There is no reference in our earliest college statutes—those of 1552—to an Auditor, but the extant accounts show that the office existed from the foundation of the College in 1546. Definite regulations for the appointment were proposed in the draft statutes of 1554, and were embodied in the statutes of 1560. By these the auditor was made one of the statutable officers of the Society: the post was held for long periods, and it was not permissible to perform the duties by proxy. The statute in question was re-enacted in 1844. By the statutes of 1861 the office was made annual, and tenable only during pleasure. It remains annual under the present statutes, but a definite proviso was inserted in 1882 that it is not tenable by a fellow or officer of the House, and a clause was introduced providing for the appointment from among the fellows of an Assessor or Assessors who should be present during the audit.

From the foundation of the College, its financial year ran from Michaelmas to Michaelmas, and the audit of each year was concluded in the following December. At first the annual honorarium of the [128] auditor seems to have been £10 with an allowance of £2 for travelling expenses, stationery, etc., but before the end of the sixteenth century it had been reduced to £5, with an augmentation of £3. 6s. 8d. and some allowances.

The form of the declaratio computi was much as at present, and generally, with but small variations, it takes the form now stereotyped “and so the said A.B. Senior (or Junior) Bursar upon the foot of this his account for one whole year ending Michaelmas ... oweth unto the College the sum of....” In some cases, and notably in the seventeenth century, the sums include fractions of a penny, even as small as one thirty-second part thereof. Presumably the audit was always followed by a “feast,” as still remains the custom.

Of the occupants of the office from 1546 to 1618 the information in the college books is incomplete. The only auditors previous to 1618 whose names I have noticed, with the years in which they held office, are Edward Burnell, 1553, 1561, 1563 and 1564; Adam Winthrop, 1606; and Richard Brooke, 1614. I have not, however, read the account-books through from cover to cover, and it may be that there are references which have escaped me. Luckily Winthrop’s diary and some memoranda from 1595 to 1621 are extant, and contain references to a few earlier dates. From these we can take our [129] continuous record back to the year ending Michaelmas 1593, when he was auditor. He resigned in 1610, and was succeeded by Brooke. Brooke was acting in 1615, and had commons in 1616, and I have no doubt acted in 1617. From 1618 onwards we can, from one source or another, make out the names of those who held the office. The handwritings of the earlier auditors have marked characteristics. They suggest that there was one auditor from 1547 to 1552, another from 1553 to 1578, who must have been Edward Burnell, another from 1579 to 1591, and another from 1592 to 1609, who must have been Adam Winthrop. But I present these as mere surmises, and I do not attempt to go back beyond 1593.

Our roll then is as follows. From 1547 to 1592 we cannot definitely say more than that Edward Burnell was auditor for a period which included the years 1553 to 1564, for no doubt his tenure was unbroken. From 1593 the sequence runs thus:

Adam Winthrop, 1593 (or earlier) to 1609; Richard Brooke, 1610 to 1617; Robert Spicer, 1618 to 1628; Francis Hughes, 1629 to 1668; Samuel Newton, 1669 to 1717, Newton resigned in 1674, and thereon he and William Ellis were appointed to the office, with remainder to the survivor of them, but apparently William Ellis never acted; Denys L’Isle, 1718 to 1726; William Greaves, 1727 to 1778; Robert [130] Graham, 1779 to 1791; Samuel Knight, 1792 to 1811; Nicholas Conyngham Tindal, 1812 to 1825; James Parke, 1826 to 1828; Andrew Amos, 1829 to 1836; John George Shaw-Lefevre, 1837 to 1851; George Denman, 1852 to 1862; George Valentine Yool, 1863 to 1869; Augustus Arthur VanSittart, 1870 to 1881; John Willis Clark, 1882 to 1908. Since 1908 the office has been held by a professional accountant. The dates given indicate the ends of the audit year: thus the audit of 1669 was for the year 1668–69. It will be noticed that during the three hundred and sixteen years from 1593 to 1908, there were, if we omit William Ellis, only seventeen auditors, giving an average tenure of more than eighteen years. Of these seventeen auditors at least eleven have been lawyers and four ultimately rose to the Bench. I add a few biographical notes on these auditors.

Of Edward Burnell, the earliest holder of the office whose name I have given, I know nothing. His successor Adam Winthrop, 1548–1623, the son of a prominent London merchant and reformer, had been admitted as a fellow-commoner at Magdalene in 1567, and had left the University without a degree. He had been called to the bar, but did not practise, and was content to fill the rÔle of a well-to-do country squire. He was an intimate friend of Still, master of Trinity from 1577 to 1593, whose sister he married in 1574, and whose wife [131] was his connection by marriage. I conjecture that he owed the office to Still’s influence. Winthrop was a fair scholar, an indifferent poet, and somewhat of a pedant. His tomb is at Groton, Suffolk. More than one of his descendants were distinguished. In particular his son, John, 1588–1649, who was admitted to Trinity College in 1602, was the founder of the well-known American family of this name; and his great-great-grandson, Sir George Downing was the founder of Downing College.

