575 years of Queens’

In 2023, we celebrate the 575th anniversary of Queens’ College’s foundation in 1448. Queens’ is the earliest example of a complete purpose-designed college in Cambridge, incorporating all of the necessary components of a college into one single building, which is now known as Old Court. The key individual responsible for the early development of the College was Andrew Dokett, a churchman and academic who later became the first President of Queens’. In this special issue of The Bridge, we will be sharing historic images of Queens’ along with facts from the College’s history.

Who was Andrew Dokett?

Many alumni and students will know the Dokett Building and its corresponding gate that provides a convenient shortcut to Queens’ Lane and the town. However, fewer people know that Andrew Dokett was the founder of Queens’ College in all but name.

Dokett enters the historical record in the late 1430s as the vicar of St Botolph’s parish, the church of which lay on the eastern side of Trumpington Street, and he later became rector. He owned St Bernard’s Hostel, which was similar to a hall of residence with its own hall, gallery and chapel. Dokett developed the hostel into St Bernard’s College in 1446 with a charter from King Henry VI using donations from his parishioners and wealthy benefactors. This new college acquired a larger site, on which the current Old Court and Cloister Court are built.

Andrew Dokett’s name in his last will and testament, spelt ‘Andreas Doket’. His surname is alternately rendered Doket, Dokket, Ducket, Doget or Dogett elsewhere

A new charter of foundation was issued by the King in August 1447, after which preparations for the building of the present Old Court were made. Following a petition by Queen Margaret of Anjou to the King, who noted that there was no college in Cambridge founded by ‘eny quene of Englond hidertoward’, the lands of St Bernard’s College were granted to her. On the 15th April 1448, the Queen’s College of St Margaret and St Bernard was founded, and the foundation stone laid at the south-east corner of the Chapel.