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ST PETER'S COLLEGE.

FOUNDED 1284, A.D.

THIS College, incorporated by Royal Charter in the ninth year of Edward the First, is the most ancient institution of that kind in the University. It was founded by HUGH DE BALSHAM, Bishop of Ely, and by the recommendation of the king, constituted after the model of Merton College in Oxford, which had been founded a few years before by the king's letters patent, bearing the date of 1274. The first endowed College in Cambridge was Peterhouse, founded in connexion with St John's Hospital in 1280, and afterwards in 1284, as a separate establishment. Its site is that of a certain area and buildings which had been occupied by the Prior and Friars of the Penitence of Jesus Christ, situated in the Parish of St Peter near the Borough of Cambridge, without Trompetongate. This foundation was designed for a Master, fourteen Fellows (Scholares), two Bible-clerks (Bibliotistæ,) and eight poor Scholars, whose number might be increased or diminished according to the state of the revenues. Fuller, in his History of Cambridge, writes, “At this day the College maintaineth one Master, nineteen Fellows, twenty-nine Bible-clerks, and eight poor Scholars, beside other officers and students, amounting lately (namely. anno 1634) to one hundred and six.”

1555. Thomas Lewin devised property to the Company of Ironmongers for various purposes, one of which was, that the Company should pay yearly to two poor Scholars, one at Oxford, and the other at Peterhouse, Cambridge, the sum of £2. 10s each, towards their maintenance there.

These Exhibitioners are appointed by the Court of Assistants, and they receive the payments, if resident, till the time of admission to the degree of B.A. The Exhibition at St Peter's College is now of the value of £2. 15s. per annum.

1574, circa. Edward, Lord North, founded six Scholarships for Students in Divinity.

Rev. Henry Wilshaw, D.D., founded one Scholarship.

Archbishop Whitgift founded one Scholarship for a

Student in Divinity, of £2. 128. per annum.

1580. William Heron, citizen of London, and Woodmonger, gave by will, among his other bequests, to the company of Cloth-workers, the yearly rents of £5 to University College, Oxford, and £5 to Peter-house, Cambridge, towards the education of poor scholars.

This benefaction to St Peter's College is now of the value of £25 per annum, and is paid yearly to the Tutor of the College, and distributed by him among the deserving scholars.

1589. Andrew Perne, D.D., formerly Master of the College, founded two Bye-fellowships, the candidates for which must be B.A. at least, and a preference is given to those who are of the founder's kin, and then, cæteris paribus, to natives of Ely, Balsham, Somersham, Colne, Pidley, and East Bilney, and then to natives of Norwich. These Fellowships are virtually open. He also founded five Scholarships.

1601. Lady Mary Ramsey, widow of Sir Thomas Ramsey, Lord Mayor of London in 1577, founded four Scholarships, which in the year 1817, were £13. 68. 8d. each, with a preference to Students from Christ's Hospital, who intend to take holy orders. They are tenable till M.A.

This lady also founded two Bye-fellowships, the appointment to which is vested absolutely in the Master. The fellows must be chosen from the scholars on the Ramsey foundation, if any be duly qualified. Fellows on this foundation are required to be in holy orders within a year from their admission.

Mrs Margaret Fulnerby, of Teversham, in Cambridgeshire, gave property to support a Bible-clerk. 1613. Mr Warren founded one Scholarship. 1620. Mr Blythe founded two Scholarships. Mr Slade founded two Scholarships.

1631. Two Scholarships were founded by Dr Hawkins. 1632. Lady Frances Matthews, wife of Dr Matthews, Archbishop of York, gave £200 to the College, to found two Scholarships.

1637. Thomas Parke, Esq. of Wisbeach, high-sheriff in 1628, founded four Scholarships, each of £10 a year.

He also founded four Bye-fellowships, each of £16 a year, with a preference to such as have held the Parke Scholarships, if such scholars be found qualified in learning and morals. The election to these fellowships rests with the College and the heir male of Archbishop Sandys.

1661. Mr Woodward, gent. of Bedfordshire, founded two Scholarships, each of £10 a year, and tenable till B.A.

1662. Bernard Hale, D.D. Master of the College, devised his lands &c. by will upon trust, that out of the rents and profits, besides other uses, seven Scholars should be maintained for ever in the College of St Peter at Cambridge, and each be allowed 20 marks per annum, so that every year for ever, one of them should proceed to the degree of Master of Arts, and that every year for ever one scholar fitly qualified should be elected from the free-school of Hertford, of his grandfather's foundation there, and that his heir-at-law should have the nomination of the scholars. In the case of no fit scholar from the Hertford school, his heir was left free to choose the best grammar scholar he could find elsewhere: and in failure of this, he willed that the Master of the College should choose, either in the College, or in the University, the best scholar he could get to accept of the vacant scholarship.

