Sir Thomas Gresham (1519 -1579)
His Will and Endowments with reference to Gresham College –
The tradition of wealthy merchants leaving endowments in their Will for City institutions and charities was nothing new. Sir Richard Whittington , the 15th century Lord Mayor of London, is the perfect example of someone who left legacies that would finance public projects for many hundreds of years. Thomas Gresham was following tradition.
However, having read some fairly ancient commentaries on why Thomas Gresham wanted to endow a new College of learning in the City, there appears to be some speculation about his motives.
There is reason to believe that Thomas’ idea of forming an education establishment had been in his thoughts for sometime before his Will of 1575. It is thought that Gresham’s first choice of endowment was his Alma Mater, Cambridge University. He promised £500 to Cambridge for either the support of some ancient foundation or towards the erection of a new college. There is evidence of letters from the authorities at Cambridge, twice reminding Thomas Gresham of his intentions to endow. They also argued against a college in London, which would prove prejudicial to both the interests of Cambridge and Oxford.
The early death of Thomas’ son in 1564 and of his niece in 1573 may have prompted a re-think. With no dynasty and no provincial birthplace to lavish his endowments the City would be the place where his name would be established “indelibly as a civic benefactor of the greatest munificence”
Writers also note that Thomas Gresham’s knighthood came through his reputation as a Merchant Adventurer and Queen’s Agent and not through his livery company or civic duties. He was never in the Court of Alderman or in the civic hierarchy. He needed a way of securing his civic legacy. However there is no doubt that Thomas Gresham’s public spirit, his benevolence and his encouraging of learning were celebrated in the foundation of Gresham College.
Thomas’ Will states that lectures were to be given within his own house in Bishopsgate. It has been commented that the design of the house, its reading Hall and apartments ‘ seemed to herald its possible future as a college’. He built the house in circa 1558, some years before the Will of 1575. Thomas must have felt Cambridge University was well provided for and London wasn’t. He really wished for London to have a prestigious seat of learning.
Thomas’ Will instructs the Mayor and the Corporation of the City of London to nominate 4 persons to read lectures on Divinity, Music and Geometry within his own “dwelling house in the parish of St. Helen’s Bishopsgate” – a sum of £200 annually was to be given equally to the readers for their salaries and stipends. These were considered to be generous amounts at the time. They were to be funded by the rents from the Royal Exchange and were to be paid twice yearly on the Feast of the Annuniciation and of St. Michael Archangel.
He also instructed the Mercers Company to appoint 3 further persons ( and their successors) to read Law, Physic and Rhetoric, with a shared stipend of £150 annually.
“The readers were to be sufficiently learned and would be able to use his mansion, gardens and appurtenances”. Here they would live and study. The readers must be single men and if they married would have to leave the college. This fact remains something of a mystery to historians. It could have been to give opportunities to widowers. Thomas also wanted to appoint graduates of Oxford and Cambridge where academics tended to marry later due to their studies. These would be young men, not burdened with adult responsibilities, could therefore devote their life wholly. They would be resident without families. *
These wishes would only come into force after the death of his widow Alice in 1596.
The Will gave very little detail otherwise in guiding Thomas’ foundation. However a quote from the Governors of the Institution directs
“the public reading of the said lectures might be performed in a such a manner as should tend to the glory of God and the common benefit of the people of this city which we doubt not to be the principle end of the founder in ordaining the said lectures”
Lectures were to be free and were to be twice a day at 8am amd 2pm. Gresham lectures were advertised in the Royal Exchange to ‘their intended audience’. There was a bell at the Royal Exchange which rang twice a day to give notice of the lectures.
Monday: Physic
Tuesday: Law -3/4 hour in Latin and ¼ hour in English. Directed at discussing legal questions most likely to prove interesting to merchants and citizens .
Wednesday: Divinity. Readings were to endorse the teachings of the Church of England and condemn the false opinions of popery and other sects.
Thursday: Geometry
Friday: Astronomy
Saturday: Music
Rhetoric was to be lectured on every day of the week.
Lectures were to be in Latin so “diverse strangers of foreign countries who resort to Gresham College will greatly desire to hear the reading of the said lectures”
*The principle of being an un married man did become a bone of contention in the 18th century and cast doubts over the College’s future.
