Abingdon School and the Pembroke College Connection Among the heraldic devices that decorate the school are several shields depicting a rose, a thistle and three lions.These are the arms of Pembroke College, Oxford, which this year celebrates the 400th anniversary of its foundation – a foundation made possible by the £5000 Thomas Tesdale left in his will for Abingdon boys to be educated at the University. In 1563, Tesdale had been the top scholar at John Roysse’s newly endowed Abingdon School. After leaving, he made a fortune out of malt, wool, and the production of woad for the dyeing industry. Originally, Tesdale’s bequest was intended for Balliol, but in 1623 after Richard Wightwick, the Rector of East Ilsley, augmented Tesdale’s bequest with an endowment of £100 a year, the money was directed towards the foundation of Pembroke. Both men are now celebrated as the founders of the College. The money, however, came with specific conditions: of the College’s ten Fellows and ten scholars, preference was always to be given to candidates who had been educated at Abingdon School. Over the centuries, statutes varied these conditions, but the association between the School and the College lasted until the late twentieth century when the last Abingdon scholars went to Pembroke. Until recently, there was always a member of the College on the School’s Governing Body. The preponderance of Abingdon scholars and Fellows meant that between 1709 and 1843 seven consecutive masters of Pembroke were Old Abingdonians: Colwell Brickenden, Matthew Panting, John Radcliffe (nothing to do with the hospital), William Adams, William Sergrove, John Smyth and George Hall. By the middle of the nineteenth century these closed scholarships between schools and certain colleges had become the target of university reformers; the man leading these reformers was Francis Jeune, who in 1843 became Master of Pembroke. From this moment, he had Abingdon School and its closed scholarships firmly in his sights. But trouble had been brewing between the two institutions before this. The School archive contains a letter from the Duke of Wellington in his capacity as Chancellor of the University of Oxford. The letter is dated 25 March 1837 and refers to a complaint made to him by the headmaster of Abingdon (1827–1839), Joseph Hewlett. The previous year Pembroke had rejected the Abingdon candidates on the grounds of ‘academic insufficiency’. This was something the School felt it had no right to do. Wellington’s reply is wonderfully measured: ‘When such a complaint is sent to me … it is my duty to enquire into the circumstances; and having obtained a sufficient knowledge of them, to form a judgement on the case. … I will not fail to communicate my opinion on the case, as soon as I shall consider myself sufficiently informed as to be able to form one.’ Neither the Abingdon, nor Pembroke archives record the result of this spat. However, 17 years later the University Reform Bill of 1854 gave colleges greater control over their intake. After this, Abingdon could still nominate candidates for the Pembroke scholarships but Pembroke would now examine them, whereas previously the School had set and marked the exams. This now meant that Pembroke had every right to reject candidates on the grounds of ‘academic insufficiency’. This outraged William Strange, headmaster at the time, who in August 1856 recorded his feelings in the School’s register of Pembroke Scholars: g, oad ally ed cha Ilsl wit th he me nde P e h f cl re s i rc n h h m e myse d , ard ley, th e en ers William Adams William Sergrove John the on th insuff the Sc do. We measur ‘When me … the circ obtain of th on th com case GRIFFEN 2024 | 14
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