15. Associated institutions
15.1 MAGDALEN HALL
15.1.1 GENERAL
The first Magdalen Hall was founded by William Waynflete ten years before Magdalen College, and was sited in the High Street. This foundation was suppressed when with Magdalen College was founded in 1458. For deeds relating to this institution see Misc. 372 (1448), Misc. 407/1-2 (1450), Misc. 436 (1454) and Misc. 208 (1455).
A second institution of the same name developed out of the grammar school in the sixteenth century. The buildings occupied part of the College site, fronting onto the Gravel Walk which led into the College, and forming part of the Grammar Hall complex of buildings, which were extended in 1518. The site was separated from Magdalen College by a wall. This Magdalen Hall was one of the many halls of residence that grew up in Oxford, originally in this case for boarding pupils of the grammar school. Later it became an academic institution in its own right. The earliest Principals were Fellows of Magdalen, and the Hall was treated as a type of charitable institution, paying a low rent of 40 shillings. The Hall flourished and at one time had 300 members, far more than the College. Its Principal, Fellows and members were quite separate from those of Magdalen College by 1694, when a dispute arose as to whether Magdalen College had the right to appoint the Principal. The College lost the case and it was decided that the Chancellor of the University had the right of appointment, and that the low quit-rent should be perpetuated.
As Magdalen College expanded it began to covet increasingly the site that was occupied by Magdalen Hall, and in order to regain control President Routh planned to move Magdalen Hall to another site. To this end he managed to acquire from the Crown a grant of the land and buildings in Catte Street escheated from Hertford College; these were transferred to Magdalen Hall by Act of Parliament in 1816. Magdalen College bore all the expenses of the removal of Magdalen Hall to the new site, including the provision of new buildings. The removal took place in 1822, two years after a fire destroyed most of the Magdalen Hall buildings on the High Street site. The College was then able to expand westwards, although it was not until 1879 that plans were adopted for St Swithuns quadrangle, which now occupies the former site of Magdalen Hall. Magdalen Hall merged in 1874 with the revived Hart Hall to form Hertford College.
The archives of Magdalen College do not contain any records of members of Magdalen Hall: these records probably perished in the 1820 fire. There are, however, a number of documents which record transactions or disputes between the two foundations. Hertford College holds records of Magdalen Hall from 1847 until the merger of 1874, and the names of earlier members can be obtained from Foster's Alumni Oxonienses.
There are concise accounts of Magdalen Hall and Hertford College in Christopher Hibbert and Edward Hibbert, eds, The Encyclopaedia of Oxford (London: Macmillan, 1988). For published engravings of Magdalen Hall see Williams, Oxonia Depicta, plate lxiv and Loggan, Oxonia Illustrata; also H. M. Petter, The Oxford Almanacks (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974). The relationship between Magdalen Hall and Magdalen College is also explored in L. W. B. Brockliss (ed.), Magdalen College Oxford: A History (Oxford, 2008).
15.1.2 THE DISPUTE BETWEEN MAGDALEN COLLEGE AND MAGDALEN HALL, 1693/4
This dispute arose because Magdalen College reclaimed the right (waived in 1681) to appoint the Principal of Magdalen Hall, on the grounds that they were owners of the site, receiving rent for the premises, and also that all the early Principals had been Fellows of Magdalen. The Laudian Statutes of 1636, however, had given to the Chancellor of the University the right to appoint the principals of all halls of residence within the University. The College elected one of the Fellows as Principal and installed him in the Principal's Lodgings, in opposition to the Chancellor's nominee. A suit in the court of Common Pleas ensued. Since the College had assented to the Laudian statutes without reservation, and were unable to prove that they had ever nominated a Principal, and since the rent received was only a small quit-rent, the case was won by the Chancellor.
P376/MS1/1 'An enquiry into the original state and nature of Halls in the University of Oxford and the right of nomination or presentation to their Principality. From the most ancient records and registers belonging to them. With a particular respect to Magdalen Hall and the right of nomination or presentation to its "Headship"'. (Ms vol., 202pp., mainly extracts from University registers, 1434-1694) (n.d. [c. 1693/4])
PR30/2/MS1/5 'The Case of Magdalen College with respect to the Hall adjoining (upon the death of the Principal, Dr Leverett in) 1693' (Ms vol., 33 pp.) (n.d. [c. 1693/4])
MS 759 & MS 780 Copies of Magd Coll statutes contain also 'The proceedings about Magdalen Hall upon the death of Dr Leverett' (1693/4)
P305 (passim) Papers of Robert Almont, Fellow, Rector of Appleton, Berks. (now Oxon.) 1696-1709, who was Bursar in 1694, incl. documents concerning this dispute (1666, 1687-96)
15.1.3 THE REMOVAL OF MAGDALEN HALL TO CATTE STREET SITE
See FA10 for papers and plans relating to this.
15.1.4 PRINTS AND DRAWINGS OF MAGDALEN HALL
See also several watercolours and other depictions at FA10
FA1/7/5P/1 Agas's engraving of the Oxford colleges also shows Magdalen Hall/Grammar School (1728 re-engraving of 1578 original)
FA1/7/2P/15 Re-engraving of Almanack engraving of Magdalen Hall (1749) by J. Skelton (1820)
FA1/9/2P/2, fol. 5; FA1/7/4P/3
'The remains of old Magdalen hall' engr. F. Mackenzie (publ. 1841)
P233/2/MS2/7 Images of Magdalen Hall on fols. 28, 30 and 31
15.1.5 MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS OF MAGDALEN HALL AND ITS MEMBERS
Note: The University Archives are the main source of information on members of Magdalen Hall until 1847, after which date see Hertford College archives.
MS 367, nos.54-74 Letters to Dr John Wilkinson, Principal of Magdalen Hall, from his cousin George Clay (1624-5). [See Woolgar: some listed as Letters series]
MS 808 J. R. Bloxam's memoranda includes list of students of St Mary Magdalen Hall in 1552 (19th cent.)
MS 814 Bloxam's notes from the University matriculation registers include a list of admissions to Magdalen Hall, 1650-60 (19th cent.)
