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Letter from the Fellows to the Visitor, the Countess of Portsmouth, informing her of a vacancy in the Mastership following the death of Thomas Chapman and recommending Laurence Eliot [Fellow, President, and Tutor] to be the new Master.

Letter from the Duke of Newcastle [Chancellor of the University] to the Countess of Portsmouth [Visitor] asking her to delay her decision about the appointment of the successor to Thomas Chapman as Master of Magdalene until he had had time to consult and then advise her [she ignored his advise and made her own appointment].

Letter from the Countess of Portsmouth to George Sandby about the the Mastership

Transcript

I believe Sir you'll be a little surprised at receiving a letter from me, but an incident has happened that I wished you to be apprised of. You may probably have heard that the Mastership of Magdalene College in Cambridge is vacant by the death of Dr ____ & I believe you know the presentation is in my gift & that I always designed it for Mr B[arton] W[allop] but as he is too young to take it, my next thought must be to fix on a person to hold it for him that is worthy to fill such a preferment and to do honour to the College & be an example worthy his in me & action & indeed I do not know anyone so likely to answer these purposes as yourself, & therefore if you think the Mastership worth your acceptance on the terms mentioned I must beg to see you as soon as possible that the vacancy may be filled immediately

Letter from Eliot Laurence [the Fellows' preferred candidate to the Mastership] to the Countess of Portsmouth [Visitor].

Transcript

Madam,

The Fellows of magdalen College presuming that your Ladyship may probably be unacquainted with the form of a nomination to the Mastership have desired me to transmit to your Ladyship the enclosed copy, which is transcribed from Lord Effingham's nomination & is to be wrote upon a sheet of stamp paper. The Society in general beg leave to return their sincerest acknowledgements to your Ladyship for the favourable regard you was pleased to express for them & I am more particularly obliged to request your Ladyship's acceptance of my most humble thanks for the great kindness & civilities you showed me when I had the honour of waiting upon your ladyship last week. The Society present their most dutiful respects to your Ladyship & beg that you will be pleased to order your Steward to et m know as soon as you have nominated a Master of this College, tht we may be in readiness to receive & to pay all proper respect to the Gentleman you shall please to appoint. I have the honour to be,

Madam,
Your Ladyship's most obliged & most obedient humble servant,
L. Eliot

Letter from John Crayter to the Countess of Portsmouth [Visitor] advising her about her choice as Barton Wallop as Master.

Transcript

Madam,

Tis not material where the person was educated whom you intend for the Mastership of Magdalen College, unless the Statutes require him to be a Cambridge man, which is not very probable. The gentleman must get a copy of Dr Chapman's nomination, for your Ladyship's guide, which he must present to the person who is to admit him, who i presume will be the Vice-Master or Senior Fellow.

I Heard the news in the corner of a coffee house, & immediately recollected your Ladyship's intentions for Mr Barton Wallop; but the College was supplied with two or three Masters before I could get half was in my letter to my Lord. There must be a bond of resignation when required, this I am persuaded my Lord will pitch upon a man of honour, where honesty and integrity will be the best security. I go to Town in a few days, & if your Ladyship can get the nomination dispatched I shall be glad to give the new master all the assistance in my power before I go into the north which will be about the latter end of this month. I am with compliments to my Lord,

You Ladyship's
most obliged and most obedient humble servant
John Crayter

Letter from George Sandby to the Countess of Portsmouth about executing the bond to give up the Mastership in favour of Barton Wallop when required

Transcript

Madam,

I have executed the Bond, and sent it to your Ladyship by this post; and should I be above ground will, infallibly, render it useless. And tho' my situation should not be so useful to myself as many think it will, and has been found so by my predecessors in my office, perhaps some opportunities may arrive, wherein I can be of service to others. As far as these come within your Ladyship's knowledge I hope you will apprise me of them: wherein my own is sufficient it shall be carefully applied. Whilst I am saying this, my eye casts forward to the young master to whom I wish the best ornament of a good mind, and all the friendships of fortune.

My humble duty waits on Lord Portsmouth and I am,
Madam,
Your Ladyship's most obliged and devoted servant,
G. Sandby

Letter from George Sandby to the Countess of Portsmouth.

Transcript

madam,

At the same time that I acquaint your Ladyship of my being in the place, I must acquaint your Ladyship that I am leaving it again, & propose to do myself the further honour of writing to you hereafter. I got there upon Sunday evening; & by that means, so as to have my Doctor's Degree upon my back the next day. HIs Grace of Newcastle received me very civilly & I believe that it will be my turn, soon, to be his Vice-Chancellor. That will be the employment of one year; & it will be the employment of every one, to acknowledge myself,

Madam,
Your Ladyship's most obliged & very devoted servant
G. Sandby

My duty waits on his Lordship

Letter from George Sandby to the Countess of Portsmouth describing his admission as Master.

