An artificial collection of papers relating to the history, fabric, membership, academic life and traditions of St John’s College, received by the Library at various dates over the past 150 years.

Box 1

R[obert] F[orsyth] Scott (1849-1933), Master of St John’s College: ‘Index to list of incumbents of College benefices’, a broadly alphabetical list detailing presentations from the earliest days of the College and maintained until the mid 1920s. The list includes presentations to masterships at schools within the College’s gift.
325x205mm. 24pp. From the papers of Sir Robert Scott, transferred to the Library after 1933.
Autograph. Commercial ruled alphabetical ledger, with marbled card covers, now somewhat worn at corners and edges.

-----

George B[ell] Routledge (1864-1934) of Christ’s College: Lists of Johnians awarded Blues in all sports including some of the less common options such as billiards, polo and ice hockey, 1827-1925. The lists indicate previous schools and identify some individual winners with their achievements.
330x205mm. (mostly). 34 fos. With two letters from the compiler to Sir Robert Scott, Master of the College, 13 Nov. and 5 Dec. 1925, presenting the lists and hoping ‘that they will prove useful to add to your College Records’.
Autograph. Commercial ruled paper, not bound. The second letter is torn and deficient.

-----

‘Procedure and records of the funerals of Fellows of the College’, 1901-53. The contents in fact include some funerals of Fellows’ wives, that of a deputy Head Porter, memorial services, unveilings of war memorials and other dedications, and press cuttings from the Cambridge Daily News relating to the accidental death of B. N. Cama, BA, in 1902. Information includes orders of service, arrangements for porters, pall bearers and others, and seating plans in the Chapel. The following funerals and memorial services are detailed: Queen Victoria (1901); Mrs Macalister (1901); Mary Bateson (1906); Edward VII (1910); memorial window for Charles Taylor (1910); J. E. B. Mayor (1910); J. D. Bromfield (1912); P. H. Mason (1912); L. H. K. Bushe-Fox (1916); Dr Besant (1917); J. Bass Mullinger (1917); C. E. Graves (1920); E. E. Foxwell (1922); W. H. H. Rivers (1922); Sir John Sandys (1922); T. G. Bonney (1923); T. G. Leathem (1923); W. A. Cox (1923); the war memorial (1923); Alfred Marshall (1924); G. D. Liveing (1924); Mrs Greaves; James Collins, Deputy Head Porter (1928); A. J. Stevens (1930); J. R. Tanner (1931); (?) J. E. Marr (1933); Sir Robert Forsyth Scott, Master (1933); Sir Donald Macalister (1934); O. H. P. Prior (1934); J. T. Ward (1935); George V (1936); W. E. Heitland (1935); E. J. Rapson (1937); C. B. Rootham (1938); Mrs Heitland (1938); Alfred Harker (1939); M. P. Charlesworth (1950); Ernest Benians, Master (1952); and Sir Percy Winfield (1953).
Various sizes. 107 items. Extensive holograph memoranda and letters of thanks in the collection suggest that the collection originated with successive Head Porters, particularly Capt. J. H. Palmer.
MS and TS. Not bound. Formerly gathered in a spring-back commercial folder (not retained).

-----

Letters and notes re Johnians on active service in the Second World War, 1939-44 and no date. The correspondence involves, among others, Martin Charlesworth, F. P. White, John Boys Smith and Edward Miller. The Johnians referred to include Kenneth Hunnybun, Kenneth Jackson, J. Oldroyd, H. D. Westlake, C. H. B. Priestley, G. C. T. Richards, Raphael Loewe, Arthur Jones, Guy Lee, Harry Dunk, Haig Thomas, J. A. Crane, Arthur Hughes, B. J. O. Winfield, Robin Orr, J. A. Cameron, R. Scott-Moncrieff, J. P. H. Allom, J. L. Gebhard, P. W. Durham, T. J. Bowen, H. W. Sabin, members of the Symonds family, L. A. Grint, D. W. Lang, R. H. Symonds, O. M. Taylor, A. T. Blair, M. W. Lloyd Owen, R. S. Lewis, John Uttley, John Crook, N. Beale, F. W. E. Eves, Hermann Friedrich Eschelbacher (later Ashbrook), Bert D. Carris, old boys of the Hulme Grammar School Oldham, F. Gordon Smith, G. Escritt, N. P. Wright, Hugh Meredith Parry.
Various sizes. 23 items. Provenance uncertain, but perhaps from the papers of F. P. White, Librarian.
MS and TS. Not bound.

