CHAPTER XIII.

FOUNDATION OF PEMBROKE COLLEGE.

BETWEEN 1605 and 1612 a surprising increase in the numbers at Broadgates is observable. In 1605 it comes last but two with forty members. The census taken in the vacation of 1612 shows it seventh of twenty-four with a hundred and thirty-one members'. Yet the numbers matriculating had rather fallen off. In those eight years seventeen entered as armigeri filius,' twenty-six as 'generosi filius,' one as 'militis filius,' one as 'mercatoris filius' (he paid fees as a gentleman), eleven as clerici filius,' and thirty-three as plebeii filius.' The designation of clerical parentage is always noticeable, 'Verbi ministri filius' in Elizabeth's reign passes into 'clerici' under James, that into 'sacerdotis' under Charles I, reverting to 'ministri' in the Commonwealth time and till 1676. Thenceforward' clerici ' was used.

In 1619 Summaster's long principality ended and Budden's short one followed. Dr. Thomas Clayton succeeded in 1620. He at once took in hand the expansion of the buildings. The College possesses a duodecimo, presented in 1795 by Sir Hugh Palliser, containing a list of subscribers. The first page is headed £ùv Oc; on the next is this: 'We whose names here follow in this booke, in our love to learning, the University, and particularly to Broadgates Hall in Oxford, web needeth enlargement of the Hall for meeting at Commons, Disputations, &c., as also some lodgings for Students, do contribute as followeth— July 15, 1620. Thos. Clayton, Principall, xxli to be paid presently towards the providing of materialls. Who promiseth his best care for the disposing of all to the best use of the house, and account to the Contributors of the employment of all the money which shall come by their love and bounty. Thomas Clayton, Principall.' The other

1 Wood's Life and Times, O. H. S., iv. 151. The larger bodies were Queen's (267), Magdalen (246), Christ Church (240), Brasenose (227), Exeter (206), and Magdalen Hall (161). The total membership of the University was, in 1605, 2254, and in 1612, 2930.

LAST DAYS OF BROADGATES HALL.

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names, forty-eight in number, include the right honorable my Lady Viscountesse' [Lucy] Doncaster (wife of James Hay Lord Doncaster, afterwards Earl of Carlisle) five peices' (£5 10s.); Sr William Spencer, Knight of the Bathe to Prince Charles, sonne and Heire of the Right Honorable Lord Spencer,' 44s.; Lady Penelope Spencer, 445.; Sir Richard Anderson, of Pendley, Herts (whose son Robert entered the College in 1625), 44s.; the noble Lady Mary Anderson, 228.; Sir Thomas Wrothe, 'sometymes Scholler to the Principall,' 40s. (he was a Rumper, and on the commission for the trial of the King, but did not act); Mr. Robert Nedham, ' of Shavington, in the countye of Salope,' 22s. (his son Robert, third Viscount Kilmorey, entered the College in 1625); Mrs. Margaret Washington, IIS.; Richard Astley, Warden of All Souls, 335. Most of the entries are autograph, followed by the signatures. The most interesting is, Aprilis 270, 1623o, Johannes Pym, Armiger, de Brimore in comitat Somerset, quondam Aulae Lateportensis Commensalis, donavit 445. Jo: Pym.' Out of these moneys the transverse portion of the old dining-hall, which is shaped like a rather crooked T, was added. The plan of erecting new chambers for students was swallowed up in a larger transformation. What I find it difficult to explain is the language used by the orators at the inauguration of Pembroke College in 1624. They speak of 'nostras utroque cornu nutantes jam diu fortunas.' Some Principals took Halls merely to provide themselves with a house, and encouraged leakage of students 1. But in Clayton's first year the entries rose from three to twentynine. He attracted to the Hall men of intellect like Browne, and men of family like Sir Anthony Hungerforde. Both these came up in 1623

The incorporation and endowment of the oldest of the Halls' as a new College, in the year 1624, is a somewhat curious story. 1 The Rev. Andrew Clark writes to me: Clayton seems to have been a man of substance, and had his professorship and, I suppose, his practice. If he wished to empty the Hall, so that he should have no trouble, he could have done much in four years. See what Wood says about St. Alban Hall (Life, i. 402; ii. 19, 264), and Gloucester Hall (ii. 398; iii. 1). Of course Clayton as a Head of a College with endowment became a very different person, and was no doubt much pleased to push Pembroke on. I have in my mind a general statement by Wood that the decay of the Halls was due to the practice of appointing to the Headship of them Professors, who turned the Hall into a house for their families. A Hall, owing to the absence of persons attached to it by endowment, had a very precarious existence. If the resident M.A.'s moved, their servitors, who made up the undergraduate element, would have to move also. See an exodus from St. Alban Hall, Wood's Life, ii. 468.'

