From the earliest times down to the legislation of 1858 the body of Fellows seems to have been recruited from the junior members of the foundation, and ordinarily by seniority.
It seems to have soon become a rule that no one should be admitted to a Fellowship till he had proceeded to his Master’s degree. The University was often appealed to to grant dispensations to Queen’s men to omit some of the conditions generally required for that degree in order to enable them to be elected Fellows.
In 1579 some Bachelors were elected Fellows: “electi socii dum Domini fuere; sed irrita facta est electio: postea vero electi.”
The names given to the different orders of foundationers perhaps deserve a passing notice. The Fellows, as we should call them, were the “Scholares,” who, with the “Praepositus,” or Provost, constituted the Corporation. They are in the original statutes called indifferently “Scholares” and “Socii.” The first name under which other recipients of Eglesfield’s bounty appear is that of “Pueri,” or “Pueri eleemosynarii.” By the end of the fourteenth century the name “Servientes” came to be applied to an intermediate order, between the “socii” and the “pueri,” recruited from the latter. In 1407, for instance, Bell is a “pauper puer”; in 1413 Ds. Walter Bell is a “serviens”; and in 1416 Mr. Walter Bell, who was for the previous Michaelmas Term, and for the first term of the year, still “serviens” and chaplain, becomes a Fellow. A candidate for the foundation seems to have entered the College as a “pauper puer”; to have become a “serviens” on taking his Bachelor’s degree; and to have been eligible to a Fellowship as soon as he had proceeded to the degree of M.A.
The distinction between the three orders seems to have been maintained, though with some variety in the names given to the orders and some laxity in their application. Chaplains who are Masters are sometimes loosely called “pueri” even as early as the middle of the fifteenth century; and about 1570 the term “servientes” seems to have gone out of use and the name “pueri” to have been transferred to the Bachelors.
Soon after this a fourth order appears intermediate between the first and second, of “magistri non-socii,” or Masters on the foundation. It might often be convenient for a B.A. to proceed to his M.A. degree before a Fellowship was ready for him. The Chaplains were generally appointed from among these Masters. In the University Calendar of 1828 there appear as many as nine of these expectants.
Before the end of the fifteenth century we find the lowest order called “pueri domus,” and then “pueri de taberta” or “taberto” or “tabarto.” The first appearance of this famous appellation seems to be in the Long Roll for 1472. The tabard from which the Taberdars, as we now call them, derived their name appears early in the accounts of the College. Under the expenses of the boys in 1364-5 occurs:—“Item, cissori pro cota Ad. de Spersholt cum capic. tabard. et calig. xii d.”
The livery of the boys seems always to have been a special part of the provision made by the College for them: 25s. 4d. is expended in 1407 “in vestura pauperum puerorum”; and when Thomas Eglesfield is promoted in 1416 from Leylonde Hall, where the College had paid 1s. 4d. for a term’s schooling for him to Mr. John Leylande and 5d. for his batells, the first expenditure on his account as a poor boy of the College is “pro factura togae & tabard. ejusd. xii d.” Those who are wise in such matters may be able to calculate the size of the tabard from the datum that eight yards of cloth, at a cost of 14s. 8d., were provided in 1437 “pro duobus pueris domus, pro tabard. suis.” In 1503, 37s. 4d. is paid “pro liberatura iiij puerorum domus”; and in 1519, 56s. for the same for six boys.
The College had probably its pattern for the tabard, but no trace of a description of it has yet been discovered. The word seems, from Ducange, to have been used for almost every sort of upper garment, from the long tabard worn by the Priests of the Hospital of Elsingspittal with tunic, supertunic and hood, to the round mantles or tabards of moderate length permitted by the council of Buda to be worn by Prelates, and the “renones,” or capes coming down to the reins, which the French call “tabart.” It seems now to be only applied to the herald’s coat.
The four orders in their latest manifestation previous to the legislation of 1858 were—1, Fellows; 2, Masters of Arts on the Foundation; 3, Taberdars or Bachelors of Arts on the Foundation; 4, Probationary Scholars, who were undergraduates. Under the subsequent arrangements the name Taberdar has been reserved for the eight senior open scholars.