F35/MS1/1 & F35/MS2/5
Miscellanea including letter to R. T. Günther concerning John Longland, Fellow of Magdalen, 1496-1505, Principal of Magdalen Hall 1505-7, Bishop of Lincoln 1521-47, and his bequest of books to Magd. Coll. Library (1922)
FA14/1/2C/1-14 Letters and sketch plan re the provision of a new boghouse for Magdalen Hall so that the former site could be taken into the New Buildings site (1724-34 and n.d.)
P233/2/MS5/10 List of Magd Coll and Magd Hall men in the DNB, compiled by R. T. Günther (n.d. [c. 1920s])
15.2 COLLEGE SCHOOLS
15.2.1 GENERAL
William Waynflete, who had been Provost of Eton, had the foresight to endow two grammar schools, which were intended to supply a succession of educated students who would then continue their studies at Magdalen. The original statutes referred to 'the Grammar School which is built and situate hard by our College' [i.e. Magdalen College School, Oxford], and added that 'We have built and founded, out of the Goods by God bestowed upon Us, another Grammar School in the Town of Waynflete… in the Diocese of Lincoln, which is to last (with God's blessing) throughout all future times…'. A third school, at Brackley in Northamptonshire, was founded in c. 1548. The Oxford school had a special relationship with the College in that it provided 16 chapel choristers. These choristers, and the master of the school, were on the foundation of the College. Magdalen College also gave financial help to many church schools in parishes associated with the College.
The College archives hold a collection of papers (ref. MCS/) relating to the college schools and the parish schools, which was probably assembled partly from documents found in the Bursary and in the Lodgings, and partly from papers deposited by governors and clerks to governors. These have been divided into five sections, relating to Brackley, Oxford, Wainfleet, mixed records of the three grammar schools and parish or charity schools associated with the College.
The relationships between Magdalen College and the three Magdalen College Schools are further discussed in various places in L. W. B. Brockliss (ed.), Magdalen College Oxford: A History (Oxford, 2008).
15.2.2 MAGDALEN COLLEGE SCHOOL, BRACKLEY
For an account of Magdalen College School, Brackley, see Eric G. Forrester, A History of Magdalen College School, Brackley, Northamptonshire, 1548-1949 (Buckingham: Magdalen College, 1950). Forrester gives a list of ms and printed sources: College archives to 1914 were used. The School was probably founded in 1548 by conversion of an existing chantry building, in gratitude for hospitality during a two-year migration of the College and its Oxford School to Brackley during an outbreak of plague. The former Hospital of SS. James and John at Brackley was one of the historic properties of the College, appropriated to the College in c. 1485.
The College's account books and order books were searched by Forrester, but he found little information on the activities of the school between 1600 and 1850; references are chiefly to the school buildings, notably the chapel. The School itself may have lapsed during the eighteenth century until 1787, when the 'old school house' or former chantry priest's chamber, was demolished and replaced by a new building near another school building shown on a map of 1760. From this point the School was in being again as a Free School, although probably lacking teaching in classical subjects.
A re-organisation took place in 1860 at the request of local inhabitants, and from this date the College took a greater interest in the School, which now operated as a grammar school, although the brightest boys were given exhibitions to the College School at Oxford. The appointment of Isaac Wodhams as Headmaster, in 1882, was almost like a re-founding of the School, and the next 17 years were years of steady improvement, which was maintained in the twentieth century. However, The College began to make approaches to the County Council for financial help as early as 1905, and secured regular grants in return for seats on the governing body. In 1949 the College decided that it could not maintain financial responsibility for the School, which then became a voluntary controlled grammar school of Northamptonshire County Council, retaining the name of Magdalen College School.
(a) Summary of MCS/B/1-13 (shelf list)
MCS/B/1 Photocopies of items from the EP/ (estate papers) series (1485-1586)
MCS/B/2/1-43 Correspondence (1851-9 and n.d.)
MCS/B/2/44-50 Reports, copies of minutes, subscription list (1855-8 and n.d.)
MCS/B/2/51-2 Draft resolutions (n.d. [1850s])
MCS/B/2/54 Printed prospectus (n.d. [1850s])
MCS/B/2/55-7 Reports (1854, 1856)
MCS/B/3/1 Subscription list (n.d. [c. 1856])
MCS/B/3/2 Draft report (1857)
MCS/B/3-16 Applications for admission (1913-19 and n.d.)
MCS/B/3/17 Copies of corr. & minutes (1853-6)
MCS/B/3/18-20 Reports of College Schools Cttee (1901, 1921)
MCS/B/3/21-25 Corr. & papers re a proposal to transfer control of the School to Northants. County Council (1925)
MCS/B/3/26-29 Inspectors' Reports (1907-31)
MCS/B/3/30 Curriculum time-analysis (n.d. [20th cent.])
MCS/B/3/31-44 Correspondence (1857, 1881-2, 1896, 1904-5, 1909, 1918, 1920-1, 1926)
MCS/B/3/45 Note of School liabilities (1912)
MCS/B/3/46 Declaration by headmaster (1930)
MCS/B/3/47-52 Prospectuses (c. 1871-c. 1939)
MCS/B/3/53-6 Published papers (c. 1894-7)
MCS/B/3/57 Newscuttings (1870)
MCS/B/3/58-63 Photographs (n.d. [c. 1880-1900])
MCS/B/4/1-2 Correspondence (1858)
MCS/B/5/1 Headmaster's report (1895)
MCS/B/5/2 Photograph album (1895)
MCS/B/6/1-3 Leases (1887-1900)
MCS/B/7/1-12 Corr with R. F. Ashwin, Headmaster (1910-13)
MCS/B/8/1 Sketch plan of School (n.d. [20th cent.])