Sources:
The Life and Times of Thomas Gresham Vol 2 by Burgon
Gresham College by S.J. Teague
Thomas Gresham – Margaret Pelling
Mary
Current – POLICY AND OBJECTIVE
- Foster study, learning and research, particularly (but not exclusively) in those disciplines represented by the Gresham Professorships
- Supplement the disciplines of the Gresham Professorships with a range of relevant additional series, one-off lectures, seminars and symposia in subject areas as considered appropriate in the twenty-first century
- Foster academic consideration of contemporary issues and problems
- Challenge those who live and work in London and elsewhere to engage in intellectual debate
- Make a contribution to society through the pursuit, dissemination, and application of knowledge, by means of innovative collaboration and partnerships
- Be open and all-embracing, encouraging diversity both in disciplines and the profile of Professors, lecturers and audiences
- Publicise and communicate the work of the College and its Professors, sharing information and new learning to an ever-widening and increasing audience in London, the UK and beyond
He wished for London to have a prestigious seat of learning like Oxford and Cambridge. It was unthinkable that the City should lack such an institution. So he left provision for Gresham College to have a premises and funding for seven professors, each to deliver a lecture once a week in Latin and English. The chairs were, and are: Astronomy; Divinity; Geometry (i.e. Mathematics); Law; Music; Physic; Rhetoric. An eighth chair – Commerce – was added
The lectures at Gresham College were to be given by seven professors who would receive an annual stipend and be provided with rooms at the College which was located in Thomas Gresham’s large mansion in Bishopsgate. Four of the seven professorships: Divinity, Astronomy, Geometry and Music, were appointed by the Corporation of London and the other three: Law, Physic and Rhetoric, by the Mercers’ Company. In 1985 a Chair in Commerce funded by the Mercers’ School Memorial Trust became the eighth subject. The inaugural lectures took place in October 1597.Over four hundred years later the City of London Corporation and the Mercers’ Company continue to make these appointments and the professors continue to give free public lectures, augmented by visiting professors lecturing on other topics. Lectures are usually given at the College’s premises at Barnard’s Inn or at the Museum of London.
Gresham College buildings
Gresham College was established in 1597 in the mansion that Thomas Gresham had had built between Bishopsgate and Broad Street in 1559-62. Based around courtyards and with a large quadrangle and a reading hall, it bore a resemblance to the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, so maybe Gresham already intended to make it an educational institution.
An engraving dated much later, 1740, gives a good picture of the property (search ‘Gresham College’ on Collage to see the engraving by George Vertue). The various areas are numbered and the key identifies the lodgings of the seven professors, along with the reading hall, the ‘elaboratory’, courtyards and galleries, the stables and even the turret housing an astronomical telescope, specially built for Robert Hooke. And, facing on to Broad Street, there are the eight Gresham Almshouses.
Going back 80 years to the 1660s, there were probably superficial differences, but the layout of the college would have been much the same. There was masses of space, far more than seems necessary for seven professors, even with a number of servants looking after them. In 1660 some of the spare space was taken over by the new Royal Society, which was founded in November that year by a group of 12 men who met after a lecture by the then Gresham Professor of Astronomy, Christopher Wren. The Society met weekly to witness experiments and discuss scientific topics, and it quickly built up a substantial library and collection of specimens and equipment.
But the College was soon to become much more crowded, and the reason for that was the Great Fire of 1666. The College was not touched by the fire, as shown in Hollar’s map of 1667, and such a large property was a huge asset for the City Corporation, which of course was the joint owner with the Mercers’ Company. Already on Thursday 6 September, with the City still smouldering, an emergency meeting was held at Gresham House and it was decided that the City officials who had lost their dwellings would move in. The Lord Mayor, Thomas Bludworth, the Sheriffs, the Town Clerk, the Chamberlain, the City Swordbearer and various others took over parts of the lodgings of the professors, despite some opposition. Special dispensation was granted to the Gresham Professor of Astronomy and to Robert Hooke, the Royal Society’s Curator of Experiments, because of the collections they looked after and so that the Royal Society could continue to meet. The Society, though, soon moved out as Gresham House began to fill up with refugees from the burnt-out Royal Exchange. (It eventually returned in 1673 and stayed until 1711, when it moved into its own building.)
