HISTORY OF PEMBROKE COLLEGE. CHAPTER I. ORIGINES. PEMBROKE COLLEGE, Oxford, is so named from that William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, whom-if Sonnets i-cxxvi. were, as seems most probable, addressed to him-William Shakespeare calls Lord of my love,' 'My sun,''My all the world,' and 'Time's best jewel.' 'Myself almost despising Haply I think on thee, and then my state, Before its incorporation as a college it was called Broadgates Hall, a flourishing institution which Anthony Wood' and the old antiquaries boldly trace back, as a place of academic learning, to at least the Norman Conquest. In the earlier chapters of this book will be set down what is known of the history of Broadgates Hall. Pembroke College does not merely stand on its site, but carried on its existence unbroken, taking over its buildings-of which the chief one still remains its principal, its students, and its traditions. In the twelfth century, if not earlier, Oxford, then a huddled group of houses girt in with massive walls,' had for warder at its eastern and 1 Wood had an affection for the metamorphosed old place, where his father was bred. Here he used to practise the violin, exercising 'his natural and insatiable genie he had to musick,' while William Boreman, gentleman commoner of Pembroke College, of the Isle of Wight, my companion,' played with skilled hand on the virginal. (See Life and Times, ed. Rev. A. Clark, Oxford Historical Society, i. 173-) B 2 THE SOUTH GATE. western gates St. Peter the Apostle, and at its northern and southern entrances St. Michael the Archangel : Invigilat portâ australi boreaeque Michael; Exortum solem Petrus regit atque cadentem. 3 The church of St. Peter-in-the-East still remains, that of St. Peter-leBailey has moved a little from the west port, and at the Bokardo entrance to the city the very early tower of St. Michael-half military, half ecclesiastical-is yet standing. But St. Michael's at South Gate was demolished by Wolsey, to make way for his splendid quadrangle. It adjoined on the east side the southern gate of Oxford, which stood about fifty yards lower down than the present entrance to Christ Church, Hutten writes in his Antiquities of Oxford (1625): 'There stood within these few yeares an old auntient Gate of Stone . . . and there on a faier Stone were quartered the Armes of England and France in one Scutchion, the Armes of England being graven in the former and upper place and those of France in the nether, contrarie to all that I heretofore have seene. ... On the left standeth the old and auntient Hall Broadgates, now weary of it's former name and stiled by the title of Pembroke Colledge by King James.' The south side of Pembroke College stands actually on the twelfthcentury town wall. Before this wall was built, the city was protected by a vallum of earth, dating probably from the early part of the tenth century, topped with wooden brattishes and palisading. The Castle Mount is an imposing relic of it. The ground on which the College stands is a good deal higher than Brewers Street, at the end of which, till 1834, St. Aldate's Street made a steep dip, suggesting that the original rampart coincided at this part of the city with the present mediaval wall. Probably there were always dwelling-houses between the wall and St. Aldate's churchyard. In the angle of that churchyard there was in the middle of the thirteenth century a 'great house,' held in demesne of the priory across the road by Richard Segrym. Richard is the best-known member of a family which had been prominent in Oxford, probably before the Conquest. The name occurs thrice in the Oxford Domesday (A.D. 1086), Segrim' holding a mansion assessed for geld at 16d., 'another Segrim' one which paid 25., and Segrim' three houses free,' paying 5s. 4d., whereof one was waste and paid no geld. Of 1 See Wood's City of Oxford, ed. Clark, Oxford Historical Society, i. 164, n. 5. 2 Elizabethan Oxford, ed. Plummer, Oxford Historical Society, pp. 86, 89. 