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St Alban Hall, Oxford

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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
St Alban Hall, Oxford is located in Oxford city centre
St Alban Hall, Oxford
Location in Oxford city centre

History

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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

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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

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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

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

Notes

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  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 St Alban Hall, Library & Archives, 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. ^ Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Gresham, (Sir) Thomas" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1500–1714. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
  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)
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