Hertford — Interior of Hall. Source: Lang. Click on images to enlarge them.
THE present Hertford College is the newest foundation in the university, dating from 1874, but on its site buildings for the reception of students existed as far back as the thirteenth cen tury. The first record we have speaks of it as the property of Elias de Hertford, when the house then stand ing was called Hart (or Hert) Hall. In those days Oxford was full of halls or hospices, which were let to parties of students attending the uni versity lectures, one of whom, known as the principal, collected the money from the others and paid the rent. After a time, as the halls became slowly absorbed by the colleges, those only continuing to exist which had come to be regarded in almost the same light, the university insisted that the principal should be at least a graduate, and appointed by the chancellor, two conditions that hold good to this day. In its character as hospice Hart Hall passed from one community to an other; in 1312 it was occupied by the rector and scholars of Stapeldon Hall (afterwards known as Exeter College) prior to the acquisition of their present site; the next tenants were the warden and scholars of New, when that college was in course of erection, and later on some monks from Glastonbury lived in it.
Hertford College. Source: Album of Oxford Photographs.
In 1710 Dr Richard Newton was admitted Principal. He was an exceedingly zealous educationist and university reformer, the "active head of his day,” the “monarch of Hart Hall” as he was sometimes derisively called. He was very ambitious for his hall, and spent a large sum out of his own pocket in building a chapel and the part of the present quadrangle which adjoins it. Moreover, he never ceased his efforts to have the hall incorporated as a college in spite of the opposition and ridicule he incurred on account of his slender resources, and in the end, after thirty years' struggle, he triumphed. A charter of incorporation was granted him, and Hertford College came into being.
The new college was designed for thirty - two students and four scholars or servitors, supervised by four tutors, whose duty it was, among multifarious others, to receive the students' allowance from their parents and pay off their debts before handing over the balance. The exist ence of the college in those days depended upon the reputation of its tutors and the number of students they were able to attract. During the time of the second and third Principals this reputation was high and prosperity reigned; then came the collapse; after the death of the fourth Principal no one could be found to fill his place, and very soon the only tenants of the college were some twenty strange characters who lived there rent free. Finally the university caused the doors to be closed, and shortly afterwards that part of the building adjoining Cat Street fell down “ a great crash and a dense cloud of dust."
The Bridge, W. G. Blackall. c. 1920. Source: The Charm of Oxford, Plate XXIV.
In 1822, Magdalen Hall having been burned down, the community found a temporary home in the abandoned college and remained there for fifty-two years, building on for their more comfortable accommodation the present two wings of the west front. After their departure for the mag nificent habitation that had been prepared for them, Mr. T. C. Baring, M. P., refounded Hertford College, endowing it with seventeen fellowships and thirty scholarships, limited to members of the Church of England, and an Act of Parliament gave the new foundation “all such rights and privileges as are possessed or enjoyed, or can be exercised by other colleges in the University of Oxford. ”
Some of the ancient buildings still remain — the library which used to be the old dining-hall and dates from Elizabeth' s reign; the common rooms built in the time of the Stuarts, and Newton's Chapel, with the adjoining portion of the quadrangle. The entrance gateway connecting the two wings, the hall and the ex tension on the other side of New College Street were the work of this century, and the new chapel has only recently been completed.
Selden and Charles James Fox are two of the most famous names connected with this college. The plate and pictures of Magdalen Hall are still in its posses sion.
Turning to the right as we leave the college we come almost immediately to New College on the left.
Bibliography
Album of Oxford Photographs containing 20 Views printed by the permanent collotype process. Oxford: Miss Beesley, Fancy Stationery Repository, 43, High Street, Oxford, nd. Internet Archive version of a copy in St. Michael's College Toronto. 4 October 2012.
Wells, J.. The Charm of Oxford. Illustrated by W. G. Blackall. 2nd ed. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton Kent & Co., [c.1920]. Internet Archive version of a copy in St. Michael's College Toronto. 3 October 2012.
Lang, Elsie M. The Oxford Colleges. London: T. Werner. HathiTrust online version of a copy in the University of Michigan Library. Web. 8 November 2022.
Last modified 10 November 2022