Admitted pensioner (age 15) at St John's, June 24, 1664. Son of William, deceased, of Ely, Cambridgeshire. Born there. School, Perse, Cambridge. B.A. 1667-8; M.A. 1671; LL.D. 1679. Fellow, 1674-1723. Senior Bursar 8 March 1694 to 21 March 1715. Died Oct. 29, 1723. Buried at Chesterton.
Dr George Colin Lawder Bertram was born in Worcester in April 1911, the son of Frank Bertram, Deputy Director of Civil Aviation, Air Ministry. He read Natural Sciences at St John’s College, Cambridge, graduating BA in 1932 and gaining a PhD in 1939. He was awarded the Polar Medal in 1937, after taking part in the British Graham Land Exhibition from 1934-37 as Biologist.
Bertram was appointed Tutor at St John’s in 1945 and became Senior Tutor in 1965, serving in this position until 1972. During his time as a Tutor he was the Director of the Scott Polar Research Institute for eight years between 1949 and 1957. Throughout his life he published numerous papers and books on the arctic, zoological and population. He remained a Fellow of the College from 1972 until his death in 2001.
He married Kate Ricardo in 1939, and was survived by four sons.
Obituary in The Eagle: Vol 83, 2001, p. 69
Admitted to St. John's in 1696; matric. 1699; B.A. 1699/1700. Judge of the Prerogative Court, 1714-1751.
William Bill was Master of St John's (1546/7 to 1551), Vice-Chancellor of the University (1548) and twice Master of Trinity College (1551-1553, 1558-1561), Provost of Eton College (1558-1561) and Dean of Westminster (1560-1561).
Bill was born in Ashwell, Hertfordshire and had two brothers and two sisters. His brother, Thomas became physician to Henry VIII. William was educated at St John's and was elected a Fellow in 1534. He received his B.D. 1544-1546.
Third son of William Billingsley (d. 1553), haberdasher, and his wife, Elizabeth Hardy (or Harlow). Matriculated pensioner at St John's College in 1550; scholar, 1551. Billingsley did not take his degree, and was apprenticed to a haberdasher in London and rose to serve four terms as Master of the Haberdashers' Company. He was alderman of two London wards, was senior alderman in 1596, and elected Lord Mayor of London in December 1596. He was knighted in 1597. Billingsley translated works including Euclid's Elements of Geometry (1570). A 'Mathematical preface' was contributed to this by John Dee, in which he classified and described the mathematical arts, and corrected the translation of passages which Billingsley had failed to understand. Billingsley married first, Elizabeth Bourne (1541/2-1577), with whom he had five children; secondly, Bridget (d. 1588), daughter of Sir Christopher Draper and widow (husband's name not known); thirdly, Kathleen Killigrew, widow of [first name unknown] Trappe; fourthly (in 1598) Elizabeth (d. 1605/6), daughter of Richard Peacocke of Finchley and widow of Rowland Martyn; fifthly, Susan Tracey (d. 1633), widow of [first name unknown] Barger. As well as leaving money to St John's to found scholarships he left money to Emmanuel College to buy land.
Dr. Sandra Billington was born on 10th September 1943. After working in theatre including gaining a scholarship to RADA and working with Mike Leigh, she attended Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. There, she became fascinated by folklore, theatre and disorder in the Middle Ages. She was Lecturer and Reader in Renaissance Theatre at the University of Glasgow from 1979 to 2003, a specialist in Shakespeare and folklore. She was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh from 1998 to 2005.
Her books include ‘Mock Kings in Medieval Society and Renaissance Drama’ (1991), ‘Midsummer: A cultural sub-text from Chretien de Troyes to Jean Michel’ (2001), and ‘Coming up for the third time’ (2011). She also edited ‘The Concept of the Goddess’ with Miranda Aldhouse-Green in 1986. Her book ‘A Social History of the Fool’ won the Folklore Society's Katharine Briggs Folklore Award in 1984. She also wrote an article on 16th Century Drama in St. John’s College, Cambridge which was published in February 1978 in the ‘Review of English Studies’ Vol. XXIX, Issue 113.