3 'In man's memory,' Wood's City (composed 1661–6), i. 250. It is seen in Speed's map (1610) and in Hollar's (1643); but the latter reproduces Agas. Parker, Early History of Oxford (Oxford Historical Society), p. 116. HOUSES ON THE WALL. 3 Of the remaining 243 721 houses then existing, 478 were waste. only thirteen paid as much as 25., and only three as much as the half of 5s. 4d. Two of the third Segrim's houses paid this sum between them, and must therefore have been, together, the most important tenement in Oxford. They adjoined the town wall, for a 'free' was the same as a 'mural' house, being so called as exempted from payment of its geld on condition of the tenant keeping the wall in repair 1. It is possible therefore that they were identical with Richard Segrym's magna domus in the angle of St. Aldate's churchyard. Quite apart from à Wood's identification of the Segrym house with the present Pembroke College, it seems certain that one of the southern angles is meant, since there can never have been room on the north of the churchyard for a large tenement; and if so the house was near the town wall. 1 Such repair consisted, before the days of solid masonry, in looking to and clearing the vallum and ditch and mending the palisade. Ibid. p. 237. 2 There were other Segrym possessions in different parts of the town. Richard Cutrich, c. 1220-30, cries quits to Richard Segrym of all right in a property in 'Cattestrete' (St. Frid. Charter 415, Wigram), reserving to the Lady Cristina Kepharm a rent of two shillings, and to himself and his heirs a halfpenny; for which grant Richard gave him four marks in Gersumam.' Richard bestowed it on the Priory, Eva, relict of Richard Cutrich, quit-claiming, c. 1250-60 (Ch. 417). Another tenement sold him by Cutrich, with a 5s. rent paid him by John Pady for a barber's shop and two selds in All Saints, and a messuage almost opposite All Saints Church, were given by Segrym to the canons as late as c. 1260-70 (Ch. 394), they admitting him as a brother, &c., and agreeing to perform service for him on his obit as for a canon professed and to mark his name in their martilogium. Land in Southbrygestrete' outside the walls is conveyed to him, c. 1240-50, by Beatrice, daughter of Helye Winter (Ch. 229); and he, c. 1250-60, confirms the sale of the rent (3s. 6d.) by his brother Henry to the Priory (Ch. 231, 232). It is styled Domus Care Hospitalis S. Johannis,' and 'Domus quondam Sarte.' The Priory granted to the same Henry, c. 1250, for 6d. rent, the land which his father had held in St. Aldate's, and he the same year gave up all right in the land of Isward, held of the Priory by Isaac the Jew, in St. Aldate's (Ch. 291, 292). About 1230 Richard Segrym gave to St. Frideswyde's 16d. rent from land formerly held of him by John Halegod 'in Shidezerdestrete, ubi sunt scole legum' (Ridehall, nunc Regis bedelli ' in margin), 6d. from a house held by the same J. H. opposite 'the gate of our Lord the King' in St. Mary Magd. parish; 18d. rent and 6d. rent in the parish of St. Peter-in-the-East, in consideration of a rose to be paid him every St. Margaret's day (Ch. 430). He sold also for 8s. a rent of 12d. from land adjoining ‘Maydenehall' on the east (Ch. 525). This was for the Infirmary. A little later he conveyed to the Prior and Convent 5s. rent 'de domo I. Crompe, id est Blakehalle' in St. Mary the Virgin's (Ch. 438), and c. 12501260 he gave for the office of the Chantry a 6d. rent in St. Edward's (Ch. 180). Another gift was of a 12s. 4d. rent in St. Aldate's inside the walls, and a 4s. 6d. rent in suburbio,' with three messuages (Ch. 290), Nov. 25, 1254. In 1270-71 mention is made of 'a corner seld towards the south' in the parish of All Hallows, leased to Matilda Penny of Binsey, 'which was once Master Richard Segrim's' (Ch. 395). Alice Segrym gave to St. John's Hospital a rent of 2s. from a house in St. John's Street (Wood MS. D. 2, fol. 213). 4 GIFT TO ST. FRIDESWYDE'S OF About the year 1254, then, Richard Segrym completed a series of gifts to the prior and convent of St. Frideswyde by surrendering under a charter of quit-claim, in perpetual alms, all that great messuage situated in the angle of the churchyard-probably the family residence-which was sometime held by him in dominico of the canons, they paying him every Christmas one halfpenny for all service, &c. The charter recites that they receive him into their familiar fraternity, and will, from the time of his decease, find a chaplain canon to celebrate divine service for his soul, the souls of his parents, the soul of Christiana Pady, and the souls of all the faithful departed, for ever. Adam Feteplace, mayor of Oxford (1245, 1253-60), and others attest it. Sciant presentes et futuri quod Ego Ricardus filius Ricardi Segrim dedi concessi et quietum clamavi pro salute anime mee et animarum omnium antecessorum et successorum meorum Deo et Ecclesiae