-----

Papers relating to the College theological examinations, 1883-1907. Timetables, examiners, lists of entrants, classes and marks are preserved for the years 1883-5, 1887-97, 1899, 1901-2, 1903, 1906 and 1907 (no marks survive for that year). The exam took place in the Lent Term in every year bar 1883, 1906 and 1907, when it was held in early June.
340x210mm. 20 items, mostly bifolia. No record of provenance.
Typescript. Not bound. Commercial ruled paper.

-----

Correspondence and papers of George Udny Yule, Fellow of St John’s College, relating to a bequest in favour of the College made by Hamnet Horace Mayor (1868-1936), of St John’s College, 1908-46 [mostly 1945]. Including a copy of Yule’s paper ‘Closed scholarships at the Universities: an indictment and a plea for reform’.
Mayor bequeathed on 7 Nov. 1929 the remainder of his residuary estate to found scholarships restricted to the sons of men who are Church of England communicants, one scholarship to be available only to sons of professional men. His widow, Catherine, recipient of a life interest in the estate, died in Nov. 1944. The bequest, value in excess of £17,000, was received in May 1946 (CM1825/14). After a Governing Body meeting on 8 June 1945 a committee to consider the administration of the bequest was appointed and draft regulations approved for submission to the Governing Body on 12 July (CM1801/4, 1803/8). In correspondence two Fellows, Hugh Sykes Davies and George Udny Yule opposed, and Percy Winfield supported the acceptance of the bequest, and on 30 July the Governing Body narrowly voted by 10 to 9 to accept. The Council asked for a further report from the committee on 3 Aug. (CM1805/9). The Master reported the Governing Body decision on 5 Oct. 1945 and stated that the Council would make clear that the restrictions in the bequest were imposed by the Testator (CM1806/18).
Various sizes. 63 items. From the papers of George Udny Yule.
MS and TS. Not bound. Paper.

Box 2

John Boys Smith (1901-91), Fellow, Senior Bursar and Master of St John’s College: ‘Customs in the Chapel’, 6 May 1977. Drawing on his memories of the College from the 1910s onwards, and on records of earlier ceremonial, Boys Smith details the customs and traditions that prevailed in the College Chapel.
255x205mm. 6pp. With a letter of the same date from the author to Andrew [Macintosh], then Dean, suggesting that the Library might wish to hold this signed copy.
TS, dated, signed with a few autograph corrections. The letter autograph. Not bound. Paper.

-----

The Field Gate: Correspondence between F. Gordon Roe and John Boys Smith (1901-91), Master of St John’s College, July 1960, concerning the erection of the Field Gate and the carved eagles positioned upon it. The correspondence discusses whether the eagles were carved by the grandfather of Roe, one Robert Roe of King’s Parade, Cambridge (c. 1793-1870). Boys Smith offers some information about the history of the Gate and Roe complements this with information gleaned from stories about his grandfather.
Various sizes. Five letters as follows:
1. Roe to Boys Smith, asking for information regarding the dates of erection of the ‘Eagle’, or Field, Gate, 22 July 1960.
2. Boys Smith to Roe, giving details of the gates and requesting further information on his grandfather’s connection to the carved eagles, 23 July 1960.
3. Roe to Boys Smith, expressing thanks for his letter and supplying more information about Robert Roe, 26 July 1960.
4. Boys Smith to Roe, requesting permission to reproduce an extract from his letter in the Eagle, 27 July 1960.
5. Roe to Boys Smith granting permission to reproduce and offering some clarifications and qualifications, 28 July 1960.

