A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 3, the City and University of Cambridge. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1959.
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Of the four colleges planned between the end of 1346 and the end of 1349, (fn. 3) Trinity Hall was designed to meet a special and practical need. First, the Church needed lawyers to enforce its discipline, to look after its property, and to carry on its complicated administration, not only in the dioceses, but in its relations with the king's and papal courts. The canon law was the medium of all these activities. Secondly, the king used the beneficed clergy to maintain his civil service; he needed also lawyers and diplomatists capable of arguing the claims and maintaining the rights of Englishmen on land and sea. Much of his business required a knowledge of the other legal system which was half-understood all over western Europe, that of the civil law of Rome. These two systems of 'international' law were closely related. The idea of a corporate society for training doctores utriusque juris and sending them out into the world came naturally to the mind of William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich. Born at Norwich about 1298, he became a doctor of canon and civil law and Archdeacon of Norwich. Having leave to reside at Avignon, he rose to be Chaplain and Auditor of the papal palace, and was sent in 1340 and 1342 as papal nuncio to Edward III; on his promotion to the vacant see of Norwich in 1344, he became in turn the king's negotiator, and the disputes arising out of his diocesan visitation in 1345 hardly interrupted his frequent journeys on the king's business. He died at Avignon on 6 January 1355.
His project of a college may have been long meditated; the shortage of clergy, following the pestilence of May–September 1349, probably confirmed and ripened his intention.
Constitution and Statutes.
The first royal licence of foundation has not been preserved, but must have preceded Bateman's deed of foundation, which was dated 15 January 1350 and confirmed on 20 January on behalf of the Bishop of Ely and the University. On 6 February the bishop began to endow his foundation. (fn. 4) On 23 February the king gave licence to the 'Master, Fellows, and scholars of the Holy Trinity', spoken of as already in being, to acquire houses and hostels, and also advowsons to the value of 100 marks. (fn. 5)
The deed of foundation is preceded by a letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury confirming both it and the statutes which follow it. At the end of the statutes is Bateman's order for the preservation of two copies, at Norwich and at Cambridge, given at Terling (Essex) on 1 June 1352. The archbishop's seal follows, given at Lambeth, 1 December 1352, and finally the seals of the founder and of the University, both given at Cambridge on 9 December. It is evident that the society was incorporated at the beginning of 1350; the deed of foundation gave the first sketch of its constitution, declared the founder's intention to endow it, and reserved to him the power to make statutes. These were completed by December 1352, when the society was already in possession of a site and habitation, and of a small endowment, including six advowsons.
In the deed of foundation the bishop established, 'for the increase of divine worship and of canon and civil learning and of the University of Cambridge and also for the advantage, rule and direction of the commonwealth and especially of the church and diocese of Norwich, a perpetual College of scholars of the Canon and Civil Law'. It was to be called the 'College of the Scholars of the Holy Trinity of Norwich', and its habitation the 'Hall of the Holy Trinity of Norwich'. One of the fellows was to be Master, elected freely by the fellows from among themselves, or from the University outside in default of a fellow of sufficient standing and aptitude. Vacant fellowships were to be filled by the Master and Fellows by election, with preference for suitable scholars of the College.
The statutes amplified the rules for elections, giving preference for the office of Master to fellows, and for fellowships to scholars or to fellows of the Hall of the Annunciation (Gonville Hall) and to the poorer and unbeneficed candidates. If the fellows should fail to make an election within a month of any vacancy, the Chancellor was to nominate a Master, the Master a fellow. This right of the Master to nominate a fellow jure devolutionis had some importance later.
There were to be 20 fellows in addition to the Master, all students of law, including from ten to thirteen civilians and from seven to ten canonists. The civilian, usually at least in minor orders, was expected to leave Cambridge for public life within two years after proceeding to the doctorate at the earliest opportunity, unless he should transfer to canonist studies as a priest. The canonist priest, whether originally a civilian or not, must resign on receiving any substantial benefice, and would normally then expect some public employment; some might remain as resident fellows pursuing their studies and priestly duties, but none might take money for saying masses for the souls of the dead.
The fellows must not practise the law professionally to the detriment of their studies, but must hold legal disputes amongst themselves on three evenings a week. At least half the society, including two priests, must always be in residence. The assent of all was required for permission to any stranger to make a continuous stay in College, an opening, perhaps, for the commensales of a later date. The scale of living in common was not to be increased without the consent of two-thirds, but private servants, in addition to the five statutory College servants, were not forbidden.
Many of the above statutes were peculiar to the special purpose of the founder; most of the remaining rules for discipline and administration were of the normal kind, and twelve sections were repeated in the statutes made on 7 September 1353 by Bateman, as Gonville's executor, for the Hall of the Annunciation. On 20 September the bishop ratified an agreement signed three days earlier with his consent, in which the two societies made a perpetual treaty of amity as between brothers issuing from the stock of a single foundation, undertaking to walk together in public processions but giving precedence to the Master and Fellows of Trinity Hall as elder brothers. Bateman's claim to be utriusque Collegii fundator perhaps did less than justice to Gonville's initiative, and later customs gave precedence to Gonville Hall as holder of an earlier extant licence of foundation.
Provision for two or three scholares de minori forma, up to seven when revenues should suffice, was first made in Bateman's explanatory statute, given at South Elmham on 14 August 1354. These were to attend on the fellows in divine services and in hall but in no other tasks. They were to be students of civil law and were to be given preference in election to fellowships.
