Gresham College

Gresham College

The original College was in Gresham House (q.v.) on the east side of Old Broad Street, the residence of Sir Thomas Gresham, erected in the 16th century.

Under Gresham's Will, which came into operation in 1596, the College was established in his house and the seven lectureships were founded. It remained here until 1768, when the site was sold to the Crown and the Excise Office erected. …

It is interesting to note that the members of the Royal Society held their first meetings in the old Gresham College.

Gresham College, is a Noble Ancient Structure, situate on the S.E. side of Broad Str. or Wly side of Bishopsgate Str.

It is so called from the Founder, the worthy and famous Sir Thomas Gresham, Agent to Q. Elizabeth, whose Dwelling-house it sometime was. Here he founded the following Lectures by his Will dated 1579, viz. He gave half the Royal Exchange and the Building thereto belonging to the Mayor and Commonalty of the City of London and their Successors for ever, in Trust, that they provide 4 qualified Persons to read Lectures of Divinity, Geometry, Musick and Astronomy within his Dwelling-house, for which each Reader to to have 50 l. per Annum. And to the Company of Mercers the other Moiety, who were also to find 3 Readers, viz. of Civil Law, Physick and Rhetorick, for which he also settled on them, in Trust, 50 l. per Ann. each, besides which they have handsome Lodgings, which was since confirmed by Parliament. And accordingly the first Lectures were begun in June 1597, Read by

Mr. Anthony Wotton for Divinity. D. Matthew Gwin for Physick. Dr. Henry Mountlow for Civil Law. Dr. John Bull for Musick. Mr. Brerewood for Astronomy. Mr. Henry Bridges for Geometry, and Mr. Caleb Wallis for Rhetorick.

Which Lectures were read daily in Term-time except Sundays, and have so continued for the most part ever since. See also his Alms-Houses under Broad-Street, Sect. the 6. and his Mon. under St. Helens, Sect. the 2d. also Royal Exchange, Sect. the 3d.

This College was partly re-built, 'tis likely, Anno 1601, that Date being in the Nly Window of the Repository, with the Arms of Sir Tho. Gresham, viz. Argent, a Chevron ermin betn 3 Mullets sable pierced; which Building narrowly escaped the Flames in 1666. The Court is near 144 Foot square, built on each side with Brick covered with Slate, containing the Hall, the Repositorie, the Library, and several Lodgings for the Professors.

The present Learned Professors are as follows.

Names of Professors.	Faculties.	Days they Read on.	Time and Place
Edward Laney, A.M.	Divinity,	Monday,	Beginning at 9 in the Morning and 3 Afternoon, in the Hall near the S. Angle of the Court.
Robert Briggs, A.M.	Civil Law,	Tuesday,
Alexand. Toriano, L.L.B.	Astrononomy,	Wednesday,
Andrew Took, A.M.	Geometry,	Thursday,
Edward Martin, A.M.	Rhetorick,	Friday,
John Wodward, M.D.	Physick,	Saturday A.M.
Shirpen, A.M.	Musicik,	Saturday P.M.

These Read in the Morning in English, in the Afternoon Latin (except the Musick, which is English) during the Term-time; and in case of any Vacancy, the Choice is by the City or by the Company of Mercers, as is said above, for their respective Faculties according to the said Will.

The Royal Society.

At this College, every Wednesday about 3 Afternoon in a Room by the Sly Corner of the Quadrangle do meet the Royal Society, who are a Corporation of the greatest Proficients in all kinds of Learning, whose Principal design is the Improving of Natural and Experimental Knowledge, which they have been very diligent and successful in ever since the first meetings of a few Philosophical Gent. at the Lodgings of Bp Wilkins at Wadham College in Oxford, as the late Honourable Robert Boyle, Esq; Dr. Ward Bp of Salisbury, Sir Christopher Wren, Sir William Petty, Dr. Wallis, Dr. Willis, Dr. Goddard, Dr. Bathurst, Dr. Hook, the late Professor of Geometry in this College, &c. and 2 Years before the Restauration many had meetings here on the same design, as Lord Brounker the first President, who continued it in 14 Years; Sir Robert Moray, John Eveling, Esq; Sir George Ent, Dr. Croon, Henry Slingsby, Esq; &c. And after the Restauration of King Charles, his Majesty was so far induced to forward this laudable Undertaking, as in the Year 1663, to grant them a Charter of Incorporation, bearing Date (as by their Charter-Book in the Library) Apr. 22°.15° Car. 2°. of which Society the King stiled himself Founder, Patron and Companion, granting them many ample Privileges, constituting them, The Royal Society, to be composed of a President, 20 Council, and Fellows, with a Treasurer, Secretaries, Curators, &c. and granting them power to purchase Lands, have a Common Seal, Print their Proceedings, License Books, take Bodies of Malefactors for Anatomy, make By-Laws and Orders, &c. and to bear these Armorial Ensigns.