Presented by Boys Smith, Mar. 1963. See accompanying letter from the donor to the Librarian, Guy Lee, 2 Mar. 1963.
Signed TSS. Not bound. Paper.

-----

Correspondence relating to the use of the College Combination Room during the planning for the D-Day landings in 1944, 1966-8. The Combination Room was used for studying a model of the Normandy coast by 30 Corps staff on a breakout session from a secret conference held in Trinity College in preparation for D-Day. The driving forces behind this research were the Master of the College, John Boys Smith, and a Fellow and future Master, the historian Harry Hinsley. See the article by Hinsley in the Eagle 62 (1968), 218-22.
Key letters are reprinted in the Eagle article.
Various sizes. 56 letters and notes as follows:
Covering letter and note, from Boys Smith, to the College Librarian, Guy Lee, 16 July 1968.
Letter from Boys Smith to Hinsley, 17 Oct. 1966, referencing E. A. Benians, ‘The College during the War’, Eagle 52 (1946), 306-9 and expressing a desire to add a fuller account to the College records.
Letter from Hinsley to Boys Smith, 19 Oct. 1966.
Hinsley to Bill Williams, Warden, Rhodes House, 1 Nov. 1966.
Williams to Hinsley, 8 Nov. 1966.
Hinsley to Major-General R. F. K. Belchem, 15 Nov. 1966.
Belchem to Hinsley, 15 Dec. 1966. The letter refers to a telephone exchange of which we have no details.
Hinsley to Boys Smith, 20 Dec. 1966, asking him to contact the Chancellor, Lord Tedder, who may have a recollection of the events.
Letter of thanks from Hinsley to Belchem, 22 Dec. 1966.
Boys Smith to Lord Tedder, 23 Dec. 1966, asking for his recollections of events. No reply received, possibly due to the Chancellor’s ill health.
Hinsley to Professor Michael Howard, 6 Jan. 1967.
June Walker, Howard’s secretary, to Hinsley, 11 Jan. 1967.
Hinsley to L. A. Jackets, 2 Feb. 1967.
Boys Smith to Hinsley, 7 Mar. 1967.
Hinsley to Boys Smith, 9 Mar. 1967.
Boys Smith to A. S. F. Gow of Trinity College, 10 Mar. 1967.
Gow to Boys Smith, 11 Mar. 1967.
Boys Smith to Alan Welford of St John’s College, 13 Mar. 1967.
Welford to Boys Smith, 16 Mar. 1967.
Boys Smith to Gow, 20 Mar. 1967.
Hinsley to Cecil James, MoD Chief of Public Relations, 6 July 1967.
James to Hinsley, 11 July 1967.
Hinsley to James, 13 July 1967.
Jackets to Hinsley, 1 Aug. 1967.
Hinsley to Boys Smith, 3 Aug. 1967.
Hinsley to Jackets, 3 Aug. 1967.
Boys Smith to Hinsley, 4 Aug. 1967.
Boys Smith to C. D. Broad, 4 Aug. 1967.
Broad to Boys Smith, 15 Aug. 1967, enclosing letter from college records:
Lieutenant-General G. C. Bucknall to the Master of Trinity College, 10 June 1944, explaining the success of the plans laid at Trinity.
Boys Smith to Broad, 16 Aug. 1967.
Boys Smith to Broad, 16 Aug. 1967.
Hinsley to Bucknall, 7 Sep. 1967.
Bucknall to Hinsley 15 Sep. 1967.
Note by General G. C. Bucknall on the ‘Briefing’ Conference at Cambridge, Mar. 1944, for Commanders and Staffs of 30 Corps for the invasion of Normandy, 15 Sep. 1967; in both MS and TS.
Hinsley to Bucknall, 22 Sep. 1967.
Hinsley to Boys Smith, 28 Sep. 1967.
Hinsley to Boys Smith, 6 Oct. 1967.
Bucknall to Hinsley, 29 Oct. 1967.
Hinsley to Bucknall, 1 Oct. 1967.
Bucknall to Hinsley, 3 Oct. 1967.
Boys Smith to Hinsley, 12 Oct. 1967.
Hinsley to Boys Smith, 14 Oct. 1967.
Boys Smith to Hinsley, 16 Oct. 1967.
Boys Smith to J. R. G. Bradfield, 7 Dec. 1967.
Bradfield to Boys Smith, 8 Dec. 1967.
Boys Smith to Broad, 31 May 1968.
Boys Smith to Hinsley, 31 May 1968.
Boys Smith to Field Marshal Sir Gerald Templer, 31 May 1968, enclosing a copy of the Eagle for the National Army Museum.
Broad to Boys Smith, 2 June 1968.
Hinsley to Boys Smith, 1 June 1968.
Philip Gaskell, Trinity College Librarian, to Boys Smith, 3 June 1968.
Bucknall to Hinsley, 4 June 1968.
Templer to Boys Smith, 11 June 1968.