Bateman died in 1355, leaving only a Master, three fellows, (fn. 6) and two scholars. Benefactions made possible a slow expansion, first in fellowships, then in scholarships; the commensales were a class barely contemplated by the founder and little in evidence before the 16th century; by that time ordinary pensioners were becoming usual too.
Four fellowships, endowed during the 100 years before the Reformation, were all for priests and canonists. In addition, Richard Nix, Bishop of Norwich 1500–36, endowed three more, including one for a civilian; (fn. 7) he was an enemy of the reformers, but the royal injunctions of 1535 forbade the teaching of canon law, which survived only as the king's ecclesiastical law. There were 10 fellows in 1546, including 8 priests, and 8 fellows in 1557, 2 of Bateman's and 1 of Nix's foundation being described as civilians; the two vacancies were filled in 1559, but at these and succeeding elections the distinction, if made at all, was between civilian and 'presbyter' fellows. (fn. 8) A 'supernumerary' fellowship was established in 1581 out of the College revenues, and a twelfth was endowed by the will of William Mowse, Master, who died in 1588, and established in 1596. For 250 years the number remained unchanged, until in 1850 the College received an endowment for the establishment of a fellowship under the will of Horatio Goodbehere, fellow commoner, who died young in 1821. This was at first used as a kind of bye-fellowship for a chaplain, but was later placed on an equal footing with the rest.
To Bateman's two (fn. 9) original scholarships were added others, mostly in the 16th century, bringing the usual number up to twelve by the end of the century. During the years 1660 to 1740 about 35 scholars were elected in each decade, residing as a rule for three or four years. Three more scholarships were added in the 18th century, and the whole number was sixteen in 1850, when it was stated that their value had been increased in 1792, 1828, 1833 and 1840. Three law studentships were first offered in 1849.
Under the statutes made in 1925, the foundation consists of 'the Master, the Fellows including eight stipendiary Fellows at least and such number of Scholars as the Governing Body may from time to time determine'. In 1957 there were the Master, 20 fellows, including 12 stipendiary fellows, about 25 scholars on the foundation, and about 40 other scholars and exhibitioners; also about 30 research students.
The character of the College was profoundly affected by the lasting eclipse of the canon law in the University, and by the temporary vogue of the civil law in the Tudor prerogative courts. Yet the statutes remained unaltered until 1860. An act passed in Elizabeth I's first Parliament confirmed the corporate rights and revenues of the College, but omitted any reference to Norwich in its name and any mention of the canon law in the preamble, which referred only to 'the study and knowledge of the civil law'. This act made no further reference to the statutes, and perhaps any attempt to bring them into line with the new order of things might have called in question the whole need and purpose of the foundation. The result was that statutes which were no longer applicable in some respects were more easily neglected in others too. In particular, the requirement that the Master and at least half the fellows, including two priests, should be in residence, was regularly neglected; instead, it became the custom to have only two presbyter, or divinity, fellows, who were expected to reside, performing the duties which would now be described as those of tutor and chaplain, and in danger of becoming a distinct and somewhat inferior class. In other colleges the obligation for most fellows to be in orders survived the Reformation; in Trinity Hall the ban on canonists was interpreted so as to include a release from the obligation to take orders, leaving most of the fellowships free for unmarried lay civilians, often non-resident.
The Regius Professor of Civil Law, always from 1666 to 1873 (and five times previously) a fellow or Master of Trinity Hall, was sometimes resident; and a lay fellow was expected to reside on election as bursar, usually for three years. Otherwise, during the two centuries after 1660, the lay fellows seldom visited the College, being 'laymen and gentlemen, mostly of independent fortunes', (fn. 10) or again 'laymen, generally lawyers, frequently members of Parliament'. (fn. 11) Non-residence doubtless gave some of them a wider outlook on affairs; but it was dangerous to the collegiate life, and might make a fellowship little more than a humble but agreeable sinecure.
The Master's right to nominate to a fellowship jure devolutionis, intended merely as a safeguard in default of agreement, was used rather freely in the last 30 years of the 17th century, and again by Sir Nathanael Lloyd, 1720–31; but, after the expulsion of one of his nominees for dishonesty, this practice almost lapsed until the first half of the 19th century, and was used then as a technical convenience. The fellows agreed on their candidate, and the Master undertook to nominate him after the necessary interval of a month, thus saving, on occasion, the non-resident fellows from the necessity of an extra meeting. (fn. 12)
There is evidence of direct intervention by government in the appointment or removal of a Master, and perhaps in the election of some fellows, in the second half of the 16th century. In 1645, on the death of Thomas Eden, the Parliament ordered the fellows to suspend the election of a new Master, but gave them leave to proceed on hearing that they had already elected John Selden; finally he refused, and the fellows, having leave to proceed, elected Robert King, with seven votes against three given for John Bond, M.P. for Melcombe Regis 1645, whose father Dennis was active for the Parliament as M.P. for Dorchester. (fn. 13) Nevertheless, the House of Commons refused to allow the election. King was not admitted, and Bond was shortly afterwards elected and admitted, nine voting in his favour and one being absent. (fn. 14) Bond was excluded from Parliament by Pride's Purge and restored by Monk, but in 1660 he retired from the Mastership in favour of King, who was re-elected and survived as Master until his death in 1676.
During the 17th century nine fellows were admitted vi regiarum litterarum without election in 1629, 1633, and 1660–87; one was admitted by direction of the Chancellor of the University in 1668, the previously elected candidate being forced to resign and wait a year for admission to a different fellowship, also vi reg. litt. The object of royal intervention after 1660 was to restore the clerical element in a College which had become almost wholly lay during the Interregnum.
