6. Administration: Dean of Divinity, Organist, and Fellow Librarian
This section lists the records of the Chapel and the Library and their officers, but does not include records relating to the fabric.
6.1 DEAN OF DIVINITY AND CHAPEL
The holder of this post has to be in Holy Orders and is usually now the only Fellow in Holy Orders. Waynflete's statutes provided for a Dean of Divinity who should have charge of the study of theology. By c. 1860 the duty of providing academic guidance for theological students had largely fallen into abeyance and the Dean instead was associated with the general direction of Chapel services and the discipline of the Clerks and Choristers, since the Chaplains and Organists were not Fellows and members of the governing body. This function was officially recognised in the 1926 statutes. The Dean of Divinity was also closely associated with the College School in Oxford, the College Mission, and the presentment of candidates to College livings or benefices. He was assisted in the conduct of Chapel services by the Chaplains.
Until 1889 the office of Dean of Divinity was held in rotation for one or two years, but it has since become a longer, specific appointment: the 1946 Bylaws provided for appointments of five years, which may be followed by a further five years, but not more.
The Dean's responsibilities included ordering the Chapel services, selecting preachers for the sermons on St Mark's Day and St John the Baptist's day, and the selection and discipline of the Choristers and Clerks.
Many aspects of the history of the Chapel and the Choir are discussed in L. W. B. Brockliss (ed.), Magdalen College Oxford: A History (Oxford, 2008). On the ceremony of preaching in the stone pulpit in St. John's Quadrangle, see Robin Darwall-Smith, 'The Stone Pulpit and the St. John's Day Sermon', Magdalen College Record 2003, 104-12.
Note on Organists, Clerks, Chaplains and Choristers:
The Organist & Informator Choristarum was never a Fellow of the College until the appointment of Bernard Rose in 1957, and therefore some classes of record now generated by the Organist are to be found with the Dean of Divinity's papers for the period covered by this Guide. See Section 6.1.4, however, for records concerning the Organists and Chapel music. In practice, the origin of Chapel records is not easy to determine. Similarly, Chaplains, Choristers and Clerks were not members in the modern sense, although they were on the foundation. Some records of Clerks and Chaplains are found among the Dean of Divinity's archives, and Bloxam's biographical Register, vol II (1857) covers Clerks to 1855, Chaplains to 1856 and Organists to 1845. Bloxam's Register, vol I (1853) covers the Choristers to 1853.
See also: Section 10.3 for Chapel buildings and furnishings. For Chapel sacrist's indentures with the President see Section 5.2.5.
* Note on Dean's Prayers
For Dean's Prayers see also section 4 of this chapter, on the Deans of Arts. Attendance at Chapel was compulsory for a time, although not statutory. Macray's scrapbook (MS 827) has a printed notice that from 1869 undergraduates must attend prayers at 9.30 a.m., and he notes that he remembered when there were choral prayers for Fellows at 10 a.m. and spoken prayers for Demies and Gentleman Commoners at 7 a.m. in summer and at 8 a.m. in winter. By 1924 members in their first two years were obliged to attend either Dean's Prayers or roll call, and members of the Church of England were expected to attend Chapel at least once every Sunday [1924 printed Regulations and Information for Junior members: TB/106/1]. But note that 'Deans' Prayers' referred originally to prayers where the Senior or Junior Dean of Arts officiated. The Deans of Arts were all ordained clergy until Warren became Dean in 1885. Thereafter it became permissible, and eventually customary, for the Dean of Divinity to be asked to take Dean's Prayers. The 1926 Bylaws specified the taking of Dean's Prayers on weekdays and of Mattins on Sundays among the Dean's duties.
A collection of papers from the Dean's office was transferred in the 1980s. The collection has now been catalogued as part of DD. Records of the College Schools and the Magdalen Mission are not listed here in detail: see Section 15. For minutes and reports of the Chapel and Choir Committee, the Livings Committee, and the Schools Committee see Section 4.2.2.
What follows here are records which have not been catalogued in the DD collection.
Inventories
CP/2/38 Inventory of goods in the Chapel (and other parts of the College) (1659-87)
The Choir
The choir consisted of sixteen boy Choristers and eight Clerks, who could be either Lay Clerks or Academical Clerks. Lay Clerks were part of the choir until at least 1950.
Choristers: general records
D-Y 40- Deeds re a benefaction of £45 p.a. for the Choristers, charged on properties in Wilts. (1665)
PR30/1/C2/14 Letters re Choristers elected 1809-55 (19th cent.)
