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St Alban Hall, Oxford

October 31, 2023

St Alban Hall, sometimes known as St Alban's Hall or Stubbins,[2] was one of the medieval halls of the University of Oxford, and one of the longest-surviving. It was established in the 13th century, acquired by neighbouring Merton College in the 16th century but operated separately until the institutions merged in the late 19th century. The site in Merton Street, Oxford, is now occupied by Merton's Edwardian St Alban's Quad.

St Alban Hall
University of Oxford
St Alban Hall in 1675, by David Loggan
LocationMerton Street
Coordinates51°45′04″N 1°15′05″W / 51.7512°N 1.2513°W / 51.7512; -1.2513
Latin nameAula Sancti Albani[1]
Establishedc. 1230
Closed1882 (incorporated into Merton College)
Named forRobert of Saint Alban
PrincipalSee below
Map
Location in Oxford city centre

History edit

St Alban Hall took its name from Robert of Saint Alban, a citizen of Oxford, who conveyed the property to the priory of nuns at Littlemore, near Oxford, about the year 1230.[3]

 
Cardinal Wolsey

In February 1525, on the recommendation of Thomas Wolsey, Lord Chancellor, as a result of the Littlemore Priory scandals, the priory was dissolved.[4] Its lands and houses in Oxford passed to Wolsey for the use of his new Cardinal College.[5] When Wolsey fell from power in 1529, Littlemore Priory, along with the rest of his wealth and estates, escheated to the Crown.[6] Henry VIII then granted St Alban Hall to George Owen, D.M., who was both the king's physician and a Fellow of Merton College. Owen conveyed it to Sir John Williams, later Lord Williams of Thame, and Sir John Gresham. By permission of Edward VI, in 1547 they transferred the Hall to John Pollard and Robert Perrot, Esquires, who sold it to the Warden and Fellows of Merton College.[3]

St Alban Hall continued for another three centuries as a separate hall with its own students and principal.[7] It was governed by the university's statutes for Academical Halls, and its principal was chosen by the chancellor of the university.[8]

 
St Alban Hall in 1832
 
A view of the Hall in 1837

Chancellor Grenville appointed Richard Whately as principal in 1825, in an attempt to raise standards there.[9] John Henry Newman was Whately's vice-principal from 1825 to 1826,[10] and Samuel Hinds from 1827 to 1831.

As later recalled by Dr Henry Robinson, in the mid-1830s there was only one undergraduate, John Robert Tennant,[11] who was known as "the solitary tenant of Alban Hall".[12] There were seven members when Robinson arrived in 1838, rising to twelve by the time he came down. The only tutor was the vice-principal, while the principal, Edward Cardwell, was a university lecturer on divinity. Those aiming for an honours degree took a private tutor, of whom Bob Lowe of Magdalen was the most popular. The Hall then had four servants, a cook, a manciple, a porter, and a boy. Robinson had found St Alban Hall "rather an expensive place, the number being so few, and there was no endowment."[12]

The last principal, William Salter, was appointed in 1861 and resigned in 1882. In 1877 Prime Minister Disraeli appointed commissioners under Lord Selborne and later Mountague Bernard to consider and implement reform of the university and its colleges.[13] The commissioners came to the view that the four remaining medieval halls were not viable and should merge with colleges.[14] In 1881, the commissioners made a University Statute which provided for St Alban Hall to be united with Merton College in the event of Principal Salter's resignation or death.[3] The Hall then had eighteen members in residence, who were admitted to Merton.[7] In 1887, a similar Statute extinguished New Inn Hall and combined it with Balliol College, on the death of Henry Hubert Cornish.[15] In the event, of the halls only St Edmund Hall would avoid merger.[14]

Henry Robinson cast some of the blame for the end of the Hall on Lord Salisbury, the university's chancellor:

"St Alban Hall is destroyed because it has no friends. No one is interested in it except the principal, and he has been pensioned off... I am sure its extinction was not called for, but there was no one to speak up for it. The Chancellor of the University is the Visitor of all the halls, and he holds his place in trust for his successor."[12]

Robinson died a few days after his article was published.[16]

Buildings edit

St Alban Hall's buildings included a main quadrangle and a smaller court. The Merton Street front of the quad was rebuilt in 1600, funded by Benedict Barnham. The buildings were reconstructed again and a chapel added by John Gibbs from 1863, funded by Principal Salter.[17][18] After 1882 the chapel was no longer needed and was secularized.[19] Between 1904 and 1910 the buildings of the former hall were demolished, apart from part of their front elevation on Merton Street, and the St Alban's Quadrangle of Merton College built on the site.[20]