The merchants, traders and shopkeepers from the Royal Exchange needed to get back down to business as soon as they could, and so a subcommittee was set up to divide up and allocate the available space in Gresham College. Within weeks every nook and cranny was filled with stalls and booths: not just the rooms but the galleries, walks, warehouses and cellars. Sheds were erected against walls and in gateways, and there was such a demand for space that even the poor almsmen were asked to vacate their rooms, being given an extra £3 6s 8d each to provide themselves with lodgings. Needless to say, it was impossible to hold public lectures or do any teaching. This situation lasted for nearly five years until the new Royal Exchange was ready. (There are many more details in Hazel Forsyth’s book produced for the Great Fire exhibition at the Museum of London, see below.)
Returning to the 1740 engraving, this image may be deceptive and somewhat idealised. For years the Joint Grand Gresham Committee – the City Corporation and the Mercers – had been rather neglecting their responsibilities as regards the upkeep of the College. As early as 1701 they petitioned Parliament to be allowed to demolish the property, build a smaller replacement College and let out the rest of the site. Permission was refused, and the same happened in 1760 when the Committee submitted another petition, this time proposing only to provide a room for the lectures elsewhere. But in 1768 the government issued a compulsory purchase order for the site, in order to build a grand new Revenue and Excise Office. The Corporation and the Mercers had no choice but to hand over the property, which was duly demolished – to make things worse, the Corporation and the Mercers had to pay the cost of the demolition. The almsmen were moved to new accommodation in Whitecross Street, but Gresham College was left homeless. The lectures continued, being delivered at various places in the City including – somewhat ironically – in the Royal Exchange, until that burnt down again in 1838. A commentator wrote in the 1840s that: ‘… a small, dirty, dusky room in the upper story of the old Royal Exchange was selected by the liberal and enlightened Joint Grand Gresham Committee for the lectures, and there, at very inconvenient hours during term time, certain of the professors drawled out vapid nonsense to a thin and sneering audience, until that edifice was consumed by fire.’
Things soon got better, though, and in 1842 a new purpose-built college opened in the newly created Gresham Street on the corner of Basinghall Street. It had a lecture theatre, library and other facilities, the lecture theatre seating 240 with a further 180 in the gallery until 1908 when the gallery was closed by the Fire Officer. Through the second half of the 19th century the College’s fortunes improved as the demand for education increased. Public lectures were particularly popular in the early 20th century and in 1911 an adjacent site was acquired and the College was enlarged. The building still displays two foundation stones, for the two sides of the Joint Committee. Lectures continued, except during the Second World War, when the building was used by the Office of Works and the Air Raid Disasters Department, and also hosted concerts and the occasional dance.
Lectures resumed after the war, but with poor attendances there were lengthy discussions about the future of the College. In 1958 its library was transferred to the Guildhall and in the 1960s the building was rented out. The lectures were moved to the City University building in St John’s Street, and then for a while in the 1980s the College was located in Frobisher Crescent in the Barbican. It then operated from Mercers’ Hall and finally, in 1991, Gresham College found a new home in Barnard’s Inn Hall, where it remains today.
Barnard’s Inn dates back to at least the mid 13th century, when it was part of the estate of Sir Adam de Baysing, a City merchant and draper. (His name survives in Basinghall Street and Bassishaw Ward.) It later passed to John Mackworth, who became Dean of Lincoln and left it to the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln when he died in 1451. It was already being used as a school for legal training and by 1435 it was named Barnard’s Inn after its Principal, Lionel Barnard. In 1454 it became an Inn of Chancery, linked (along with Staple Inn) to Gray’s Inn. It was badly damaged in 1780 in the Gordon Riots when a gin distillery next door was set alight by rioters because it was owned by a Roman Catholic. By 1830 Barnard’s Inn had become a set of residential chambers, then in 1888 the link with the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln was broken. Soon after that it was purchased by the Mercers’ Company to house the Mercers’ School, which remained there until 1959.
The Hall itself dates from the 15th century and has 16th-century linen-fold panelling. Other rooms are 18th century, while in the room below the Hall there is some late Saxon or medieval walling possibly reusing Roman materials. In 1932 the Mercers organised substantial renovations to the roof and windows of the Hall and also installed two Tudor-style fireplaces. Further renovations were carried out in 1990, with facilities added for meetings and functions, ready for Gresham College to move in the following year. Today, lectures are held in the Hall as well as in the larger-capacity Weston Theatre at the Museum of London.
