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Prizes of £15 and £5 are given to the first and second proficients at a theological examination which takes place after the division of the Easter Term. The candidates are students in their third year or Bachelors of Arts; and if the first proficient be sufficiently distinguished, his prize is increased to £20.

Three prizes of books, each of the value of three guineas, are given to undergraduates for the best compositions in Latin verse, Greek verse, and Latin prose respectively.

The ecclesiastical patronage of the College consists of the right of presentation to eighteen Church-livings.

The average gross income in 1851 was £9178. 15s. 3d., and the net income £8126. Os. 4d.

ST JOHN'S COLLEGE.

FOUNDED 1511, A.D.

THE site of this College was formerly that of a priory, styled the Hospital of the Master and Brethren of St John the Evangelist. On the 20th of January, in the second year of Henry VIII, St John's Hospital was dissolved, and the house and its revenues were granted to Margaret, Countess of Richmond and Derby, who designed to establish on the site thereof a College, to be called St John's College.

The untimely death of the Lady Margaret which happened soon after its foundation, retarded the progress of the College: but by will she devised her lands, manors, and possessions, of the then yearly value of £400, together with the site of the dissolved Priory of St John's Hospital, with the revenues thereof, amounting to £80 per annum, to her executors, in trust for the building of the College. They obtained a Charter bearing the date of April 9, 1511, and established the College, and appointed a Master and thirty-one Fellows, giving them a body of Statutes for the government of the College.

The foundress designed that her College should contain fifty fellows, according to the Charter for incorporating the College, but in consequence of Henry VIII. having withdrawn some estates of the value of £500 a year, according to the value of money at that time, it is decreed by the Statutes that the number of fellows shall be thirty-two, unless the revenues should become so far diminished by any means as that this number could not be maintained. It is also decreed that there shall be twenty-seven scholars on Lady Margaret's foundation, in addition to some others named in the fifteenth chapter of the College Statutes.

Students over and above the members of the foundation are directed to be admitted in conformity with the regulations prescribed in the twentieth chapter of the Statutes, which concludes with the following precaution :-" Atque hic imprimis Decani et Lector Publicus diligenter circumspiciant, ne imperitiores magistro et senioribus commendent; quia qui Grammaticam bene et intelligenter tenent, eos necesse est multum proficere;

qui non tenent, eos videmus vel difficultate rei vel desperatione sui debilitatos, a discendo abhorrere, et vix ad mediocritatem pervenire."

Between the years 1599 and 1602, the second court was erected, the expense being for the most part defrayed by Mary, Countess of Shrewsbury. About 1671. the space of ground between the second court and the river was made the site of a smaller court, now usually called the third court. The north side of this court, forming the Library, had however been erected in 1624, principally at the cost of Dr John Williams, bishop of Lincoln and Lord Keeper, afterwards archbishop of York.

In 1826 the College commenced, and in 1830 completed, the erection of a New Court, and united the older buildings of the College by a covered bridge over the river. The cost of these buildings was £77,878. Os. 2d., of which £13,369. 16s. 7d. remained to be liquidated in 1851.

1511. Sir Marmaduke Constable, about the time of the foundation of the College, endowed a Fellowship for a person in priest's orders, and a native of the county of York, with a preference to those of his name and kindred. At the same time he also endowed four Scholarships, under the following restrictions:-" The said four scholars or disciples for Sir Marmaduke Constable shall be taken and chosen of such as shall be of the name and kindred of the said Sir Marmaduke, if any such be able in the University of Cambridge. If none such can be found, then they shall be elect and chosen of such as are born, or hereafter shall be born within the county of York, or the diocese of the same. And for default of such, they shall be elect and chosen of such as be most able and apt in the University of Cambridge, after the discretion of the master and fellows.”

