It must have been in April, or early in May, 1546, that the commissioners, or other officials concerned, took possession of King’s Hall and Michael-House and the ground adjacent thereto. They at once made arrangements to shut up Foul Lane which ran across the present Great Court, to purchase such part of that court as did not belong to King’s Hall and Michael-House, and to enclose the site. Stone and other materials for the new work were taken from the church and cloisters of the dissolved Franciscan monastery which stood on the land now occupied by Sidney Sussex College, and in a survey, dated 20 May 1546, those buildings are described as having been already partially [20] ]demolished in order to provide “towards the building of the King’s Majesty’s new College.”
It is probable that during this time members of King’s Hall and Michael-House were in residence, and possibly also some of the members-elect of Trinity College. The cost of the maintenance of the House and the expenses of the alterations must have been heavy, but in December 1546, the Court of Augmentations was ordered[13] “to pay Dr Redman of your new College in Cambridge £2000 towards the establishment and building of the same, and in recompense for revenues of their lands for a whole year ended Michaelmas last, because the rents were paid to your Majesty’s receivers before they had out letters patent for their donation.” We have no record of these expenses, but I conjecture that this grant allowed a clean start to be made from Michaelmas 1546.
The members of the new College entered into possession of the buildings and began their academic life as members of Trinity College about Michaelmas 1546. The surrender of King’s Hall and Michael-House to the king took place on 28 October, and arrangements were than made to pension the master and eight fellows of Michael-House and one fellow of King’s Hall. Redman was appointed master of the new foundation.
[21]
]The original members of the Society were selected from the whole University with the addition of a few Oxonians: it is believed that all the nominees were favourable to the new learning and the protestant faith. Of the forty childer grammarians named in the Distribucio all save one accepted the nomination; of these, six had been previously members of Michael-House, one a member of Pembroke, one of Peterhouse, one of St John’s, and one of some unnamed College. Of the sixty students nominated to fellowships or scholarships in the letters patent, fourteen did not reside and presumably refused the nomination. Of the forty-six who accepted the office, thirty-six were graduates and ten were non-graduates. Of these thirty-six nominees, three came from Michael-House, one from King’s Hall, two from Christ’s, one from Corpus, one from King’s, one from Pembroke, two from Peterhouse, one from Queens’, one from St Catharine’s, and three from St John’s: of the colleges or hostels from which the remaining twenty had graduated, I can find no particulars. Of the ten non-graduates who accepted the office, one had been at Pembroke, one at Queens’, two at St John’s, and one at Trinity Hall: of the previous history of the remaining five I know nothing. Of the fourteen who did not reside and presumably declined the offer, eleven were graduates, of whom one had been [22] ]at Corpus, one at King’s, one at Pembroke, three at Queens’, two at St John’s, and two at Oxford, and of the remaining graduate I can find no particulars. Of the three non-graduates who did not accept the nomination, one had been at Michael-House, one at Oxford, and of the other I know nothing. It appears from the account-books that there were also still in residence a few students[14] who had been members of King’s Hall and Michael-House: it was only courteous to give these deposed students the hospitality of the House, and they occupied a different position to the pensioners and fellow-commoners who later were admitted in considerable numbers. We cannot prove or disprove the presence at this time of other students, but it is most likely that at first there were no residents in College other than those mentioned above.
The legal formalities connected with the surrender of the properties of King’s Hall and Michael-House took a considerable time, and were not completed till 17 December 1546. The letters patent founding the College and the charter of dotation were signed a few days later[15]. The actual endowment granted was valued at £1640 net a year, [23] ]which must have been deemed ample to provide for the expenses and the maintenance of the House. Comparing this income and the estimated expenditure with those of King’s Hall and Michael-House we gather how much more important than these colleges was the contemplated new foundation.
Thus were King’s Hall and Michael-House dissolved, but only to be merged in a new and nobler Society. The letters patent founding Trinity College state that Henry to the glory and honour of Almighty God and the Holy and Undivided Trinity, for the amplification and establishment of the Christian and true religion, the extirpation of heresy and false opinion, the increase and continuance of divine learning and all kinds of godliness, the knowledge of language, the education of youth in piety virtue discipline and learning, the relief of the poor and destitute, the prosperity of the Church of Christ, and the common good and happiness of his kingdom and subjects, founded and established a College of letters, sciences, philosophy; godliness, and sacred theology, for all time to endure. These are noble objects, and we may look back with honourable pride to the way in which Trinity College has on the whole carried out the intentions of its founder.
The organization of the new College followed closely that outlined in the Distribucio. To meet [24] ]the expenses already incurred during the Michaelmas term the Court of Augmentations[16] in January 1547 paid Redman £590 “towards the exhibition of King’s Scholars in Cambridge.” This was about one-third of the total intended income of the House, and presumably cleared matters up to 24 December 1546, when the College entered into possession of its endowments. If we may trust the sermon preached in London on 12 December 1550, by Thomas Lever, subsequently master of St John’s College, Trinity had reason to regret the death of Henry in January 1547, for the preacher asserted that a substantial part of the intended endowment was appropriated by courtiers in London; I have never investigated what part (if any) of it was thus lost to the College.
The first account-book of the new College covers the civil year 1547, but only certain selected items of income and expenditure appear therein. It shows total receipts of £786. 16s. 7d. and total payments of £799. 11s. 1½d. Most of the income is said to have come from the “Tower.” I conjecture that rents, etc. were paid to the master who kept the college moneys in the treasury in the Tower, and the bursar in his book accounted only for such portion of it as was handed to him: of other sums [25] ]received or paid on account of the Society, we have no particulars. In most cases the commons (though not the stipends or wages) paid to officers are set out, but up to Lady-Day instead of giving full details there is an entry of £52. 6s. 10d. paid to fellows and scholars for “the first quarter after the erection, besides stipends and wages.” The account-book for the next year, 1548, is better kept. It shows total receipts of £531. 13s. 11½d. and total payments of £528. 12s. 8½d. In the accounts of this year are mentioned a master, fifty graduate fellows (of whom thirteen were bachelors), ten dialectici, forty-two grammarians, and eight bible-clerks. Entries appear of payments for commons to six former members of King’s Hall and Michael-House, but of these only three seem to have been in regular residence. An examination of the early account-books allows us to see something of the development of the College, but a description of this would hardly come within the purview of this paper.
[1] Cambridge Documents issued by the Royal Commissioners, London, 1852, vol. III, pp. 365–410.
[2] This was true some years ago when this paper was written, but since then I have given part of the story in a booklet on the King’s Scholars and King’s Hall which, at the request of the College, I wrote in 1917 for the meeting held to celebrate the six-hundredth anniversary of the execution by Edward II of the writ establishing those scholars in the University of Cambridge.