Winthrop seems to have done the whole of the audit work at the end of the Michaelmas term of each year. Thus in 1601 he wrote:

The ivth of Decemb. I ridde to Cambride & beganne the Auditt the 7th beinge Monday. The xiiijth of Decembre I returned from the Auditt & did see the Sonne in the Eclips about 12 of the Clock at noone.

Perhaps his resignation was made at the suggestion of the College, for early in 1610 he wrote:

Dr Meriton came to speake with me about the resignation of my office in Trinity College to Mr Brookes.... I surrendered my Auditorship in Trinitye College to the Mr fellows & schollers before a pub. notary.... I dyned at Dr Meriton’s in Hadley & received of him xxlb for my Auditorshippe.... Mr Rich. Brooke the nue Auditor of Trinity College was at my house in Groton to whom I dd. divers paper books & Roles touchinge his Office.

Of the next three auditors I can discover very little. Richard Brooke was appointed in 1610. [132] The following conclusion of 8June 1615, seems to refer to him, “concluded that Mr Brookes in regard of his paines taken divers times for the Colledge that he shoulde ... have given him Twentye pounds,” and during his visits in the following year be allowed commons. We may assume that he held office till the end of 1617. A Richard Brookes had entered at Queens’ as a fellow-commoner in 1587, but whether he was the subsequent auditor there is nothing to show. In 1618 we have the copy of the appointment of Robert Spicer. He held office till the end of 1628, since a conclusion of 3June 1629, appointed in his place Francis Hughes. Hughes, who held the office till his death in October 1669, was admitted a scholar in 1616, graduated M.A. in 1623, was one of the esquire-bedells, and occupied rooms in College at the time of his death.

The next occupant of the office was Samuel Newton, 1629–1718, a prominent attorney in the town and mayor in 1671. He was not a member of the University. His diary from 1662 to 1717 preserved in the library of Downing College, contains an account of his election to the post in the chapel by the master and seniors, he being present in the antechapel. He attended next day in his gown, was sworn to the faithful discharge of his duties, and signed the roll of college officers. He [133] proved thoroughly efficient. For his services at the audit in 1669 he received the fee of £5 with the customary augmentation of £3. 6s. 8d., a sum of £6. 13s. 4d. for engrossing the audit rolls, which henceforth were kept excellently, a sum of £1 for preparing a book of arrears, and a sum of £1. 2s. 8d. for stationery. He also received from the junior bursar, billets of wood of the value of 6s. 8d.; from the steward, a “warp of lyng” of the value of 6s. 8d.; from the manciple, a “coller of brawne, also a dish of wild fowle or 6s. 8d.”; and from the brewhouse, “2 barrels of strong beere.”

In 1674 Newton surrendered his patent of appointment as auditor, but he was immediately reappointed jointly with his cousin, William Ellis, with remainder to the survivor of them. They were at the same time appointed on the same conditions to the office of college registrar, then vacant by the death of a Mr T.Griffith. According to Newton’s diary, William Ellis proceeded M.A. in 1670, but his name does not appear in the list of graduati, unless indeed he is the WmEllis who received the degree per lit. reg. in 1671. The college account-books continued to be signed by Newton, and I have not noticed in them evidence that Ellis ever took any part in the audit. The Society’s solicitors and attorneys have frequently acted as registrars, and it may be that Ellis was in partnership [134] with Newton, and was for that reason made with him joint auditor and registrar.

Samuel Newton died in 1718 in his ninetieth year. For the three years, 1715, 1716, and 1717, the books were audited by John Newton, presumably his son or grandson, as his deputy. No doubt the arrangement was made in consequence of the failing health of the old gentleman whose signature in 1714 was very shaky. The appointment of a deputy was invalid under the statute, but it must have been made with the approval of Bentley, and perhaps of the seniority. At any rate John Newton conducted the audit, and signed the books as deputy auditor.

Newton was succeeded in 1718 as auditor and registrar by Denys L’Isle. L’Isle had been a fellow-commoner of Trinity Hall, admitted in 1712, graduated LL.B. in 1715, who had gone down and in 1716 taken his name off the books. He was a vigorous and not too scrupulous barrister. He owed his appointment to Bentley, and he showed “extraordinary activity and zeal in promoting all” his benefactor’s “wishes and interests” and represented him in some of his disputes. Whatever view may be taken of Bentley’s character, no one can justify his conduct in regard to the college finances. A notable scandal occurred in the audit of 1722. In the accounts of that year large sums were charged [135] to the College for works at the lodge and other sums spent by the master which had not been sanctioned by the Society. Undoubtedly the charges were illegal, but Bentley and L’Isle refused to allow the accounts to be examined by the seniority. In fact in this, as in other matters, L’Isle had no scruple in screening Bentley from the consequences of acts which were neither legal nor honourable.