MS and TS, Not bound. Paper.

-----

Cambridge University OTC, MA or ‘Dons’’ Platoon: lists of names, shooting scores, signalling exercises and attendance, July and Aug. 1915.
100x230 and 175x110mm. 2 items. Presented by William Lawrence Balls (1882-1960), former Fellow and later Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, to the Librarian Charles Previté Orton, 22 Sep. 1933 (see accompanying TS letter). Both Balls and the Librarian had been members of the Platoon.
MS and TS. Not bound. Paper, some lists written on either side of an envelope possibly used at one time to hold the other slip. Envelope much worn.

-----

Latin declamations and Greek themes set in St John’s College, 1809-14, apparently by Robert Hazell Newell (1778-1852), Fellow and Dean of St John’s College, ?Deputy Praelector in 1809, and others. With names of students, occasional comments noting thanks and good performance, and the declamation prizewinners identified.
220x125mm. 16 fos. Found among the papers of Miles Bland.
MS in several hands. A plain paper booklet, sewn, with grey paper covers.

-----

John Boys Smith (1901-91), Senior Bursar and subsequently Master of St John’s College: ‘The College Council, 2000th Meeting’, a paper originally dated 28 Oct. 1952, prepared for members of the Council and subsequently circulated to the Governing Body on 17 Nov. It includes the minutes of the first meeting of the Council on 30 May 1882.
330x205mm. 3pp. No record of accession.
TS. Not bound. Plain paper.

-----

Margaret Taylor, née Dillon (1877-1962), widow of Charles Taylor, Master of St John’s College from 1881 to 1908: notes on ‘St John’s [Master’s] Lodge’ written on 15 Oct. 1961 at the instigation of the then Master, John Boys Smith, after she stayed the night in College following a dinner in Hall on 5 Oct.
230x180mm. 7 fos. Presented by Dr Boys Smith, 1 Jan. 1962, as in his accompanying letter to the Librarian of that date.
Autograph, with notes by Boys Smith. Not bound. Blue notepaper.

-----

Keeble (1914) Ltd, of London W1: ‘Report on the old chimneypiece at 3 Sussums Yard, Cambridge’, 21 Feb. 1919. The chimneypiece, dated 1594, was installed in the Combination Room. The report describes it as ‘a very good specimen of that period, the carving and inlay being much finer than is usual’.
330x205mm. 2pp. No record of accession.
TS (carbon copy). Not bound. Carbon paper.

-----

P. J. Drury, Chelmsford Excavation Committee: a report on the ‘Chimneypiece in Master’s Lodge, St John’s College’, 10 Jan. 1980. Mr Drury discounts the theory that the chimneypiece came from Audley End. Held with a letter from a former Master, John Boys Smith, to the then Master, Harry Hinsley, 22 Jan. 1980, trying to reconcile the report with the old tradition that it debunks.
295x210mm. 2pp. No record of accession.
TS, signed (copy). Not bound. Paper.

