A long list of benefactions might be written down for the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; but space allows individual mention of one only. King Charles I. gave (1636) divers lands and tenements in trust to the University, that they with the profits of them maintain a Fellow in Jesus College (as also in Exeter and Pembroke Colleges) born in the Isle of Jersey or Guernsey. To these benefactions conditions were generally annexed, the profits to be paid to Fellows or scholars, frequently with preference for the kindred of the donor, or for natives of particular places and counties, or for certain schools in Wales.
The eighteenth century presents a great contrast in interest to its predecessor. In Jesus College it was exceptionally uneventful. The buildings of the College were complete, the north-west corner of the inner quadrangle being finished in 1713. Since then the College has not been altered in form nor enlarged. Several valuable benefactions were received, but there was none of the vigour or enthusiasm of the sixteenth century. The most considerable endowment was what is now called the Meyricke Fund, left in trust to the College by the Rev. Edmund Meyricke. Meyricke was, like the original founder of the College, treasurer of the cathedral church of St. Davids. He was one of the Ucheldre family, a branch of that of Bodorgan, in Anglesey. He declares in his Will—“as for my worldly estate, which God Almighty hath blessed me with above my merits or expectation, I dispose of in manner following: Imprimis, whereas I always intended to bestow a good part of what God should please to bless me withall for the encouragement of learning in Jesus College, in Oxford, and for the better maintenance of six of the junior scholars of the foundation of the said College out of the six counties of North Wales; I doe give devise and bequeath all my real and personal estate,” &c. The property thus left became very valuable, and a number of Exhibitions were established, strictly confined to Welshmen, with a preference for natives of North Wales. It has been questioned by some whether this fund has been beneficial to the College. There is no doubt it made a University education possible to many Welshmen who would otherwise not have thought of an Oxford Degree. These new students, drawn from the middle and lower classes in Wales, soon formed a majority of the undergraduates. It therefore became customary for the sons of Welsh gentry to resort to other Colleges in Oxford, and to some extent the old connection was broken. This was a decided loss to the social status and prestige of the College; but it is probable that the compensating gain was greater. The young squires who resorted to the University in the eighteenth century were not as a rule students, and formed an element in a College requiring much discipline and toleration. On the other hand, the students, encouraged by the new endowment, if not intellectually very distinguished, owing to lack of early advantages, generally made good use of the privileges afforded by the University, and did solid work for the Principality in after life. When the endowments of the College were strictly and by statute confined to Welshmen, it is in Wales that we must look for educational results. And it must be confessed that when we do look, we are not disappointed. In every department of civil life, but especially in the Church, we find sons of the College occupying posts of usefulness and dignity. Even for the highest posts in the Church there was no deficiency of native talent, but it was the mistaken policy of the Government under the Georges to make use of the Welsh Bishoprics as rewards for English ecclesiastics, who were ignorant of the language and characteristics of the people whom they were supposed to guide—a policy which is now admitted to have inflicted serious, and it is to be feared permanent, injury on the Church in Wales. Thus in the eighteenth century the College was debarred from furnishing occupants of the four Welsh sees, though many of her sons may be pointed out as worthy of the mitre. Soon after the mistaken policy was discontinued we have seen half the Welsh sees occupied by ex-scholars of the College.[305]
Among the distinguished men of this period may be mentioned Thomas Charles, B.A., 1779, commonly called Charles of Bala, founder of the sect of Calvinistic Methodists, and author of the Geiriadur, a book still much used. He was a man of great piety and learning, and did not secede, but was driven out of the Church by the injudicious treatment of his ecclesiastical superiors. His name is still a “household word” in Wales. David Richards (Dafydd Ionawr), an eminent Welsh poet, author of Cywydd y Drindod; Thomas Jones, 1760, a painter of considerable merit, a favourite pupil of Wilson; Evan Lloyd, 1755, a poet, and friend of Churchill, Garrick, Wilkes, &c.; Goronwy Owen, a celebrated Welsh poet and scholar, one of the great names in Welsh literature; John Walters, Master of Ruthin School, 1750; James Bandinel, the first Bampton Lecturer (1780); and William Wynne, 1704, a Welsh poet. We may also mention as a contrast to the above, who are chiefly ecclesiastics, Richard Nash, best known as “Beau Nash,” for fifty years the celebrated Master of the Ceremonies at Bath, whose smile or frown proclaimed social success or ostracism in fashionable life.
