JESUS COLLEGE.

FOUNDED 1496, A.D.

THIS College was originally a convent or priory of veiled nuns, a society of virgins of the order of St Benedict, foundedin the former part of the twelfth century, and dedicated to "the honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Rhadegund." In consequence of irregularities, the priory was dissolved by Henry VII., and the house and lands were bestowed by a charter on John Alcock, Bishop of Ely, to be converted into a College, and to be incorporated by the name of the Master, Fellows, and scholars of the Blessed Mary the Virgin, St John the Evangelist, and the Glorious Virgin St Rhadegund, near Cambridge.

The appellation by which the College was commonly known seems to have been immediately derived from the church of the priory, which was dedicated to the name of Jesus. BISHOP ALCOCK in 1496, the 11th year of Henry VII., began to restore the fabric, and in four years he had established a master, five fellows, and six scholars in the College.

The original Statutes were given by James Stanley, the 30th Bishop of Ely: these were subsequently altered by Nicholas, his successor in that see, and under the sanction of the visitor were again revised in 1841.

The Statutes of the College prescribe that there shall be a master, 16 fellows, and 15 scholars. The fellows are required by the Statutes to be "viri honesti, opinionis illæsæ, studiosi, devoti, et cælibes, ac literarum studio dediti."

The Statutes also decree that in the election of scholars, the master and fellows choose such as are "idoneores, aptiores, et habiliores:" and provide also-"Quod si contingat aliquem istorum scholarium sive puerorum super illo crimine defamari notabiliter, unde collegio nascatur infamia, juxta judicium præsidentis et majoris partis sociorum expellatur e collegio ipso facto."

The annual revenue of the College, as reported by the Commissioners in the thirty-seventh year of the reign of King Henry VIII. was £130. 8s. 4d.

In the year 1635, the foundation consisted of one master, 16 fellows, 24 scholars, besides officers and other students; in all 110: and when Mr Shermann was fellow, the College maintained a master, 16 fellows, and 28 scholars.

1507. James Stanley, D.D., Bishop of Ely, in the 22nd year of Henry VII., gave the rectory of Great Shelford to found one Fellowship, of which the nomination and appointment should be vested in the Bishop of Ely.

Richard Pigot about the end of the reign of Henry VII. founded one Fellowship.

Thomas Roberts of Over founded one Fellowship about the latter part of the reign of Henry VII.

1507. Sir Robert Read, of Bore Place in Kent, Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, gave £100 to found one Fellowship.

1515. Roger Thorney, in the 6th year of Henry VIII. gave by will various tenements in the borough of Southwark, for the maintenance of one Fellow.

1546. John Reston, S.T.P., fifth master of the College, by his will, gave lands for founding one Fellowship, and seven Scholarships.

1548. John Andrews, Clerk, rector of Great Waltham in Essex, and canon of St Paul's, gave lands for the maintenance of two Fellows.

1559. John Fuller, LL.D., seventh master of the College, gave a benefaction for founding four Fellowships.

At the visitation of the College in the time of Elizabeth, the number of fellows was reduced to 16, and the number of scholars to 15.

1579. William Marshall, an attendant of Edmund Grindal, Archbishop of Canterbury, gave a rent-charge of £3. 6s. 8d. a year for a scholar at Jesus College, who is a native of Lancashire, Herefordshire, Cumberland, or Essex.

1620. Dame Joanna, relict of Owen Wood, S.T.P., Dean of Armagh, afterwards wife of James Price, of Ynys y Maen Gwyn, in Merionethshire, gave a tenement for the maintenance of two Scholars of Jesus College, one of the county of Anglesey or Merioneth, and the other born in the parish of St Peter-le

Poore, or of St Vedast, Foster Lane, London. Each of these scholarships is £4. 10s. per annum.

1621. John Sikes, A.M., a member of the College, and afterwards rector of Kirton in Nottinghamshire, gave a rent charge of 40s. a year out of his lands near Wakefield, for the maintenance of one Scholar.

1625. Lionel Gatford, D.D., gave a benefaction for founding two Scholarships, for orphans of clergymen of the Church of England. These scholarships are of the annual value of £16 each, and are tenable from the time of admission to the degree of B.A., to that of M.A.