Outside influence in the election of Masters and fellows was very common in the 18th century, but it was used under constitutional forms, and was not always successful. Newcastle's hopes, as Chancellor, of being able to appoint a Master jure devolutionis in 1764 were defeated by the fellows. (fn. 15)
The radical changes in the statutes of the College, 1860–1925, conformed to the recommendations of successive royal and statutory commissions, and abolished all the peculiar features of its constitution. In 1860 the established practice became statutory, whereby ten fellowships were confined to laymen intending to practise law, without obligation of residence unless holding a College office, and three fellowships to clergy obliged to reside and to accept College offices. The lay fellows were now allowed to marry, but obliged to vacate their fellowships normally after ten years or on becoming entitled to a defined amount of private income. In 1881 all distinctions between fellowships were abolished as to profession, celibacy, residence, and private income.
The general history of the College, as of the University, falls into two long periods of relative stability, the first ending with the royal injunctions of 1535 and the second with the appointment of the Royal Commission in 1850, each followed by periods of rapid change, the first (c. 1535–70) shorter and more violent, the second (c. 1850–1925) more peaceful and prosperous but no less striking. The fortunes of Trinity Hall were for long inseparable from its peculiar constitution. The admissions of fellows and scholars are not recorded until the reign of Elizabeth I, those of pensioners not until 1692; it is especially hard to be sure how many Trinity Hall men became doctors or achieved any distinction before the Reformation. The society was too small to have the wide practical influence imagined by its founder. Himself trained in both branches of the law, Bateman aimed at holding the balance fairly even between them. An early connexion with the Court of Admiralty is possibly suggested by the fact that a chest for loans to poor scholars, bequeathed to the University by Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter (d. 1426), was to be kept in Trinity Hall. (fn. 16) Beaufort had been Admiral, and his lieutenant in 1408 was Master Henry Bale, LL.D., whom Prynne described as the first judge in that court. (fn. 17) Most of the fellowships endowed before the Reformation were allotted to priests and canonists; but many civilians also were priests, and most of the canonists also studied civil law. Pope Honorius III had attempted, by a bull of 1219, to check the clerical study of civil law, but was successful only in Paris.
The medieval study of law was often cramped by ignorance and pedantry. Thomas Smith, first Regius Professor of Civil Law (1542), hoped to introduce in Cambridge Alciati's improved method, based on better knowledge of Rome and of Latin. The Crown needed civilians, and the commissioners of 1548–9 turned naturally to Trinity Hall. Their proposal to form a new College of civil law out of the joint revenues of Clare and Trinity Hall was defeated by the turmoil of the times and the scruples of Ridley more than by the objections of the fellows of Clare or those of Gardiner, already in disgrace. (fn. 18) But the emphasis on civil law in the Act of 1559 has already been noticed, and from that time until it ceased to be a distinct branch of practice in 1857, the College continued to be 'that celebrated nursery for Civilians'. (fn. 19) Of the Professors of Civil Law between 1550 and 1600 four were at Trinity Hall, and from 1666 to 1873 two Masters and ten fellows held the professorship without interruption.
The association of the fellows with London and the world was close. In February 1568 Henry Harvey, Master, obtained from the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's a long lease of Mountjoy House, Knightrider Street, which was then rebuilt for the use, as tenants of the College, of the College of Doctors and Advocates of the Court of the Arches, an association of civilians formed about 1511 but not formally incorporated until 1767, when their partial dependence upon Trinity Hall finally ceased after a lawsuit lasting for three-quarters of a century. Here, in Doctors' Commons, where the Dean of the Arches presided, Trinity Hall long controlled the allotment of rooms, and its Master had a right to his own. Here the Courts of Admiralty, as well as the Ecclesiastical Courts, were held. Membership of the College of Advocates was restricted to Doctors of Law of Oxford or Cambridge, and by custom to laymen; and among them Trinity Hall men were always prominent, providing before 1856 eight Deans of the Arches and about the same number of Admiralty judges. (fn. 20) As the profession declined, some Trinity Hall men began to turn to the common law, and seven became judges between 1780 and 1860.
The temper of such a society was naturally conservative. Stephen Gardiner, the bulwark of legality and order, lost the Mastership, along with his greater offices, in the revolutionary years of Edward VI and regained them in the reaction under Mary. Dr. Harvey, like Dr. Caius, was suspected of Papist sympathies. But by 1603 conservatism was royalist and Erastian; the practising civilians were now always laymen, and supported the Crown against the claims to independence alike of Parliament and the Church. Every Master was a layman from the death in 1584 of Harvey, whose successor was the first to marry, to the election in 1888 of Henry Latham. John Cowell, Master 1598–1611, was the academic exponent of a reconciliation between civil and common law under the Crown. A generation later, conservative lawyers were often opponents of Stuart policy. Thomas Eden, Master 1625–45, was a firm supporter of the Parliament, signing the Covenant and saving the fellows and the plate from molestation. The prudent temper of the College may be judged by the proceedings, described above, after the death of Dr. Eden. After the Restoration, the College kept somewhat aloof from political controversy; the civilians were content to make up for the loss of business in the prerogative Courts by the routine work of the Ecclesiastical Courts and by that of the Admiralty Courts, which swelled in times of war, and also to exercise a certain indirect influence on that transformation of the common law, under judges like Mansfield, which made their own distinct profession less necessary and at last superfluous.