sancte Frid' Oxon' et Canonicis ibidem Deo servientibus illud messuagium magnum cum omnibus pert. suis in perpetuam elemosinam quod situm est in angulo cimiterij S. Aldati Oxon' quod de dictis Canonicis aliquando tenui Habendum et tenendum predictum messuagium de me et heredibus meis predictis Canonicis et successoribus suis et Ecclesie sue predicte Reddendo inde annuatim michi et heredibus meis j obolum ad Natale Domini pro omni servicio seculari exaccione et demanda michi et heredibus meis pertinente Et ego Ricardus Segrim et heredes mei predictum messuagium cum pert. predicto Pr. et Can. etc contra omnes homines Christianos et Judeos warantizabimus et defendemus imperpetuum Dicti quoque Canonici divine pietatis intuitu pro se et successoribus suis receperunt me in eorum fraternitatem familiarem in pleno Capitulo suo unanimiter in omnibus bonis spiritualibus que in eorum Monasterio fient imperpetuum Insuper concesserunt michi quod a tempore mortis mee invenient j Capellanum Canonicum celebrantem specialiter divina pro anima mea et pro animabus patris et matris mee et pro anima Xpiane Pady et omnium fidelium defunctorum imperpetuum Et ut hec mea donacio concessio et quieta clamacio rata imperpetuum permaneant huic scripto sigillum meum apposui Hijs testibus Ada Feteplace tunc Majore Oxon' et alijs 1. In the margin of the older or Corpus Christi Cartulary is written 'De magna domo Segrim que est in dominico.' On Nov. 25, 1254, the final concord was made of divers gifts from Richard Segrym to the priory. One of them was a rent of four shillings paid him by Thomas de Slanfand (or Clanefend) for a tenement held of him 'in St. Aldate's Churchyard,' for which Richard had been accustomed to 1 Charter 288 in the St. Frideswyde Cartulary (ed. Wigram, Oxford Historical Society). 2 Charters 289, 290. SEGRYM'S MAGNA DOMUS.' 5 pay the canons sixpence yearly. It was afterwards held by Matilda le Veisy or her son Thomas. The latter gift is not clearly localized. Probably the house stood at the east end of the church, where till living memory ancient tenements remained. But the 'great house' of Segrim 'in the angle of the churchyard' is positively identified by Anthony à Wood with Broadgates Hall, now Pembroke College. From the said Segryms the said large tenement was called Segrym Hall, it being inhabited by Clerks in the time of the said Mr. Richard Segrym, if not before: which place... came to be called Broadgates, alias Segrym (corruptly afterward Segreve) Hall'. It is put very explicitly in à Wood's short treatise on Broadgates Hall inserted in his City of Oxford; and again, under St. Aldate's Church, 'an ancient hostle or hall called in severall ages Segrim, Segrave, and Broadgates. Ayliffe follows Wood. On the other hand, Wood makes another statement, at first sight inconsistent with this. Under South-west Ward he writes: Adjoyning South Gate were the tenements of the Segrims, burgesses of Oxon at and divers years after the Norman Conquest, and held "in dominico," as it should seem, of the Cannons of S. Frideswyde. Afterwards or about those times they were converted into hostels for people of a scholastick and religious conversation. Which continuing for that use till the decay of discipline and doctrine in our University, came to be the possession of the servants and retainers to the said Priory. At length Thomas Wolsey, that heroick and publick-spirited Cardinall, when he converted the said Priory into a College, turned also these tenements into an Hospitall . . . Behind Christ Church Hospitall before mentioned was somtimes that venerable peice of antiquity standing called Broadgates Hall, which with other halls adjoyning hath risen from that estate to a college called Pembroke College 5.' The Wolsey Hospital or Almshouse was never part of Broadgates Hall, though it is now a possession of Pembroke College. They were separated by two small properties belonging the one to Abingdon Abbey and the other to New College. Wood in a note refers to charters 71, 73, 82, and 83, by which it appears that he is referring to several Segrim properties close to St. Aldate's Church, viz. Richard's 'magna domus,' his house 'in the churchyard' rented by Slanfand, 1 Gutch's 'Wood's Annals,' iii. 614. 2 3 Ibid. ii. 35. City of Oxford, ed. Clark, i. 563 (Oxford Historical Society). 'Antient and Present State of the University of Oxford' (1714). 5 City, i. 193, 194. ⚫ In Wigram, Nos. 262, 265, 288, and 289. |