Collage: https://collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk
Richard Chartres and David Vermont, A Brief History of Gresham College 1597-1997 (Gresham College, 1998; downloadable PDF at https://www.zyen.com/documents/1819/A_Brief_History_of_Gresham_College.pdf
Hazel Forsyth, Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker (I.B. Tauris, 2016)
Carol
Gresham College – The Syllabus
Nowadays, we have television we have access to the Internet academic book production has been rising almost exponentially but how do we find out about trends in knowledge. What comes next? Where do we go from here? What are theGreat challenges ahead of us?
I think these questions were appreciated by Thomas Gresham in the founding of his college which is really quite extraordinary in its apparent simplicity yet and it’s one off-ness.
Fast forward 400 years, who are these trustees led by the Provost, not the principal or the Dean or the head, who helps decide what these issues are today. He and the trustees have sufficient heft to be able to consider these questions and attract those in the fields who might be capable of leading the way.
The work of Gresham College was a novel educational concept and was to to boot, founded in London readily accessible by the trading adventurers. It is possible that Gresham could see the potential of such a college without having really real idea as to how it might to be developed. One of the significant feature was that the lectures were to be free and open to any not only those with formal learning. Additionally lectures had to also be in the vernacular as well as Latin.
What is noticeable is that the emphasis was to be on the application of learning. Judy and I have some experience of this difficulty which we are told (By Richard charters 20 years ago, oh)it is difficult to occupy competently and with integrity but that the world between professional academic scholarship and the world of practitioners remains a very important thing to attempt.
During the 400 years also of its existence the lectures and the people appointed was somewhat open to who was on the committee of trustees at the time. When lectures started, 20 years after Gresham’s death, Not surprisingly the unmarried lecturers from Oxford and Cambridge fought to get their own way in regard of lectures, hours and term times. They lived in Thomas Gresham‘s old house but but sometimes rented rooms in preference and we are told occasionally rented out the Thomas Gresham rooms
The professors were appointed to read lectures and Each was to receive £50 (rents for the REx) which was paid at the feast of the Annunciation and Michaelmas. This was more than the regius professor at Oxford or Cambridge and at the time, although they came from Oxford and Cambridge themselves. The professors at Gresham‘s could not be married- if they took a wife they had to resign This was on the basis that Gresham felt that seven men could live peaceably together but Id there were seven women and they would not. The first female professor, of astronomy, was appointed in 1993.
The selection of four professorships in Divinity astronomy music and geometry was to be carried out by the city of London corporation whilst the Mercers company was responsible for appointing those in law physic and rhetoric. Inclusion of astronomy and geometry we’re both noteworthy because at that time no such chairs had been established that either Oxford or Cambridge. It is tempting to think that the publication in 1543 of Copernicus work on the heliocentric system influences this inclusion, But it is possible that his writings have not got this far at that time.
But Gresham realised that the merchant who understood navigation would have the advantage Richard Hakyult lamented at this point the lack of anything in England to match the French lectures in navigation.
Each subject had its regulations. The Astronomy professor was to ‘raise the principles of the sphere, the theories of the planets and to explain the common instruments for the capacity of Mariners, and he was to apply these things to use by reading geography and the art of navigation’.
The geometry professor was to lecture for one term on arithmetic the next on theoretical geometry of the third all practical geometry.
It was to be clearly understood that the lectures should be popular and avoid interest. He was against getting them to deliver the lectures solely in Latin, to make them too obscure or overly theoretical.
In terms of the history of science in England the chairs for astronomy and geometry were the first in those subjects at any English university. So Sir Thomas clearly understood the importance of separate disciplines many years earlier than Oxford or Cambridge.
At the time of that Richard charterers wrote his book, followed following the move to Barnett Hill, other ventures were taken up. There was attempts to bring together countries of the European communion to discuss control of multinational corporations.
