History of Trinity College, Oxford
The history of Trinity College, Oxford documents the 450 years from the foundation of Trinity – a collegiate member of the University of Oxford – on 8 March 1554/5. The fourteenth oldest surviving college,[1] it reused and embellished the site of the former Durham College, Oxford.[2] Opening its doors on 30 May 1555, its founder Sir Thomas Pope created it as a Catholic college teaching only theology. It has been co-educational since 1979.
Origins
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In 1553, King
The new statutes drawn up named the new (Catholic) establishment as "The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the Foundation of Thomas Pope", a name which persists.
Early history (1555–1600)
Trinity's early problems centred on its finances, especially after Pope decided to establish places for four additional scholars. Aware of these problems, Pope both made out a loan to the college and gradually extended its endowment, such that by 1557 Trinity was in control of five manors: Wroxton-with-Balscote, Sewell, Dunthorp, Holcombe and Great Waltham. In total, these generated a rent of approximately £200, which was augmented by £65 from other smaller land holdings. In 1558 Pope swapped in extra lands at Great Waltham and took back Sewell and Dunthorp with no overall impact on Trinity's finances.[4] He also sent large consignments of furnishings for the chapel (many of them ex-monastical), as well as sixty-three books for the library and various utensils for the refectory. After various teething problems, the statutes were amended and finalised in the same year.[6]
On 29 January 1559, Thomas Pope died, leaving the new college without a protector at court. His will, the execution of which was undertaken by his wife Elizabeth, did however include several references to Trinity, including the provision of funds for a fence to demarcate Trinity's land from that of next-door
Trinity's Catholicism made for a difficult relationship with the Crown following Pope's death. The new Protestant Queen
The number of commoners (as opposed to religious scholars) attending grew steadily throughout the latter half of the sixteenth century, with the limit of twenty that had been imposed by the statutes quickly being exceeded. The group was divided according to circumstance, with
Early seventeenth-century and Protectorate (1600–1664)
The history of Trinity in the seventeenth century was dominated by the presidencies of Trinity's third president,
The 1640s were less kind to Trinity as the college, like all others in Oxford, felt the effects of the
A post-war audit undertaken by the
Bathurst's Trinity (1664–1704)
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Bathurst's plan, executed over some thirty years, involved the regeneration of a number of Trinity's buildings, including the early fifteenth century chapel (which was rapidly becoming structurally unsound), and the Old Bursary, which became a common room.[7] The old kitchen was similarly replaced in 1681, and the President's lodgings refurbished.[9] The chapel, consecrated in April 1694 and requiring two loans to complete, is the only collegiate building to appear on the itinerary of Peter the Great during his trip to Oxford, though it is unclear whether he set foot inside it. Also constructed was a separate building, designed, like the final flourish of the chapel's design, by Sir Christopher Wren and forming the northern side of what is now the college's "Garden" quadrangle.[7][9] Having raised funds from Trinity's alumni and fellows to settle the £1,500 construction costs, the new block was ready for use by 1668, though the room interior fittings were added gradually by their occupants.[9] Bathurst's continuing desire for expansion precipitated in the creation from 1682–84 of an identical block, which now forms the western side of the Garden quadrangle,[7] as well as an eponymous "Bathurst building", pulled down in the late nineteenth century.[9]
The result was, as Bathurst had hoped, an increase in both the quantity and average wealth of Trinity's intake; by the 1680s there were once again over a hundred students at the college.[3] In particular, the growth was driven by the children of England's middle classes, who sought to demonstrate their wealth by attending what was fast becoming Oxford's most expensive college. Trinity did however continue to admit annually four or five servitors – a quarter of the intake – though the rank of batteller slowly fell out of use.[9] The college was also changing in other ways; although prayers remained compulsory, for example, the penalties for missing prayers were slowly relaxed, as were curfew times. Although the college authorities were prepared to overlook poorly performing students from influential families, the timetable still included seven hours a day for all students, with an extra three hours for many. Lectures remained "in house", though their content was gradually broadening, including "experimental philosophy" in addition to the more classical education students had received previously. Students could also take advantage of the first college undergraduate library in Oxford.[9]
Eighteenth-century (1704–1799)
The eighteenth century saw far fewer variations in the college's fortunes, and it remained in much the same financial health as it was at the end of the seventeenth.
Third storeys were added to all three sides of Garden Quadrangle in 1728, masking the flourishes of Wren's original French-style design; the dining hall was also refitted circa 1774, with
Nineteenth-century (1800–1907)
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The perceived lack of academia in Oxford was not restricted to Trinity; it was a more widespread concern that led the University to introduce the Oxford University Examination Statute at the turn of the century, restricting degrees to those who had passed a much more rigorous examination than before.