Principals edit

See also: Category:Principals of St Alban Hall, Oxford

A list of the principals of St Alban Hall.[3]

 
Richard Zouch
 
Richard Whately

Notable alumni edit

See also: Category:Alumni of St Alban Hall, Oxford
 
Cuthbert Mayne

Notes edit

  1. ^ William Upcott, A Bibliographical Account of the Principal Works Relating to English Topography, Vol. 3 (London: Richard and Arthur Taylor, 1818), p. 1108
  2. ^ The Cambridge Review, Vol. 4 (Cambridge: Elijah Johnson, 1882–1883), p. 43
  3. ^ a b c d "The historical register of the University of Oxford: being a supplement to the Oxford University calendar, with an alphabetical record of University honours and distinctions completed to the end of Trinity term 1888", pp. 214–215
  4. ^ William Henry Page, “The priory of Littlemore” in A History of the County of Oxford, vol. 2: Ecclesiastical History (Victoria County History / Archibald Constable & Co., 1907), pp. 75–77
  5. ^ J. A. F. Thomson, The Early Tudor Church and Society 1485–1529 (Routledge, 1993 ISBN 978-0-58206-377-8), p. 231
  6. ^ Ralph Pugh, "Sandford on Thames" in A History of the County of Oxford, vol. 5 (London: Victoria County History, 1957) p. 270
  7. ^ a b , from Merton College web site, archived 29 October 2010 at Archive.org
  8. ^ John Henry Parker, A Hand-book for Visitors to Oxford (Oxford: James Parker, 1875), p. iii
  9. ^ Mark C. Curthoys, Nineteenth-century Oxford, Part 1 (Clarendon Press, 1997), p. 148
  10. ^ Hutton, Arthur Wollaston (1911). "Newman, John Henry" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 19 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 517–520.
  11. ^ Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Tennant, John Robert (1)" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
  12. ^ a b c d Henry Robinson, DD, "St Alban Hall, Oxford" in London Society, January 1887, reprinted in Volume 51, London: F. V. White & Co., 1887, pp. 191–198
  13. ^ L. W. B. Brockliss, The University of Oxford: A History (Oxford University Press, 2016), p. 364–365
  14. ^ a b Brockliss (2016), pp. 370–371
  15. ^ "The historical register of the University of Oxford: being a supplement to the Oxford University calendar, with an alphabetical record of University honours and distinctions completed to the end of Trinity term 1888", p. 213
  16. ^ Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Robinson, Henry (2)" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
  17. ^ Kelly's directory of Berkshire, Bucks and Oxon (Kelly's Directories Ltd, 1911), p. 188
  18. ^ John Gibbs, Dictionary of Greater Manchester Architects (The Victorian Society), accessed 1 December 2020
  19. ^ Oxford Historical Society Publications, Vol. 22 (1892), p. 349
  20. ^ Nikolaus Pevsner and Jennifer Sherwood, The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire (Yale University Press, 1996), p. 164
  21. ^ S. L. Ollard, Fasti Wyndesorienses (Windsor: Dean and Canons of St George's Chapel, 1950
  22. ^ John Ayliffe, The Antient and Present State of the University of Oxford, Volume 1, p. 509
  23. ^ Stuart Handley, "Lamplugh, Thomas (bap. 1615, d. 1691)" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004) online at doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/15956 (subscription required)
  24. ^ "Marsh, Narcissus" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 769.
  25. ^ Rigg, James McMullen (1888). "Duckworth, Richard" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 16. p. 96.
  26. ^ Joseph Foster, "Gresham, (Sir) Thomas", in Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1500–1714 (Oxford: Parker and Co.)
  27. ^ Goodwin, Gordon (1890). "Harcourt, Robert" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 24. p. 321.
  28. ^ LAWTON, Thomas (c.1558-1606), of Church Lawton, Cheshire and Smithfield, London, History of Parliament Online, accessed 30 November 2020
  29. ^ "Penry, John" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 21 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 117.
  30. ^ Firth, Charles (1893). "Lenthall, William" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 33. pp. 55–60.
  31. ^ “Browne, (Sir) Richard”, in Joseph Foster, Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714 (Oxford, 1891)
  32. ^ "Alleine, Theodosia (fl. 1654–1677), nonconformist writer", in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (OUP, 2004) doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/67079
  33. ^ Grosart, Alexander Balloch (1885). "Alleine, William" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 01. pp. 301–302.
  34. ^ North, Frederick John, "Evans, John (1756–1846), surgeon", Dictionary of Welsh Biography, National Library of Wales, accessed 29 November 2020
  35. ^ D. S. Margoliouth, revised by Elizabeth Baigent, “Reay, Stephen [pseud. Pileus Quadratus] (1782–1861)”, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004), online https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/23239
  36. ^ John Bayton, "Dawes, Nathaniel (1843–1910)" in Australian Dictionary of Biography (Melbourne University Press, 1966, ISSN 1833-7538)