A largely non-resident society, poorly endowed and devoted to a declining study, naturally admitted few students. From 1544 for nearly 300 years, the number matriculated each year never rose to ten and was about five on the average, remaining lower than that of any other Cambridge college between 1565 and 1720. (fn. 21) The whole number of pensioners was usually about 25 or 30, but often fell to 10 or 15 during the 18th century. (fn. 22) These were gentlemen's sons, including a good many fellow commoners, and a thorough study of the law was often the least of their objects in coming to Cambridge. The statutory requirements for the degrees in law were exacting: but those for the LL.B. at least were gradually so much relaxed as to make it 'the refuge of the indolent undergraduate' and an easy substitute even for the B.A. degree. (fn. 23) In 1815 Dr. J. W. Geldart, the new professor, transferred his lectures from the combination room of Trinity Hall to the Law Schools, and instituted an examination with a published classlist; successful candidates became 'Students of Civil Law', and some were content with this title, since it was accepted for ordination in lieu of a degree. Henry Maine, Professor 1847–54 and later Master, began to broaden the study of law and to co-operate with the Professors of the Laws of England and of Moral Philosophy. (fn. 24)
The extinction of the civilians in 1857 and the establishment of the Law Tripos in 1854, the passing of the Professorship of Civil Law to another College (as it happened) in 1873, the complete revision of the College statutes in 1860 and 1881, and the energetic tutorship of Henry Latham (1855–85), all combined to transform the society. A strong tradition of legal studies remained, and Roman Law was still prominent in the Law Tripos, but the individual pursuit of different subjects was encouraged. (fn. 25) The life of the College became more highly organized. Individuals had taken part in the earliest contests on the river; now the College began to devote itself to the struggle for the headship. The number of resident fellows increased; and the number of undergraduate entries, including a fair sprinkling from overseas, rose rapidly from an average of about 12 around 1850 to an average of nearly 70 around 1890, when Trinity Hall became for a short time the fourth largest College in the University. After this the number sank somewhat both absolutely and relatively to other colleges; from 1919 onwards it rose absolutely; but between the two wars the entry was deliberately kept between 70 and 80, and the total number about 220. These were selected men, and the academic standard rose rapidly. A further increase became necessary in the years following 1945, settling down at about 270, in addition to a larger number of post-graduate students than before. Trinity Hall became one of the moderate-sized colleges, differing little from any other in constitution, under the statutes made in 1925, or in the organization of work or play, but keeping, like every other college, a strong belief in its individual tradition. The College received some important benefactions, which enabled it almost to double its accommodation. In 1952, soon after the sexcentenary year, the number of fellows reached for the first time the figure of 20 originally contemplated by the founder. The number of scholars was also much increased in the 20th century.
Endowments and Advowsons.
The original endowment, apart from the site and buildings thereon, consisted of the advowsons of the six rectories of Kimberley, Briston, Briningham, Wood Dalling and Stalham (Norf.), and Cowlinge (Suff.); their appropriation was confirmed by commission on behalf of the Pope in 1362. To these was added the rectory of Swannington (Norf.) in 1362. (fn. 26) The first three were transferred to the College by Richard Harling, Walter Elveden, and Simon de Rekinghale, (fn. 27) who had recently acquired them, doubtless as trustees on Bateman's behalf; Wood Dalling was purchased from the Priory of Binham, Stalham from the Abbey of St. Benedict of Hulme, Cowlinge and Swannington from the tenants in chief of Henry, Duke of Lancaster. Swannington remained a rectory; Briningham and Cowlinge became stipendiary curacies; vicars were installed in the other four, and later in Cowlinge. In addition, the bishop on 6 February 1350 had reserved the revenues of his rectory of Blofield (Norf.) to the College for eighteen years; on 29 April he instituted as vicar Robert de Stratton, first Master of the College, and assigned him a stipend out of these revenues. (fn. 28) An eighth College living, the advowson of St. Edward's in Cambridge, acquired in 1446, had a peculiar history. (fn. 29) These eight livings and no others were mentioned in the return made by Henry VIII's commissioners in 1546, the net income being about £40. The patronage of Briningham passed into other hands before Fuller wrote his History; (fn. 30) the College presented a vicar for the last time to Kimberley in 1542, to Briston in 1560, and to Stalham in 1592. (fn. 31) But already in 1557 Thomas Thirleby, Bishop of Ely, and formerly fellow, acquired from the Crown and gave to the College the advowsons of the vicarages of Great Stukeley, Hemingford Grey, and Fenstanton, with Hilton (Hunts.), of Gazeley, with Kentford rectory (Suff.), and of Wethersfield (Essex). Swannington was often held with Wood Dalling, and Hemingford Grey with Great Stukeley. All these except Swannington, Gazeley, and Kentford, and St. Edward's, Cambridge, had been relinquished by 1936. (fn. 32) But meanwhile the vicarage of Sutton (Suff.) passed from private hands to Trinity Hall in 1926, and in 1949 the advowson of the rectory of Buxhall with Shelland (Suff.) was bequeathed to the College, subject to a life interest, by the Rev. H. Copinger Hill, the last of a line of patrons who were also incumbents. In 1936 Dalham rectory was united with Gazeley vicarage, and Kentford rectory with Higham, St. Stephen's, vicarage. The College re- tains the right of alternate presentation to Gazeleywith-Dalham and to Higham-with-Kentford. Sutton vicarage was united in 1934 with Shottisham rectory, but the College retains the right of alternate presentation to Shottisham-with-Sutton.