1671. Tobias Rustat, Esq., Yeoman of the Robes to King Charles II. gave a benefaction for the endowment of Scholarships for the orphans of clergymen of the Church of England. The number of these scholarships is now fourteen, and they are open to the orphans of clergymen of all counties in England and Wales. The scholars must be admitted before they have completed their nineteenth year. The value of these scholarships is £30 a year. There is every year at the beginning of the Easter Term an examination of the Rustat scholars in classics, and a gratuity varying from £10 to £30 is given to each scholar according to his merit.

1673. Richard Sterne, D.D. Archbishop of York, founded four Scholarships, for natives of Nottingham and Yorkshire, by a rent-charge of £40 a year on the manor of Birken, Yorkshire.

1675. Dame Margaret Boswell, conveyed to trustees a farm called Hally well Farm, containing about 306 acres, with the adjacent Saltmarsh belonging to it of 60 acres, in the parish of Barnham, Essex, in trust, to pay from the rents the sum of £12 yearly to each of two Scholars, to be chosen by her trustees from the grammar-school at Sevenoaks, and in default, then from the grammar-school at Tunbridge, and to be sent to Jesus College, Cambridge, and to be called "Sir William Boswell's scholars." These scholarships are now each of the annual value of £50.

1677. Henry Brunsell, LL.D., prebendary of Ely, gave a benefaction for three Exhibitions of £8 each per annum.

1682. Mr John Somerville, sometime master of the Grammar School of Loughborough, bequeathed £200 for the purchase of land, towards the maintenance of two scholars from the school at Loughborough, at Jesus College, Cambridge, until they are Masters of Arts. The present value of these scholarships is £30 each.

1703. John Mawherd gave the rent of 31 acres of land for the maintenance of a poor scholar from Doncaster or Arksey Free School.

1718. Mr Charles Humphry gave a rent-charge of £6. 8s. 6d. per annum, arising from lands in the parish of Harburgh, in the county of Lincoln, for a Scholar at Jesus College, Cambridge, from the Grammar School of Caistor, Louth, or Alford.

1758. Mr Marsden, gave a benefaction to found a Scholarship for the son of a living clergyman, with a preference to a native, cæteris paribus, of Nottinghamshire or Lancashire. The present annual value of this Scholarship is £42.

1785. Rev. Frederick Keller, M.A., formerly fellow of the College, left £20 per annum for one or more deserving Bachelors of Arts on admission to their degree. Of this sum £10 is given to the best proficient in Mathematics, provided he be a Wrangler: and £10 in plate or books, to the best proficient in Classics, provided he be in the first class of the Classical Tripos.

1825. Mrs Sarah Jones, of Newport, Salop, bequeathed by her Will the sum of £6000 in trust, subject to a life interest, to found three Bye-fellowships (to be called "Ley Fellowships") at Jesus College, Cambridge, in memory of the Rev. Thomas Dummer Ley, late of Hingham, in the county of Norfolk, and formerly member of the College. The property came into the hands of the College in 1837, and three Bye-fellowships in conformity with the bequest have been founded.

The “Ley Fellows” are required to be graduates of the University, and they cease to be fellows on this foundation at the expiration of 12 years from the time at which they were of sufficient standing to complete the B.A. degree.

1840. Rev. Edward Otter, M.A., formerly fellow of the College, gave the dividend of his fellowship for one year, which

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having been increased from the funds of the College, forms a Divinity Prize of £21, and is open every two years to Bachelors of Arts.

1854. The present society consists of the master and 16 foundation fellows, besides three bye-fellows. With the exception of the fellow appointed by the Bishop of Ely, all the fellowships and foundation scholarships are open to all Her Majesty's subjects, without any restriction or appropriation whatever. On the occasion of a vacancy in a foundation fellowship, the master and fellows nominate two candidates, and the Bishop of Ely elects one of them to fill the vacant fellowship.

The scholars are generally elected from those students who most distinguish themselves at the annual College examination which takes place at the division of the Easter Term. The foundation scholars are allowed their commons free during residence.

All the scholarships and exhibitions, except the Rustat scholarships, are freely open to competition, when properly qualified candidates are not found among those students to whom such scholarships and exhibitions are, in the first place, restricted.

In addition to the Scholarships and Exhibitions, prizes of books are given to the most distinguished students of each year in Classics and Mathematics at the College examination.

Two prizes of books, each of the value of 3 guineas, are awarded by the College, for the best Latin and the best English Declamations.

The ecclesiastical patronage of the College consists of the right of presentation to 16 Church livings.