P330 (passim) Hansell papers re L. S. Tuckwell (1913)
MS 1006 Printed article on life of a Chorister etc in the mid-19th cent. (1938)
Photographs
MS 761 Chaplains, Choristers and Clerks (19th cent.)
MS 827 (ii) Chaplains, Organist, Choristers and Clerks (1869)
Chapel services
CP/2/63 Committee on chapel services (1869)
OR1/MS1/4 The Magdalen Psalter, 4th edn printed (n.d.)
Note: For a ts catalogue of the former choir library by M. B. Czepiel (unpublished ts, 1991) see NL/50/1-3. See also Francis Knights, 'The choral foundation of Magdalen College, Oxford: a bibliography', unpublished ts (1989) (Acc 2018/67A).
Bells and bellringers
PR31/1/MS1/2 Notes on bells and bell founders (19th cent.)
MS 704 Testimonials and corr. re bellringers (1892-1916)
PRC/3/10 Presidential correspondence, 1950-1978
6.2 ORGANIST AND INFORMATOR CHORISTARUM
6.2.1 GENERAL
As noted in Section 6.1.2, the Organist was neither a Fellow nor a designated College Officer until 1957. This section is a guide to documents relating to the Organists as individuals, and to their printed and ms music. Reference codes for documents already listed among the records of the Dean of Divinity are not repeated here.
Bloxam's biographical Register, vol II (1857) covers Organists to the year 1845. A list of Organists up to the present day is available in the archives room. For a commentary on P. V. M. Benecke's ms reminiscences of Stainer, Parratt and J. V. Roberts (MS 407) see Francis Knights, 'Three Magdalen organists', The Organ, vol 68, no. 269 (July 1989), 137-45.
Among recent articles on the Chapel organs see those by John Harper,i.e. 'The organ of Magdalen College, Oxford', The Musical Times CXVII (May-June 1986), 293-6, 351-3, and 'The Dallam organ in Magdalen College, Oxford: a new account of the Milton organ', Jnl. British Inst. of Organ Studies,IX, 1985) [proof copy in archives]; also his unpublished article, 'The historic organ at Stanford-on-Avon' (1992), available in the search room. On the May Morning ceremonies and their history see Roy Judge, 'May Morning and Magdalen College, Oxford', Folklore, vol. 97:1 (1986), 15-40.
A useful ms list of documents relating to music and musicians in College was made by Francis Knights (1989) (see Acc2018/67A). NL/50/1-3 is a ts 'Catalogue of the former Chapel Library' (1991).
Most material relating to the Organist is catalogued under OR. What follows here are records which are not listed there.
6.2.2 ORGANISTS
F33/2/MS2/2 Includes P. V. M. Benecke's remarks on J. V. Roberts, Walter Parratt and John Stainer (20th cent.)
PR20/MS1/1 Incl. appt of Francis Piggott as Organist, and dismissal of Dr Benjamin Rogers (1680s)
MS 684/16 Letter from Visitor re the expulsion of Dr Benjamin Rogers (1686)
[for Dr Rogers see also Section 6.2.6]
MS 700 Pen sketch of Dr J. V. Roberts, in 'Isis idols' series (c. 1893-7)
MS 1038 Corr. and biographical material re J. V. Roberts (20th cent.)
MS 1066 Fragment of a letter to H. C. Stewart while a schoolboy at MCS (1881)
F61 Papers, mainly music manuscripts, of Bernard Rose (O. 1957-81)
6.2.3 ORGAN
MS 800 Note on sale of organ, p. 28 (1685)
FA14/3/1F/24 Papers re the repair of the organ (1696)
FA14/3/1F/20 Papers re the organ house (n.d. [17th cent.])
MS 684/19 Papers re the Swarbrick organ (1736)
FA5/3/1AD/7 Design for organ loft and case, James Wyatt (1792)
FA5/8/2L/1 Account for work on the organ (c. 1802-3)
In PR30/1/MS4/1 President Routh's inscription for the new organ screen (1837)
FA5/8/4C/1 Corr. re organ (1858)
FA5/8/2P/1 Profile of organ [Buckler?] (1854)
FA5/9/4P/1-2 Photographs of Gray & Davidson (19c) organ (20th cent.)
F.X, p.27 Photograph of Magdalen College organ case now at Stanford-on-Avon (20th cent.)
6.2.4 MUSIC
P213 Copy of Hymnus Eucharisticus, by Benjamin Rogers [original c. 1665-86]
MS 626-628 Cantatas by J. V. Roberts (n.d. [c. 1881-1919])
Note: There is also music in some of the collections of fragments from paste-downs: see MSS 265-267 and Neil Ker, Pastedowns in Oxford bindings, (Oxford: Oxford Bibiographical Society, 1954), p. 274. See also music in bindings of MS 279 (16th century statutes) and EL/8 (Ledger H).