MCS/B/8/2-3 Accounts files (1936-47)
MCS/B/8/4 Committee file (1941-6)
MCS/B/8/5-11 Correspondence files (1934-47)
MCS/B/8/12 Reports file (1944-6)
MCS/B/8/13 Staff corr file (1940-4)
MCS/B/9 Inventory & valuation (1939)
MCS/B/10/1-22 Magazine, The Brackleian (1942-73)
[MCS/B/11/1-27 post-1945 records]
MCS/B/11/28 Corr. (2 letters) (1943)
MCS/B/12/1-13 Architectural drawings: plans & elevations of additional buildings [c. 1903]
[MCS/B/13/2-3: post-1945 records]
PR33/2/2C/1 President's file on the School (1930-4)
(b) Brackley documents in College estate papers
EP/243/6 Bundle of correspondence (1879)
EP/75/45, 51, 54-5 Accounts, inventories relating to Brackley School (1485-1586)
[see MCS/B/1 for photocopies]
EP/240/3 Books bought for Brackley School (1867)
EP/240/3 Repairs to Brackley School (£116..10..8) (1867)
EP/234/12 Books bought for Brackley School (1870)
EP/230/11 Payment to Brackley examiner (1871)
EP/237/13 Brackley school repairs (£105..17..7) (1871)
EP/252/1 Brackley repairs (2 bills total c. £98) (1874)
EP/243/6 Bundle of mixed corr. (1879)
(c) Additional architectural plans and topographical drawings
MS 655,III, p.139 Pencil sketch of Brackley School, JB' [John Buckler] (1824)
MP/1/121 Plan of alterations to MCS Brackley by Wm Hawkins, builder, with specification and corr. with Land Commissioners (1886)
E/2/12 Two sheets of architectural drawings: ground plan with proposed additions, plan of upper floor, elevations. Unsigned (n.d.)
(d) Other sources for MCS Brackley
MS 805 J. R. Bloxam's ms 'Register'(memoranda book), includes a list of the contents of the schoolmaster's house at Brackley, 1577 (19th cent.)
PH/P/192 Photograph of a Buckler sketch of Brackley School (early 19th cent.)
MS 905/iv Documents relating to the Sheppard bequests include accounts of exhibitions at the Brackley School (1848-82)
CP/9/7 Minutes of School Buildings Committee re Brackley (1895)
15.2.3 MAGDALEN COLLEGE SCHOOL, OXFORD
The College School at Oxford differed from most medieval grammar schools in that it was, until at least 1703, a department of the College with no separate legal existence or endowment. The statutes provided for the perpetual maintenance of the school, under the guardianship of the College Visitor, the Bishop of Winchester. The College Register states that building began outside the College gates in August 1480, but from c. 1478 students were being taught grammar by a Master and Usher, and from Easter 1480 this took place 'in a certain low hall to the south of the Chapel in the old building' (i.e. the High St Range, later an almshouse: see Wilson, Magdalen College, App. B). All that survives of the first purpose-built Grammar Hall consists of the bell turret and northern end of the Schoolroom, and some additions of 1614. A hall of residence known as Magdalen Hall later grew up around and above the School. At first, Demies and Commoners of the College attended the School as well as the sons of townsmen and noblemen. Magdalen College School produced some of the best grammar masters of the 16th century, who were pioneers of Latin textbook teaching.
The 16 Choristers on the foundation of the College are now educated at the College School, but in the time of the founder they received their elementary education in the Song School, from the Informator Choristarum. The Song School was built in 1487. Pupils would progress to the grammar school when they were sufficiently advanced. Under Edward VI there was an attempt to suppress the school but the Mayor and Council, as well as the President and Fellows, successfully petitioned against the closure.
Part of the Grammar Hall survived the fire that largely destroyed Magdalen Hall in 1820 but in 1843 the College decided to build a new school on the land east of Longwall and in 1849 a large house, 58 High St, was bought for a boarding house to replace the boarders' lodgings in Longwall and Holywell. See Section 10.3.6 for the building of the new schoolroom. The schoolroom designed by J. C. Buckler was completed in 1851 and in the 1850s another boarding house was added on the corner of High St and Longwall, as well as a chapel, dining-hall and kitchen on the school site. The laboratory was built in 1863. Numbers grew from 18 to 91 by 1865, of which 63 were boarders. A new boarding house beyond Magdalen Bridge was completed by 1894 and in 1928 the School moved off the College site to new class rooms in Cowley Place and Iffley Road, when the College reclaimed the Longwall schoolroom for a new library. The School received a Board of Education grant from 1920 and became a direct grant school after World War II. In 1976 it became an independent school. The College is represented on the governing body.
The standard history of the School is R. S. Stanier's Magdalen School: A History of Magdalen College School, Oxford (Oxford: Clarendon Press for the Oxford Historical Society, New Series 3, 1940), but for the early history of the School see now Nicholas Orme, Education in Early Tudor England: Magdalen College Oxford and Its School 1480-1540 (Magdalen Occasional Papers 4 [1998]).
Two volumes of Bloxam's Register are devoted to the College School, i.e. vol. 1, …The Choristers (1853), and vol. 3, The Instructors in Grammar (1863). The latter volume has the names of Choristers, 1853-63 (p. 307)and of pupils, exclusive of Choristers, for 1846-63, pp. 294-306. The annual series of College accounts can be searched for names of Choristers, Masters and Ushers from 1863-83.
(a) Summary of MCS/O/1-32 shelf list
MCS/O/1/1-3 Registers of applications (1862-79)
MCS/O/2 Letter on relationship between School and College (1875)
MCS/O/3 Builder's account (1879)
MCS/O/4 Newscuttings re 400th anniversary (1880)
MCS/O/5 Headmaster's corr (1880-2)
MCS/O/6-7 Leases (1884, 1888)
MCS/O/8 Notebooks re science teaching (1889-1918)
MCS/O/9 Caricature (n. d. [c. 1871-8])
MCS/O/10/1-2 Registers of entries for choristerships (1904-30)
MCS/O/11 Newscuttings: court hearing (1910)
MCS/O/12 Administrative file (1912-28 and n.d.)