External links edit

  • Henry Robinson, DD, "St Alban Hall, Oxford" in London Society, January 1887, reprinted in Volume 51, London: F. V. White & Co., 1887, pp. 191–198

October 31, 2023
alban, hall, oxford, alban, hall, sometimes, known, alban, hall, stubbins, medieval, halls, university, oxford, longest, surviving, established, 13th, century, acquired, neighbouring, merton, college, 16th, century, operated, separately, until, institutions, m. St Alban Hall sometimes known as St Alban s Hall or Stubbins 2 was one of the medieval halls of the University of Oxford and one of the longest surviving It was established in the 13th century acquired by neighbouring Merton College in the 16th century but operated separately until the institutions merged in the late 19th century The site in Merton Street Oxford is now occupied by Merton s Edwardian St Alban s Quad St Alban HallUniversity of OxfordSt Alban Hall in 1675 by David LogganLocationMerton StreetCoordinates51 45 04 N 1 15 05 W 51 7512 N 1 2513 W 51 7512 1 2513Latin nameAula Sancti Albani 1 Establishedc 1230Closed1882 incorporated into Merton College Named forRobert of Saint AlbanPrincipalSee belowMapLocation in Oxford city centre Contents 1 History 2 Buildings 3 Principals 4 Notable alumni 5 Notes 6 External linksHistory editSt Alban Hall took its name from Robert of Saint Alban a citizen of Oxford who conveyed the property to the priory of nuns at Littlemore near Oxford about the year 1230 3 nbsp Cardinal WolseyIn February 1525 on the recommendation of Thomas Wolsey Lord Chancellor as a result of the Littlemore Priory scandals the priory was dissolved 4 Its lands and houses in Oxford passed to Wolsey for the use of his new Cardinal College 5 When Wolsey fell from power in 1529 Littlemore Priory along with the rest of his wealth and estates escheated to the Crown 6 Henry VIII then granted St Alban Hall to George Owen D M who was both the king s physician and a Fellow of Merton College Owen conveyed it to Sir John Williams later Lord Williams of Thame and Sir John Gresham By permission of Edward VI in 1547 they transferred the Hall to John Pollard and Robert Perrot Esquires who sold it to the Warden and Fellows of Merton College 3 St Alban Hall continued for another three centuries as a separate hall with its own students and principal 7 It was governed by the university s statutes for Academical Halls and its principal was chosen by the chancellor of the university 8 nbsp St Alban Hall in 1832 nbsp A view of the Hall in 1837Chancellor Grenville appointed Richard Whately as principal in 1825 in an attempt to raise standards there 9 John Henry Newman was Whately s vice principal from 1825 to 1826 10 and Samuel Hinds from 1827 to 1831 As later recalled by Dr Henry Robinson in the mid 1830s there was only one undergraduate John Robert Tennant 11 who was known as the solitary tenant of Alban Hall 12 There were seven members when Robinson arrived in 1838 rising to twelve by the time he came down The only tutor was the vice principal while the principal Edward Cardwell was a university lecturer on divinity Those aiming for an honours degree took a private tutor of whom Bob Lowe of Magdalen was the most popular The Hall then had four servants a cook a manciple a porter and a boy Robinson had found St Alban Hall rather an expensive place the number being so few and there was no endowment 12 The last principal William Salter was appointed in 1861 and resigned in 1882 In 1877 Prime Minister Disraeli appointed commissioners under Lord Selborne and later Mountague Bernard to consider and implement reform of the university and its colleges 13 The commissioners came to the view that the four remaining medieval halls were not viable and should merge with colleges 14 In 1881 the commissioners made a University Statute which provided for St Alban Hall to be united with Merton College in the event of Principal Salter s resignation or death 3 The Hall then had eighteen members in residence who were admitted to Merton 7 In 1887 a similar Statute extinguished New Inn Hall and combined it with Balliol College on the death of Henry Hubert