There was discussion on ways to provide education for the 16 to 19-year-olds, and challenges to medical education which recent advances in medical and scientific research presented. They ran seminars for senior management on how new information technology could help business. Another time of him writing his book there were attempts to look at the difficulties faced by the growing number of voluntary organisations. At this time the woman moves to consider what it must be like for people living in large conurbations, the model for many people’s future existence. These are practical issues and ones which now after many centuries universities as well I’ll being forced to consider
The early days of Gresham College and what was taught seem to have been a curates egg. But In the scientific area there are Significant advances in scholarship due to a number of outstanding young scholars. One author, Christopher Hill, noted that the science of Elizabeths reign was the work of merchants and craftsman not of the dons, and it was carried out in London. The scientific advances were held to be connected with trade and to solve practical problems of navigation, accounting, surveying and military engineering. The Gresham chairs were a boon to the scientific community in the early 17th century
The Royal Society grew out of Gresham College. Gresham College was a wonderful meeting place and had laboratories where experiments could be done. Robert Hooke who became the professor of geometry asked for and was given by the committee, £40 to build a tower on the college for astronomical observations. His professors salary allowed him to be independent and to follow his scientific investigations and also gave him lodging.
As a result of such work, Gresham College soon acquired a reputation – internationally – as a place of academic research, with professors who were in some cases working at the centre of the intellectual revolution of the 17th century. Considerable profits were available to those cities that could gain an advantage by solving practical problems.
Solving these problems of navigation, accounting, surveying and military engineering were more important to London’s economy than Ivory Tower studies.
Some of the early inventions included logarithms, a surveying tool called Gunters chain which was 22 yards long subdivided into 100 loops. We all remember early imperial measurement well 10 chains equals 1 furlong and 8 furlongs. equals 1 mile.
Also John Graves set up 4 measuring devices to measure the lunar eclipses.
Not only science flourished but the arts also for instance Elizabeth the first requested that John Ball became the first Gresham professor of music.
Today three further Professor ships have been added to take account of areas not otherwise covered by the original professorships,‘s
commerce (1985),
environment (2014)
and IT (2015). Positions are held for three years extendable for fourth year and they give six lectures a year. There are also visiting professors and a large number of single lecture speakers
The categories in the subjects of the college don’t quite correspond with the 10 professorships. The following is a list of current holders which gives an idea of the subject coverage and it appears that professors have been appointed who can extend beyond their specialism boundaries.
Astronomy (Christopher Wren), Joseph Silk graduate of Cambridge and Harvard Main work in astrophysics and
Business (The Mercers school memorial Professor) Alex Edmunds clever graduate of Oxford and professor of finance
Divinity Alec Ryrie, professor of history of Christianity
Environment Jacqueline McGlade, Cambridge a marine biologist , studies ecosystems and climate change
Geometry (Robert Hooke) Chris Budd, Oxford and Cambridge applied mathematics and non-linear mechanics.
IT Richard Harvey a mathematician interested in Computer vision and artificial intelligence
Law Joe Delahunty QC working as a barrister with families and children in the High Court
Music (John Ball) the music journalist television and radio presenter
Physic (medicine) Chris Witty Epidemiologist and physician with a speciality in tropical diseases
Rhetoric Andrew Jonathan pate who specialises in Shakespeare romanticism and eco-criticism. Oxford and Cambridge
There are also 10 visiting professorships including political history, Film and media, Russian music, classics, medical education, geology, the built environment, and artificial intelligence
Since the lectures have been downloaded onto YouTube they have been in excess of 20 million viewings.Currently there are up to 300 free public lectures offered every year.
In this lecture series by Professor Christopher Budd, the emphasis will be how mathematics gives us a glimpse into the future both of technology and of many other areas of our lives.
Since Newton, we have become used to science making confident predictions about the future, including on the motion of the planets and the times of the tides. However, some things seem very hard to predict, such as the stock market or the weather. Is this a fault in the way we model these systems, or is there a genuine limit to how far we can predict the future? One explanation comes from the theory of chaos, which explains why small changes now can lead to large uncertainty in the future. Professor Budd will describe how chaos theory works and how things can change rapidly.
Climate change is important, controversial, and the subject of huge debate. Much of our understanding of the future climate comes from the use of complex climate models, which are based on mathematical and physical ideas. Professor Budd will describe how these models work and the assumptions that go into them. He will discuss how reliable our predictions of climate change will be and show how mathematics can give us insights into both the past and the future.
One of the biggest advances in modern technology has been the development of GPS systems which allow us to find our position to very high precision. GPS is just the latest advance in the science of navigation, which has had a profound effect on human civilization. Professor Budd will show how mathematics has played a vital role in making navigation as accurate as it is today and the impact this has had on us all. Indeed, it is one of the few areas where Einstein’s general theory of relativity directly impacts our lives.
