439
TRINITY COLLEGE.
44O
the encouragement of religion and learning. Sir
Thomas, who was an Oxfordshire man, had received
a good education at Banbury and Eton, had risen at
the bar and as a servant of the Crown, and was inti-
mate with Sir Thomas More and others of the
moderate and literary party among the reformers.
He was childless, and able to provide munificently
for his wife and her nephews, as well as his own
brothers and sisters ; and before his death, which
occurred in 1559, he had amply endowed his College,
the first of the Post-Reformation Foundations, with a
selection from his landed property in Oxfordshire and
Essex. His widow, afterwards Lady Paulet, acted as
patroness till her death in 1 593, and the friendly
relations between the College and the Pope and
Blount families were continued to the Norths, who
now represent the founder, and have usually received
their education at his College.
TRINITY COLLEGE (Letters patent dated March I, 1555, Statutes 1556, with postscript 1557, first com- putus 1556) was designed for a president and 12 fellows in priests orders, with 8 scholars afterwards increased to 12. From the Fellows are to be chosen annually a vice-president, a dean, two bursars, four chaplains, and two readers, one in logic or philosophy, the other in rhetoric or grammar. The Scholars are to study in the usual arts course, and succeed, if possible, to the fellowships, regard being held both in their elec- tion and in their promotion to the counties to which they belong, those in which College property is situ- ated having a preference. The statutes also provide salaries for four regular servants, a barber and a laundress, and a small sum for the services of an organist. The regulations as to chapel services, dis- cipline, scrutinies, allowances, punishments, and the conduct or studies of the Scholars, are similar to those of other 16th century foundations. The recep- tion of a few commoners is permitted. The rectory of Garsington, which had been bestowed on the founder by Queen Mary, is annexed to the office of President. The general tenour of the statutes is re- actionary, but great care is shown that there should be nothing which would necessarily prove fatal to the existence of this College, if the Reformation move- ment went forward again. In fact, under Elizabeth, the College was twice visited (in 1560 and 1570), the first president and several fellows deprived, and chapel plate and vestments destroyed, without any protest on the part of the founder's representative, or actual alteration of his statutes.
The first President was Dr. Thomas Slythurst, who had received a canonry of Windsor and some other Court patronage from Queen Mary. Of the original fellows the most able was a Cambridge man, Arthur Yeldard, and he, on the removal of Slythurst, was elected President, and held office till his death in 1599. Nothing of any importance occurred during his time, but the College gradually won a place among the older and richer foundations, and was frequented by some of the best families of the Midland Counties. It also received some additional benefactions about this time, but the corporate revenues were not large, as the estates had been let on long lease by the founder. The third president, Ralph Kettell, was a man of some character and ability, and in his later years, at least, famous for his eccentricities (see ' Diet, of Nat. Biography'). He commenced, though rather tentatively, the building operations which by the end of the century had almost entirely transformed the appearance of the College. In particular, he added to the north and east ranges an upper story (inserted
in the high pitched roof of the first floor), with the
picturesque dormer windows which still remain un-
altered ; in 1620 he rebuilt the hall from its founda-
tions, which he had impaired by attempting to exca-
vate cellars beneath them; and he erected "Kettell
Hall " in Broad Street as an annexe to the College,
on ground held from Oriel College on a long lease
which expired in the present century. During Kettell's
presidentship several men of eminence were educated
at the College, among whom were William Chilling-
worth, Archbishop Sheldon, Bishop Skinner of Oxford,
the parliamentary generals Ludlow and Ireton, and
Sir John Denham the poet.
Under the fourth President, Hannibal Potter, Trinity bore its share of the misfortunes caused by the civil wars. The rents were unpaid, and the educa- tional work suspended. In 1648 several members of the College were ejected by the Parliamentary visitors, one of whom, Dr. Robert Harris, was made president. Many of the more able fellows had accepted the com- missioners with more or less sincerity, and after this the work of the College seems to have gone on without much friction under them. The sixth Presi- dent, William Hawes, was selected from these, and in 1659, when he was dying Seth Ward, a Cambridge man who had taken refuge in Oxford and was well known for his scientific attainments, was hastily elected to avoid an appointment by the new Protector. Shortly afterwards the Restoration brought with it the re-instatement of Potter, who survived for four years.
The eighth President, Ralph Bathurst, M.D., had long been the principal person in the College, and was already well known as a scientific man as well as a fair scholar. He was an able and liberal adminis- trator, and by the works in his time practically remodelled the College. New rooms were built in the garden in 1665, and in 1682 connected with the old quadrangle, the north side of which was after- wards (1728) rebuilt in the same style. Bathurst also erected a new kitchen and a large annexe to the President's lodgings (since destroyed), and re-arranged the rooms over the hall, but his principal and most munificent work was the present Chapel (169 1-4) which cost over ^3000 He was also well known and trusted as a disciplinarian, and his educational arrangements, while adhering in form to the statutory system, were decidedly in advance of his time. They included lectures, disputations, and private tutorial instruction in Logic and Physics; "every afternoon there was an exposition in the Hall on the best Greek and Latin authors, where the young Scholars were made to construe and give the sense in a manly way, and the Lecturer explained the text grammatically and historically " ; there were also themes and composition in prose and verse, and courses in Experimental Philosophy and Chemistry as well as in Mathematics, and the library was well used. Bathurst's most eminent pupil was the future Lord Chancellor, Somers ; and to his social influence maybe attributed the large number of commoners of good family, among whom, in the next century, were Stanhope, the elder Pitt, and Lord North.
Bathurst's successors, Doctors Sykes (1704), Dobson (1705), Huddesford (1731), Chapman (1776), and Lee (1808) were not in any way remarkable, and the most distinguished member of the foundation in the 1 8th century was Thomas Warton, the Professor of History and Poetry, and Poet Laureate, who wrote widely on literary and antiquarian subjects, as well as on the history of his College. For the rest the annals of the College are uneventful ; the old Durham gate-