6.2.5 CHAPEL SERVICES
MS 1003 Service to commemorate Walter Parratt (1941)
6.2.6 MAY MORNING
P213 Copy of Hymnus Eucharisticus, by Benjamin Rogers [original c. 1665-86]
P281 (all) Papers of William Black, antiquary on, inter alia, Dr Benjamin Rogers, the Maudelyne grace and Hymnus Eucharisticus (19th cent.)
MS 642 Collected corr., notes, pamphlets, cards, photograph and music re May Morning (19th-20th cents.)
MS 827(i) Poems, pamphlets, newscuttings etc. (19th cent.)
MS 357 Bloxam's collection on the Hymnus Eucharisticus (19th cent.)
PRC/3/7 Presidential correspondence, 1958-1975
6.2.7 CHRISTMAS EVE
On Magdalen's Christmas eve celebrations, see Robin Darwall-Smith, 'Magdalen and the Rediscovery of Christmas', Magdalen College Record 2001, pp. 92-102.
P433 Programme (1927)
6.2.8 CONCERTS
MS 827 (Inter alia) concert programmes (19th cent.)
P433 Programmes, Singing in Cloisters (1936-7)
6.3 FELLOW LIBRARIAN
6.3.1 GENERAL
The office of Fellow Librarian was not statutory until 1926, but Magdalen was the first college to pay a Fellow to take charge of the Library and the first to have a regular budget for buying books on publication. Waynflete made careful provision for the archives (deeds, statutes, royal charters, bursars' rolls) in his statutes, but he seems to have taken it for granted that there would be a Library and he himself gave 800 books for its stock. Until the mid-nineteenth century, entrance to the muniment tower was restricted to the President and senior Fellows acting together, but other records were kept in the manuscript room of the Library, and the Librarian gradually assumed responsibility for the archives in general.
Paul Morgan has summarised the holdings in Oxford Libraries Outside the Bodleian: A Guide (Oxford: Oxford Bibliographical Society and the Bodleian Library, 1974), pp. 64-8; Morgan also lists relevant publications and articles by Coolidge, Driver, Ker, Myres, Strickland Gibson. The Magdalen College entries in Henry Coxe's Catalogus Codicum MSS qui in Collegiis Aulisque Oxoniensibus Hodie Observantur (Oxford: University Press, 1852), have not yet been superseded. For the archives see Will. Dunn Macray, Notes from the Muniments of St Mary Magdalen College, oxford, from the Twelfth to the Seventeenth Century (Oxford: Parker and Co., 1882), and his appendixes to the 4th and 8th HMC Reports. For poems discovered in College estate papers see Bernard O'Donoghue and Christopher Woolgar, 'Three early fifteenth-century poems at Magdalen College, Oxford', Notes and Queries XXVII (Dec. 1980), 497-500, and C. M. Woolgar and B. O'Donoghue, 'Recently discovered lyrics: two middle English poems at Magdalen College, Oxford', Medium Aevum, LII.2 (1983), 217-21. Other publications by C. M. Woolgar are cited in Section 12. Researchers should contact the Fellow Librarian for further references to published and unpublished works.
On aspects of the College Library, see also Christine Ferdinand, 'Magdalen College and the Book Trade: the Provision of Books in Oxford, 1450-1550', Magdalen College Record 1998, pp.86-97, Christine Ferdinand, 'Magdalen College Library in the Fifteenth Century', Magdalen College Record 2002, pp. 116-18, and Christine Ferdinand, 'The Mystery of Cookery and the Art of Wheedling: What Magdalen Undergraduates read in the Eighteenth Century', Magdalen College Record 2006, pp. 127-36. See also relevant sections in L. W. B. Brockliss (ed.), Magdalen College Oxford: A History (Oxford, 2008).
A collection of library records dating from 1671, formerly housed in the Librarian's study, was transferred to the archives in the early 1980s and listed with the reference code NL/. A classified list is available in the search room. Other records may be found in the MS and CS miscellaneous collections, together with papers of former Librarians. For the fabric of the library see Section 10, and for minutes of the Library Committee see Section 4.2.2.
6.3.2 LIBRARIAN
There is a list of Fellow Librarians 1611-1920 in the search room, compiled by R. T. Günther, which has been expanded to add names from the sixteenth century and 1920-92. This list is still in progress, but the names up to 1882 are all retrievable from the Libri Computi or annual account books: see Section 8 for these. From 1883 onwards the Fellow Librarians are listed with other College Officers.