With a
Blakiston's Trinity (1907–1938)
Herbert Blakiston was elected President on 17 March 1907 after the death of his predecessor, Henry Francis Pelham. He was the fellows' second choice for the position, their preferred candidate turned it down. Blakiston had barely left Trinity in a quarter of a century: first as a scholar, then tutor, chaplain, senior tutor and domestic bursar, not to mention the author of the college's first definitive history in 1898. Efficient but cold, eccentric but financially tight-fisted, Blakiston would be President until his resignation in 1938, continuing in the role of domestic bursar and then as "elder statesman" until his death in 1942 in a road accident.[13]
The period was characterised by modest revelry that included drunken students regularly setting bonfires around the site; Blakiston was not greatly minded to send down students lest doing so discourage sons from other middle-class families from applying. It was for the same reasons that he would choose to admit just one non-white student during his 24 years and to strenuously oppose the integration of female students into the university in 1920. Not unrelatedly, it was during this time that Trinity's rivalry with the more liberal Balliol also reached a temporary maximum.
In total, 820 Trinitarians or ex-Trinitarians served in the war; 153 did not survive it. Nevertheless, the peace saw Trinity revitalised, back up to full numbers within two years. In 1919, Blakiston began the task of identifying a suitable monument to the dead; it was his suggestion, a new library, which carried the day. The new library, which opened in 1928, was funded via benefactions; of which there were many.
Recent history (1939–present)
By comparison with the First World War, Trinity was not greatly affected by the outbreak of the Second in September 1939, aided by the University-wide introduction of courses specially structured for budding officers and the booking out of the New Buildings to host Balliol students after the latter's own accommodation was requisitioned. The number of students remained strong as that at other colleges diminished, with Trinity able to utilise its contacts to maintain a good standard of living despite the shortages.
The post-war period has seen a substantial increase in the number of students at Trinity, though as of 2013 it remains one of the smallest in Oxford. New accommodation in the form of the Cumberbatch buildings (the modern staircases 3 and 4) were opened in 1966 and the college also benefited greatly from the university-wide effort to re-face the many stone buildings around Oxford that had blackened over the centuries.
With the broadening of state funding for poorer students, Trinity's pre-war attachment to the middle classes looked increasing outmoded; the college found it difficult to throw off its reputation for racism. The rivalry with Balliol was reinvigorated, leading to several well-publicised events, including the
In 2017, the college’s first woman president, Hilary Boulding, celebrated sixteen women alumni in a poster and booklet entitled "Feminae Trinitatis". They included Dame Frances Ashcroft, Siân Berry, Dame Sally Davies, Olivia Hetreed, Kate Mavor, Sarah Oakley, Roma Tearne, and the opera singer Claire Booth.[16][17]
In 2019, the Cumberbatch Building was demolished[18] to make way for the new Levine Building. This is due to be finished at the end 2021 and will include 46 new student bedrooms, an auditorium, teaching rooms, a function room, and a café. It is named in recognition of Peter Levine, who studied at Trinity in the 1970s, whose transformational donation in memory of his parents allowed this project, and many other notable college-wide initiatives, to take shape.
The grounds of Trinity were, in part, the basis for Fleet College in Charles Finch's The Last Enchantments.[19]
References
- ^ Hopkins 2005, p. v
- ^ a b c d e Hopkins 2005, pp. 9–17
- ^ a b c d e f g h Maclagan 1955, pp. 18–22
- ^ a b c Hopkins 2005, pp. 19–27, 55
- ^ a b c Hopkins 2005, pp. 48–69
- ^ a b c Hopkins 2005, pp. 32–47
- ^ a b c d e Maclagan 1955, pp. 6–17
- ^ a b c d e f g Hopkins 2005, pp. 70–119
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Hopkins 2005, pp. 120–162
- ^ a b c d e Maclagan 1955, pp. 23–29
- ^ a b c d e f Hopkins 2005, pp. 161–205
- ^ a b c Hopkins 2005, pp. 206–268
- ^ a b c d e f Hopkins 2005, pp. 336–382
- ^ a b c d e f g h Hopkins 2005, pp. 383–451
- ^ "The Queen and Oxford". cherwell.org. 9 September 2015. Retrieved 11 September 2018.
- ^ "WOMEN AT OXFORD Rhodes, Trinity, St Benet's" in The Oxbridge Pursuivant, Monday, September 18, 2017
- ^ Bonnie St. John, "The Feminae Trinitatis Project", huffpost.com, February 13, 2017
- ^ Barrett, Helen (22 November 2019). "Architectural salvage: antidote to the age of bling". Financial Times. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
- ^ Charles, Finch. "The back lawns of Trinity College, Oxford".
Bibliography
- Blakiston, Herbert E.D. (1898), Trinity College, University of Oxford: College Histories, London: F.E. Robinson.
- Hopkins, Clare (2005), Trinity: 450 years of an Oxford college community (2007 reprint ed.), Oxford, ISBN 978-0-19-951896-8).
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