Identity area
Reference code
SJCR/SJAR/1/1/Gunning
Unique identifier
Title
Date(s)
- 1661-1671 (Creation)
Level of description
Subseries
Extent and medium
3 items, paper
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Peter Gunning was born in Kent and matriculated at Clare College, Cambridge in 1629, graduating in 1633. Gunning remained at Clare until he was ejected by parliamentary commissioners in 1644 due to the royalist sympathies manifested in his preaching. He then moved to be with the royal court in Oxford, where he stayed as chaplain of New College until the royalist surrender. For ten years he served as a tutor and chaplain in the households of various royalist nobles, before commencing preaching to a congregation with royalist sympathies at the chapel of Exeter House on the Strand. Services using the Book of Common Prayer were tolerated discreetly in the main, although parliamentarian troops did interrupt Gunning's Christmas Day communion in 1657. After the Restoration his career took off: he resumed his fellowship, became Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, Master of Corpus Christi College, and then, in 1661, Master of St John's. He also gained positions in the Church, most notably prebendary of Canterbury Cathedral. Due to his reputation as one of the foremost churchmen of his day he took part in the Savoy Conference in the hope of reconciling episcopalian and presbyterian parties in the Church. Eventually Gunning resigned his post as Master of St John's to become Bishop of Chichester in 1670, and then of Ely in 1675.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Letters to Gunning as SJC Master and as Bishop of Chichester.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Gunning gave half his library to St John's, and the other half to his executor, William Saywell, for life, before returning them to the use of the College. There are several thousand books in the College's collections which bear his provenance, and although many of these concern theology and canon law, most other subjects are covered as well, notably politics, history, classics, poetry and the sciences.
More information on Gunning's library can be found here: https://www.sjcarchives.org.uk/institutional/index.php/peter-gunning-1661/edit