The world’s population is rapidly growing, and most of this population will live in large city conurbations. What will our future cities look like? How will the transport system work, how will people move around, and how will we supply them with energy and remove their waste? Indeed, what sort of houses will people live in and what will our communities look like in the future? Professor Budd will show how mathematical models can help us understand how cities work and how they might evolve in the future.
Mathematics education is changing rapidly and a big driver for this is the use of new technology. The widespread use of computers has transformed the way we do mathematics, with computers not only able to mark exam papers, but also to do the algebra required to answer the questions. Professor Budd will look at the modern developments of computer-based teaching and learning. At the same time, he examines the parts of teaching maths which require the human touch and a future of maths education where computers and human teachers work well together.
Thanks to –
Richard Chartres A Brief History of Gresham College 1997
Valerie Shrimplin Sir Thomas Gresham and his vision for Gresham College 2017.
Jonty
Measuring devices that came out of Gresham’s College
A diagram of Gunters Chain.A measuring device 66 ft long and 1/80 of a mile
Robert Hooks weather devices. Above a Wheel Barometer. Below his Weather Clock
which every quarter of an hour, recorded The pressure, temperature, the moisture of the air, the direction and velocity of the wind, and the rainfall it was completed to the satisfaction of the Royal Society in May 1679
The library
The Long Gallery at Gresham College was home to the Arundel Library from 1678 to c. 1710. It had belonged to Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, the most important collector in early 17th century Britain. His grandson, Henry Howard, donated the library to the Royal Society in 1667 at the urging of John Evelyn. At that time it was valued at £1000. Evelyn wrote in his diary: ‘Many of these books had been presented by Popes, Cardinals and great persons to the Earls of Arundel and the Dukes of Norfolk’. Sadly the Arundel Library no longer survives as 90% of the collection was sold off by the Royal Society in the 19th century1. But did Gresham College itself possess a library in the 17th and 18th centuries? Irene Gilchrist, a former librarian at the Guildhall Library thought that at some point in the College’s history there would have been a very active library but it vanished2. Perhaps she was merely speculating but if she was right, then its past can be compared to that of the much older Guildhall Library, where the Gresham collection is now housed. That famous library founded by the executors of the estates of William Berry (or Bury) and Richard Whittington in the years 1423 to 1425 was taken into his own possession by Lord Protector Somerset, Edward Seymour, in 1549 and the Guildhall was effectively without a library from then until the 1820s. It was just a decade later that a new Gresham College Library began to emerge.
In 1838 the Gresham Professor of Music, a bass singer named Edward Taylor, launched an appeal, reported in the Gentleman’s Magazine, for money and books to found a music library at Gresham College3. He had been appointed in October 1837, took up his duties in January 1838 and continued as Professor of Music until his death in 1863. He very quickly took steps to form a library. At the time the College was in temporary accommodation at the City of London School and donations were asked to be sent to the secretary of the school. Professor Taylor claimed that Queen Victoria was the first benefactor to donate a book. The London firm of music sellers and publishers, Messrs Coventry & Hollier gave a set of the works of the previous Gresham Professor of Music, Richard John Samuel Stevens and very quickly more donations followed and the collection grew. The Guildhall Library still has some letters which people wrote when donating items at this time. As well as individual donors the new library was swelled by gifts from institutions such as the Musical Antiquarian Society and the Sacred Harmonic Society. In 1848 an appeal was raised for money to purchase a bookcase. In 1851 items were lettered presumably to indicate that they belonged to Gresham College. In 1855 £10 was given for repair and binding. Throughout the 19th century there were various pleas for money to create catalogues. At that time many libraries still had codex catalogues, which were printed bound listings of the material held and the Guildhall Library has examples of the Gresham College Library catalogues from certain years. Producing such catalogues was inefficient in terms of the costs involved and financing the library appeared always to have been an issue. It was normally the Guildhall librarian who compiled and updated the catalogue upon the request of the Gresham Committee. It does not seem that Gresham College ever employed a librarian of its own. By the end of the 19th century library catalogues almost universally took the form of drawers full of 5×3 inch cards. Gresham College Library did switch to a card catalogue for its printed books but it is not known at what date. A typewritten catalogue exists from 1930 which was compiled by William Charles Smith, Assistant Keeper of Printed Books at the British Museum and a specialist in musical bibliographies. The printed books are now included in the City of London Libraries Online Catalogue with the shelfmark GRESHAM, but the music library is still only listed in a printed catalogue, the most recent version of which was published by the Corporation of London in 1965.