Their Arms.

Arms Argent, on a Canton Gules, 3 Lions of England; Supporters, 2 Hunting Hounds argent, each collered with Ducal Coronets Or, Crest on a Helmet proper and Coronet as before; an Eagle proper, supporting with his right Foot an Escutcheon as the Canton. Motto,

NULLIUS IN VERBA.

Gresham College

Sir Thomas Gresham, Knt. a Merchant of London, Agent to the Queen's Highness, and a Citizen of the Company of Mercers, by his last Will and Testament made in the Year 1575, gave the Royal Exchange, and all the Buildings thereunto appertaining, that is to say, the one Moiety to the Maior and Commonalty of London, and their Successors, upon Trust that they perform, as shall be declared; and the other Moiety to the Mercers, in like Confidence. The Maior and Commonalty, to find Four to read Lectures of Divinity, Astronomy, Musick, and Geometry, within his Dwelling House in Bishopsgatestreet, and to bestow the Sum of 200l. to wit, 50l. a Piece, &c. The Mercers likewise, to find three Readers, that is, in Civil Law, Physick, and Rhetorick, within the same Dwelling House; and to bestow the Sum of 150l. that is, to every Reader 50l.

Sir Tho. Gresham's College in London. Four Readers to be found by the Maior and Commonalty. Three Readers by the Mercers.

These Salaries, and other Requests of Sir Thomas Gresham, amounting in all to 603l. odd Money, are payable out of the Rents of the Exchange, and other Rents of Houses belonging thereto. But the excessive Charges in rebuilding the Exchange, by a Model which was shewn to, and liked by K. Charles II. (which some which know, say, cost not less than 80000l.) hath put the Company in Debt, and somewhat postponed the Payment of the Salaries.

Salaries.

Gresham College, situated within the walls between Bishopsgate street and Broadstreet, and was formerly the dwelling of the founder Sir Thomas Gresham, Knt. a merchant of London, and one of the company of Mercers, who after he had built the Royal Exchange, bequeathed half the revenue thereof to the Mayor and Commonalty of London, and their successors, and the other moiety to the company of Mercers, in trust that the Mayor and Commonalty should find in all times to come four able perfons to read in his dwelling house in Bishopsgate street, lectures on divinity, astronomy, geometry, and Music, and allow each of them besides handsome lodgings in that house, the sum of 50 l. a year: and that the company of Mercers should find three other able men to read lectures in the civil law, rhetoric, and physic, pay them the same salary, and allow them the same accommodations. These salaries and other bequests of Sir Thomas Gresham, amounting in the whole to 603 1. are payable out of the rents of the Royal Exchange, and there is a grand committee for the management of the affairs of this college and the Exchange, which consists of four Aldermen, whereof the Lord Mayor is always one; twelve of the company of Mercers, and eight of the Common Council, for the city. These lectures were first read in Trinity term, 1597, and with some interruptions have been continued to the present time.

The order of reading every term time is, Monday, divinity; Tuesday, civil law; Wednesday, astronomy; Thursday, geometry; Friday, rhetoric; Saturday, anatomy in the morning, and music in the afternoon. Stow, last edit. But since the institution of the Royal Society, these lectures are in a manner deserted, the professors having seldom above three or four auditors, and those of the most ordinary people. The print reprefents the inside of the quadrangle in its present state.

Gresham College, Gresham Street and Basinghall Street, was so called after Sir Thomas Gresham, who gave the Royal Exchange to the Corporation of London and the Mercers' Company, on their undertaking to institute a series of lectures on seven different subjects (Divinity, Civil Law, Astronomy, Music, Geometry, Rhetoric, and Physic), to be read in the dwelling-house of the founder, bequeathed by him for the purposes of the college. Lady Gresham, the widow, dying in 1596, Gresham's house, which stood in Bishopsgate Street, and with the grounds reached back to Broad Street, and which is described by Stow as "built of brick and timber, and the most spacious of all there about," was taken possession of and the operations of the college commenced. Seven professors were appointed, lectures were begun in June 1597, and read throughout "Term Time" every day, Sundays excepted—in the morning in Latin, between nine and ten; and in the afternoon in English, between two and three. After the Great Fire the Exchange was temporarily held in this the first Gresham College. It was taken down in 1768, the ground on which it stood made over to the Crown for a perpetual rent of £500 per annum; the late Excise Office erected on the site; and the reading of the lectures removed to a room above the Royal Exchange. A new College was built in 1843 from the designs of George Smith, architect to the Mercers' Company, at the corner of Basinghall Street, in Gresham Street, and the first lecture read in it November 2, 1843.