(a) Lists of Librarians
NL/13 List of Librarians (incomplete) (1611-1920)
(b) Librarian's Reports and papers
NL/8/a Volume incl. library reports (1880-92)
NL/8/b Ditto (1880-1909)
NL/14 Vol. of ms Librarian's reports (1920-3)
NL/15 Vol. of ts Librarian's reports (1923-55**)**
NL/12 [Librarian's] printed memorandum on improvements needed for the Library and its holdings (1920)
NL/77 File of papers of R. T. Günther's papers as Librarian (1920-3)
6.3.3 LIBRARY RECORDS
(a) Accessions and Benefactions
MS 777 Library benefactors' book (1626-1711)
MS 776 Catalogus Librorum Manuscriptorum in Bibliotheca Magdalensis (n.d. [? from 17th cent.])
MS 728 Benefactors' Book (general) includes library benefactions (1663-1739)
D-Y 152 Will and probate of John Fitzwilliam (1696-9)
CS/38/5-6 Papers re library benefactions (17th-18th cents)
MS 514/9 West's benefaction (1753)
F35/MS1/1 & F35/MS2/5
Letters to R. T. Günther re the John Longland bequest (died 1547) and notes on Throckmorton (n.d. and 1922)
F23/C1 Librarian's corr.: subjects include the White gift of copy portraits and Bloxam's proposed gift of James II mss (1841-89)
MS 845 Corr. and papers concerning MS Gr. 17 (papyrus of St Matthew's gospel), incl. letter from donor (5 Dec 1901)
NL/13 Volume titled 'Books, gifts and acquisitions'
(a) retrospective (c. 1458-1909)
(b) accessions (1920-33)
NL/16 Register of accessions (1925-44)
(b) Accounts
CS/38/5/6 Memorandum re 'old books sold out of the library' (n.d. [17th cent.])
NL/1 Guard book, gathering of bills for books and library items such as globes (1671-1821)
NL/2 Book bills and receipts (1850-87)
NL/3 Accounts and corr. (1863-80)
NL/4 Four volumes of Library accounts (1865-1928)
NL/21 Accounts etc re Gerrans Library (1932-53)
(c) Correspondence
F23/C1 Librarian's corr (7 letters) (1841-89)
NL/1 Correspondence (inter alia) (1800-42)
NL/2 Correspondence ditto (1863-80)
NL/7 Correspondence ditto (1880-1909)
Nl/11 Correspondence ditto (1910)
NL/9 Librarian's correspondence (1881-c. 1902)
NL/19 Bundles of correspondence (c. 1930s-50s)
NL/26 2 files of unsorted corr. [mainly 20th cent.]
NL/21 Corr. etc re Gerrans Library (1932-53)
(d) Catalogues, indexes and related papers
MS 776 Catalogue of mss (n.d. [from 17th cent.])
CS/38/5/8 Part of a library catalogue: theology, A-C (damaged by damp) (n.d. [c. 18th cent.])
MS 816 Bloxam's catalogue of books written or edited by Magdalen members, with some biographical memoirs (1851)
NL/35 Index Codicum MSS [Coxe?] (1866)
NL/34 Volume titled 'Exhibits in the Library' incl. notes on provenance (n.d. [20th cent.])
NL/3 Includes appointment of Mr Mcfarlane to make a catalogue of the Library (1855)
NL/5 (inter alia) Inter-collegiate scheme for cataloguing early printed books (n.d. [late 19th/early 20th cent.])
NL/11/a Corr. and memo re the inter-collegiate scheme for early printed books (1910)
NL/11/b Dr Aitken's slips for the scheme (n.d. [c. 1910])
(e) Borrowers' registers
NL/22/b Borrowers' register (1939-46)
NL/22/a Borrowers' register (Gerrans Library) (1935-47)
(f) Suggestions books and desiderati
NL/10 Bloxam's volume listing books by Magdalen authors and editors, not yet in the Library (1859-62)
NL/20/a Suggestions book (1931-48)
NL/37 Suggestions book for undergraduates' classical Library [early 20th cent.]
(g) Lists of books (see also under 'Stray items'
NL/5 (Inter alia) n.d. [late 19th/early 20th cent.]