The College never owned any important manorial rights. Richard Nix, Bishop of Norwich (1500–36), gave in 1522 504 acres 'on the site of the manor of Mutford's' near Puckeridge; the manorial rights had a small value when the land was sold 300 years later. Dr. Harvey left by his will in 1584 the manor of Cotton Hall and about 60 acres in Barnwell and Teversham, the manorial quit-rents being worth a few shillings in 1715. On the enclosure of Barnwell Fields in 1817, the College received in exchange some 38 acres, which were in turn sold to the University in 1831 as the site for the new Botanical Gardens, laid out after 1846. (fn. 33) Other lands and estates in Cambridgeshire acquired by benefactions or purchase included tenements in Cambridge and land at Chesterton, Trumpington, Fulbourn, Longstanton, Thriplow, and Fordham, the last-named carrying small manorial rights. Part of the Fordham land was purchased by Dr. Eden in 1633 for £504, and his further bequest of £504 was used in 1646 to purchase land at Bures (Suff.). Other land was acquired in East Anglia outside the county, mostly during the 16th century. An estate at Walpole St. Peter, acquired in 1597 through a bequest of William Mowse and a gift of Robert Hare, was held in trust until recently for repairing the roads around Cambridge and especially to Barkway. This was the reason for the arms of Trinity Hall still seen on most of the sixteen milestones along the road through Trumpington to Barkway and for those of Mowse and Hare also on the 1st and 16th milestone respectively; these stones were erected 1725–32. Hardly any land was bought or sold by the College for 250 years after 1646, but the greater part of it was sold between 1913 and 1924. (fn. 34) Several farms in Lincolnshire were purchased during the 1940's, but these did not form part of any new endowment.
Site and Buildings.
There lay between Milne Street and the river, next Clare Hall, a house acquired by John de Crauden, Prior of Ely (1321– 41), for the use of his monks studying at Cambridge. Bateman's purchase of this house from the priory, in exchange for the rectory of Sudbourne, was not completed until November 1350; in the same month the College had a licence in mortmain to hold this and three other tenements in Milne Street, and was perhaps already occupying them. (fn. 35) The site which Bateman chose was one whose limits have been closely determined by the surrounding development. South of it lay Clare Hall, founded in 1338, on ground acquired by the University in 1326. On the west the site extended, beyond a common ditch, to the river; but a long strip of the town's common land beyond the river was acquired by Henry VI in 1458 for King's, and the parts opposite both Clare and Trinity Hall passed in turn from King's to Clare in 1638. Thus Trinity Hall never had land, or a bridge of its own, across the river. The northern boundary was extended by the purchase of 'Draxesentre' in 1354, a few months before the founder's death, to Henneye Lane, which led down from Milne Street to the river; beyond this lane lay a narrow strip of garden called Hennably, or Henn Abbey, which Trinity Hall purchased in 1554–5 from the town and from Michaelhouse, just before the latter was absorbed into Trinity College. Henneye Lane was then replaced by Garret Hostel Lane, some 20 yds. farther north, which became the boundary. Finally, Milne Street marked the eastern boundary; beyond it Bateman, as executor of his friend Gonville, was busy establishing another hall. Outside these limits, Clare, Cam, Henneye Lane, and Milne Street, Trinity Hall acquired in 1354 a garden lying to the south-east; but part of this was purchased by the University in 1421 for the Canon Law School and the rest by Henry VI in 1440, to become the site of the Old Court of King's, now part of the Old Schools.
The island site of 1350–4 was divided by the common ditch into two roughly equal portions, about an acre for buildings on the east and an acre for gardens on the west. The ditch disappeared very early, and the western ends of the Master's Lodge and the library perhaps just encroached upon its line; but nothing of importance was built west of it until 1889. East of it, in a space about 200 ft. square, was plenty of room for a modest foundation, which began by making some use of the existing buildings; the position of these in turn helped to determine the general plan and scale of building. More important than future extension was present convenience; the new society was well placed, hard by the 'Great Schools' in School Street, where the Schools Quadrangle was to be constructed by degrees during the following 150 years. The founder probably made use of the house of John Goldcorne, and of the building hitherto used by the monks of Ely adjoining Clare Hall, clearly seen in Loggan's print; these became the nucleus later of the Master's Lodge, but frequent reconstruction has left almost nothing remaining. Building was in progress during February 1352, when royal protection was given to 'Richard de Bury and other carpenters' to carry timber to the site; and both the east side of the court and the hall on the west were finished before 1374, when a contract was signed for internal carpenter's work on the remainder of the western and, probably, on the northern side. It is possible that this northern side incorporated part of an older building alongside Henneye Lane on the land of Draxesentre acquired in 1354. (fn. 36) The old hall survived until its reconstruction in 1742, when it was described by Cole as 'one of the most antient buildings still surviving in the University', with its oak beams, blackened by the charcoal smoke escaping from a central fire 'through an old awkward kind of Cupolo'. The entrance to the College was from Milne Street, not into the principal court but into a smaller court lying between it and Clare and bounded on the west by the Master's Lodge.
In Elizabeth I's reign Doctor Harvey reconstructed the kitchen and buttery and the parlour above, and added a long gallery to the Master's Lodge from the hall westwards. Opposite this gallery, and extending westwards from the kitchen, soon appeared the library, which is not mentioned by Harvey, but seems to be shown in Hammond's map of 1592 and agrees in style with that period; bequests of books by Archbishop Parker and others between 1575 and 1599 may well have suggested the removal of the library from a small upper room on the south side of the principal court. This Elizabethan building has survived almost intact; the library itself is on the first floor, and the ground floor, formerly chambers, became in 1934 the junior combination room.