Cornish 15 In the event of the halls only St Edmund Hall would avoid merger 14 Henry Robinson cast some of the blame for the end of the Hall on Lord Salisbury the university s chancellor St Alban Hall is destroyed because it has no friends No one is interested in it except the principal and he has been pensioned off I am sure its extinction was not called for but there was no one to speak up for it The Chancellor of the University is the Visitor of all the halls and he holds his place in trust for his successor 12 Robinson died a few days after his article was published 16 Buildings editSt Alban Hall s buildings included a main quadrangle and a smaller court The Merton Street front of the quad was rebuilt in 1600 funded by Benedict Barnham The buildings were reconstructed again and a chapel added by John Gibbs from 1863 funded by Principal Salter 17 18 After 1882 the chapel was no longer needed and was secularized 19 Between 1904 and 1910 the buildings of the former hall were demolished apart from part of their front elevation on Merton Street and the St Alban s Quadrangle of Merton College built on the site 20 Principals editSee also Category Principals of St Alban Hall Oxford A list of the principals of St Alban Hall 3 1437 Roger Martin 1439 Robert Ashe 1444 John Gygur 1450 William Shyrefe 1452 William Romsey 1468 1477 Thomas Danett 21 1477 Richard FitzJames later Bishop of London Thomas Lynley Robert Gosbourne Ralph Hamsterley 1501 Hugh Saunders alias Shakspeere 1503 John Forster 1507 John Beverstone 1507 William Bysse 1509 Richard Walker 1510 John Pokyswell 1514 John Hoper Simon Balle 1527 Walter Buckler 1530 Robert Tailer 1532 William Pedyll 1535 Robert Huyck 1536 Richard Smyth also first Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford 1539 Humphrey Burneford 1543 John Estwyck 1547 William Marshall 1567 Arthur Atye Richard Radclyffe nbsp Richard Zouch1599 Robert Masters 1603 Henry Masters 1614 Anthony Morgan 1621 Richard Parker 1624 Edward Chaloner 1625 1661 Richard Zouch 1641 Sir Giles Sweit 22 1664 1673 Thomas Lamplugh 23 1673 1679 Narcissus Marsh 24 1679 Thomas Bouchier 1692 Richard Duckworth 25 1723 James Bouchier 1736 Robert Leyborne 1759 Francis Randolph nbsp Richard Whately1797 1823 Thomas Winstanley 1823 1825 Peter Elmsley 1825 1831 Richard Whately later Archbishop of Dublin 12 1831 1861 Edward Cardwell 1861 1882 William Charles SalterNotable alumni editSee also Category Alumni of St Alban Hall Oxford nbsp Cuthbert MayneCuthbert Mayne c 1543 1577 Roman Catholic priest executed in the time of Elizabeth I Sir Thomas Gresham died 1630 landowner and member of parliament 26 Robert Harcourt died 1631 explorer 27 Thomas Crompton died 1608 a barrister and judge Thomas Lawton c 1558 1606 a barrister and judge 28 John Penry 1563 1593 Welsh Protestant martyr 29 Matthew Slade 1569 1628 nonconformist minister Gervase Clifton 1st Baron Clifton c 1570 1618 landowner and peer Edward Lapworth 1574 1636 physician and Latin poet Philip Massinger 1583 1640 dramatist William Lenthall 1591 1662 Speaker of the House of Commons 30 Samuel Turner c 1582 1647 Cavalier soldier Sir Richard Browne 1st Baronet of Deptford died 1683 English ambassador to France 31 Richard Alleine 1610 11 1681 Puritan divine 32 William Alleine 1614 1677 clergyman 33 Bartholomew Ashwood 1622 1680 puritan divine John Durel 1625 1683 clergyman Thomas Hancorne 1642 1731 clergyman Francis Willis 1718 1807 physician John Evans 1756 1846 Welsh surgeon and cartographer 34 Stephen Reay 1782 1861 Laudian Professor of Arabic 35 Nathaniel Dawes 1843 1910 Anglican bishop in Australia 36 Edward Smith 1854 1908 clergyman and first class cricketerNotes edit William Upcott A Bibliographical Account of the Principal Works Relating to English Topography Vol 3 London Richard and Arthur Taylor 1818 p 1108 The Cambridge Review Vol 4 Cambridge Elijah Johnson 1882 1883 p 43 a b c d The historical register of the University of Oxford being a supplement to the Oxford University calendar with an alphabetical record of University honours and distinctions completed to the end of Trinity term 1888 pp 214 215 William Henry