He likewise ordered that when the surplus of the rents might amount to any considerable sum, additional scholarships should be founded. These scholarships, now 25 in number, are in the patronage of Viscountess Palmerston.

He directed also that once every year a dinner of £5 should be provided at Cambridge, at which his heir-at-law, or some one by his appointment, with the Master and two deans of the College, and such as they should invite, might be present; and at that time he desired it might be examined what proficiency the said scholars had made in their learning.

1669. John Cosin, D.D. formerly Master of the College, and Bishop of Durham, founded five Scholarships, of the value of £10 each per annum, for students from the grammar-school at Durham, and in failure, from that at Northallerton, or Norwich.

1683. Thomas Miller, Esq. gave lands at Brampton and Barham in the county of Huntingdon, the rents of which (about

£20 a year) he designed "for maintaining a scholar at Peterhouse, from the time of his admittance until he commences M.A." He directed that a student from the grammar-school of Huntingdon should have the preference when a vacancy occurs but if there be no scholar duly qualified, one shall be appointed by the Master and Fellows.

John Worthington, Esq., founded one Scholarship, about £7 per annum.

1824. The Rev. Francis Gisborne, M.A. formerly Fellow, anonymously gave £20,000 to the College to be disposed of as the Master and Fellows should deem best. From this fund, a new Court, called "the Gisborne Court," has been added to the College. Four Scholarships have been founded from this fund, each of the clear value of £30 a year without any deductions for non-residence, and tenable till B.A.

There have also been founded two Bye-fellowships which are tenable for seven years, but are vacated by marriage, or by the possession of property of £250 a year. The annual value of these fellowships is under £70 a year, but the College has raised them to that sum out of funds which would be otherwise wholly appropriated to the Master and Fellows.

Dr Fuller, in his History of Cambridge, speaking of Peterhouse, observes, "I cannot but commend one peculiar feature of this College, in preserving the pictures of all the principal benefactors in their parlour. For, though the bounty of the judicious is grounded on more solid motives than to be flattered by the fancy, that their effigy should be kept; yet such an ingenious memorial may be an encouragement to a patron's liberality."

1854. The present society consists of the Master, fourteen foundation Fellows, and ten Bye-fellows, there being no foundation Scholars.

The foundation fellowships are open without any restriction to persons born in Great Britain and Ireland, or in any of the British Colonies. Formerly, they were restricted to seven persons born in the Northern division of England, and seven in the Southern, of whom not more than two fellows might be natives of the same county (Cambridge and Middlesex excepted). This restriction, on the petition of the Visitor and

the College, was removed by Royal Letters Patent in the sixth year of William IV. and it was decreed after the expiration of four years, "That no more than one third part of the fellowships shall at any one time be filled by natives of the same county." In the first year of her Majesty Queen Victoria, Letters Patent were granted on the petition of the College, for the removal of all restrictions with respect to the place of nativity of the candidates for fellowships, the petitioners believing such to have been the intention of the Founder of the College. By these letters patent the fellowships were opened to free competition in 1839.

When a vacancy occurs, a fellow is elected from the scholars under the standing of M.A. by the Master and Fellows, and after a year of probation, if no complaint is made against him, he is instituted by the Bishop of Ely. The Master and Fellows are bound by the oath of obedience to the College Statutes, to select for the vacant fellowship an indigent person, who possesses moral and intellectual eminence. The Statutes enjoin that a fourth part of the fellows shall be in holy orders. A fellowship is vacated by marriage, or by the possession of a living estimated in the king's books at £5 a year, or a pension of the same amount.

The stipends of the Master and Fellows are not fixed by the Statutes, but it is directed that the annual income of the College shall be divided equally among them. The income of the Master has been augmented by various private benefactions since the Statutes were given. The average annual dividend for the seven years ending 1851 received by a foundation fellow was £258. 08. 5d., the rent of rooms being included, and income-tax deducted. Each of the eight senior foundation fellows received a small additional sum, varying in their respective cases, from £1. 18s. Od. to £6. 168. 2d. income-tax being deducted.

The bye-fellowships are open and unrestricted, but these fellows have no voice in the affairs of the College, and like all other members, are under the general authority of the Statutes.

The several fellowships on two of the bye-foundations are fixed in yearly value; those on the other two are not so fixed.

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