L’Isle died in 1727, and was succeeded as auditor, steward of the courts, and registrar by William Greaves. Greaves had in 1719 migrated to Clare, Cambridge, from Brasenose, Oxford; he graduated B.A. in 1720, and in 1722 was elected at Clare to a fellowship which he held till 1742. He was a barrister and an able man: he too owed his office to Bentley, and acted as his counsel in many of his tortuous proceedings. Through Bentley’s influence Greaves had in 1726 been made commissary of the University, an office which he held till 1778. The letters patent to the office of college auditor were made out for the term of his life, but a question having been raised as to whether this was statutable, he surrendered them, and the College granted new patents for the term of fifty years if he should live so long. I suppose he was duly admitted to the office, for probably an acute lawyer would have seen to this, but there is no record of the fact in our books.

Greaves seems to have performed his duties as [136] auditor in an honourable manner. After the audit of 1778, he surrendered his office at the close of fifty years’ tenure of it: he then received a present of plate from the College, with their thanks for his long and faithful services. Six years later he made a donation to the Society of £100 to found an annual prize for an essay on the character of King William the Third. After nearly a century it was said that the essayists had exhausted the subject, and in 1882 the College got leave to substitute for it one connected with the history of the British Empire.

Robert Graham, 1744–1836, a lawyer of note, succeeded Greaves. Graham had graduated as third wrangler in 1766, and in the following year had been elected to a fellowship. He held the office till after the audit of 1791. He was made a baron of the exchequer in 1799, and proved a singularly inefficient judge. He retired from the bench in 1827.

Graham’s chief distinction is said to have been his urbanity, and at the Bar it was currently believed that no one but his sempstress had power to ruffle his equanimity. He was somewhat pompous, and an adventure of his at the assizes at Newcastle afforded much amusement to his contemporaries. There, on one occasion just before charging the grand jury, he tumbled, unnoticed, into the river from the garden of the house where he lodged, but [137] luckily was hauled out by some passing watermen. The rough remedies of the quay-side failed to restore consciousness, and the bystanders, supposing he was drowned, carted him to a dead-house, where he was stripped and laid out. The coroner’s jury, summoned with unusual celerity, had viewed the body, and were considering their verdict when, to their surprise he showed signs of life and came to himself. His position was not altogether dignified, but realizing at once that it is always incumbent on a judge to move in state, he was by his directions fetched from the mortuary in the sheriff’s carriage, with the trumpeters, and usual ceremonial.

Of Graham’s successor, Samuel Knight, 1755–1829, I know little. He had been admitted as a pensioner in 1772, became a fellow-commoner in 1774, and graduated in the poll in 1776. Apparently he had no special qualifications for the post beyond being a pleasant member of society. He resigned in 1812, and died in 1829.

After Knight’s resignation, the post was offered to Nicholas Conyngham Tindal, 1776–1846, a lawyer of distinction. He had graduated in 1799 as eighth wrangler, was a Chancellor’s medalist, and had been elected to a fellowship in 1801, which, as he did not take orders, he had vacated in due course in accordance with the provisions of the Elizabethan statutes. The plan of offering the post to a distinguished [138] past fellow now became the custom, and all the auditors hereafter mentioned were past fellows of the college.

Tindal was one of the counsel for queen Caroline; he is celebrated in the history of the courts for having secured to a criminal client the right of wager of battle, which had long fallen into disuse but had not been abolished by statute. He was member for the University from 1827 to 1829 in which year he was made chief justice of the Common Pleas; he held that office till his death in 1846. Though not specially successful as an advocate, he had a profound knowledge of law and was an excellent judge. His enormous dimensions are commemorated in a print in my possession with the inscription “Judges of A Size,” representing him standing by Joshua Williams one of his colleagues on assize, who was very diminutive; probably this is an ancient joke.

The next auditor was James Parke, 1782–1868, a lawyer of even greater distinction. He had graduated in 1803 as fifth wrangler, and had been Craven scholar, Browne’s medalist and Chancellor’s medalist. In 1804 he had been elected to a fellowship. He was one of the counsel briefed against queen Caroline. He was made a judge in 1828, and of course then resigned the office of auditor, which he thus held for only three years.

