Queens’ College Record 2014 Jonathan Holmes
BD in 1823. John Charlesworth, who had originally intended to become a surgeon but was ordained in 1809 and became a member of the ‘Clapham Sect’ and an ardent evangelical, matriculated in 1824, having been admitted originally to St Catharine’s as a ten-year man in 1816 (transferring to Queens’ in 1822), taking his BD degree in 1826. He was an active worker in the anti-slavery struggle and author. John Davies (admitted 1820, matriculated 1831, BD 1831) was a prolific writer of theological and philosophical works, Rector of Gateshead, a DD eventually, and a Canon of Durham Cathedral. The Revd David Jones (admitted 1820, BD 1830) spent most of his career as a Chaplain to the Marine Society and to the Hospital Ship Dreadnought. He was also Domestic Chaplain to Lord Saye and Sele. Henry Anthony Plow (admitted 1832, BD 1847) was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Royal Astronomical Society. Joseph Prendergast (admitted 1824, BD 1836, DD 1842) was Headmaster of Colfe’s Grammar School, Lewisham. Many of these ‘ten-year men’ had important ecclesiastical careers, even though their residence at Cambridge was relatively short and their Cambridge degrees academically rather dodgy to modern eyes. Mention should also be made of one of the men who came to Queens’ as a ten-year man and mature student in the eighteenth century. Samuel Henley was admitted as a sizar in 1770. However, that same year he became Professor of Moral Philosophy in William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Virginia, where he was a friend of Thomas Jefferson. On the outbreak of the American War of Independence, he was a prominent supporter of the loyalist faction but, after subjection to intimidation by armed men, he returned to England and got a job as an Assistant Master at Harrow; then in 1782 he became Rector of Rendlesham, Suffolk. He clearly still hankered after a Cambridge degree (he corresponded widely on antiquarian and classical subjects with several prominent scholars of the time) as he was re-admitted to Queens’, as a Fellow Commoner, in June 1805. That year he became Principal of the East India College in Hertfordshire, but his academic status was resolved in 1806 when he was awarded a Lambeth Doctorate of Divinity.
The view from the new Porters’ Lodge.
In 1858 the University Statutes were comprehensively revised and the BD loophole closed. The Bachelor of Divinity degree resumed its serene status as entirely a mark of theological learning and academic distinction. There is possibly one small remnant of the pre-1858 situation left in the Statutes. Bachelors of Divinity are mentioned separately in addition to Doctors and Masters for eligibility for membership of the Senate, a legacy perhaps of the days when one could proceed directly to a BD without an MA. Is this a ‘dead-letter’ survival in the Statutes from the ten-year men that has outlived both them and the Victorian reformers? Jonathan Holmes Bibliography
Damian Riehl Leader. A History of the University of Cambridge, Volume I. – The University to 1546. (C.U.P. 1988). Peter Searby. A History of the University of Cambridge, Volume III. – 1750–1870. (C.U.P. 1997). Statutes and Ordinances of the University of Cambridge 2013. (C.U.P. 2013). J.A.Venn. Alumni Cantabrigienses 1752–1900. (C.U.P. 1940–54) D.A.Winstanley. Unreformed Cambridge. (C.U.P. 1935) I am also grateful for valuable comments and suggestions on the text of this article made by Mr Tim Miller of the Old Schools.
Memoirs of the Revd J.F. Williams (1897) It was to Cambridge and my college Queens’ that I gave my affection, and always have done. I am now, in 1951, in my 54th year at the college, since I went up in October 1897. It is a curious thing that all the time I was at school, when the result of the University Boat Race became a burning question among us, I was wholeheartedly and ardently a supporter of Oxford, while my brother Clem was an equal enthusiast for Cambridge. In the end it so turned out that I went to Cambridge, while he found himself at Oxford – Exeter College. By specialising in Hebrew too, my whole intention was to gain a junior Fish Exhibition for Hebrew at St John’s College, Oxford, and it was fully expected that I should do so – but (laus deo) I didn’t! What I should have missed! The first time I set foot in Cambridge was on 4 November 1896, being examined for a Hebrew scholarship at St John’s. I was, however, unsuccessful. My next visit was during the
Christmas vacation, on 5 January 1897, when I arrived for the scholarship exams at Queens’. This time I was successful; I gained a scholarship for Hebrew. I was disappointed at not having won the Fish exhibition at St John’s, Oxford, as had been expected, but I shall never regret having accepted the much smaller scholarship at Queens’. I went into residence on 1 October 1897, and for a week we were struggling with the Littlego (1). In those days the examination could only be taken once residence had begun, and not years previously. Consequently, for the first week we ‘freshers’ were alone in the College, before the arrival of the second and third year men. Dr Herbert Ryle was then President of the College, and Dr Arthur Wright (2) the Vice-President and Tutor. For many years he had been Senior Fellow, and in his curious way virtually the ruler of Queens’. He was a shy and retiring old man, spare of speech and somewhat morose 37