The work initiated by Sir Nathanael Lloyd, Master 1710–35, was much criticized in the period of Gothic revival, but it gave uniformity and elegance to the face of the principal court, and light and air to the chambers by the insertion of sash windows. The work was, however, confined to refacing and redecorating without and within, and a more ambitious scheme for rebuilding the western part of the College was never carried out. (fn. 37)
The southern part of the site underwent many changes in the 19th century. The Master's Lodge was altered or reconstructed several times, and at the end of the century a large new combination room, connected with the hall and the lodge, was built in the courtyard of the lodge. The old combination room over the kitchen became an undergraduates' reading-room leading into the old library. The small southern court was transformed by the erection of some brick chambers in 1823 on the west side and of a more commodious stone block on the east side next Clare Lane in 1873. The old entrance-gates, long almost disused, were now removed to form a back entrance from Garret Hostel Lane opposite the old brewery of Trinity College. A new entrance into the principal court had been made in 1742 under the eastern range of chambers; this side of the court was rebuilt in 1852 after a fire, with the addition of an extra story.
In the 18th century there were about 40 chambers in College, of which seven belonged to fellows. The chambers built in 1823 were the first sign, those added in 1852 and 1873 the direct result, of an increasing undergraduate entry. The need grew, rapidly at first, during the later 19th century; but the Latham and Thornton Buildings, added in 1890 and 1909 respectively, were used mainly to put a larger proportion of men in College. These two buildings were joined in 1926 by the Bond Building, erected over the old entrance-gates mentioned above. In 1929 the north side of the court was internally reconstructed, so as to provide a few more chambers. Finally, the area between this range and Garret Hostel Lane was in 1934–6 made into a small northern court. At the western end a new building housed modern kitchens below and, above, a further extension of the reading-room and some chambers. At the eastern end, by the entrance to Garret Hostel Lane, a block of similar design replaced an ugly tutor's house of 1880. The work of 1934–6 was made possible by a bequest from Harold Springall Thompson, and the buildings were designed by Sir Giles Scott. The northern side of this small court was filled in 1951 by a low range of buildings designed by Professor A. E. Richardson. As a result of these and other smaller additions (including conversion of the top floor of the Master's Lodge in 1954) the College was able in 1955 to provide rooms for 10 fellows and 125 undergraduates (more by sharing rooms).
The chapel was built by 1366. On 30 May 1352 the Bishop of Ely had given licence to the Master and Fellows to build a suitable chapel or oratory to be served by a chaplain, without prejudice to the parish church of St. John Zachary. The founder's statutes required them to celebrate his obit and other services 'in the parish church or in their own chapel when they shall have one properly constructed, or in another church of the town'. The founder gave certain books and ornaments for a chapel, and directed his executors to give a large number more. In August 1366 Pope Urban V granted the petition of the Master and Fellows to celebrate mass and other divine offices 'in the Chapel built and founded within the same'. (fn. 38) There are no records of the building operations, but an account survives of small repairs in 1513 and a piscina discovered in 1864 behind plaster is probably a part of the original fittings. The earliest monument is a fine full-length brass, originally placed over the grave of Walter Hewke, Master 1512–17, in the centre of the chapel, but removed in 1730 to the ante-chapel.
The original chapel must have been richly decorated with the ornaments provided by the founder for the three altars. Nothing is known of the effect of the Reformation upon its appearance, but in 1643 the Puritan Dowsing found nothing to destroy save one inscription 'orate pro anima' on a gravestone. In 1729–30 it was completely redecorated by Sir Nathanael Lloyd, Master, who converted it into 'a neat and elegant small room, more like a Chapel of a Nobleman's family than of a Society' (Cole). The new wainscotting extended at the east end up to the ceiling and enclosed a large oil painting by Stella, bought in Flanders and given by one of the fellows; the ceiling was arched with stucco and adorned with fifteen coats of arms on bosses; the painted glass was removed, the floor was paved with white marble, and several gravestones and brasses were removed to the ante-chapel. Lloyd gave directions for his own wall-monument, which was erected after his death opposite the simpler marble tablet which had been set up about 1708, in memory and at the wish of Dr. Eden. In 1864 the length of the chapel was increased by eight feet eastwards, and in 1922 a room over the ante-chapel was converted into a gallery in order to house an organ and introduce music for the first time. In 1957 Stella's picture was replaced by Manzuoli's Salutation (c. 1570) from the Fitzwilliam Museum. In other respects the chapel still kept the general appearance given to it in 1730.
The service of the chapel was somewhat neglected in the 18th century. The duty of reading services in chapel lay upon all the clerical fellows; but, as these were reduced to two, (fn. 39) a custom arose, confirmed by a College order of 1731, that this duty belonged only to the two 'presbyter fellows' in turn. William Warren, himself in orders and a constant resident, protested against the order, and argued that either the statutory proportion of clergy should be restored or else a stipend should be settled for a regular chaplain. Dr. Chetwode, fellow (d. 1733), endowed a scholarship 'for a scholar's due attendance in taking care of the chapel'; but no provision was made for a chaplain until much later. The Goodbehere Fellowship, established in 1850, was used at first to provide a resident chaplain and assistant tutor, and was held by Leslie Stephen for two years (1854–6). In 1881 the statutory provision for clerical fellowships ceased; but since that time there has always been at least one clerical fellow and sometimes also a chaplain who was not a fellow.