148

TESDALE'S FOUNDATION.

THOMAS TESDALE, or Tisdale', a fortnight before his decease at Glympton, near Woodstock, made a testament, dated May 31, 16102, bequeathing the splendid sum of five thousand pounds to purchase lands, &c., for maintaining seven Fellows and six Scholars to be elected out of Roysse's Free Grammar School in Abingdon into Balliol or some other College in Oxford.

In 1627 there was penned (and left in MS.) by Francis Little, of Abingdon, a connexion of Tesdale's wife, ‘A Monument of Christian Munificence, or an Account of the Brotherhood of the Holy Cross and of the Hospital of Christ in Abingdon.' The Master and Governors of the Hospital caused it to be printed in 18713. It gives the fullest account of this bountiful merchant.

'THOMAS TEASDALE, of Glympton, in the county of Oxon, Gent., was born at Stanford Dingley, in the county of Berks. His father, whose name was also Thomas Teasdale, came from that village to this town & dwelt at Fitz-Harris' farm in good account and reputation. He was chosen Governor of this Hospital A.D. 1554, in the first and second year of King Phillip and Queene Marie, & in December, 1556, he died. After his death the said Thomas Teasdale, his son, was brought up by his uncle, Richard Teasdale, of Abingdon, Sadler, and when the free school here was founded by John Royse, citizen and Mercer of London,

1 The name is also spelt Teasdale, Teasdell, Teasedale, Tisdale, Tesdall, Teisdall, Teysdale, Tisedale, &c.

* So Gutch's Wood, iii. 616. But Little (vide infra) dates the will Feb. 28, 1609 [1610]. It is not at Somerset House.

3 Edited by C. D. Cobham, D.C.L., crown 8vo. 'Mr. Frances Littell, allast Brooker, was buried the xth of Janewary, 1630,' in St. Nicholas. He was for thirty-eight years a Governor and twice Master of Christ's Hospital. I find the name Francis Little as Governor, 1585-1610, and Master, 1596-7; but perhaps this was his father. One Francis Lyttle, from Berks, entered Christ Church Feb. 14, 161. The Monument was clearly known to Wood.

The official pedigree (vide infra) makes Fitzharris Farm to be situated at Stanford. Wood falls into the same error. In the Oxford City Records (ed. Turner, p. 331) is this entry: Abyngdon. 1569, Nov. 25. Md that at this Counsell was left in the kepyng of Mr Mayors chyst, wch lyeth wthin the kepynge of the fyve Key Kepers chest, on blacke boxe, sealed, in the wch boxe ther ys one lease made by the Maior, Baylyffs, and Burgesses of the borrowgh of Abyngdon, of on ferm called Fytts Harrys unto Edmund Benet and John Tysdale, wch lease, wth a byll of one Edmund Benet and Richard Benott for the name of John Tysdale, is made wth thre hands and seales unto the said byll, to shew for what use and order y said lease ys left in the custody and kepyng of the chestes of the Mayor and fyve Key Kepars, and delivered at this present Counsell.' In 1666 Fitzharris was in the occupation of Joan Badcock, widow, who still held it in 1681. In 1666 the corporation of Abingdon borrowed £200 on it and another farm for the use of his Majestie.' The farm and house are now parted. The latter, the home of Tesdale's childhood, is close to the town, and is a gentleman's residence in a small park.

THOMAS TESDALE.

