Humphrey Gower was at this time Master of the College; he was of Puritan origin, and entered the College during the Commonwealth. After the Restoration he joined the Church of England, and though his sympathies were with the Nonjurors, he took the oaths and retained his mastership after the flight of King James. He had been for less than six months Master of Jesus before becoming Master of St. John's. Abraham de la Pryme, a member of St. John's, has handed down an irreverent jest on his appointment. "Our master, they say, is a mighty, high, proud man.... He came from Jesus College to be master here, and he was so sevear that he was commonly called the divel of Jesus; and when he was made master here some unlucky scholars broke this jest upon him—that now the divel was entered into the heard of swine; for us Johnians are abusively called hoggs."
In 1693 the Court of King's Bench issued a mandamus calling upon Gower to remove those Fellows who had not taken the oath. Defence upon the merits of the case there was none; but Gower or his legal advisers opposed the mandate with great skill on technical points, and after much litigation the Court had to admit that its procedure was irregular, and the matter dropped for some twenty-four years. During this period some of the Fellows in question died, others ceded their fellowships owing to the combined action of the general law and the College statutes. Under the latter Fellows were bound, when of proper standing, to proceed to the B.D. degree, but the oath of allegiance was required of those who took the degree, and so fellowships were forfeited. Thomas Baker, the historian, who was one of the Nonjurors, had taken the B.D. degree before 1688, so this cause did not operate in his case. But on the accession of King George I., an abjuration oath was required, and the meshes of the net being now smaller, the then Master, Dr. Jenkin, had no other course but to eject Baker and others. The College did all it could to soften the blow, and allowed Baker to reside in College until his death in 1740. He worked unweariedly at his manuscript collections and at the history of the College. The latter was first published in 1869, under the editorship of Professor John E. B. Mayor; with the editor's additions it forms a record of a College such as almost no other foundation can show. Baker's learning and accuracy are undoubted; but it may be permitted (even to a member of his College) to hint that Baker's judgments are a little severe, and his views somewhat narrow.
One notable improvement in the College records dates from this century. In early days no record was made of the names of those who joined the College. The statutes of King Henry VIII. enjoined that a register should be kept of all those admitted to scholarships and fellowships or College offices. This was begun in 1545, and has been continued to the present time. The entries of scholars and Fellows are in the autograph of those admitted, and if they possessed no other interest, have that of providing numerous examples of contemporary handwriting. But of those not admitted on the foundation, or of those admitted prior to 1545, there is no official College record.
Dr. Owen Gwyn and the seniors of his day passed a rule that "the register of the College should have a book provided him wherein he should from time to time write and register the names, parents, county, school, age, and tutor of every one to be admitted to the College." This was commenced in January 1629-30, and has been continued, with varying care and exactness, ever since. It seems probable that the initiative in this matter was due to Gwyn, as few Masters have so carefully preserved their official correspondence.
Just before this general register commenced, three notable men joined the College: Thomas Wentworth, afterwards Earl of Strafford; Thomas Fairfax, afterwards Lord Fairfax, the victor at Naseby; and Lucius Cary, Viscount Falkland, who fell in Newbury fight in September 1643. Complimentary letters to the first and last of these, with the replies, have been preserved. Falkland, in his reply, complains that of the titles given to him by the College "that which I shold most willingly have acknowledged and mought with most justice clayme you were not pleased to vouchsafe me, that of a St. John's man."
Of others who entered we may name: Sir Ingram Hopton, son of Ralph, first Baron Hopton, who entered as a Fellow Commoner 12th May 1631. Sir Ingram fell at the battle of Winceby, 11th October 1643. He there unhorsed Oliver Cromwell in a charge, and knocked him down again as he rose, but was himself killed.
Titus Oates, "the infamous," first entered at Caius 29th June 1667, migrating to St. John's, where he entered 2nd February 1668-69. Thomas Baker for once abandons his decorous reticence and states of Oates: "He was a lyar from the beginning, he stole and cheated his taylor of a gown, which he denied with horrid imprecations, and afterwards at a communion, being admonisht and advised by his Tutor, confest the fact."
Matthew Prior, the poet, was both scholar and Fellow of the College, holding his fellowship until his death. Robert Herrick, though he graduated at Trinity Hall, was sometime a Fellow Commoner here. Thomas Forster of Adderstone, general to the "Old Pretender," and commander of the Jacobite army in 1715, entered the College as a Fellow Commoner 3rd July 1700. Brook Taylor, well known to mathematicians as the discoverer of "Taylor's theorem," entered as a Fellow Commoner 3rd April 1701. While David Mossom of Greenwich, who entered the College as a sizar 5th June 1705, after being ordained, emigrated to America, and became rector of St. Peter's Church, New Kent County, Virginia. He was the officiating clergyman at the marriage of George Washington in St. Peter's Church.
We get an amusing glimpse of the importance of the Master of a College in the following anecdote: "In the year 1712 my old friend, Matthew Prior, who was then Fellow of St. John's, and who not long before had been employed by the Queen as her Plenipotentiary at the Court of France, came to Cambridge; and the next morning paid a visit to the Master of his own College. The Master (Dr. Jenkin) loved Mr. Prior's principles, had a great opinion of his abilities, and a respect for his character in the world; but then he had much greater respect for himself. He knew his own dignity too well to suffer a Fellow of his College to sit down in his presence. He kept his seat himself, and let the Queen's Ambassador stand. Such was the temper, not of a Vice-Chancellor, but of a simple Master of a College. I remember, by the way, an extempore epigram of Matt's on the reception he had there met with. We did not reckon in those days that he had a very happy turn for an epigram; but the occasion was tempting; and he struck it off as he was walking from St. John's College to the Rose, where we dined together. It was addressed to the Master:—
"'I stood, Sir, patient at your feet,
Before your elbow chair;
But make a bishop's throne your seat,
I'll kneel before you there.
One only thing can keep you down,
For your great soul too mean;
You'd not, to mount a bishop's throne,
Pay homage to the Queen.'"