-----

Papers relating to the duties of the Praelector, 1931-5. An artificial collection of photocopies from SJCA, C15.12-14. Consisting of C. W. Guillebaud (corr. J. S. Boys Smith), ‘Memorandum on the duties of the Praelector’, 1929-31; Boys Smith, ‘Memorandum on the duties of the Praelector’, 19 May 1931; F. P. White, ‘Memorandum on the duties of the Praelector’, 8 Aug. 1935, which consolidates and redrafts the responsibilities after the College Council agreed in June 1931 to a measure of clerical support from the Office.
295x210mm. 14+5+16pp. Former envelope inscribed ‘Given by F. P. White … Aug. 1961’. According to an MS annotation the papers were photocopied on 14 June 1996, and were presumably in the Library after that date.
Copy of TS with MS additions and amendments. Not bound. Paper.

-----

Leave of absence granted to Ensign FitzJames of the 93rd Regiment of Foot from 1 to 14 September 1832 ‘to enable him to receive a reply to the application he has made thro’ his commanding officer for an extension of Leave of Absence’, 31 Aug. 1832. The document is addressed to Fitzjames at St John’s College, Cambridge. The form is signed by the Adjutant General Sir John Macdonald (d. 1850) while the signature on the envelope is that of Richard Cannon (1779-1865), Clerk at the Horse Guards and a well-known regimental historian (for both see ODNB). A James John Fitzjames, perhaps a cousin or brother of the officer, was admitted to St John’s in 1828 and later pursued a career as a barrister.
320x205mm (unfolded). Presented by Mrs Hilary Hinsley, wife of the future Master of the College Sir Harry Hinsley, 1967. With letters to Mrs Hinsley from Guy Lee, Librarian of the College, and Michael Maclagan, Trinity College, Oxford, 20 and 26 June 1966.

-----

Correspondence of Guy Lee, Librarian of St John’s College, consisting of letters from Mrs Eileen Jay, Lt-Col G. E. Braithwaite, and John Boys Smith, Master of the College, concerning the status and future of Hawkshead Grammar School Library, July and Aug. 1968. The School was founded by Edwin Sandys, Archbishop of York and a Johnian, in 1585, and had many College associations.
Various sizes. 9 letters; 14 sheets. Presumably placed in the Collection by Mr Lee.
Ms and TS. Not bound. Commercial notepaper and typing paper.

-----

Surrender by John Harrison of Roxton, grocer, to Thomas Wells of Shefford, woollen draper, of land held of St John’s College in Blunham Manor, Bedfordshire, 3 Apr. 1745. Thomas Bromsall and Joseph Farr, two customary tenants, receive the lands in trust. Bromsall may be the eighteenth-century archaeologist and Library benefactor (Eagle 49 (1937), 142).
330x210mm. A bifolium. With a letter from David Low, Booksellers, London WC2, 25 June 1942, presenting the document to the College.
MS extract from manorial court roll. Not bound. Paper with duty stamp, slightly torn at folds.

-----

[?Augustus William George Moore], of St John’s College (1841-97): Poster advertising an ‘unreserved sale’ in H19 New Court in aid of the Lancashire Distress Fund, 22 Nov. 1862. Moore occupied these rooms from Easter Term 1861 to Easter Term 1863. A 6d admission fee and all proceeds were pledged to the Fund. The ‘distress’ was caused by a depression in the cotton industry prompted in part by the Civil War in the United States.
285x195mm. Single sheet. Presented by Walter Harris, of St John’s College (1865-1954), May 1943.
MS in black and red ink, carefully written. Reinforced plain paper sheet.
St John’s College Fellowship examination, 1862: an interview schedule for twenty-two candidates, who sat papers set by the Master and Seniors between 25 and 28 Apr. No marks are recorded. Nine of the candidates were elected to Fellowships on 9 May 1862 (Eagle 3 (1863), 180-1).
680x510mm. Single sheet. An endorsement notes that this document was found in the Chapel, Jan. 1942.
MS. Plain paper.