MCS/O/13 Administrative papers re applications for choristerships (1914-31)
[MCS/O/14-17: post-1945 records]
MCS/O/18 Schools Committee papers (1911-28)
MCS/O/19 Misc papers:
/1 Papers re examinations & exhibitions (1854)
/2-3 copies of school register (1877, 1879)
/4 Report of School Committee (1912)
/5 Inspectors' report (1913)
/6 Case & opinion (1938)
/7 Memorandum on future of school (1938)
/8-9 Order of service, Commemoration (1941, 1944)
/10 Report of Secondary Schools Association of England (1910)
MCS/O/20 School song, Sicut Lilium (1854)
MCS/O/21-2 Letters from Bp of Winchester, as Visitor, re modernisation of School (1849)
FA17/2/1AD/1 Architectural plans and specification by J. M. Derick/Derrick [not adopted] (1845)
MCS/O/24 Memoranda & accounts, Greene exhibitions for choristers (1841-1914)
MCS/O/25 Letter re dispute between Headmaster & Usher (1843)
MCS/O/26-7 Papers re Chancery case, Attorney General v Magd Coll., re College's responsibility for school (1844-5)
[with copies of docs from 1458]
FA17/3/1L/2-11 Agreement, corr. & papers re building of new schoolroom, designed by J. C. Buckler (1849-52)
MCS/O/29 Admin. & corr. files (1931-43)
[MCS/O/30-32: post-1945 records]
(b) Other sources for MCS Oxford
Masters:
LCE/1-178 College account books of expenditure, with names of master, usher, choristers and payments for repairs etc (1481-1883)
CS/40/15/1 Draft letter to Lord Compton re candidacy of Sr Browne, as school usher (n.d. [c. 1600])
Buildings:
P233/2/MS2/7, p.29 Engraving, unsigned, of Old Grammar Hall (n.d. [19th cent.])
B/14/46/1-2 Photographs of 19th cent. engraving showing Grammar Hall when used as the College school (20th cent. copy)
FA16/1/1C/1 Letters from Joseph Parkinson, College Architect, on the current state of the Grammar Hall buildings, following the fire 1825-7
P233/2/MS2/7, p.32 Illustration from The Builder, of the old Grammar Hall (1850)
CMM/1/4 College orders regarding the competition to design a new school building, choice of Derrick and premiums to the runners-up, Thomas Allom and A. W. N. Pugin. (1844-5)
[Note: this scheme came to nothing and the College reverted to an earlier design by Buckler]
FA17/3/1AD/1-6 New School hall, designed by J. C. Buckler [now New Library, Magdalen College] (c. 1850)
EMD/13/3/17 R. & J. Castle & College: contract for building schoolroom in Oxford (1849)
EP/230-252 Regular payments for School rates, stipends, repairs, coals. [Woolgar's catalogue indicates those bundles of vouchers which include schools payments.] (1867-74)
See especially:
EP/230/11 Payments to architect and builders for new classroom, corridor and fives court [total cost £1310.2..7] (1871)
CP/9/7 Minutes of School Buildings Committee (1891-2)
CP/9/26 Minutes of School Buildings Committee (1892-3)
LMR/34 Draft articles of agreement with Messrs. Benfield & Loxley, builders and contractors, for new boarding house in Cowley Place designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield (1893)
FA17/4/1AD/1 Plans (not adopted) for new school buildings, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (1927)
Miscellaneous:
MS 844 Collection of epitaphs includes John Smith, Usher ([1717] )
PR30/1/C2/14 Letters re Choristers elected 1809-55
F21/MS1/1 J. E. Millard's 'A History of his own times' (1840)
Adds.86 Documents relating to a Chancery case brought by George Hester Parsons against the College over MCS Oxford (1845)
MS 660/1 'Letters and papers from Roundell Palmer respecting the School and College' (1847-61)
MS 905/iv Documents relating to the Sheppard bequests include accounts of exhibitions at the Oxford School (1848-82)
MS 444 Bound volume of letters. Material concerning Magd. Coll. School including gifts of books, notes on school personnel and buildings (1860s)
MS 805 Bloxam's 19th cent 'Register', a memoranda book, includes [later] loose newscuttings commemorating the 400th anniversary of the School (1880)
CP/2/63 Ref. to report on discipline and management of the School (1881)
CR/1/5 Photograph album of Harold Robertshaw, Chorister 1920-26 (1920s-1960s) (see also PRC/7/9 presidential correspondence re Robertshaw Fund, 1988)
MS 1005 Printed article from the Oxford Magazine with an account of life at MCS Oxford and as a Chorister, and later as an undergraduate 1834-49 [L. S Tuckwell] (1938)
PRC/23, 4-5 Presidential correspondence re appointment of masters and ushers, 1966-1977
15.2.4 MAGDALEN COLLEGE SCHOOL, WAINFLEET
The earliest surviving Lincolnshire receipt roll in the College archives shows that a paid schoolmaster was in post at Wainfleet by 1466/7, and it is possible that the School was established soon after the foundation of the College in 1458. William Waynflete was thus a major benefactor to his Lincolnshire birthplace. The magnificent brick School was built in 1484 of fenland brick with green-glazed headers in diaper patters. Boarders were accepted from the mid-17th century.
Many of the early schoolmasters were absentee rectors of All Saints, Wainfleet, and the teaching was carried out by a succession of curates, at least one of whom was more interested in cock-fighting than in education. In 1752 a new phase began with the appointment of Richard Pickburn as master; he was not only a dedicated teacher but a knowledgeable antiquarian, and his correspondence with the College and with Richard Chandler, Waynflete's biographer, provides much information on the history of the School and its buildings. Among his sucessors, William Holbrook (1856-71) and William Gerrish (1877-1923) were notable, and the School prospered as a rural day school for boys and (under Gerrish) for girls, where some Latin was taught but where the elementary subjects were more greatly valued. Wainfleet however was a town in decline, the harbour having long ago silted up, whereas the growth of nearby Skegness made it the obvious choice for a new secondary school. Wainfleet school closed in 1933, although it was revived from 1951-66 as a secondary modern school. The building is now used as a public library and town museum.
For a history of the School based on the Magdalen College archives see B. Parry-Jones, Five Hundred Years of Magdalen College School, Wainfleet, 1484-1984 (Grimsby: Wainfleet and District Heritage Society, n.y., [1984]). There is also material on the School in Chandler's Life of William Waynflete.
(a) Summary of MCS/W box list
MCS/W/1/1-40 Letters and petitions (1611-1856)
MCS/W/2/1-29 Bills and receipts (1649-76, 1711 and n.d.)
