List of founding Fellows, Scholars and Commissioners of Jesus College, Oxford
, the first Protestant college at the University of Oxford, was founded by Elizabeth I in 1571 at the instigation of a Welsh clergyman, Hugh Price. The royal charter issued by Elizabeth appointed a Principal and various Fellows, Scholars and Commissioners: the Fellows to educate the Scholars and to run the college, under the overall direction of the Principal; and the Commissioners to draw up statutes for the governance of the college, its officers and servants, and the management of the college property. The college was founded to help with the increased numbers of Welsh students at Oxford, and the founding Fellows included a number of individuals with links to Wales. The Commissioners included prominent individuals such as William Cecil, Lord Burghley, the Principal Secretary of State. The charter also gave land and buildings in Oxford to the new college.
Whilst the foundation process of the college started in 1571, it took more than fifty years and a further two charters, one in 1589 from Elizabeth and one in 1622 from her successor, James I, to complete the process. These further charters were necessary because neither the Commissioners appointed by the 1571 charter nor those appointed by the 1589 charter fulfilled their allotted task of drawing up statutes. During this time, Griffith Powell concluded that successive Principals were loath to have statutes, since these would limit the Principal's powers. One Principal lost a draft copy of the statutes; the next kept the next draft in his study for several years without taking steps to have them confirmed by the Commissioners. It was not until after the 1622 charter that statutes were approved by the Commissioners and the college was fully constituted. Despite the intention on the foundation of the college, none of the charters made special provision for Welsh students, although the students were predominantly Welsh from the outset.
Background to the foundation of the college
Jesus College was the first Protestant college to be founded at the university, and it is the only Oxford college to date from Elizabeth's reign. It was the first new Oxford college since 1555, in the reign of Mary, when Trinity College and St John's College were founded as Roman Catholic colleges. The opening phrases of the charter, translated from the original Latin, have been noted as referring to the recent ecclesiastical changes in stating the purposes for which the college was founded:Education in Wales had been stimulated by the foundation of grammar schools during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI: King Henry VIII Grammar School in Abergavenny and Christ College, Brecon were established in the 1540s, and Friars School, Bangor dates from 1557. However, despite the numbers of Welsh students coming to Oxford University as a result, there was no special provision for Welshmen before 1571. A Welsh clergyman, Hugh Price, therefore petitioned Elizabeth to found a college at Oxford "that he might bestow his estate of the maintenance of certain scholars of Wales to be trained up in good letters." Whatever Price's wishes, and despite the links that he and many of the founding Fellows had with Wales, neither the 1571 charter nor any of the later charters limited entry to the college to Welshmen. Nevertheless, the college students were predominantly Welsh from the outset, and the college became "the pinnacle of the academic ambition of the young men of Wales".
The charters
Jesus College came into being when Elizabeth issued a charter dated 27 June 1571. The charter named a Principal, eight Fellows, eight Scholars and eight Commissioners. The eight Scholars named in the 1571 charter appear to have had nothing more than a purely notional connection to the college. Five of them are known to have studied at Merchant Taylors' School and Cambridge University, with four taking up scholarships in Greek at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. The Commissioners were required to draw up statutes, which had to be approved by a majority of them. The Commissioners included Nicholas Bacon, William Cecil, Lord Burghley and Gilbert Gerard – three "political heavyweights". The charter also gave to the new college the site and buildings of White Hall, located on Market Street and Ship Street – the college still occupies this site today. White Hall, which had closed in 1570, was one of the academic halls associated with the university – these were institutions that offered accommodation for students, but little in the way of teaching, and they were disappearing as the collegiate system at Oxford grew.The charter, written in Latin on the flesh side of a prepared calfskin, is. It is highly decorated with Tudor designs and motifs, with its style being similar to that of books of hours. Elizabeth is depicted in the opening illuminated letter, seated on a blue throne in robes of scarlet trimmed with ermine, and holding an orb and sceptre. It has been suggested by the art historian Roy Strong that the image is based on the work of Levina Teerlinc, a Flemish miniaturist. The border is decorated with floral and heraldic motifs, including the Tudor rose. The Great Seal of England was used to authenticate the charter, and the remnants of the Seal are still attached to it.