One of the presbyter fellows was often in the 17th, and throughout the 18th, century also stipendiary curate of St. Edward's. When this church was appropriated to the College in 1446, (fn. 40) it ceased to be a vicarage, and the College was empowered to appoint and dismiss a curate at will, the bishop relinquishing all diocesan authority over it. During the first 40 years of the 19th century the curates were all fellows of some college in Cambridge but since then rarely. It is uncertain how long Trinity Hall and Clare Hall continued publicly to frequent the parish church, but many fellows of both Colleges were buried there. In the 18th century the Master and Fellows still made a triennial perambulation of the parish bounds in token of their rights. The College nominates one of the fellows a member of the parochial chapter, and has for some time made an annual contribution to parish funds.
The library occupies the first floor of the Elizabethan building opposite the Master's Lodge. It is entered from the North Court through the reading-room, part of which was once the combination room, panelled in 1730 by Dr. Chetwode, fellow. The library is a long, narrow room, with desktop cases, and seats between them, standing out from between the windows on each side. The heavier books were attached by chains to padlocked iron bars running under the sloping tops of the cases.
Annexed to the founder's statutes is a list of the books which he gave or directed to be given after his death to the College: 30 volumes of civil law, 33 of canon law, and 29 of theology. Almost all of these have long disappeared. The principal recorded gifts or bequests of books or of money for books were those of Adam de Wickmer, second Master (d. 1384), Archbishop Parker (d. 1575), William Mowse (d. 1586), Robert Hare (d. 1604), John Cowell (d. 1611), William Barlow (d. 1613), Thomas Eden (d. 1645), Nicholas Hobart (d. 1657), George Gale, William D'Avenant (d. 1680), Henry Pelsant (1684), Thomas Crowch (d. 1679), George Oxenden (d. 1703), Gilbert Holt (d. 1719), William Allen (1730), Sir Nathanael Lloyd (d. 1741), and Sir William Wynne (d. 1815). Early books of law, theology, and classics form the most valuable part of the collection. The bequest of Robert Hare was particularly rich, including a manuscript 'Treatise on the Errors of the Lollards', dedicated to Richard II, and Thomas of Elmham's Chronicle of the Monastery of St. Augustine at Canterbury (temp. Henry V).
Stephen Gardiner, two contemporary copies on wood of a small portrait, by a painter of the school of Holbein, one in the hall, one in the combination room; Charles, 2nd Lord Howard of Effingham, Admiral in 1588, copy of a small portrait (c. 1740); Richard Cox, Bishop of Ely (1559–80), portrait on wood, and similar but inferior portraits of several 17th-century bishops; George Oxenden, Master 1688–1703, by Jonathan Richardson, in the hall; Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, admitted to the college 1712, by William Hoare, in the combination room; Nathaniel, 3rd Lord Crewe, Bishop of Durham (1674–1721), in the combination room; Sir Nathanael Lloyd, framed in panelling, occupies the centre of the end of the hall. Among other portraits are those, in the hall, of Sir Edward Simpson, Sir Henry Maine, Henry Latham, Henry Bond, and Henry Roy Dean, Masters, Samuel Hallifax, Bishop of Gloucester (1781–9), Sir J. Eardley Wilmot, Chief Justice C.P. (1766–71), Sir Alexander Cockburn, Lord Chief Justice (1859), and Viscount Maugham, Lord Chancellor (1938); in the combination room, of James Johnson, Francis Dickins, and John Andrew, fellows in the 18th century, and Viscount Fitzwilliam, founder of the Museum. Outside the combination room in a marble bust of the Earl of Mansfield by Nollekens.
Plate. (fn. 41)
The Founder's Cup is a plain silver-gilt beaker with slightly curving sides. It is encircled by a band consisting of two rings of a design reminiscent of 'dog tooth' pattern separated by a plain moulding. A single ring of similar pattern runs round the foot. The bottom of the cup is occupied by an elaborately designed disk in worked silver originally completed with red, green, blue, and purple enamel of which the remains give an idea of its original splendour. The design shows three trefoil arches between which are monsters, possibly dragons. In the centre are the founder's arms. The cover, which is castellated, shows at the rim a band of decoration similar to that which surrounds the cup. On one side of the cover is a finial, on the other a print with the founder's arms. The zigzag gouge mark suggests a continental assay. On the bottom of the cup and again more plainly on the cover is a mark within an oval shield, bearing the following charges: in base a lion rampant debruised, in dexter chief two keys in saltire, in sinister two scallops. Since these are the arms of Innocent VI (1352–62) the cup was not made, or at any rate assayed, before 1352. The founder, Bishop Bateman, died in Avignon in January 1355, so that the date of the cup can be placed with confidence within the years 1352 to 1354. A silver-gilt cup and cover, given by Archbishop Parker in 1569, has no marks. A small silver-gilt tankard was given by Archbishop Parker, who made similar gifts to Caius and Corpus Christi Colleges. It is marked: London n for 1570, F R in monogram. Bishop Barlow's cup and cover is a silver-gilt standing cup of a pattern common in the reign of James I. The 'steeple' has been lost. Marks: London L for 1608, a shield with 1 h, a bear passant below. Dr. Eden's Tankard is an admirable example of a rare plain type made in Charles I's reign. It has a plain tapering cylindrical body. The lid is flat and terminates in a plain point. It was purchased presumably with the £10 left to the college by the will of Dr. Thomas Eden for the purchase of a piece of plate on which he desired that his arms might be set. Under the arms is the following inscription: 'Minimum e multis Donum Viri de Hoc Collegio optime meriti Thomae Edeni Legum Doctoris Ejusdem Custodis vigilantissimi.' London s for 1635, orb and star. Lord Stanhope's bowl and cover is a large cup and cover decorated with strapwork and surmounted by the donor's crest, inscribed: Ex dono Honoratissimi Dni Dni Philippi Stanhope Filij natu Maximi Comitis de Chesterfield Ano Dom: 1714. London S for 1713, Wl for David Willaume. It was the gift of Philip Dormer Stanhope afterwards fourth Earl of Chesterfield, fellow commoner in 1712. The Communion Plate: a silver-gilt chalice, London l for 1568, hand holding a bough. A pair of silver-gilt Flagons, London s for 1635, T D in monogram between two pellets with a bird below, for Thomas Dove. A small plain paten, London T for 1676, s H in dotted circle. Sir Nathanael Lloyd's Plate: a silver Alms Dish or rose water bowl. A magnificent plain silver basin, the initials of the donor n.ll. are engraved on the back, and it is also engraved: deo et ecclesiae nath: lloyd custos. London F for 1663. A pair of candlesticks of plain baluster pattern. One candlestick is inscribed 'Ds Rich Lloyd Pater', the other 'Da Elis Lloyd mater'. A pair of plain plates, both inscribed 'Ri.LL. Frater'. London S for 1675, r.r. with an amulet between two pellets.