MCS/W/3/1-34 Corr. and papers (1856-7)
MCS/W/3/35-90 Corr. and papers (1892-1923)
MCS/W/3/91-119 Corr. and papers (1923-8)
MCS/W/3/120-2 Newscuttings (1883, & c. 1924-5)
MCS/W/3/123-6 Administrative papers (n.d. [19th-20th cents])
MCS/W/3/127 Sketch map of All Saints parish (n.d. [19th cent.])
MCS/W/4-5 Engraving, photographs and postcards (1785 & 20th cent.)
MCS/W/6 President's file on School closure (1931-6)
(b) Other sources for MCS Wainfleet
MS 655, III,129 Pencil sketch of Wainfleet Schoolroom 'JB' [?Buckler] (1828)
MS 655,III,117 Pencil sketch, SE view of School exterior (1820, traced 1849)
F.XII,49 Photographs of School interior (20th cent.)
EP/234/12 Expenditure on prizes, repairs etc. (1870); Stipend of master and repairs (1871)
EP/237/13 Stipend (1872)
EP 232/14 Bundle of correspondence (1880)
PR30/1/MS1/3 Routh papers relating to Waynflete include papers re Wainfleet School on pp.82-9 (1811-33)
MP/3/21 Proposed entrance gateway (1856)
CP/2/63 College committee report on MCS Wainfleet (1877)
MP/3/22 Plan of schoolroom and ground floor (1907)
B/4/24 Photograph of an account roll of 1466/7, relating to MCS Wainfleet schoolmaster [photographed 1984]
B/14/9 Photograph of pencil drawing of Wainfleet School interior by J. C. Buckler, 1828 [copy made ?1984]
B/9/11/1-23 Negatives of photographs used as illustrations for Brenda Parry-Jones' history of Magdalen College School, Wainfleet [copies made c. 1983]
PRC/23/6 Presidential correspondence, general, 1930-1967
15.2.5 COMBINED RECORDS OF THE THREE GRAMMAR SCHOOLS
(a) Summary of MCS/M box list
MCS/M/1 Printed reports for the three College Schools (1904, 1911)
MCS/M/2 Accounts for the three Schools (1931-41)
MSC/M/3 President's general files on the Schools (1932-44)
MCS/M/4 File on the future of the College Schools (1936-8)
(and 1946, 1970, the latter on restricted access)
(b) Other sources for all three Schools:
Macray's Register includes many extracts from the accounts and orders, relating to the College Schools: see index in vol.8.
MS 655 Bloxam's collections on the Presidents, 1448-1885 (3 vols) (19th cent.)
MS 905 (iv) Sheppard account book, re exhibitions at MCS Brackley & Oxford (1848-82)
CMM/1/1-12 Order Books of the College meeting (1708-1945)
CMM/4/1-8 Indexes to Orders (1708-1945)
SCCM/1/1-5 Minutes of Schools/School committee (1876-1946)
PR/2/1-22 Presidents' Notebooks (indexed) (1857-1974)
15.2.6 PARISH AND CHARITY SCHOOLS
Magdalen College gave, or was asked to give financial assistance to a number of schools in parishes connected with the College. This help was often in the form of an annual subscription of two or three guineas (see EP/ vouchers, listed below). Help might also be given with building or extending National Schools. Larger sums of £10-£50 were sometimes contributed, for instance to 13 schools in 1872: see EP/238/1. The largest sum recorded was to Brackley National Schools in 1870 (£150: see EP/234/12). Payments were made by Order of the governing body and can be traced through the Orders or Acta in CMM/.
These schools included:
Berkshire: Appleton, Aston Tirrold, Cothill, Denchworth, Dry Sandford, East Ilsley, Harwell, Shillingford
Buckinghamshire: Beaconsfield, Princes Risborough, Thornborough
Dorset: Shillingstone
Essex: Stanway
Gloucestershire: Bishop's Cleeve, Quinton
Hampshire: Andover, Colden Common, East Meon, Kings Enham, Kings Somborne, Lyeway/Ropley, Otterborne, Petersfield, Ropley, Selborne, West Tisted, Winchester
Kent: Old Romney, New Romney
Lincolnshire: Burgh, Candlesby, Horsington, Metheringham, Saltfleetby, North Somercotes, Swaby, Wainfleet
London: St John's School, Clapton
Norfolk: Beighton, Belton, Fritton, Titchwell
Northamptonshire: Croughton, Evenley, Helmdon, Syresham, Whitfield
Nottinghamshire: East Bridgford
Oxfordshire: Benson, Bloxam, Chalgrove, Charlton, Chinnor, Ewelme, Garsington, Headington Quarry, Marston, Northmoor, Nuffield, Oxford City (St Ebbe's, St Peter's in the East), South Newington, Standlake, Swerford, Wootton
Suffolk: Bradwell, Lowestoft
Surrey: Wandsworth Common
Sussex: Ashington, Findon, Old Shoreham, New Shoreham, Southwick, Washington, Westham, West Grinstead, West Tisted
Warwickshire: Barcheston, Tysoe
Wiltshire: Fittleton. Hilmarton, Wanborough
(a) Summary of MCS/PC box list
MCS/PC/1 Printed notice relating to a charity school for poor girls within the City
of Oxford, inc. rules, subscribers, accounts (1791)
MCS/PC/2 Volume containing replies to a questionnaire relating to the needs of parish schools in places where Magdalen College was a landowner (1851-4)
MCS/PC/3 Correspondence and reports concerning schools in parishes with a Magdalen connection (1880-1)
(b) Other sources for parish and charity schools
EP/230-243 Bundles of payment vouchers, some with receipts from parish or charity schools (see Woolgar, 'Catalogue', for references) (1865-76)
D-Y 444 Payments made to Theale and Tilehurst schools (n.d. [post-1871])
CP/2/63 Report of Schools committee on the Tilehurst and Theale schools' endowment (1878)
15.3 DAUBENY LABORATORY
15.3.1 GENERAL
The Daubeny Laboratory was built in 1848 at the instigation of Dr Charles Giles Bridle Daubeny (Demy 1810, Fellow 1815, Professor of Chemistry 1822, Sherardian Professor of Botany 1834, Professor of Rural Economy 1840.) By an Order of 12 Nov 1847 the College granted him leave to build a lecture room on ground adjoining the Physic (Botanic) Garden. The completed two-storey building consisted of two lecture rooms, a study, and galleries for geological, chemical and mineralogical specimens. A telescope building was added in 1856 to house the Cooke telescope. The Daubeny Laboratory activities reflected a renaissance of interest in the natural sciences at Magdalen and in the University, thanks largely to Dr Daubeny.