Sir C. Wren succeeded Dr. Rooke as Gresham Professor of Astronomy in 1657, and his lectures were attended by the leading members of the club, out of which the Royal Society originated. Hardly had Wren completed his first course of lectures when the death of Cromwell threw the affairs of Gresham College, no less than those of the nation, into confusion. The college was converted into a barrack, and the inhabitants ejected. Writing to Wren, who had retired to Oxford in 1658, immediately after Oliver's death, Bishop Sprat says:—

This day I went to visit Gresham College, but found the place in such a nasty condition, so defiled and the smells so infernal, that if you should now come to make use of your tube, it would be like Dives looking out of hell into heaven. Dr. Goddard [Professor of Physic, who had been Cromwell's medical attendant in his Scotch campaign] of all your colleagues alone keeps possession, which he could never be able to do had he not before prepared his nose for camp perfumes by his voyage into Scotland, and had he not such excellent restoratives in his cellars.—Parentalia p. 154.

Dr. Isaac Barrow was appointed Professor of Geometry in 1662, but only held the post for two years, finding it to be incompatible with the due performance of his duties at Cambridge. Dr. Robert Hooke, the famous mathematician, was his successor, and had his lodgings in the college, where he died, after a residence of nearly forty years, March 3, 1703. The professors had "most comfortable and commodious apartments" assigned to them in the college,¹ and they seem not to have been the only residents. Thus we read of Sir Kenelm Digby that, after his wife's death,

to avoyd envy and scandall, he retired into Gresham College, in London, where he diverted himself with his chymistry, and the professors' good conversation. He wore there a long mourning cloake, a high cornered hatt, his beard unshorne, look't like a hermite, as signes of sorrowe for his beloved wife. ... He stayed at the College two or 3 years.—Aubrey, Lives vol. ii p. 327.

In 1697 an inquiry was ordered to be made by a sub-committee of the joint Gresham Committee "into the manner in which the Professors' Lodgings were used and occupied," when it was found that the majority of the professors, instead of living in their rooms, had let them to persons unconnected with the college. Dr. Woodward and his predecessor, for example, had let "the Physick Lodgings ... to one Mr. Styles, a merchant, for ten years or more; and the said Mr Styles, his two nieces and two servants, are now in the said lodgings."² The Royal Society held its meetings in Gresham College from 1660 to 1710. Sir William Temple contemptuously called the Royal Society the "Men of Gresham."³ And Young wrote:—

Satire! had I thy Dorset's force divine,
A knave or fool should perish in each line;
Tho' for the first all Westminster should plead,
And for the last all Gresham intercede."
Young, First Satire.

January 23, 1661.—To Gresham College (where I never was before) and saw the manner of the house, and found a great company of persons of honour there.—Pepys.

February 15, 1664–1665.—To Gresham College, where I had been by Mr. Povy the last week proposed to be admitted a member; and was this day admitted.—Pepys.

It was here [Gresham College] that the celebrated Royal Society, so famous all over the learned world, also kept their assemblies; but on some difference of late, between that Society and the Professors in the College, that noble body have removed [1710] into Two Crane Court, in Fleet Street, where they have purchased a very handsome house, and built a repository for their curiosities in a little paved court behind.—Macky, A Journey through England, 8vo, 1722, vol. i. p. 259.

June 1719.—Last week Dr. Mead and Dr. Woodward, both belonging to Gresham College, in walking down Bishopsgate Street, quarrelled and caned one another; and when they came into the Square of the College they drew and fought; the latter was wounded in several places, and making another pass, Dr. Woodward fell down backwards, and the other gave him his life.—Mist's Journal, June 13, 1719.

When Woodward fell Mead is reported to have said, "Take your life," to which the other replied, "Anything but your physic!" They had quarrelled over a medical question. Of the old college there is an engraving by Vertue, before Ward's Lives of the Gresham Professors, (1740); and in Hawkins's Life of Johnson (p. 245) is a curious story explanatory of the figures in the print. Gresham's house was of brick and timber, but Vertue's engraving represents a building of a later date. There is an engraving of the central square of Gresham College, as it then existed, in Dodsley's London, 1761.

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¹ Ward, Lives of the Gresham Professors.
² Weld's Hist. of Royal Society vol. i. p. 319.
³ Monk's Bentley, 4to, p. 47.