Geoffrey Blythe was educated at Eton College and King’s College, Cambridge, the latter of which he is recorded as having entered in 1483. He was ordained as a priest on 4th April 1496. From 1503 until his death, Blythe served as the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield. He was appointed president of the Council of Wales and the Marshes from 1512 to 1524.
William Bolton was a canon of the Augustinian order, prior of St. Bartholomew’s in West Smithfield, London, and master of the king’s works. While little information survives concerning the early years of his life, Bolton is known to have attended St. Mary’s College, Oxford, between 1501 and 1503, with his election at St. Bartholomew’s confirmed by the bishop of London in 1505. As a royal adminstrator, Bolton oversaw a number of important building projects, including the chapel of Henry VII and the monument to Lady Margaret Beaufort in Westminster Abbey, and from 1517, the reconstruction of New Hall in Boreham, Essex. He is cited as master of the king’s works in the will of Henry VII (1509), but is likely to have occupied this position from around 1504 onwards. In addition to his royal engagements, Bolton also oversaw important reconstruction of the priory church at St. Bartholomew’s between 1513 and 1517. In 1522, he received preferment as rector of Harrow on the Hill in Middlesex. He died in London in 1532 and was buried at St. Bartholomew’s.
Henry Dawes Bonsey was born the third son of William Henry Bonsey, of Slough, Buckinghamshire. He earned his BA from St John’s College, Cambridge in 1874. He was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1872, and called to the bar in 1875. He was a reporter for the Law Times, Queen’s Bench Division, and also stood as Recorder of Bedford from 1910-1912, and Judge of County Court No. 2 from 1911.
Bonsey married his wife, Helen Jane, in 1898. He died in Newcaste-upon-Tyne on the 12th of May 1919, aged 68.
Robert Booth matriculated as a sizar at St John's, 1565, graduated BA 1571, MA 1574, and was made a Fellow of St John's in 1573, where he also served as Bursar. He came from Cheshire and was probably the son of John Booth of Dunham Massey. Booth seems to have been in the household of the Countess of Shrewsbury and it was through his advocacy that St John's Second Court was built. He made a bequest of £300 to pay for a fountain in Second Court, but the money was used for other purposes
Admitted as sizar (aged 15) to St. John's in 1637. Born in Lincolnshire.
Thomas Bourchier was an English cardinal and Archbishop of Canterbury. He was the son of William Bourchier and Anne of Gloucester, and the half-brother of Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham (father of Lady Margaret Beaufort’s third husband, Sir Henry Stafford). Educated at Oxford University, Thomas was appointed Chancellor of the University in 1434. In the same year, he was made Bishop of Worcester and in 1443, consecrated as Bishop of Ely. In 1454, Thomas was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury and also served briefly as Lord Chancellor of England from 1455. He was made a cardinal in 1467 and died in 1486 at Knole House, Kent. He was buried at Canterbury Cathedral.
Studied at Shrewsbury School, later admitted to St. John's College as sizar and awarded B.A. in 1680/1. Awarded M.A. in 1684 and DD (Lambeth) in 1716. Consecrated as Bishop of Chichester in October 1722.
Son of John, schoolmaster. Born at Thaxted, Essex. School,
Tilty (private). Admitted sizar at St John's, May 28, 1686; B.A. 1689-90; M.A. 1693; B.D. 1701; D.D. 1718. Fellow, 1694-1722. Senior Bursar 1715-1720.
Ordained deacon (London) 4 March, 1693-4. Vicar of Patrixbourne, Kent, 1698-1752.
Rector of Staplehurst, Kent, 1719-52. Died 5 January, 1753, aged 85. Buried at Patrixbourne. Author, Sermons. Brother
of Charles (1695).
The Reverend John Sandwith Boys Smith was born in Hampshire on 8th January 1901, the son of Edward Percy Boys Smith, Clerk in Holy Orders and St John’s College Alumnus, and Charlotte Cecilia Sandwith. Boys Smith matriculated at St John’s College, Cambridge, in 1919 and read Economics/Theology, graduating BA in 1922.
