Put uppon Domus by Mr Evans for Bread and Beere to the Kinges Souldiers at their first Cominge to Oxon from Edgehill01 :02 :6
Payd by him the Taxe layd uppon the Coll: towards the works from the beginninge of it to the 28th of Jan: ’4303 :16 :6
More by him for Musquets, Pikes and the like03 :14 :3
Given by him to the Prince his Trumpetters00 :10 :00
Payd by Pole after 12d a head every weeke for all of the Coll. towards the fortifications in Xst Church Meade from the 17th of June to the end of July02 :11 :00
More towards the same in Aug. & Sept.02 :7 :00
For a little Peece of Plate of another man’s, which was in my Study, and by mistake taken out with the Coll. Plate,[297] and lent to his Matie, which weighed some what more than 8 ounces02 :00 :00
Pay’d uppon his Majties Motion towards the Maintenance of his Foote Souldiers for one Monthe after fower Pounds by the Weeke16 :00 :00
The Totall of Receipts95 :2 :5
The Totall of Disbursments341 :6 :3
And so the Disbursments doe exceede the Receipts by the Summe of246 :3 :10
Which I the Principall have lay’d out of the Coll. Money remayninge in my hands, mine owne, or what I borrowed of others.
And I disbursed the money lent by Common Consent to his Matie100 :00 :00”

In the interval between Dr. Mansell’s ejection in 1648 by the Parliamentary Visitors and his restoration in 1660 by Charles II.’s Commissioners, two Principals ruled the College. Of the first of these, Michael Roberts, Sir Leoline Jenkins uses the words “infamous and corrupt.” Perhaps the words are not to be taken literally; but nothing of the kind is said of his successor, Francis Howell, though he also was a Puritan. It is also on record that in 1656 the Fellows deposed Roberts on charges of embezzling the College funds and corrupt dealing in elections; and that although for the time the Parliamentary Visitors refused to endorse the action of the Fellows, he did vacate his Principalship that year or the next, presumably to avoid expulsion. Afterwards he “lived obscurely” in Oxford, dying on 3rd May, 1670, “with a girdle[298] lined with broad gold pieces about him (100£ they say),” and was buried in St. Peter’s in the East churchyard. The appointment in his place of Francis Howell, Fellow of Exeter, on 24th October, 1657, marks the ascendancy of the Independents over the Presbyterians in Puritan Oxford. The Fellows of the College had elected Seth Ward (afterwards Bishop of Salisbury), but the Independents persuaded Oliverus Protector to appoint Howell, after the fashion already set in Oxford by Elizabetha Regina, and afterwards followed by Jacobus Rex.

In the Familiar Letters of James Howell are some interesting notices of Oxford and of Jesus College during the times of Mansell, Thelwall, and Jenkins. The writer, James Howell, son of Thomas Howell, minister of Abernant in Carmarthenshire, was born about 1594; and entered Jesus College, where he took his B.A. degree, in 1613. During his absence abroad in the diplomatic service he was chosen on the Foundation of his College by Sir Eubule Thelwall; but whether he was actually admitted is not recorded. Space forbids extracting from his letters the entertaining passages about Oxford; but this is the less to be regretted since the letters are found in many editions, the last being issued in 1890.

Some years after Howell had left College, viz. in 1638, Henry Vaughan, “The Silurist,” entered. In early life he does not seem to have written much; it was owing to illness and trouble that he was led to imitate and often to excel the devotional poetry of George Herbert. This is not the place to dwell upon his merits. His works have been little read, but have gradually asserted their claim to an enduring place in English literature.

Soon afterwards his twin brother, Thomas Vaughan (Eugenius Philalethes), an eminent writer, philosopher, and chemist, was educated in the College. In 1644, James Usher, Archbishop of Armagh, was resident in and a member of the College. At a still earlier period (1602), Rees Prichard was a member of the College. He was afterwards Vicar of Llandovery, and became an eminent poet. His book Canwyll y Cymru, is the best known and most highly valued collection of devotional and religious poetry in the Welsh language.

The above were all Anglican Churchmen and Royalists, but there was at this period some Puritanism in the College. “The growth of Puritan feeling in the city of Oxford is shown by the formation of the first Baptist Society under Vavasour Powell of Jesus College, in 1618. He made many converts in Wales, and in 1657 we hear of John Bunyan accompanying him to Oxford. Powell died at last in the Fleet Prison.”[299]

Among other distinguished members of the College during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries may be briefly mentioned Dr. John Davies (1573), a Welsh scholar and grammarian; John Ellis (1628), author of Clavis Fidei; Edward Lhwyd (1682), a celebrated antiquary, and keeper of the Ashmolean Museum; Henry Maurice (1664), a learned divine and Margaret Professor of Divinity; David Powel (1571), a learned divine and eminent antiquary; his son Gabriel Powel (1592), considered “a prodigy of learning”; John White, M.P. (1607), a well-known character during the Commonwealth; John Williams (1569), Margaret Professor of Divinity, Dean of Bangor, and author; Sir William Williams, a very eminent lawyer and statesman, Speaker of the House of Commons, Solicitor-and Attorney-General (1688); Owen Wood (1584), Dean of Armagh, a considerable benefactor to the College; with many Bishops, a list of whom is here given:—

Bishops educated in Jesus College.

1.Richard MeredithLeighlin and Ferns (1589)
2.John RiderKillaloe (1612)
3.Lewis BayleyBangor (1616)
4.Edmund GriffithBangor (1633)
5.Morgan OwenLlandaff (1639)
6.Thomas HowellBristol (1644)
7.Hugh LloydLlandaff (1660)
8.Francis DaviesLlandaff (1667)
9.Humphrey LloydBangor (1673)
10.William ThomasSt. Davids (1677), Worcester (1683)
11.William LloydSt. Asaph (1680), Lichfield (1698), Worcester (1699)
12.Humphrey HumphreysBangor (1689)
13.John ParryOssory (1689)
14.John LloydSt. Davids (1686)
15.John EvansBangor (1701), Meath (1715)
16.John Wynne[300]St. Asaph (1714), Bath and Wells (1729)

Bishops not educated in Jesus College, but who have been members of the Society.[301]