The standard works of reference are R. T. Günther, History of the Daubeny Laboratory, Magdalen College, Oxford (London: Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press Warehouse, 1904) and his The Daubeny Laboratory Register, 2 vols: 1904-15 and 1916-23 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, for subscribers, 1916, 1924). In the archives (MS 392/B/1) there is a copy of the anonymously listed Catalogue of the philosophical apparatus, minerals, geological specimens etc in the possession of Dr Daubeney, praelector of natural philosophy in Magdalen College and now deposited in the building contiguous to the Botanic gardens, belonging to that society (Oxford: James Wright, 1861). Relevant theses include A. P. Willsher, 'Daubeny and the development of the Chemistry School in Oxford 1822-67', bachelor's dissertation for submitted for part II of O.U. Chemistry B.A., 1961 and N. I. Miller, 'Chemistry for gentlemen: Charles Daubeny and the role of a chemical education at Oxford, 1800-1867' bachelor's dissertation submitted for part II of O.U. Chemistry B.A., 1986.
See also Roger Hutchins, 'Charles Daubeny (1765-1867): the bicentenary of Magdalen's first modern scientist', Magdalen College Record (1995), 81-92.
15.3.2 PLANS
FA19/2/1AD/1 Sketch plan of Daubeny Laboratory, by R. T. Günther (Fellow 1894-1927) (c. 1890s)
FA19/2/2AD/1 Plans of additions by A. Mardon Mowbray (1902)
FA19/2/1AD/2-4 Plan and elevations of Daubeny Laboratory and telescope building by R. T. Günther (n.d. [c. 1897-1928])
15.3.3 APPARATUS
DL1/A1/1 Accounts for purchases of apparatus by Edward Chapman, lecturer. (1867-90)
With copy of letter relating to purchase of the Dolland telescope by Joseph Cox (1836)
VP6/A1/1 File on Daubeny Collection and fund (1932, 1950-1)
15.3.4 REPORTS AND MEMORANDA
MS 1075/6 Chapman's prints report on Daubeny Lab (1870)
CP/9/60/41 Printed letter by R. T. Günther re the Daubeny Laboratory and the teaching of physical chemistry (1900)
CP/9/63/5 Memorandum for College Meeting by R. T. Günther, concerning accommodation for scientific study and specimens (1926)
CP/9/71 Ts memorandum to College Meeting re Daubeny Lecture Room and proposed conversion to a research laboratory, with note on the Botanic Garden and its buildings (1932)
See also
VP6/A1/1 & VP6/A2/1
Vice-president's files on Daubeny Laboratory and Botanic garden (1932, 1950-1)
15.3.5 LECTURES AND STUDENTS
DL1/MS1/2 Lists of persons attending lectures (1855-67)
P320/MS2/5 Laboratory register (1869-94)
DL1/MS1/1, 6-7 & 13 Lecture register (1874-83)
DL1/MS1/3-4 & 9 Registers of students attending lectures of Edward Chapman, tutor. 3 vols (1867-94)
DL1/MS4/1-2 Question papers for college examinations in Natural Sciences (1850s-60s)
F27/1/MS4/1-3 Students; science essays. 3 vols (c. 1878-1906)
F27/1/MS2/1-2 Chapman's lecture notes on chemistry and physiology (1862-87)
P233/3/C1/3 Chapman's reports on pupils (1867-94)
DL1/MS1/8 & 10-12, DL1/MS2/2, & DL1/MS3/1
Records of and re Dr J. J. Manley (1863-1946), curator (c. 1888-1922 and 1946)
See also
F22/P1/1 Letters to R. T. Günther concerning the Laboratory and the publication of the Register (1916-17)
CP/9/71 Memorandum on the Daubeny Lecture Room re proposed conversion to a research laboratory (1932)
MS 9/63/6 Corr. of A. E. Günther with Dr C. A. Cooke, Bursar, concerning a proposed volume on Günther and the Daubeny Laboratory, with extract from draft text (1963-4)
FA19/3/1MS/1-4 Printed brochure re the proposed new building to be designed by Oliver Hill (not executed) (1946). On this proposal, see too Robin Darwall-Smith, 'Another Magdalen Might-have-been', Magdalen College Record 2001, 124-7.
VP6/A1/1 Vice-President's file on Daubeny collection (from 1936).
See also section 14, Personal Papers (Daubeny, Günther, Chapman)
15.4 MAGDALEN COLLEGE MISSION
15.4.1 GENERAL
The Magdalen College Mission was an outcome of the growing social awareness of undergraduates in the later years of the 19th century. It belongs to the same era as the Oxford House settlement and the Boys Club movement.
The Mission had three distinct phases and locations. In the first phase the Mission was based in the East End of London. In 1884 it was attached to St Martin's Mission, Stepney, but this attachment was shortlived: from 1886-96 the Mission was associated with the parish of Holy Trinity, Shoreditch. In 1896 the Mission was relocated in Portsea, Hants, where an old member and former Dean of Divinity, Cosmo Lang (later Archbishop of Canterbury) was Vicar; there it remained until 1908. There was a feeling in Oxford, however, that contact could be better maintained between the Mission and the undergraduates and Oxford ladies who wanted to take an active interest in its doings, if it were sited once more in London. In 1908, therefore, the Mission moved again, this time to its final home in the parish of St Mary's, Seymour Street, Somers Town, in the Euston-St Pancras district of N.W. London. Here it flourished, especially in the 1920s, when Basil Jellicoe, Missioner and a Magdalen graduate, did so much to raise the standard of housing in cooperation with the St Pancras Housing Trust. The Mission continued until 1940, when active College involvement with Somers Town was suspended after the outbreak of World War II. In 1948 the work was revived in a different form as the Magdalen College Club, with a lay Warden and executive and management committees appointed by the Magdalen College Trust. This phase came to an end in 1969 when the Greater London Council took possession of the site. The Trust funds are now applied to various charitable causes at home and abroad; the Club premises in Euston have been demolished.