-----

‘The Combination Room Intelligencer’ and other humorous writings by and relating to the Fellowship of St John’s, c. 1887-90: those mentioned include H. S. Foxwell; Donald Macalister; Robert Forsyth Scott, Senior Bursar; J. E. B. Mayor; and W. E. Heitland, Junior Bursar. Topics vary, but include the ever-present turkey for Hall dinner, litter in the Courts, and a ‘Steward’s Song’ after W. S. Gilbert.
285x225mm (mostly). 19 fos, including two blank. From the papers of Robert Forsyth Scott, Master of the College, transferred to the Library after his death in 1933.
MS. Three sheets stitched, the others loose folded. Plain paper, apart from one contribution written on the back of a printed notice from the Junior Bursar, 1887.

-----

A College Ghost Story: transcript by Sir Robert Forsyth Scott (1849-1933), Master of St John’s College, of correspondence in the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1778, 1783 and 1801. The story, as told in several contemporary letters, details a visitation of Geoffrey Shaw (1657/8-1706), incumbent at Souldern, Oxfordshire, by the ghost of John Naylor (1656/7-1701). Both were Johnians. In the course of their long conversation, Naylor accurately predicts Shaw’s imminent death.
265x205mm. 16 fos. Found among the papers of F. P. White, Fellow and formerly Librarian of St John’s College, 1969.
In Scott’s hand. Not bound. Plain paper formerly pinned top left.

-----

College Examination mark-books: two gatherings of raw marks for College examinations held in [no date], June 1812 and Dec. 1814. The subjects, set for all three undergraduate years, include Theology (Butler, Paley, Beausobre), Classics (Horace, Juvenal, Tacitus), and Mathematics (Euclid, Mechanics, Newton, Hydrostatics and Optics, Ratios and Trigonometry).
225x145mm. as bound. 4+4+4 fos. ‘J. Lee, Colworth’ (name inside cover). Presented to the Library by William Emerton Heitland, Fellow and Tutor of the College, 1889 (bookplate). Formerly shelved as Aa.2.147.
Three paper books bound together within rudimentary marbled boards and with a ribbon marker. Inscribed along spine ‘St John’s College Examination. Cambridge’. Somewhat worn and damaged at spine.

-----

Original MS Score and Lyrics of the College Boating Song: ‘Mater regum Margareta / Piscatori dixit laeta …’, for solo baritone or semi-chorus, 1895. Words by T. R. Glover, music by G. M. Garrett, both Fellows of the College. For the Song’s early adoption as a May Concert staple see Eagle 19 (1897), 636. With two printed copies, titled ‘St John’s College Song’.
Various sizes. The MSS presented by Mrs E. E. Sikes, wife of the President, and C. B. Rootham, Fellow of the College, 1931. One of the printed versions presented by L. P. Wilkinson, of King’s College, Feb. 1974. James 606.
Autograph and printed sheets. Paper. Not bound. The original lyrics very fragile.

-----

Artificial collection of College and other bills issued to Members of St John’s College, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
1. ‘Mr Silk His Bill’ for board, lodging, porterage, sedge butting, milk and other commodities, all totalling £2 9s, to [?the College] naming various individuals in respect of lodging, among these George Hopkins, John Townsend, David Scotcher, and John Inwin, 15 July 1704. Found by workmen when cleaning out the rubbish from the space between wall and wooden roof of the Upper Library, Apr. 1925.
2. Bill for twelve bottles of ale, cost six shillings, issued by Samuel Forlow (?) to ‘Mr Young’ [perhaps Walter Yonge, adm. 1748]. With signed receipt of full payment, 28 Mar. 1751. Found under the floorboards of the top set, H Second Court, during reconstruction, 1934.
3. Bill for haircuts, toothbrushes, tooth powder and other essentials, cost twelve shillings, issued by George Mutton, College Perfumer, to J[ames] Midgley (1832-1922) of St John’s College, 27 Jan. 1858. Settlement is somewhat overdue, as Mutton tactfully notes.
4. Cook’s bill for the week ending 13 Oct. 1865, totalling 3s 7d, issued to ‘Sandys’, i.e. John Edwin Sandys (1844-1922), later Fellow of St John’s College. Found in a volume from Sandys’ library.

Various sizes. Four items. Provenance as above.
Not bound. Paper. Two printed forms.