Page The priory of Littlemore in A History of the County of Oxford vol 2 Ecclesiastical History Victoria County History Archibald Constable amp Co 1907 pp 75 77 J A F Thomson The Early Tudor Church and Society 1485 1529 Routledge 1993 ISBN 978 0 58206 377 8 p 231 Ralph Pugh Sandford on Thames in A History of the County of Oxford vol 5 London Victoria County History 1957 p 270 a b St Alban Hall Library amp Archives from Merton College web site archived 29 October 2010 at Archive org John Henry Parker A Hand book for Visitors to Oxford Oxford James Parker 1875 p iii Mark C Curthoys Nineteenth century Oxford Part 1 Clarendon Press 1997 p 148 Hutton Arthur Wollaston 1911 Newman John Henry In Chisholm Hugh ed Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 19 11th ed Cambridge University Press pp 517 520 Foster Joseph 1888 1892 Tennant John Robert 1 Alumni Oxonienses the Members of the University of Oxford 1715 1886 Oxford Parker and Co via Wikisource a b c d Henry Robinson DD St Alban Hall Oxford in London Society January 1887 reprinted in Volume 51 London F V White amp Co 1887 pp 191 198 L W B Brockliss The University of Oxford A History Oxford University Press 2016 p 364 365 a b Brockliss 2016 pp 370 371 The historical register of the University of Oxford being a supplement to the Oxford University calendar with an alphabetical record of University honours and distinctions completed to the end of Trinity term 1888 p 213 Foster Joseph 1888 1892 Robinson Henry 2 Alumni Oxonienses the Members of the University of Oxford 1715 1886 Oxford Parker and Co via Wikisource Kelly s directory of Berkshire Bucks and Oxon Kelly s Directories Ltd 1911 p 188 John Gibbs Dictionary of Greater Manchester Architects The Victorian Society accessed 1 December 2020 Oxford Historical Society Publications Vol 22 1892 p 349 Nikolaus Pevsner and Jennifer Sherwood The Buildings of England Oxfordshire Yale University Press 1996 p 164 S L Ollard Fasti Wyndesorienses Windsor Dean and Canons of St George s Chapel 1950 John Ayliffe The Antient and Present State of the University of Oxford Volume 1 p 509 Stuart Handley Lamplugh Thomas bap 1615 d 1691 in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Oxford University Press 2004 online at doi 10 1093 ref odnb 15956 subscription required Marsh Narcissus Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 17 11th ed 1911 p 769 Rigg James McMullen 1888 Duckworth Richard Dictionary of National Biography Vol 16 p 96 Joseph Foster Gresham Sir Thomas in Alumni Oxonienses the Members of the University of Oxford 1500 1714 Oxford Parker and Co Goodwin Gordon 1890 Harcourt Robert Dictionary of National Biography Vol 24 p 321 LAWTON Thomas c 1558 1606 of Church Lawton Cheshire and Smithfield London History of Parliament Online accessed 30 November 2020 Penry John Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 21 11th ed 1911 p 117 Firth Charles 1893 Lenthall William Dictionary of National Biography Vol 33 pp 55 60 Browne Sir Richard in Joseph Foster Alumni Oxonienses 1500 1714 Oxford 1891 Alleine Theodosia fl 1654 1677 nonconformist writer in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography OUP 2004 doi 10 1093 ref odnb 67079 Grosart Alexander Balloch 1885 Alleine William Dictionary of National Biography Vol 01 pp 301 302 North Frederick John Evans John 1756 1846 surgeon Dictionary of Welsh Biography National Library of Wales accessed 29 November 2020 D S Margoliouth revised by Elizabeth Baigent Reay Stephen pseud Pileus Quadratus 1782 1861 in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Oxford University Press 2004 online https doi org 10 1093 ref odnb 23239 John Bayton Dawes Nathaniel 1843 1910 in Australian Dictionary of Biography Melbourne University Press 1966 ISSN 1833 7538 External links editHenry Robinson DD St Alban Hall Oxford in London Society January 1887 reprinted in Volume 51 London F V White amp Co 1887 pp 191 198 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title St Alban Hall Oxford amp oldid 1172440659, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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