As the Commissioners did not complete their task of drawing up statutes before too many of them had died to permit the remainder to act, a second charter, dated 7 July 1589, was obtained by the then Principal, Francis Bevans. Elizabeth appointed thirteen Commissioners, any three of whom could approve the statutes, and also confirmed Bevans as Principal. Thereafter Griffith Powell, a former student of the college who had been elected to a fellowship in 1589, drafted some statutes and attempted to have them confirmed by the new Commissioners. However, neither Bevans nor his successor John Williams pressed for statutes to be confirmed. In their absence, the Principal had an autocratic position. Powell's view was that successive Principals were "loath to have any statutes at all", since their power would be "limited" by them. Bevans took Powell's draft to his residence in Hereford, where he stayed for several years and lost the copy. In 1595, Powell took another copy to John Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury and chief Commissioner, who rebuked Bevans for not attempting to obtain statutes. Whitgift passed the draft to two other Commissioners in turn, Gabriel Goodman, the Dean of Westminster, and Herbert Westphaling, Bishop of Hereford. Westphaling signed the draft in June 1601. With two more signatures still being required, the statutes were sent to John Herbert in 1602. However, Williams took the draft statutes away before Herbert approved them, and kept them in his study until 1609 without making further attempts to have them confirmed.
from 1621|thumb|left|uprightIn 1609, Powell brought matters to the attention of Richard Bancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor of the university, and Bancroft compelled Williams to produce the statutes. Williams expelled Powell from his fellowship, but the Chancellor ordered his reinstatement. Bancroft died in 1610, and his successor as Archbishop, George Abbot, found the statutes in his study and returned them to Williams, who took no further steps before his death in 1613. Powell, who had run the college during the long absences of Bevans and who was Vice-Principal under Williams, was appointed Principal by Thomas Egerton, Lord Ellesmere, the Chancellor of the University, in 1613. However, there were by that time insufficient living Commissioners to validate the statute. It was not until Sir Eubule Thelwall became Principal in 1621 that matters moved forward. A third charter was obtained from James I on 1 June 1622, confirming Thelwall as Principal and nominating eight Fellows and eight Scholars. Two Fellows and two Scholars were survivors from the 1571 charter. Four of the other six Scholars in the 1622 charter are known to have been undergraduates at Jesus College at the time; the other two appear to have been relatives of the Principal, Sir Eubule Thelwall, but do not appear in the college records. The charter also appointed new commissioners, and little time was taken in drawing up the statutes thereafter.
People named in the 1571 charter
| Name | Position | Notes | Ref |
| Scholar | Andrewes studied at Merchant Taylors' School and Pembroke Hall, Cambridge and was later Bishop of Chichester, Bishop of Winchester and one of the translators of the King James Bible. He was also named as a Scholar in the 1622 charter. | ||
| Fellow and Commissioner | A former Regius Professor of Civil Law ; reappointed as a Commissioner in the 1589 charter | ||
| Commissioner | Lord Keeper of the Great Seal under Elizabeth I | ||
| Commissioner | Secretary of State and leading adviser to Elizabeth I; reappointed as a Commissioner in the 1589 charter | ||
| Commissioner | The Chancellor at the time of the 1571 charter was Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester. Dudley was succeeded by Sir Christopher Hatton, who was named as a Commissioner in the 1589 charter. The Vice-Chancellor in 1571 was Lawrence Humphrey. He was succeeded in 1576 by Herbert Westphaling, who was named as a Commissioner in the 1589 charter. After Westphaling, there was a new Vice-Chancellor every year until the 1589 charter. | ||
| Fellow | Clergyman, formerly Principal of White Hall and Laurence Hall, Oxford | ||
| Scholar | Dove studied at Merchant Taylors' School and Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. He was also named in the 1622 charter, and became Bishop of Peterborough. | ||
| Scholar | Studied at Merchant Taylors' School and Pembroke Hall, Cambridge | ||
| Scholar | Unknown background – no evidence that he matriculated at either Oxford or Cambridge | ||