NL/8 Incl. with Library reports (2 vols) (1880-1919)
NL/9 List of works by Magd. authors not then in college Library (1859-62, with additions to 1924)
NL/13 Volume with list of gifts and acquisitions from the foundation to 1933 (1920-33)
NL/34 Volume titled 'Exhibits in the Library' with notes on books and mss and how obtained (n.d. [20th cent.])
NL/40/6 Notebook labelled 'Turris 1-81' (n.d. [20th cent.])
(h) Staff
NL/5 (inter alia) Library rules; duties of library assistant (n.d. [late 19th/early 20th cent.])
(i) Miscellanea
EP/219/5 Sacrist's indenture, 1522, is endorsed with list of books purchased (1524)
CS/38/5/7 Memorandum re library keys and regulations for the security of the Library (n.d. [c. 17th cent.])
CS/39/2 Memoranda re books (inter alia) (18th cent.)
CP/2/63 Reports on the Library (1860s-70s)
NL/34 Volume titled 'Exhibits in the Library', with notes on some books and mss and their provenance (n.d. [20th cent.])
NL/36 Librarian's memoranda book with notes on Librarians from 1550, payments to them, and book bequests of the 15th and 16th cents. (N.d. [20th cent.])
6.3.4 ARCHIVES
(a) General
The Founder's statutes were quite specific as to the essential need for protection of the College 'evidences, muniments and other writings'. Waynflete's instructions extended not only to the muniments or title deeds, which protected the source of most of the College's income, but also named the statutes, the Bursar's (account) rolls and the manorial rolls. Locked chests and desks were to be provided in the Muniment Tower, and the Governing body must guard against the 'over-ready and hasty' display of them.
Until the appointment of a professional archivist in 1977, the muniments and certain other classes of official archives were in the care of the Fellow Librarian (who still has overall responsibility). Other classes, notably accounts and estate records, were in the care of the Bursars. Early records of the archives from these two sources consist mainly of documents recording use of the archives, obsolete lists of documents and reports on the archives. Some are listed in Woolgar, 'Catalogue of Estate Records', 219, 252-7. See Macray's contributions to
the 4th and 8th HMC Reports for the medieval muniments, and see also Macray, Notes from the Muniments.
Records of the archives are now catalogued as NLA/. Items are also scattered through the older collections.
(b) Transfer of archives
EL/1 Register A: second leaf of table of contents includes notes on transmission of 'evidences' in the time of the Founder (15th cent.)
(c) Use of the archives
FA23/1/2F/1-2 Volume of building accounts also includes notes of accounts and deeds taken out of the [muniment] tower (c. 1550-60) (formerly CP/2/67)
CP/2/23 Register of documents removed from and returned to the Muniment Tower (1663-1893)
(d) Reports on the archives
EP/232/4 Report by W. D. Macray (4 Feb 1868)
EP/237/5 Report by W. D. Macray (18 Jan 1872)
MS 825 Macray's annotated copy of his Notes from the Muniments, with loose papers incl. two reports to Bursar from Macray concerning his work in cataloguing the muniments (Calendar of deeds) (1877-78)
P233/2/MS5/4 Vol. of R. T. Günther's papers includes report of Library Committee proposing that a room in Founders Tower should be made into a manuscript room and muniment room (1920)
CS/32 Ts Report of Archives Committee, recommending deposit of muniments in Bodleian Library and commissioning of ts version of Macray's Calendar of Deeds (7 Dec 1933)
CMR/4/15 Report on H. M. Walton's cataloguing of Bursary deeds, by N. Denholm-Young (1936)
(e) Lists of archives
See Woolgar, 'Catalogue' pp. xxxix-xlv
Adds. 96 Fols 1-6 list contents of six sacks of documents (c. 1480)
Fols 7-10 list contents of 'Flemish boxes (1481)
Fols 11-12 list contents of bags of records and rolls (c. 1480s)
Adds 96a Parchment note listing the keyholders of locks to to the doors and chests in the Muniment tower, n.d. (Found during conservation work on the College's medieval deeds, 2013) (later 17th cent.?)
CP/3/31 Volume titled 'Index to deeds and writings in the Tower', i.e. the 'Old Catalogue' of muniments (c. 1610)
CP/1/41 Bursary Book, listing maps and plans of College estates, alphabetically, with dates and name of surveyor (1790)
(f) Correspondence
EP/246/17 General correspondence of W. D. Macray (c. 1880-82)
EP/239/7 Letter from W. D. Macray respecting the taking of casts from the seals among the muniments (3 Dec 1873)
PRC/13/1 and 19/1 Archivist's correspondence, 1984-1994
Note: see Acta, 1 Feb 1883, no.13, for the fire-proofing of the Muniment Tower.