1516. John Riplingham, D.D., chantor of Beverley, gave £100 to found two scholarships for natives of Yorkshire.

1520. Rev. James Beresford, canon of Lichfield, and vicar of Chesterfield and Wirksworth, founded two Fellowships. The limitations of candidates for these fellowships are, 1. They shall be of the name and kindred of the said James Beresford; 2. In default of the former class, persons born in the parishes of

Chesterfield, Wirksworth and Ashbourne, in the county of Derby, or Alconsfield in the county of Stafford; 3. In default of these, persons born within the counties of Derby and Stafford; or in default of such, to choose the most able and apt within the said University of Cambridge, after the form of the Statutes of the said College.

Mr Beresford founded also two Scholarships, under the same restrictions.

1521. Robert Ducket, parson of Chevening, founded two Scholarships. One scholarship is limited to Keyingham in Holderness; and in default, to some part of the same; and in default, to the county of York, with a preference to the vicinity of Holderness. The second scholarship is limited to Chevening, Senock, Sandridge, Shoreham and Ford in Kent, and in default, to the county of York.

1525. John Dowman, LL.D., archdeacon of Suffolk, residentiary of St Paul's, &c. founded five Scholarships. The nomination of the five scholars was originally vested in the Warden and Brethren of the Guild of the Name of Jesus, &c., in the parish-church of Pocklington. On the dissolution of the guild, by an Act of Parliament in the sixth year of Edward VI., the nomination of the scholars was conferred on the schoolmaster, vicar, &c. of Pocklington. In making the nomination, a priority is given to candidates born in Yorkshire, especially such as are of the name and kin of the founder. In default of these, scholars of Pocklington school are to be taken, provided they be properly qualified, with a recommendation in favour of persons born near the places where the property given to the College by this founder is situate.

Dr Dowman also gave £140 for nine poor Scholars, called Sizars (sizatores). These nine are called proper Sizars.

1526. Mr Halitreholme paid to the College £120 to found one Fellowship, with the following limitation :-"That the said fellow be born naturally within the town of Beverley, if any such can be found graduate and able, or else in any place nigh about Beverley, in all the county of York next adjacent to the same; and that the said fellow be a priest at the time of his election, or within twelve months next ensuing at the farthest."

1526. Lady Jane Rokeby, reliet of Mr Richard Rokeby, gave £170 to found one Fellowship. It is provided in the deed, that the said fellow be a native of the town of Beverley, if any such be found able within the University at the time of the election; and in failure, then a native of the county of York. And if no such person be found able within the University at the time of election, then the master, fellows, and scholars of St John's College shall elect the said fellow born elsewhere, as they shall think fit, after their discretion. The fellow elected must be in priest's orders, or within six months after his election.

1527. Mr John Bayley, yeoman of Syrescote in the county of Stafford, gave £115 to found a Fellowship, thus limited :— "Provided alway, that the said fellow be naturally born in the parish of Tamworth, or else in the county of Stafford; or for default of such persons, in any place within the county of Derby. And if there can be found no scholar graduate within the said University, born within the said places, then the said fellow shall be chosen of such persons as be naturally born within the diocese of Coventry and Lichfield only, and no other where. And the said fellow shall be a priest, at the age of 24 years, or within twelve months after." The stipend of this fellowship was augmented 13s. 4d. per annum by Nicholas Ayard, gentleman, of Dunstal, the executor to Mr Bayley, May 1, in the second year of Edward VI, and £17 were paid for that augmentation.

1528. Edward Gregson, D.D., rector of Fladbury in Worcestershire, founded two Fellowships; one for a person born in the county of Norfolk, and the other born in the county of Lancaster.

He also founded one Scholarship for a person born in the county of Lancaster, with a preference to the town and parish of Preston, in the hundred of Amounderness, and in default of such, a second preference is given to vicinity to this parish.

Mr Gregson gave £329. 13s. 4d. to the College for the foundation of the Scholarship and two Fellowships.

1530. Rev. Robert Simpson, rector of Layer Marney, Essex, gave £120 to found one Fellowship under the following

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