The founder's arms were, sable, a crescent ermine, his paternal arms, with a bordure engrailed argent for difference. These arms were transmitted to the College, and appear on the seals. But in 1575, at the Master's request, the Heralds made a new grant of arms, sable, a crescent and bordure ermine: and added a crest, upon a helmet on a wreath argent and sable a lion sejant gules, holding a book, the cover sable the leaves or, mantled gules dobled argent. These are now the college arms.
1. A large round silver seal, diameter 2.3 in. A rectangular panel represents the Trinity, the Father holding the Cross, with the Son crucified on it and a Dove above His head. On each side of this panel, heads of cherubs, and below it an escutcheon, a crescent ermine with bordure engrailed. Round the seal runs the inscription: s collegii scholariu aule sce' trinitatis de norwico in vniversitate cantebr.
2. A small silver seal of pointed oval shape, 1.4 by 0.9 in. The scene represented and the escutcheon are similar to those of the large seal, but without the cherubs. Inscription: sigillu' custodis collegii sce' trinitat cantebrig'.
3. A small round brass seal, diameter 0.9 in. The escutcheon enclosed in a circle, round which runs the inscription: sigillum stephani m a t can. Probably the seal of Stephen Gardiner, M[agistri] A[ulae] T[rinitatis] CAN[tabrigiensis].
The first two are in excellent condition, the third is somewhat blurred. (fn. 42)
Masters of Trinity Hall
Robert (de) Stratton: (fn. 43) 1350, chaplain and auditor of the papal palace, 1355, papal notary by 1379, died 1385.
Adam de Wickmer: 1355.
Robert de Braunch: 1384.
Henry Wells: 1413, died 1431.
Marmaduke Lumley: 1429, Bishop of Carlisle, 1430, of Lincoln, 1450, died 16 Dec. 1450.
Simon Dalling: 1443.
Simon de Thornham: 1453.
William Dalling: 1471, died 8 June 1502.
Edward Shouldham: 1502, died 1503.
John Wright: 1505, resigned 1512, died 12 May 1519.
Walter Hewke: 1512, died 1 May 1517.
Thomas Larke: 1520, resigned 1525.
Stephen Gardiner: 1525, Bishop of Winchester, 1531–51, 1553–5, ejected before Feb. 1552, reinstated 1553, died 12 Nov. 1555.
Walter Haddon: Feb. 1552, removed to become President of Magdalen, Oxford, 1552, died 24 Jan. 1571.
William Mowse: Oct. 1552, removed 1553, reinstated 1555, resigned probably early in 1559, died 1588.
Henry Harvey: before May 1559, died 20 Feb. 1585.
Thomas Preston: 1585, died 1 June 1598.
John Cowell: (fn. 44) 3 June 1598, died 11 Oct. 1611.
Clement Corbet: 15 Oct. 1611, died 28 May 1652.
Thomas Eden: 4 Sept. 1626, died 18 July 1645.
Robert King: (fn. 45) 28 Oct. 1645, resigned before admission, owing to objections by the House of Commons, re-elected 2 Aug. 1660, died 5 Nov. 1676.
John Bond: 11 Mar. 1646, died July 1676.
Sir Thomas Exton: 10 Nov. 1676, died Nov. 1688.
George Oxenden: 8 Nov. 1688, died 21 Feb. 1703.
George Bramston: 27 Feb. 1703, (fn. 46) died 3 June 1710.
Sir Nathanael Lloyd: 20 June 1710, died 10 Mar. 1741.
Sir Edward Simpson: 7 Nov. 1735, died 20 May 1764.
Sir James Marriott: 10 June 1764, died 21 Mar. 1803.
Sir William Wynne: 12 Apr. 1803, died 1815.
Thomas Le Blanc: 26 Dec. 1815, died 1843.
Sir Herbert Jenner Fust: 18 Feb. 1843, died 20 Feb. 1852.
Thomas Charles Geldart: 10 Mar. 1852, died 17 Sept. 1877.
Sir Henry James Sumner Maine: 28 Dec. 1877, died Jan. 1888.
Henry Latham: 18 Feb. 1888, died 5 June 1902.
Edward Anthony Beck: 20 June 1902, died 12 Apr. 1916.
Henry Bond: 11 Jan. 1919, resigned 1929, died 5 June 1938.
Henry Roy Dean: 17 June 1929, retired June 1954.
Sir William Ivor Jennings: 19 Apr. 1955.