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in the year 1563, he was the first scholar that was chosen and admitted by the founder into the school, being then about sixteen years of age. Afterwards, when he came to man's estate, he married in Abingdon & traded in the making of malt, then a very gainful course there; whereby in short time and by God's assistance & his own diligence, he got great store of wealth & substance, and grew as fast in credit & estimation in the town among his neighbours. For in the year of our Lord 1569, the one and twentieth of his own age, he was chosen one of the common council of the town, & in the year 1571 he was elected one of the bayliffs of this borough, & again elected one of the bayliffs in 1574. In the year 1577 he was chosen a Governor of this Hospital, & 1579 the Master thereof; 1580 a principal burgess of this borough, & 1581 he was elected Mayor thereof; but by reason he had a little before left the town, & was departed from thence with his family, he was freed from serving that office by the payment of a fine to the Corporation. And liking better of a country life, he dwelt the most part of his time at Glympton aforesaid, at which place & many others, in divers shires & countries, he traded in sowing & making of woad (used by dyers) & was held to be the greatest dealer therein that was in the whole realm; whereby, and by tillage for corn and by grazing of cattle, he attained to a great estate. Then first to testify & declare unto the world his thankfulness to God who so abundantly blessed his labours, he maintained at his own charge a lecture every Sunday in his Parish Church of Glympton, where he dwelt, giving twenty pounds yearly to the Preacher, whom he always desired to be of special note and of the best account in the University of Oxford. He was always a lover of God's Word and a great favourer of the preachers & professors thereof, & still prospered accordingly. He was a bountiful Housekeeper & gave much alms and relief to the poor, to whom his purse was ever open & his hand never shut; & having no child living on whom to bestow his wealth, he gave in his lifetime many liberal portions to the marriage of divers of his kindred, & to some of them stocks of money to trade withal, that while he yet lived he might be an eye-witness of their honest endeavours & frugal courses. And by his last will & testament-dated at Glimpton aforesaid the last day of February, in the year of the world's salvation One Thousand Six Hundred & Nine, he gave many large and liberal legacies to all those that were of his name & consanguinity. Besides he gave unto Maud his wife two thousand pounds, to divide & bestow amongst her own kindred. He likewise gave portions to all his household servants, to recompense their true and faithful service, something also to his familiar friends & old acquaintance. But his gifts and legacies to pious & charitable uses surmounteth all. And first he gave unto divers towns & villages that were near his dwelling ten pounds apiece, & to some places more remote other sums of money to succour & relieve the poor and needy people of those places, & appointed that all men women and children that came to his funeral for relief should have, every one of them, sixpence a-piece in money. He gave thirty pounds to the poor of Stanford Dingley where he was born, & thirty pounds to

150

THOMAS TESDALE.

the poor of Abingdon where he was bred. Further more he gave to this Hospital, for the perpetual maintenance, of an Usher in the free School at Abingdon, all his Glebe lands & tythes in Upton 1, in Warwickshire, worth above sixteen pounds a-year. Besides all this he gave unto the most Reverend Father in God George, then Lord Bishop of London, now Archbishop of Caunterburie, Sir John Bennett, Knight, Doctour of Civil Lawes, & to Henry Airay, Doctour of Divinity, then Provost of Queenes Colledge in Oxford, as unto feoffees & devisees in trust, five thousand pounds for the purchase of lands for the perpetual maintenance of seven fellowes & six scholars, to be from time to time chosen out of the free school in Abingdon & placed in Balioll college in Oxford, if the Master & Fellowes thereof would entertain that company with those provisions, & upon such conditions as were ordained by his will, or else the said gift was to be conferred by the said devisees upon some other college that would accordingly accept the same. The election of which scholars from the said free school is to be made up of poor men's children born at Abingdon, and brought up in the said School, & next after six of the poorest of his own kindred, which are first to be chosen.

'Master William Bennetts poor scholars, are next, by his will, to be preferred. The electors are the Master & the two senior fellows of the college wherein they shall be placed, the Master & the two senior Governors of this Hospital, and the master of the free school, to have a voice also in the said election. The said Thomas Teasdale by his will hath also ordained that all those seven fellows of his foundation, after a convenient time that they have studied & proceeded in the arts, shall every one of them successfully apply their studies unto Divinity & profess the same in preaching, otherwise after a time, limited by his will, they are to be removed from their places, declaring, or at least intimating thereby, his care for the preaching & teaching of God's Holy Word, that men's souls may be saved, & God may be glorified. The rest of his estate unbequeathed he gave unto the aforesaid Maud his wife, as a token of his love & affection towards her, & farther to shew also his trust & confidence in her, he made her his sole executrix of all his will; & so having set his worldly estate in order, it was not long after he fell grievously sick, & feeling death approaching, he drew his comfort out of Holy meditations, & in the end gave place unto nature; and at Glympton aforesaid he died, the thirteenth day of June, in the year of salvation one thousand six hundred & ten and of his own age threescore & three, the climacterical year of his life, & was buried at the place of his decease.

'Mawde Teasdale, wife to the forementioned Thomas Teasdale, was also a benefactor to this hospital, who was born at Henley-upon-Thames

1 This glebe was parcel of the rectory of Ratley. The lands, &c., were let at a rent of £14. They were vested in the same trustees as the £5,000.

2 See afterwards. Bennet directed Tesdale to see that after six years' schooling in the Free School they should either be apprenticed at the cost of the charity, or, 'if any of them should prove fit to make scholars,' they should receive liberal assistance towards their expenses at the University.