Some of the surviving Mission records have been listed among the Presidential papers in the miscellaneous, CS series. Others may be found among the records of the Dean of Divinity (DD series), whose reponsibility was through the College's Mission Committee. The Magdalen College Trust records (mainly post-1945) are catalogued as MT/ and MS 792. Photographs are listed separately. Records include minutes, annual reports, accounts, correspondence, and printed historical papers. There are many gaps in the records and the following list gives only an indication of span-dates.
A short history of the Mission to the start of World War II can be found in Janie Cottis, 'The Magdalen Mission, 1884-1940' Magdalen College Record (1994), 68-75. See also Malcolm J. Holmes, Somers Town, A Record of Change ([n.p.: London Borough of Camden, Libraries and Arts Department, corrected repr., 1989) and Michael Sparrow, One Hundred Not Out: A Century of Work at St Faith's Mission, Landport (Portsea: Parish of St Mary, 1979).
15.4.2 LONDON, STEPNEY AND SHOREDITCH, 1884-1896
DD/30 Minutes of Committee meetings, Magdalen House, Stepney and Shoreditch (1884-98)
CS/6/2 Bundle of 22 miscellaneous papers including accounts, correspondence, leasing memorandum, printed papers (1884-1916 and n.d.)
B/1/75 Photograph of Fr Dolling of St Martin's Mission (n.d. [19th cent.])
15.4.3 PORTSEA, 1896-1908
For the activities of the Magdalen Mission and Institute in Portsea see the relevant chapter in Michael Sparrow's pamphlet, One hundred not out, a century of work at St Faith's Mission, Landport' 52pp (1980) [archives copy ref. MS 901]
CS/6/3 Annual report (1900)
DD/12 Account book of Magdalen College House (1896-1902)
DD/29/1-2 Vouchers for Mission Account (1900-1)
DD/29/3 Corr. concerning the College's responsibilities towards the Magdalen Institute, Portsea (1903-6)
DD/47/2 Photocopy of annual report (1902)
DD/47/3 Photocopy, printed order of service for the laying of the foundation stone, the Magdalen Institute (Apr 29 1903)
DD/47/4 Photocopy, Portsea parish church magazine (Apr 1903)
[See also under Somers Town, below]
15.4.4 LONDON: SOMERSTOWN, EUSTON 1909-40
Activities in London were suspended during World War II and revived in 1948. The latter period does not come within the scope of this Guide.
CS/6/4 Copies of constitution as adopted by a General College Meeting in 1909, with related papers to 1923 (1909-23)
MT/1 Minute books of Mission AGMs held in Oxford (1909-40)
CS/6/1 Minute books, Somers Town, 2 vols (1912-14, 1919-25, 1936-9)
DD/11 Minute Book of Magd Coll Mission Committee (1898-1921)
CS/6/5 Annual reports (21) (1909-38)
DD/29/4 Corr re the re-founding of the Magdalen Mission in Somers Town, N.W. London (1906-8)
CS/6/6 Balance sheets and accounts (7) (1921-7)
DD/29/6 Letter (1914)
CS/6/7 President Gordon's file of correspondence and papers re the Mission (c. 1929-40)
DD/29/12 Bundle of corr. and papers incl. letter from Cosmo Lang (1906-41)
CS/6/9 Bundle of miscellaneous printed papers (25), including souvenirs of the visit of HRH the Prince of Wales in 1926 (1892-1933)
CF/2/32 Photographs (22) of Mission House activities (c. 1925)
[damaged by damp]
PH/P/398-9, 403 Photographs of Basil Jellicoe, Missioner (c. 1922-7)
15.4.5 RECORDS OF THE MISSION IN LONDON AND PORTSEA, 1898-1940
DD/11 Minute book of the Magd. Coll. Mission Committee (1898-1921)
DD/29/11 Bundle of reports, Portsea and Somers Town Missions (1896-1910)
DD/5/1-10 Printed and ms papers re the Mission (c. 1884-1903)
DD/29/7-9 Mission bank pass books (1901-17)
CS/6/8 Lady Warren's file concerning the 50th anniversary of the Mission, 1933. Includes corr with Cosmo Lang, copy of the Jubilee Sermon, copy of the Magdalen College Mission News, July 1933, with a short article by Lady Warren on the history of the Mission (1933)
DD/29/5 Loose printed papers (1892-1940)
DD/29/10 Mission carol book (n.d.)
15.4.6 RELATED PAPERS
CS/6/10 Papers relating to the St Pancras Housing Improvement Society (1926-54)
CS/6/11 Annual report of the Magdalene (Cambridge) Club (1924)
15.5 MAGDALEN ALMSHOUSE
15.5.1 GENERAL
For two hundred years after the foundation of the College the charitable aims of the former Hospital of St John the Baptist were sustained by relief given to the poor and destitute in the domus pauperum, or almshouse, a vaulted chamber west of the Tower with a chapel above it. Charges for the house for the poor are listed in the accounts for 1481 and charges for burials occur in the accounts of 1506-8. The exterior of the building can be seen in a seventeenth-century painting of the south front of the College. John Claymond, President 1507-16 and formerly Master of the Hospital of St Cross at Winchester, provided four beds for the alsmhouse and about 6s..8d a year for their maintenance (or else for the poor, or for the prisoners in Oxford Castle). Money was also distributed at the College gate on certain feasts, through the benefactions of Ingledew and Preston. The College paid the Keeper £3 per annum and provided furniture when necessary. By 1596, however, the chamber was acknowledged to be so moist, damp and unwholesome in winter that it was sometimes unusable. Wilson states that in 1665 the Visitor directed that the almshouse should be converted into chambers for members of the College. See Wilson, History, pp. 12, 265-6; Will. Dunn Macray, Notes from the Muniments of St Mary Magdalen College, Oxford (Oxford and London: Parker and Co., 1882), pp. 82-6.
