One personal relic, a manuscript Book of Hours, which belonged to her, was in 1902 presented to the Library by Dr. Alexander Peckover, Lord-Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire.
THE FIRST CENTURY
1511-1612
T
he Hospital being closed, the way was cleared for the new College. The Charter, signed by the Executors of the Lady Margaret, is dated 9th April 1511; in this Robert Shorton is named as Master. He held office until on 29th July 1516 the College was opened, when Alan Percy, of the Northumberland House, succeeded. He again was succeeded in 1518 by Nicholas Metcalfe, a member of the Metcalfe family of Nappa Hall, in Wensleydale. Metcalfe had been Archdeacon of Rochester, and was no doubt well known to Fisher as Bishop of that Diocese.
The building of the College commenced under Shorton, but was not finished until about 1520.
It must be remembered that the College was founded before the Reformation, and that these three Masters were priests of the Church of Rome.
Metcalfe was more of an administrator than a student, and his energies were chiefly devoted to the material side of the College interests. Fresh endowments were obtained in place of those which had been lost. King Henry VIII. was persuaded to hand over to the College the estates of three decayed religious houses—the Maison Dieu at Ospringe, the Nunnery of Lillechurch in Higham, both in Kent, and the Nunnery of Broomhall in Berkshire. As these houses, as well as the Hospital, had allowed their affairs to fall into disorder, it is probable that the identification of their lands, and the reduction of these to effective possession, was a matter of some difficulty. Metcalfe was much absent from College; the accounts of his private expenditure on these journeys have survived, and letters to him from the College during his absences show that his skill and wisdom were much relied on.