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James Beaumont Neilson was an engineer who contributed greatly towards the expansion of the British iron industry in the 19th century. He was born on the 22nd of June 1792 in Shettleston, Scotland, to Walter Neilson and his wife Barbara. Walter was an engine-wright at Govan colliery, and Neilson joined him there after leaving elementary education at fourteen. Neilson’s brother John would become a prominent engineer, and after two years at Govan Neilson became his apprentice at Oakbank. During his spare time, he studied physics and chemistry from Anderson’s Institution in Glasgow.

In 1814, Neilson was appointed as an engine-wright at a colliery in Irvine, but it was not to last; he lost his job when his employer’s business failed. Neilson then moved to Glasgow, and became appointed foreman at the Glasgow gasworks at the age of twenty-five. He rose through the ranks to manager and engineer, and used his influence to improve both the manufacture and utilization of gas and the lives of his employees. Neilson encouraged the men to educate themselves, establishing a workers’ institute which featured a library, lecture room, a laboratory, and a workshop.

Neilson is best known for his discovery of the value of hot blast in iron manufacture, a breakthrough which he began to research in the 1820’s. He came to the conclusion that the manufacture of iron would be more efficient if hot blast was used rather than cold. The prevailing view at the time was that cold blast was more effective for the manufacture of iron, and the ironmasters were reluctant to allow Neilson to test his theory on their furnaces. However, when the hot blast was finally tested at the Clyde ironworks, it was so immediately successful that two other men—Charles Macintosh and John Wilson—entered into a partnership with Neilson to patent the invention.

With refinement, hot blast allowed the same amount of fuel to produce three times as much iron, and with a wider range of fuel than had worked with cold blast. Neilson’s success—to the tune of £30,000 a year—led to controversy. In 1832 the Baird ironmasters challenged Neilson’s patent and refused to pay the licence duty that allowed them to use his process. The resistance snowballed; in 1833 Neilson had conducted three legal cases against iron companies who challenged his patent. He enjoyed several more years of success until 1839, when the Bairds challenged him again. This began a four year legal battle involving twenty separate court actions against different British iron companies, with many in Scotland forming an association against Neilson. The case was finally closed in England at the end of 1841, in Neilson’s favour. The Scottish trial in 1843 set a record for the longest trial conducted at the time and called over 102 witnesses before settling, again, in Neilson’s favour.

Neilson married Barbara Montgomerie in 1815. After her death, he remarried Jane Gemmell in 1846, but she would also died in 1863. In 1832 Neilson became a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in London, and a fellow of the Royal Society in 1846. He retired in 1847, and purchased a property in the Isle of Bute, before moving to Queenshill in 1851. There, he founded an institution similar to the one he had set up for his workers in Glasgow. Neilson died on the 18th of January 1865, survived by four sons and three daughters.

Thomas Neville (died 1615) was an English clergyman and academic who was Dean of Peterborough (1591–1597) and Dean of Canterbury (1597–1615), Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge (1582–1593), and Master of Trinity College, Cambridge (1593–1615).
For more information see: https://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/about/historical-overview/early-years-1546-to-1642/

Son of John Newcome, born at Grantham, Lincolnshire. He was admitted as sizar to St John's College in 1700, graduating BA 1704-5. He obtained his MA in 1708, his BD in 1715, and his DD in 1725. He was a Fellow of the College 1707-1728, and Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity 1727-1765. He was ordained as a priest in Ely on 19 September 1708, was Vicar of Thriplow, Cambridgeshire, and Rector of Offord Cluny, Huntingdonshire 1730-65. He then served as Master of St. John's College from 1735 and Dean of Rochester from 1744 until his death. He died in St John's College on 10 January 1765.

B.A. 1747; SJC Fellow 1752. Headmaster of Shrewsbury School, 1754-1771.

Ken North first came to College in 1923 as a chorister. He remained a member of the Choir until 1926. He worked at Eaden Lilley's grocery department until he was appointed Kitchen Clerk in October 1935.

Tenant in the bishopric of Ely at Bishop's Hatfield, Hertfordshire.

Roger Ormeston was High Steward of Cambridge University, 1504. He graduated bachelor of civil law from Cambridge in 1489/90 and was a servant to Lady Margaret Beaufort. In the mid-1490s, Ormeston married Elizabeth, the widow of Sir Robert Chamberlain (who was executed in 1491). Ormeston was elected as K.B. in 1501. He died in 1504.

Fellow of St. John's College, 1911-1947, and the first Professor of Medieval History at the University of Cambridge, 1937-1942. Editor of the 'English Historical Review', 1925-1938, and author of many books on medieval history. Elected Fellow of the British Academy in 1929. Senior Treasurer of the Committee for the College Mission, c. 1918-1921.

Warden of the Maurice Hostel, Hoxton.

Of London. Girdler, served as Master of the Girdlers' Company. Charitable bequests by him included to the Girdlers' Company to fund almshouses, and to Brasenose College, Oxford. He is an ancestor of the actor, broadcaster, comedian and writer, Michael Palin.

The Reverend Stephen Parkinson was born in 1823 near Keighley in Yorkshire. He was admitted Sizar to St John’s in 1841, gaining his BA as Senior Wrangler and 2nd Smith’s Prize in 1845. He graduated Bachelor of Divinity in 1855 and Doctor of Divinity in 1869.
The rest of his life was spent in connection with the College, and he was elected to a Fellowship the same year that he completed his BA. From 1864 to 1882 he served as a College Tutor, and as President between 1865 and 1871. In 1881 the Mastership of the College was vacant, however Parkinson declined to enter as a candidate.
Parkinson published two textbooks, An Elementary Treatise on Mechanics, and A Treatise on Optics, both of which ran to numerous editions and were the standard works in use at the University. He was a well-liked and generous Tutor, with his Eagle Obituary detailing a student who would have been unable to complete his degree without Dr Parkinson’s financial support. A window in the College Chapel was also gifted by Parkinson, as well as a donation to the College Mission.
In 1870 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society , and a year later married Elizabeth Lucy, who was to outlive him following his death in 1889.

Obituary in the Eagle: Vol. 15, 1889, p. 356.

Accessible online at:

https://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Eagle/Eagle%20Volumes/1880s/1889/Eagle_1889_Lent.pdf

Of Lancashire. Baptised 17 Dec. 1745. Died 3 Feb. 1817. Attended Sedbergh Grammar School. Entered St John's as a sizar, 12 August 1762. Fellow of St John's from 22 March 1768. President of the Faculty of Medicine, 1787 to 1802. Professor of chemistry, 1773 - 1793. Regius professor of physic, 1793 - 1813. Physician to Addenbrooke's Hospital, 1785 - 1817. Knighted in 1796.

Alan Percy was the second Master of the College. He was Prebendary of Dunnington in York Cathedral to which he was admitted 1 May 1513. He was admitted Master of St John's 29 July 1516, at the formal opening of the College, though he seems to have been perfoming the duties for about a month before that date. He vacated his Prebend at York in 1517 and Robert Shorton, his predecessor as Master of St John's, succeeded him there, 1 November 1517.
Percy had been appointed Rector of St Anne with St Agnes in the City of London by the Abbot and Convent of Westminster, and was instituted 6 May 1515. He resigned both his Rectory and his Mastership in 1518. The pension assigned to him by the College (£10/year) was a liberal one at the time, for the stipend of the Master was only £12. However, Percy did not claim the pension long as King Henry VIII in 1520 gave him an estate in Middlesex, whereupon, he surrendered his claim upon College revenues.