Arthur Charlett

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Arthur Charlett (1655 – 4 November 1722) was an

Master of University College, Oxford for thirty years until his death in 1722.[1][2] He was noted for his love of society, and for his expensive way of living.[3]

Life

He was son of Arthur Charlett,

John Fell, Bishop of Oxford. In 1683, he was chosen to be a junior proctor in the University of Oxford. He was appointed tutor to Francis North, 2nd Baron Guilford in 1688.[3]

On 17 December 1684, Charlett took the degree of

Clarendon Press annually printed some classical work, and then himself presented a copy of it to each of the students of his college. He was an interfering academic politician, satirised in No. 43 of The Spectator where Charlett, under the name of Abraham Froth is made to write a letter describing the business transacted at the meetings of the hebdomadal council. He promoted the first attempt at a university newspaper, published in 1707, with the title of Mercurius Oxoniensis, or the Oxford Intelligencer.[3]

Through the influence of Archbishop Thomas Tenison, Charlett was appointed chaplain to the King on 17 November 1697, and held the office until he with other chaplains was removed in March 1717. In the spring of 1706 he was in some trouble, being sent for to London to give an account of a paper he had shown circulated, asserting that Gilbert Burnet was to receive a large sum of money when presbyterianism was established. On 28 June 1707, he was instituted to the rectory of Hambleden, Buckinghamshire. He damaged his reputation in the matter of the dedication of Edward Thwaites's Saxon Heptateuch to George Hickes, where Lords Somers and Oxford were both friends of Dean Hickes and resented Charlett's interference. In 1714, he used his influence with the Vice-chancellor of the university to have Thomas Hearne prosecuted for his preface to William Camden's Elizabeth, and so put a stop to its printing.[3]

The tower in the Radcliffe Quadrangle at University College, built during the Mastership of Arthur Charlett

During Charlett's Mastership, the

Radcliffe Quad was built at University College in 1716–1719. He died at his lodgings in the college, on 18 November 1722 and is buried in the college chapel. The position of Master was contested by two men, Thomas Cockman and William Dennison. The stand-off was not resolved until 1729, after an appeal to the Crown.[3][4]

Works

Charlett published A Discourse of the Holy Eucharist, 1686, in answer to

Anthony à Wood's Fasti (ii. 414). Charlett contributed a paper on a fatal colliery fire near Newcastle to the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in 1708.[3]

References

  1. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5158. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  2. ISBN 978-0-19-928429-0
    .
  3. ^ a b c d e f s:Charlett, Arthur (DNB00)
  4. ^ William Carr, University College, pages 172–174.

Further reading

External links
Attribution
Academic offices
Preceded by
Master of University College, Oxford

1692–1722 		Succeeded by
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