15.5.2 RECORDS
Misc. 375 'Certayne advertisements and informationes geven by the President and Seniores of Magdalen College concerninge the Hospitall of St Jhones.' (1596)
See also the Libri Computi or annual accounts (LCE/).
15.6 BROMLEY COLLEGE
15.6.1 GENERAL
Bromley College was endowed by John Warner (Demy 1599, Fellow 1605-10), Bishop of Rochester. By his will dated 16 July 1666, Bishop Warner left £8,500 to build an almshouse near Rochester Cathedral and £450 p.a. out of lands in Lincolnshire to support 20 clergy widows and provide a chaplain to minister to them. The Chaplain was to be elected from the members of Magdalen College. As no convenient site was found in Rochester, permission was obtained to build at Bromley, where the original quadrangle was finished by 1673. Other benefactors contributed to the enlargement of the College, among them Mrs Sophia Sheppard, sister of President Routh, who in 1840 endowed Sheppard College, an adjunct providing five houses for the orphaned daughters of the widows. The College accepted a non-binding responsibility to contribute to Bromley College out of the Sheppard Fund. Over a period of 270 years, Magdalen provided the College with 20 chaplains, but in the 20th century the chaplaincy ceased to attract Magdalen applicants. See also Edward Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, vol.1, (Canterbury: W. Bristow, 1797), pp. 562-66.
15.6.2 RECORDS
PR30/1/C3/7 Letters and poems by Thomas Scott, Chaplain 1821-46 (1821-46 and 1855)
MS 676 Notes by the Revd P. J. Thompson, Dean of Divinity, on the connection between Magdalen and Bromley College, with list of chaplains 1675-1943 and list of trustees, 1945 (1945)
MS 905 (iv) Sheppard Account Book (1848-82)
MS 905 (v) Photograph of commemorative plaque to Mrs Sheppard (1980)
15.7 BOTANIC GARDEN
15.7.1 GENERAL
Magdalen College is the owner of the site of the Physic Garden (from 1840 renamed the Botanic Garden), founded in 1621 when Henry Danvers, Lord Danby bought out the tenant of 5 acres of meadow and arranged that the University should lease the land from the College. The level of the land was raised to prevent flooding and the wall and gate erected in 1632-3. The maintenance of a Professor and a gardener were also provided for. C. G. B. Daubeny, Fellow of Magdalen and Sherardian Professor of Botany from 1834, made great improvements to the garden and its buildings. The College Archives contain a few relevant documents, relating chiefly to the relationship between the College and University concerning the garden. Within the Botanic Garden stood the Daubeney Laboratory, now the Daubeny Building, q.v. There is an historical account in R. T. Günther, Oxford Gardens, pp. 1-32.
Note added 22 October 2014
Dr. Stephen Harris, Curator in Plant Sciences, e-mailed this important note on the records of the Botanic Garden:
"The Archive of the Botanic Garden was burnt on the glasshouse boilers shortly before Mr Baker retired from the position of Hortus Praefectus of the Botanic Garden in 1942. Baker had been in post since 1888; the conflagration took place on his orders. Botanical manuscripts of previous professors appear to have been unaffected (being kept in the Herbaria) but the administration and planting records of the Garden all disappeared. The extent of the archive loss is unclear. Gunther and Daubeny make no reference to these records in their accounts of the history of the Botanic Garden, although perhaps this is to be expected since neither were particularly concerned with the details of garden administration or specimen origin."
15.7.2 RECORDS
MS 367, nos.76-77 Letters to President Frewen from the Earl of Danby regarding the estate and maintenance of the Physic Garden (1636-7). [See Woolgar: some listed as Letters series]
P320/MS2/5 Case of the Sherardian Prof. of Botany following his claim that he should be provided with a residence. Includes information on the foundation of the Physic/Botanic Garden (1888)
MS 661/3 Edward Chapman's printed report on the Botanic Garden (1883)
CP/9/60/65 Letter re grant towards Botanic Garden buildings from Hebdomadal Council (1911)
P233/2/MS5/7 R. T. Günther's collections on the Botanic Garden (1914-19)
CP/9/71 Note on the Botanic Garden and its buildings (1932)
VP6/A1/1 File on Botanic Garden and Lasker Rose Garden (1934-54)
15.8 UNIVERSITY MISCELLANEA
CS/40/15/9 Estimate of joiner's work for 'the west end of the Library', i.e. Bodleian, Selden End [1636]
MS 287 'Abbreviate of some statutes and customs' (n.d. [17th cent.])
P376/MS1/1 Enquiry into the state and nature of Halls in Oxford (n.d. [1694])
MS 938 List of Colleges and queries (1717)
MS 291 Latin verses spoken at Encaenia (1759)
MS 835 Printed OU notices (1759-91 and n.d.)
O5/MS1/1-2 Minute books of the Proceedings of the Ashmolean Society (1828-43)
MS 660/5 Letters re establishment of a Hall for poor scholars (1851-4)
F22/P3/1 Oxford sketches, 2 vols ([from 1865])
F34/A1/1 Copy minute book of Oxford Mathematical Society (1888-93)
F30/N1/1 File of printed material re the admission of women to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge (c. 1887-96)
MS 688 (vi) Record of no.6 Officer Cadet Battalion, Oxford [from 1916]
MS 1105 Programmes, menus etc: OUDS, OU Opera Club, OU Musical Club (c. 1930s)
Search the Adlib database for other university societies.
Note: For Vice-Cancellarial papers see Section 5.2.8.
15.9 OXFORD CITY MISCELLANEA
MS 880 Printed proclamation re the market (1634)
CS/36/15 Butchers' accounts (1635-1640/1)
CS/36/8 Tradesmen's and craftsmen's vouchers (1725-7)
FA14/3/2F/1-38 Acquittances to tradesmen and craftsmen for building work (1755-63)
[See CS/ and FA14 also for building accounts in general, 17th-18th cents]
MS 937 Principles of the Oxford Tradesmen's association (1848)
The estate papers (EP/) series includes payment vouchers from Oxford (and other) tradesmen for supplies and repairs to buildings etc, 1860-1874, 1884: see Woolgar, 'Catalogue', pp. 147-8 for reference codes.