| Commissioner | Attorney-General under Elizabeth I; reappointed as a Commissioner in the 1589 charter | ||
| Fellow | A Leicestershire priest, named as a Fellow of the college in the 1622 charter | ||
| Fellow | Precentor of St David's Cathedral | ||
| Fellow and Commissioner | Chancellor of the Diocese of London | ||
| Fellow | Later Archdeacon of Leicester and founder of Oakham and Uppingham Schools, and named as a Fellow of the college in the 1622 charter | ||
| Principal and Commissioner | First Principal ; Fellow of All Souls, former Principal of New Inn Hall, Oxford, a judge of the High Court of Admiralty | ||
| Fellow | Former Dean of St Asaph, judge of the High Court of Admiralty | ||
| Fellow | Principal of New Inn Hall, Oxford and Regius Professor of Civil Law | ||
| Scholar | Unknown background – no evidence that he matriculated at either Oxford or Cambridge | ||
| Scholar | Studied at Merchant Taylors' School and Christ's College, Cambridge | ||
| Commissioner | Treasurer of St David's Cathedral and founder of the college, his name appears twice in the charter | ||
| Scholar | Studied at Merchant Taylors' School and Pembroke Hall, Cambridge | ||
| Scholar | Unknown background – no evidence that he matriculated at either Oxford or Cambridge |
People named in the 1589 charter
The charter of 1589 appointed 13 Commissioners – whilst Francis Bevans was confirmed as Principal, no Fellows or Scholars were appointed by this charter.| Name | Notes |
| William Aubrey | Also named as a Fellow of the college and a Commissioner in the 1571 charter |
| Francis Bevans | Principal of the college |
| William Cecil, Lord Burghley | Also named as a Commissioner in the 1571 charter |
| The Chancellor or Vice-Chancellor of the university | The Chancellor at the time of the 1589 charter was Sir Christopher Hatton, who was also named personally as a Commissioner. His successors were Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset ; Richard Bancroft ; Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley ; and William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke. There were 16 different Vice-Chancellors between 1589 and 1622. |
| Gilbert Gerard | Also named as a Commissioner in the 1571 charter |
| Gabriel Goodman | Dean of Westminster |
| Sir Christoper Hatton | Lord Chancellor |
| John Herbert | Secretary of State |
| Henry Jones | A Welsh clergyman and lawyer |
| John Lloyd | Also named as a Fellow of the college, but not a Commissioner, in the 1571 charter |
| Richard Harris | Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford |
| Herbert Westphaling | Bishop of Hereford, to whom Principal Francis Bevans was chancellor |
| John Whitgift | Archbishop of Canterbury |
People named in the 1622 charter
| Name | Position | Notes | Ref |
| Scholar | Also named as a Scholar in the 1571 charter | ||
| Commissioner | Judge of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, elected MP for the university in 1621 | ||
| Commissioner | Dean of the Court of Arches, and a former MP for the university | ||
| Scholar | Later became a Fellow of the college | ||
| Commissioner | The Chancellor at the time of the 1622 charter was William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, and he was one of the signatories of the statutes. The Vice-Chancellor, William Piers, did not sign. | ||
| Fellow | Welsh clergyman | ||
| Scholar | Also named as a Scholar in the 1571 charter | ||
| Fellow | Also named as a Fellow of the college in the 1571 charter | ||
| Fellow | Also named as a Fellow of the college in the 1571 charter | ||
| Scholar | Matriculated as a member of the college in November 1621, later becoming Sub-Dean of Westminster Abbey and Treasurer of Chichester Cathedral | ||
| Fellow | A Fellow of the college, but nothing else is known about him | ||
| Scholar | Matriculated as a member of the college in December 1621, later becoming rector of Newtown, Montgomeryshire | ||
| Fellow | Registrar of the university and a Fellow of New College, Oxford | ||
| Scholar | Matriculated as a member of the college in November 1621 | ||
| Fellow and Commissioner | Principal of Hart Hall, Oxford | ||
| Fellow | A Fellow of the college since 1615, appointed Vice-Principal in 1623 | ||
| Fellow | A former student of the college; Rector of Ewelme, Oxfordshire | ||
| Scholar | Not found in the college records, but presumed to be a relative of Sir Eubule Thelwall | ||
| Principal and Commissioner | Master of the Court of Chancery, and Principal from 1621 until his death in 1630 | ||
| Scholar | Not found in the college records, but presumed to be a relative of Sir Eubule Thelwall |