Towards the middle of the eighteenth century the College became in a peculiar degree connected with the Bodleian Library. In 1747 Humphrey Owen, Fellow and afterwards Principal, was elected Librarian. After some years he made John Price, a Fellow of the College, Janitor, and in 1758 Adam Thomas, M.A., Sub-Librarian; when Thomas quitted the Library in 1761 his place was taken by Price, John Jones becoming Janitor. In 1768, on Owen’s death, Price was made Librarian, and held office for forty-five years. From 1758 to 1788 all the Sub-Librarians in succession were members of Jesus College, and nearly all the persons who are found otherwise employed in the Library—no full or official list exists—bear Welsh names.
Dr. Johnson in one of his frequent trips to Oxford made Jesus College his head-quarters. This fact has been recently ascertained by Dr. G. Birkbeck Hill, the well-known authority on Johnson and his times, in preparing for publication the great lexicographer’s letters. His host was his “convivial friend,” Dr. Edwards the Vice-Principal of the College, the editor of Xenophon’s Memorabilia, who gave up his rooms to his guest. These were, probably, situated in the south-western corner of the outer Quadrangle on the first-floor. It was early in June 1782 that Johnson came into residence in the College, at a time when he was broken in health. Nevertheless, as we learn from Miss Hannah More, who was at the time the guest of the Master of Pembroke College, he did what he could to spread cheerfulness around him. The Fellows of Jesus College were to give a banquet in his honour and hers, to which “they invited Thomas Warton and all that was famous in Oxford.” Unfortunately she does not give us any account of the banquet. Doubtless it was held and the old Hall rang with the sound of Johnson’s deep voice, but not an echo has been caught. The fact of his residence is curiously confirmed by the Battel-books, which show that at the time when he was in Oxford the Battels of Dr. Edwards and other members of the College were unusually high. In fact, everybody in the College seems to have indulged in hospitality, no doubt being anxious to let his friends see the great man whose sun was now supposed to be so rapidly setting.
Perhaps the first half of the nineteenth century is remote enough from our times to warrant the mention of a few names of distinguished men who have been removed by death. Here, as in the preceding century, we must look chiefly to Wales, where we find among Welsh poets, Daniel Evans (Daniel Ddu); John Jones (Ioan Tegid), a well-known writer and editor of Welsh books; John Blackwell (Alun), one of the most pleasing and attractive of Welsh poets; Morris Williams (Nicander), well known as poet, preacher, and writer in Welsh; and last, but not least, John Richard Green, the brilliant historian. We must not omit to mention the late Principal, Charles Williams, D.D., who was well known in the University for his love of his country, his hospitable social qualities, and his acute and elegant scholarship.
In 1857 the University Commission, which made such changes in Oxford, dealt with Jesus College, but forbore from adopting the sweeping measures at one time threatened. The chief change made was that half the Fellowships were declared for the future to be open to general competition. This declaration did not excite much opposition or remark in Wales, though great indignation was expressed when more than twenty years later another Commission dealt in the same way with the scholarships. It should be remembered that the principle was sacrificed in 1857, and that the opposers of the last Commission could only advance arguments of expediency, on which Commissioners are apt to have their own opinions. Whether the change is likely to be for the good of the College and of Wales is a point much disputed, and this is not a place where it can be discussed.
We have seen that the buildings of the College have not been enlarged in extent since 1713; many structural alterations have, however, taken place. The upper story throughout the College, except on its extreme western side, consisted of attics with dormer windows, which in old pictures gives the College a picturesque appearance. The roof has, however, been raised, and in the outer quadrangle battlements surmount the walls; in the inner quadrangle gables mark the points where the dormer windows formerly existed. The dining-hall, which once had a fine open oak roof, was, in the time of Principal Hoare, fitted with a plaster ceiling, in order that the space above might form attics to increase the accommodation of the Lodgings. Since the enlargement of the Principal’s house in 1886 the accommodation is no longer needed, and it is to be hoped that the hall may soon regain its original proportions.
The chapel, which was consecrated in 1621, has been frequently altered, and at least once (in 1636) enlarged. The doorway, with its picturesque porch, bearing the scroll, “Ascendat Oratio, Descendat Gratia,” is not the original entrance. When the south wall was being re-faced some years ago, another doorway of older workmanship than the present one, was discovered. The change was probably made when the massive Jacobean screen was put up, which now separates the chapel from the ante-chapel. In 1864 the whole interior was restored. Of the success of the restoration there may be two opinions; but there is no doubt that the widening of the chancel-arch was a mistake, as it has permanently dwarfed the proportions of the building. The woodwork substituted for what existed previously, though good of its kind, presents too violent a contrast with the screen already mentioned. The east window is a painted one of some interest, though not of high artistic merit. In the ante-chapel is an excellent copy of Guido’s picture of “St. Michael triumphing over the Fallen Angel.” The original is in the Capucini Church at Rome. The picture was presented by Lord Bulkeley of Baron Hill in Anglesey.