PREFACE. N the year 1446, MARGARET of Anjou, Queen of Henry VI, (anxious to emulate her royal consort who had founded King's College in 1441,) commenced the foundation of the COLLEGE OF SAINT MARGARET AND SAINT BERNARD, gene rally denominated QUEEN'S COLLEGE in the University of Cambridge. The land, on which it was proposed to erect this College, was in the same year given to King Henry VI, by Andrew DOKETT, Principal of Saint Bernard's Hostle* and Rector of Saint Botolph's, Cambridge, who was subsequently nominated the first President of the Society. The edifice was dedicated to Saint Margaret and Saint Bernard; and the first stone was laid on the 15th of September, 1448, by Sir John Wenlock. At the time of founding the College (1446), six persons were nominated for the purpose of framing its Statutes, viz. John Somerset, Chancellor of the Exchequer; John Langton, Chancellor of the University, and Master of Pembroke Hall; Richard Cawedray, Peter Hirford, Gilbert Worthyngton, and Thomas Bolyn, Master of Gonville Hall: to whom were added, in the following year, John Sperhauk, and Hugh Damlet, Master of Pembroke Hall; and lastly, in 1448, William Boothe, Bishop of Lichfield; and William Millington, Master of Clare Hall. It is, however, uncertain, whether any Statutes were actually framed and given to the College during the reign of King Henry VI: for the liberal designs of the Foundress appear to have been frustrated by the disastrous events of that period. Through the influence of the first President, Andrew DOKETT, in the Court of the new Sovereign, what the Saint Bernard's Hostle was bequeathed to Queen's College, by Andrew DOKETT, in 1484, and continued under the superintendence of the succeeding Presidents, till it was sold to the Society of Corpus Christi in 1535. It stood on the site afterwards occupied by the Dolphin Inn, which was pulled down in 1825 for the erection of the new fabric of Corpus Christi. Its site was near the present great gateway. original Foundress had begun, was prosecuted and auspiciously completed, partly by the donations which he procured from several of the most distinguished adherents of the House of York, and particularly by the very munificent benefactions of ELIZABETH, Queen-Consort of Edward IV, who became the second or Co-Foundress of the College in 1465. After procuring for her College many distinguished privileges, in 1475 she gave it a Code of Statutes, by which it was governed until the year 1529, when a new set was compiled and sanctioned by Royal Authority, and also by a Bull of Pope Clement VII. A Protestant Revision of the Statutes took place in the year 1549, during the reign of Edward VI. In the year 1553, on the accession of Queen Mary, the old Popish Statutes of 1529 were restored. They again received a Protestant form, with several deviations from the Statutes of Edward VI, in the year 1559, under the care of the following Visitors or Commissioners of Queen Elizabeth, viz. Sir William Cecil, Chancellor of the University; Sir Antony Cooke; Dr. Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury elect; Dr. Walter Haddon, Master of the Requests; Dr. William Bill, High Almoner of the Queen; Dr. William Mey, President of Queen's College, and Dean of Saint Paul's; Thomas Wendy, M.D. Physician to the Queen; Dr. Thomas Horne; and Dr. James Pilkington, afterwards Bishop of Durham. This Code of Statutes, by which the College is at present governed, was signed by five of the 1 Commissioners; the fac-similes* of whose hand-writing it may gratify the reader to see annexed. Mathons Cantnar & هم Willm Bill & These Fac-Similes, as well as the Arms and Crest in the Title-Page, and the Ornamental Letters in different parts of the Catalogue, are taken from the accurate and elegantly executed copy of the Statutes of Queen's College, edited in a quarto volume, from the original MS. by the Rev. George Cornelius GORHAM, B. D., one of the Senior Fellows of the College, by whom the Drawings were made. The Initial Letter in page vii, represents the Arms and Crest of Queen's College; that in page 1, the oriel window in the College-Hall; and that in page 512, the eastern front of the College. The stalls and figures of Monks, in page 469, are traced from the private Psalter of King Henry VI., (preserved among the Cotton MSS. in the British Museum) in whose reign and by whose charter the College was founded. The Volume just cited is intituled, "Statuta Collegii Reginalis apud Cantabrigienses, Anno M. D. L. IX., a "Regiis Commissariis reformata: quibus accedunt Interpretationes Sta"tutorum a Præside et Sociis sancitæ. Cantabrigiæ, Typis Academicis, Sumptibus Collegii Reginalis, excudit Joannes Smith. M. DCCCXX.II." To the preface of these Statutes, as well as to the notes annexed to the "Form for the Commemoration of Benefactors, to be used in the College "of Saint Margaret and Saint Bernard, commonly called Queen's Col"lege, Cambridge," (printed in quarto, in the year 1823, under the editorial care of Mr. Gorham,) and also to the information obligingly communicated by him, the Compiler of the Catalogue now offered to the Society, is indebted for the present Historical Notices. |