WE cannot submit this volume to the public without tendering our thanks to the Syndicate of the University library for unrestrained access to the noble collections there deposited. We must also express our sense of the courtesy of the Rev. Joseph Power, M.A., and Henry Bradshaw, esq., M.A. librarians. The latter gentleman has rendered us essential assistance with respect to various matters connected with Irish history and literature.

Our thanks are also due to the Reverend the Master and Fellows of S. John's college for the loan of their copy of Mr. Baker's MS. History of that society.

From the Rev. Joseph Romilly, M.A., registrary of the university, we have received much valuable information, communicated with such alacrity and urbanity as greatly to enhance our obligations.

The Rev. John Eyton Bickersteth Mayor, M.A. fellow of S. John's college, has favoured us with the use of many rare books, and of his own extensive collections relative to the literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He has moreover obliged us with valuable suggestions and numerous useful and curious references.

We beg to thank the Rev. George Elwes Corrie, D.D. master of Jesus college, and the Rev. William George Searle, M.A. fellow of Queens' college, for the loan of MS. Lists of the fellows of their respective societies.

W. Munk, esq., M.D. has furnished us with copious extracts from his MS. Roll of the College of Physicians, and has

b

ii

cheerfully and promptly responded to various enquiries respecting members of the medical profession.

For other assistance in the compilation of this volume and of those which are to follow, we are under obligations to the Rev. Gilbert Ainslie, D.D. master of Pembroke college; Charles Cardale Babington, esq., M.A. of S. John's college; the Rev. Churchill Babington, B.D. fellow of S. John's college; the Rev. Samuel Banks, M.A. rector of Cottenham; the Rev. William Henry Bateson, D.D. master of S. John's college; the Rev. John Rouse Bloxam, D.D. fellow and librarian of Magdalen college Oxford; John Nurse Chadwick, esq. of King's Lynn; the Rev. Henry Wilkinson Cookson, D.D. master of S. Peter's college; William Durrant Cooper, esq. F.S.A.; George Richard Corner, esq. F.S.A.; the Rev. George Henry Dashwood, M.A., F.S.A. vicar of Stow Bardolph; the Rev. Joseph Edleston, M.A. one of the senior fellows of Trinity college; Edward Foss, esq. F.S.A.; the Rev. John Glover, M.A. of Trinity college; James Orchard Halliwell, esq. F.S.A.; William Hannay, esq. acting town-clerk of Warwick; the Rev. W. B. Hopkins, M.A. vicar of Wisbech S. Peter; Thomas William King, esq., F.S.A. York herald; John Halsey Law, esq., M.A. fellow of King's college; the Rev. Henry Richards Luard, M.A. fellow and tutor of Trinity college; Thomas C. Mossom Meekins, esq.; Mr. serjeant Merrewether late town-clerk of London; John Gough Nichols, esq. F.S.A.; the Rev. George Oliver, D.D. of Exeter; the Rev. Henry Philpott, D.D. master of S. Catharine's college; the Rev. John Birch Reynardson, M.A.; the Rev. Charles Best Robinson, B.A.; the Rev. Hastings Robinson, D.D., F.S.A. rector of Great Warley; the Rev. Adam Sedgwick, M.A. Woodwardian professor; the Rev. Edward Ventris, M.A.; and the Rev. John Ward, M.A. rector of Wath.

CAMBRIDGE,

1st October, 1858.

INTRODUCTION.

NOTWITHSTANDING the somewhat narrow views, the inveterate prejudices, and the peculiar and occasionally uncouth language of Anthony a Wood, it cannot, we think, be denied that his Athenæ Oxonienses was felicitously designed, and executed with no mean ability. As this book reflected great lustre on the university of Oxford, it was naturally expected that a work of a similar character, devoted especially to the university of Cambridge, would follow in due course; indeed, the author of the Introduction to the second volume threw down a generous challenge "to some good Antiquary of the other University."

Henry Sampson, ejected from a fellowship at Pembroke hall for nonconformity 1662 and who subsequently for many years practised physic with reputation and success, appears to have made some collections for a history of the eminent men of this university.

Mr. Strype, in a letter to Ralph Thoresby, dated 4th August, 1709, remarks:

I perceive you have had the use of some of the manuscripts of Dr. Sampson. While he was alive he would have put me upon a task to write the history of the eminent men, and especially writers, of the University of Cambridge, and told me he had made great collections that would be serviceable that way. There is one of Cambridge now, an able man, that had been making collections divers years for that purpose. I wish he had the perusal of those papers. He is now in London, and, if I knew in whose hands Dr. Sampson's manuscripts were, I would endeavour to procure those collections for him to use. . (1)

The able man to whom Strype Thomas Baker, of St. John's college.

(1) Thoresby's Letters, ii. 191.

refers was, no doubt, the Rev. Drake, in his Eboracum, (1) says

(2) p. 378.

that a history of the Cambridge writers was much expected from Mr. Baker, whom he with justice designates as "that great antiquary." It may be doubted however whether Mr. Baker ever purposed such a work. Certain it is that in a letter from him to Mr. Rawlins, of Pophill, dated 23rd August, 1735, the following passage occurs:

To your inquiry concerning Athenæ Cantabrigienses I can give you no sure account, only it is certain Mr. Richardson is making collections towards such a work, and I have furnished him with somewhat towards this college. (1)

Mr. Baker's valuable MSS. contain many important materials for an Athenæ Cantabrigienses; but the want of arrangement in these collections and the unfortunate circumstance that some of the volumes are at Cambridge and others in the British Museum greatly augment the labour connected with their use.

Mr. Morris Drake Morris, a fellow-commoner of Trinity college, compiled lives of the most illustrious men educated in the university from the foundation thereof unto the year 1715, collected from Bale, Pits, Fuller, Lloyd, Wood, Calamy, Walker, &c., in two volumes. The first volume, containing 534 pages, comprises the lives of the archbishops and bishops educated at Cambridge, with a complete index of names and a very large number of engraved portraits; the second volume contains the lives of learned men in general, and is entitled Athenæ Cantabrigienses. Only 319 pages are filled. There are a few portraits, and it has an index containing the names of those intended to be mentioned, as well as of those whose lives are given. These manuscripts he gave to Lord Harley, afterwards earl of Oxford, and they are now in the Harleian collection. (2)

Dr. William Richardson, master of Emmanuel college (1736— 1775), the learned editor of Godwin De Præsulibus (and the gentleman mentioned by Mr. Baker), made collections for Athenæ Cantabrigienses in a folio volume without an index, preserved in the university library.(3). The number of persons noticed by Dr. Richardson is only about 350. The general utility of this volume is diminished by the use of short-hand and of symbols not easily interpreted. Cole used Dr. Richardson's collections, but could not master the stenography. Dr. Richardson made other collections on the subject, which have been lost.

(1) Masters' Life of Baker, 31.

(2) No. 7176, 7177.

(3) Ff. 3. 32.