[139]
Parke had a profound knowledge of the common law, and admired, and was a rigid adherent of, ancient forms and customs. The fact was well known, and led to a curious scene, when on one occasion, while giving a judgment, he fainted. Cold water and smelling salts were applied without success, whereon a somewhat malicious colleague brought from an adjacent room an ancient volume of reports, black with the dust of ages, and banged it under the nostrils of the judge. It may have been a coincidence, but Parke at once revived, and in a few minutes was able to proceed with the business in hand.

At one time when Parke was trying a criminal case the prisoner confessed his crime to his advocate, who thereupon (most improperly) acquainted the judge with the fact and asked his advice. Parke rebuked the barrister for informing him of the prisoner’s guilt, but added that counsel was not the less bound to defend his client to the best of his ability. The case has been often cited, and states the practice of the bar; it being of course assumed that nothing is said or done for the defence which an honourable man might not say or do.

Parke’s subsequent career served to settle a constitutional question of great importance. In 1856 he was created Baron Wensleydale with a life peerage. It was decided that the power of the [140] crown to create life peerages had been lost by disuse. He was then made a baron with the usual remainder in tail male.

Parke was followed as auditor by Andrew Amos, 1791–1860, also a lawyer of distinction. He had graduated as fifth wrangler in 1813, and in 1815 had been elected to a fellowship. He was appointed auditor in 1829. He had a large arbitration practice, acted on the Criminal Law Commission, and was professor of English Law in London. In 1837 he was appointed legal member of the Indian Council, and on his departure for the East had to resign his office in the college. On the first vacancy after his return to England, he was, in 1848, elected Downing Professor of Laws in Cambridge, and occupied the chair until his death.

Amos was succeeded by John George Shaw-Lefevre, 1797–1879. Shaw-Lefevre had been senior wrangler and first Smith’s prize man in 1818, and had been elected to a fellowship in the following year. Like his predecessors he was a barrister, but most of his time was taken up with duties connected with public departments. He settled the county divisions under the Reform Act of 1832, and was a member of numerous Commissions, notably those connected with compensation for the abolition of slavery, with the Poor Law Act, with the creation of South Australia, with ecclesiastical affairs, and with [141] the Indian Civil Service: till 1875 he was busily engaged in public affairs. He stood unsuccessfully for parliament in the university contest of 1847. He resigned the auditorship after the audit of 1851. His tenure of the post is commemorated by his gift of the chandelier which hangs in the large combination room.

The next auditor was the Hon. George Denman, 1819–1896, also a lawyer. Denman had been senior classic in 1842, and had been elected to a fellowship in the following year. He had always kept up his connection with the College, where he had numerous friends. He became auditor in 1852. Like his predecessor he stood unsuccessfully for parliament as a representative of the University: this was in 1856. Subsequently he was appointed counsel to the University. He entered parliament in 1859, and owing to press of work gave up his college office at the close of the audit of 1862. After a distinguished legal career he was raised in 1872 to the bench. He was a good scholar, had a fine presence, and to the end of his life was popular with all classes of Cambridge society.

If I may trust my memory Denman told me that among his annual perquisites as auditor was a case of audit ale, and that on one occasion he gave it to Livingstone who he knew would appreciate it. The case travelled with the explorer through Africa, [142] and as long as the ale lasted glasses of it were circulated, to the great satisfaction of the natives, whenever solemn treaties were ratified.

The next holder of the office was George Valentine Yool, 1829–1897, a chancery barrister, who had been third wrangler and second Smith’s prizeman in 1851, and had been elected to a fellowship in 1853. Yool took but little part in public affairs. He was appointed auditor in 1863, and gave up the office at the end of 1869.

After Yool’s resignation the College reverted to its former practice, and appointed as auditor a resident, Augustus Arthur VanSittart. VanSittart had been bracketed senior classic in 1847, and had been elected to a fellowship in the following year. After once standing unsuccessfully for parliament, he devoted himself to literary work, and among other things collected and collated the various readings of the New Testament. His annual speech at the audit feast, wherein he gave a witty sketch of the more interesting developments of academic life during the preceding year, was one of the features of the time, and served somewhat the same purpose as the Tripos verses of earlier ages. He held the office till his death in the spring of 1882. He was wealthy, and a most generous benefactor of the Fitzwilliam Museum and other Cambridge institutions.

[143]
On VanSittart’s death the post was given to John Willis Clark, 1833–1910. Clark had come up to Trinity in 1852, obtained a first class in the classical tripos, 1856, and was elected to a fellowship in 1858. He made his home in Cambridge, and his unceasing activities in zoological, library, and theatrical matters are chronicled in the local records. He completed the Architectural History of the University—a permanent and invaluable record of Cambridge history—which had been commenced by his uncle, and wrote on various library and antiquarian subjects. He held the registraryship of the University from 1891 to his death in 1910.

Clark vacated the office of auditor in 1908, and since then the College has appointed to the post a professional accountant.