Until 1871 the collection was very much dedicated to music scores, the theory and practice of music and to the history of music. Two of its treasures are an autograph manuscript by Henry Purcell and the earliest surviving text of Thomas Tallis’s Spem in Alium. In 1871 a large private collection was bequeathed to the College by Mrs Laetitia Hollier. She was not the widow of John Hollier who had been a partner in the firm that made one of the earliest donations to the music collection, but of Richard Hollier. Described as ‘a gentleman and a scholar’ Richard in his own will of 1852 set up scholarships in Greek and Hebrew at University College London4 which are still awarded today. Perhaps John and Richard were related. In any event the Holliers were a fairly prominent City family who were associated with a gold refining business in Love Lane and one of the family had been City Marshal. So an explanation for Laetitia Hollier’s decision to leave her pictures and books to Gresham College might be a connection to it through her husband’s family. Another explanation could be a connection through her own family. According to a family tree on the internet her mother’s name was Ann Gresham5. Laetitia’s solicitor, John Evans, described the collection: ‘The pictures are about forty in number, of various qualities. Some of them are valuable, but many are inferior. The books consist of about 1,200 volumes, and I have reason to believe that many of them are valuable and all of them are good’. The College had this collection catalogued in 1872 and that catalogue is now freely available in digital form on Google Books6. There are books on subjects such as mathematics, architecture and astronomy. It also included many very fine and rare travel books and a number of bibles. The travel books are described on a Guildhall Library blog entry of 20 November 20137, as follows: ‘The travel books primarily date from the first half of the nineteenth century, but also include some works from the late eighteenth century and contain fascinating first-hand accounts of expeditions both overland and by sea. The authors were intrepid travellers and were often emissaries, army, navy and medical personnel or employed by wealthy patrons and on behalf of foreign potentates. Often featuring sociological and anthropological surveys of the countries and their people, the volumes may also include ecological and natural history reports, maps, select dictionaries and vocabularies of the indigenous population and even sheet music with accompanying local songs. Some ambitious works cover the world, but most concentrate on a specific country or region and were often written as a diary, journal, reports or letters. Considering the dangers and difficulties of charting what was often unknown territory, these works represent amazing feats of courage, determination, skill and survival. Some follow the trading routes, especially to Turkey and through Central Asia to the Far East. Others include travels through Russia, Lapland, Greenland and expeditions to the North Pole’. It is Mrs Hollier’s collection, secondary to the music library, which forms the worth and importance of the Gresham College Library surviving today. Ann Martin of the Guildhall Library has told me that the Gresham Library now only has 381 printed works and 123 music manuscripts8.
At the beginning of the 20th century upkeep of the library does not seem to have been a priority for the College or for the Gresham Committee who provided funding. However, it remained held within the College and survived both world wars. It still received support from the Guildhall Library which made a gift of various pieces of surplus library equipment, such as periodical boxes, filing cabinets and catalogue card drawers in 1950. In 1958 the College decided to ask the Guildhall Library if it could transfer its collection there. In November of that year the music library was deposited in its entirety as were the travel books. Material on other subjects was sorted and duplicates and items unwanted by the Guildhall were presented by the Gresham Committee to the Royal Library at Malta9, now known as the National Library of Malta.
Paul Stokes
References:
- Peck, LV. Uncovering the Arundel Library at the Royal Society: changing meanings of science and the fate of the Norfolk donation. Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 1998 22 Jan; 52 (1): 3-24.
- Gilchrist, Irene. Rich and learn’d: the library of Gresham College. Gresham Lecture given on 20 March 2007.
- Anon. Gresham musical library. Gentleman’s Magazine 1838; 10: 305-306.
- http://www.hollyer.info/iow.php
- https://gw.geneanet.org/pammercier?lang=en&p=laetitia&n=phillips&oc=1
- https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Catalogue_of_Books_and_Music_in_the_Libr.html?id=ABTdmhmc8TgC&redir_esc=y
- https://guildhalllibrarynewsletter.wordpress.com/2013/11/20/early-travel-books-gresham-collection/
- Martin, Ann. Gresham College Library. Email dated 18 March 2019.
- Chartres, Richard and Vermont, David. A brief history of Gresham College 1597 – 1997. London: Gresham College, 1998.
cityoflondonhistory 