerk 77-80, 189-90, 358 ; his resignation 80 Wood, Rev. Sir John Page, a tenant 107 ; President 353 Wood, Rev. Montague, takes action to recover tithes 220-1 ; President 192, 347 Wood, Rev. R., signs library report 323 Wood, Rev. Thomas, suggests building a library 16-17; elected Assistant 36- 7; letter to Laud 170-1 Woodroffe, Dr B., permission to lease garden refused 91 ; President 99, 345 ; appointed to administer Bradwell estate 137 Woolley, W., a tenant 100 Wordsworth, Rev. Christopher, frequents the library 303 Worrall, Dr Thomas, elected Dean 35- 7; President 343 Worthington, Dr J. W., bust at Sion College 65 ; signs library report 323 ; appointed member of the Library Committee 324 ; advocates removal of College 338-9; President 334 Wren, Sir Christopher 16, 126 Wyat, Rev. Hugh, refuses Presidentship 52 ; rector of St Alphage 180 Wynn, John, bequest to the library 22, 253-5 York Breviary, presented to the library 247-8 Young, Mrs, tenant at Bradwell 139 Zanchy, Dr C., declines Presidentship 45-6, 49; President 345 CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS L UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY BERKELEY Return to desk from which borrowed. This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. LD 21-100m-ll,'49(B7146sl6)476 M3QS505