Dr Meriton came to speake with me about the resignation of my office in Trinity College to Mr Brookes.... I surrendered my Auditorship in Trinitye College to the Mr fellows & schollers before a pub. notary.... I dyned at Dr Meriton’s in Hadley & received of him xxlb for my Auditorshippe.... Mr Rich. Brooke the nue Auditor of Trinity College was at my house in Groton to whom I dd. divers paper books & Roles touchinge his Office.
Of the next three auditors I can discover very little. Richard Brooke was appointed in 1610. [132] ]The following conclusion of 8 June 1615, seems to refer to him, “concluded that Mr Brookes in regard of his paines taken divers times for the Colledge that he shoulde ... have given him Twentye pounds,” and during his visits in the following year be allowed commons. We may assume that he held office till the end of 1617. A Richard Brookes had entered at Queens’ as a fellow-commoner in 1587, but whether he was the subsequent auditor there is nothing to show. In 1618 we have the copy of the appointment of Robert Spicer. He held office till the end of 1628, since a conclusion of 3 June 1629, appointed in his place Francis Hughes. Hughes, who held the office till his death in October 1669, was admitted a scholar in 1616, graduated M.A. in 1623, was one of the esquire-bedells, and occupied rooms in College at the time of his death.
The next occupant of the office was Samuel Newton, 1629–1718, a prominent attorney in the town and mayor in 1671. He was not a member of the University. His diary from 1662 to 1717 preserved in the library of Downing College, contains an account of his election to the post in the chapel by the master and seniors, he being present in the antechapel. He attended next day in his gown, was sworn to the faithful discharge of his duties, and signed the roll of college officers. He [133] ]proved thoroughly efficient. For his services at the audit in 1669 he received the fee of £5 with the customary augmentation of £3. 6s. 8d., a sum of £6. 13s. 4d. for engrossing the audit rolls, which henceforth were kept excellently, a sum of £1 for preparing a book of arrears, and a sum of £1. 2s. 8d. for stationery. He also received from the junior bursar, billets of wood of the value of 6s. 8d.; from the steward, a “warp of lyng” of the value of 6s. 8d.; from the manciple, a “coller of brawne, also a dish of wild fowle or 6s. 8d.”; and from the brewhouse, “2 barrels of strong beere.”
In 1674 Newton surrendered his patent of appointment as auditor, but he was immediately reappointed jointly with his cousin, William Ellis, with remainder to the survivor of them. They were at the same time appointed on the same conditions to the office of college registrar, then vacant by the death of a Mr T. Griffith. According to Newton’s diary, William Ellis proceeded M.A. in 1670, but his name does not appear in the list of graduati, unless indeed he is the Wm Ellis who received the degree per lit. reg. in 1671. The college account-books continued to be signed by Newton, and I have not noticed in them evidence that Ellis ever took any part in the audit. The Society’s solicitors and attorneys have frequently acted as registrars, and it may be that Ellis was in partnership [134] ]with Newton, and was for that reason made with him joint auditor and registrar.
Samuel Newton died in 1718 in his ninetieth year. For the three years, 1715, 1716, and 1717, the books were audited by John Newton, presumably his son or grandson, as his deputy. No doubt the arrangement was made in consequence of the failing health of the old gentleman whose signature in 1714 was very shaky. The appointment of a deputy was invalid under the statute, but it must have been made with the approval of Bentley, and perhaps of the seniority. At any rate John Newton conducted the audit, and signed the books as deputy auditor.
Newton was succeeded in 1718 as auditor and registrar by Denys L’Isle. L’Isle had been a fellow-commoner of Trinity Hall, admitted in 1712, graduated LL.B. in 1715, who had gone down and in 1716 taken his name off the books. He was a vigorous and not too scrupulous barrister. He owed his appointment to Bentley, and he showed “extraordinary activity and zeal in promoting all” his benefactor’s “wishes and interests” and represented him in some of his disputes. Whatever view may be taken of Bentley’s character, no one can justify his conduct in regard to the college finances. A notable scandal occurred in the audit of 1722. In the accounts of that year large sums were charged [135] ]to the College for works at the lodge and other sums spent by the master which had not been sanctioned by the Society. Undoubtedly the charges were illegal, but Bentley and L’Isle refused to allow the accounts to be examined by the seniority. In fact in this, as in other matters, L’Isle had no scruple in screening Bentley from the consequences of acts which were neither legal nor honourable.
L’Isle died in 1727, and was succeeded as auditor, steward of the courts, and registrar by William Greaves. Greaves had in 1719 migrated to Clare, Cambridge, from Brasenose, Oxford; he graduated B.A. in 1720, and in 1722 was elected at Clare to a fellowship which he held till 1742. He was a barrister and an able man: he too owed his office to Bentley, and acted as his counsel in many of his tortuous proceedings. Through Bentley’s influence Greaves had in 1726 been made commissary of the University, an office which he held till 1778. The letters patent to the office of college auditor were made out for the term of his life, but a question having been raised as to whether this was statutable, he surrendered them, and the College granted new patents for the term of fifty years if he should live so long. I suppose he was duly admitted to the office, for probably an acute lawyer would have seen to this, but there is no record of the fact in our books.
Greaves seems to have performed his duties as [136] ]auditor in an honourable manner. After the audit of 1778, he surrendered his office at the close of fifty years’ tenure of it: he then received a present of plate from the College, with their thanks for his long and faithful services. Six years later he made a donation to the Society of £100 to found an annual prize for an essay on the character of King William the Third. After nearly a century it was said that the essayists had exhausted the subject, and in 1882 the College got leave to substitute for it one connected with the history of the British Empire.
Robert Graham, 1744–1836, a lawyer of note, succeeded Greaves. Graham had graduated as third wrangler in 1766, and in the following year had been elected to a fellowship. He held the office till after the audit of 1791. He was made a baron of the exchequer in 1799, and proved a singularly inefficient judge. He retired from the bench in 1827.
Graham’s chief distinction is said to have been his urbanity, and at the Bar it was currently believed that no one but his sempstress had power to ruffle his equanimity. He was somewhat pompous, and an adventure of his at the assizes at Newcastle afforded much amusement to his contemporaries. There, on one occasion just before charging the grand jury, he tumbled, unnoticed, into the river from the garden of the house where he lodged, but [137] ]luckily was hauled out by some passing watermen. The rough remedies of the quay-side failed to restore consciousness, and the bystanders, supposing he was drowned, carted him to a dead-house, where he was stripped and laid out. The coroner’s jury, summoned with unusual celerity, had viewed the body, and were considering their verdict when, to their surprise he showed signs of life and came to himself. His position was not altogether dignified, but realizing at once that it is always incumbent on a judge to move in state, he was by his directions fetched from the mortuary in the sheriff’s carriage, with the trumpeters, and usual ceremonial.