The College Record 2022

ARTICLES
Credit: David Olds
Queen’s and the North
Michael Riordan, College Archivist
The College has connections with the North of England
that go back to our beginnings. Our founder, Robert de
Eglesfield was presumably from the village of Eaglesfield,
just outside Cockermouth in what was then Cumberland.
On 10 February 1341 he issued statutes for his new college
which stated what the College was to be devoted to the ‘tree of theology’ which
meant the fellows would all have already taken the BA and MA degrees before
entering the College and would devote themselves to studying theology. Eglesfield
also stated that when electing fellows, preference was to be given to men from
Cumberland and Westmoreland, due to the ‘desolation and illiteracy’ of the region.
His words, not mine!
Articles
Preference is an inexact word, and it was put to the test thirty-five years after
the Foundation. A dispute arose in 1376 between fellows from Cumberland and
Westmoreland and a group of fellows from the West Country who had migrated from
Exeter College. The case ended up in the court of Chancery which interpreted the
statutes in such a way that preference meant that only men from Cumberland and
A letter by George Fothergill,
fellow, showing how it took him
a week to travel back to Oxford
from a visit to his family in
Westmoreland.
The Entrance Book, showing 76 fellows elected
between 1680 and 1728. All are from Cumberland
or Westmoreland.
College Record 2022 | The Queen’s College 93