After a short time at Marburg University in 1924-25, Boys Smith was appointed to the Fellowship of St John’s in 1927. This was to be the start of a long commitment to the College, and it was a position which, apart from the 10 years he was Master of the College (1959-69), he was to hold until his death in 1991. He served as Chaplain 1927-1934, Director of Studies and Supervisor in Theology 1927-1952, Praelector 1929-1931, Assistant Tutor 1931-34, Tutor 1939-1939, Junior Bursar 1939-1944 and Senior Bursar 1944-1959.
Pierce Brackenbury (c. 1632-1692), Fellow of St John's, and descendants. They held lands of St John's in Deeping St James, Lincolnshire, and Marton-cum-Grafton, Yorkshire.
Son of John Brackenbury of Sellaby near Barnard Castle, County Durham. Went to school at Guisborough, Yorkshire. Admitted to St John's as a pensioner, 1650, aged 16. Graduated BA, 1654/5; MA, 1658. A Fellow of St John's from 1656 until his death. He was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1656 and was licensed to practise medicine in 1662, graduating MD in 1665. His brothers Robert and Henry were also students at St John's. Pierce Brackenbury died in 1692.
Brandon, Charles, 1st Duke of Suffolk
Charles Brandon was a magnate, courtier, and soldier, and a member of King Henry VIII's privy council.
He was the only surviving son of Sir William Brandon (d. 1485) and his wife, Elizabeth Bruyn (d. 1494) of South Ockendon.
By about 1503 Charles Brandon waited on King Henry VII at table and became well-known for his skill at jousting. He became close to the young Prince Henry (who succeeded Henry VII as King of England), and although he was some seven years older than Henry VIII, and eventually predeceased him, he remained his lifelong intimate.
At Brandon's uncle's death in January 1510 he became marshal of the king's bench and in November 1511 he added the parallel post of marshal of the king's household. In October 1512 he became master of the horse. He was knighted on 30 March 1512, elected a knight of the Garter on 23 April 1513, created Viscount Lisle on 15 May 1513. Then, on 1 February 1514 he was named Duke of Suffolk.
As Cardinal Wolsey fell from power in 1529, Suffolk was appointed president of the king's council. But as the new regime settled down from 1530, his attendance in council and parliament was erratic, his influence limited, and his position uncomfortable. He did, however, serve on the increasingly well-defined privy council. In the household reforms of 1539 he was appointed to the great mastership of the household, an upgraded version of the lord stewardship. He led both the party which met Anne of Cleves on her arrival in 1539 and the team which negotiated with her the terms of her divorce from the king in 1540.
He had a varied military career, including leading a successful assault in the siege of Tournai (1513). He was also instrumental in suppressing the Lincolnshire Revolt and the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536. The king commanded him to move his home to Lincolnshire, and Suffolk eventually became the greatest landowner in Lincolnshire, with a dense belt of estates spread across the centre of the county.
In the 1540s he took a major part in Henry's last wars against France and Scotland, while between campaigns he sat more regularly in the privy council, as a senior statesman and military expert. In October and November 1542 he guarded the northern English border while Norfolk and others invaded Scotland. From January 1543 to March 1544 he was the king's lieutenant in the north. Based mostly at Darlington, from there he supervised regional government and border warfare and planned for a major invasion which he never had the chance to command. Nevertheless, his work laid the basis for the capture of Edinburgh by Edward Seymour, in May 1544. By then Suffolk had been called away to France, where he led the siege of Boulogne with conspicuous bravery and skill, from July to November 1544 commanding the king's ward in the huge army which eventually captured the town.
Charles Brandon was married four times. Firstly to Dame Margaret Mortimer in 1507 and her niece Anne Brown in 1508 who died in 1510. He then married in secret (later in public) Henry VIII’s sister Mary (1496–1533) who had been recently widowed by the death of Louis XII of France. Mary died on 25 June 1533 and Suffolk married again in September 1533: his fourth wife was the fourteen-year-old Katherine Willoughby, originally intended as his son's bride. His son Henry, earl of Lincoln, died on 8 March 1534.
When Charles Brandon died of unknown causes at Guildford, on 22 August 1545, the king decreed that he should be buried at St George's Chapel, Windsor. Charles Brandon left two sons, Henry Brandon (1535–1551) and Charles Brandon (1537/8–1551), successively second and third dukes of Suffolk.