Transcript

Madam,

After undergoing a very great fatigue I am returned to myself & my country house again, from whence I beg leave to renew my thanks to your ladyship, and to enlarge my narration.

My Doctor's degree was made complete to me upon the second day of my being at Cambridge and on the third I was admitted to the Mastership. The ceremony of Admission is this: the Society being assembled at the Lodge, the senior Fellow first reads the nomination, and that is approved of, then the Master (to be) has the Statute concerning his own qualification put into his hands which he reads aloud, swears observance of, and of all other Statutes of the College; then the Chapel Bell tolls and the senior Fellow leads the Master by the hand and places him in his seat which gives him possession. The chapter of the Statute concerning the quality of the Master says:

that he shall be thirty years of age or about it & at least of the degree of Master of Arts, that within one year from his admission he shall be a Deacon and within two in full Orders; and if he fails in these points he may without any delay be instantly removed and his place filled up.

Mr Eliot informed me that there was a very great disturbance when Dr Chapman was nominated. He was the youngest Head ever known; and upon his being presented was first rejected by the Society as disqualified but a Certificate being afterwards produced showing him to be in his thirtieth year they judged that to be within the description of the Statute and so admitted him.

It may please God to make another nomination required before the pretty young gentleman [Barton Wallop] can receive the Mastership and then my debt becomes discharged of itself. But lest my life should reach so far I shall frequently repeat from under my hand what my heart cannot possibly do otherwise than comply with. And, when my seat is added to that, which I will, in due time, provide that it shall, all changes and chances will be guarded against. Those who are most ready, as is my case, to perform without any obligation, are most desirous to be subject to them.

The College is situated almost out of the town, remote from any other, near the River, and in a very dirty street. The Lodge is a very good one, commodious, and has a piece of pasture, of two acres, adjoining to the garden, set at £8 a year. In one of the two parlours is the picture your Ladyship spoke of, of Lord Audley, presented to the College by Lod Suffolk. Though it is said to be Lord Audley, I should rather doubt of it, myself. It has the dress of a Lord Chancellor, or of some high Officer of State; but the fashion of it is much later than the reign of Henry Viii and the hair & cut of the beard exactly agree with Van Dyke's portraits. If your ladyship is imposed upon by a false copy it is what many a great and wise person has suffered besides: but though this dead take these liberties and appear to be what they are not I shall only appear to be what I really am and that is

Madam
Your Ladyship's most obliged & most obedient servant
G. Sandby

ps. though I am an unworthy master I have a very worthy Mistress who presents, with me, all Duty to Lord Portsmouth, your Ladyship, and Lord Herbert.
Upon the 15th September we go to Cambridge & as I must furnish the Lodge I hope to buy the greatest part of what my predecessor left

Letter from George Sandby to the Countess of Portsmouth about executing the bond to give up the Mastership in favour of Barton Wallop when required

Transcript

Madam,

The time of my going to your Ladyship's College comes very near, and that will make me so much nearer to Saville Street, that I shall certainly (God willing) have the honour of waiting upon Lord Portsmouth, and your Ladyship, in the winter. When I get to Town, I can execute the Bond to your Ladyship's satisfaction, or as much sooner as I am commanded.

I hope that the General and his Aid de Camp are both well, and send over good news for the public, and of themselves.

With much duty to Lord Portsmouth.,
I am
Madam,
Your very devoted, and very obliged humble servant,
G. Sandby

Letter from George Sandby to the Countess of Portsmouth accepting the Mastership and the terms by which he was to give it up to Barton Wallop after a set number of years or on request.

Transcript

Madam,

It is the greatest pleasure to any man, of feeling, to have the esteem of those he most esteems, and therefore, I must be happy in your Ladyship's kind, and little thought of, offer to me of the Mastership of Magdalene College. If I have the honour to be placed there I shall discharge the trust as well as I can, and show a most faithful execution of it in my last act, by the delivery, of it back again into the hand of my noble benefactress. Your Ladyship is pleased to name a term of years for my holding it; but where a grandson of Lord Portsmouth's is concerned, you need only say to thy servant go! - and he goeth.

The post day at Bungay is not still Saturday but I will try that this shall meet the Yarmouth bag, that your Ladyship may know my intention of setting out from hence upon Sunday in the afternoon as soon as I have performed my duty. I will give my bones one day's rest in Fleet Street; so that if your Ladyship has ay instructions or orders for me, I can receive them there, on Wednesday, before I personally say, that I am,

Madam,
your Ladyship's most obliged & most obedient servant G. Sandby

Letter from Charles Hayes to the Countess of Portsmouth [Visitor] in which he says he knows she intends the Mastership for a person too young at present to take up the appointment and asks her to consider appointing his brother in trust until the preferred gentleman comes of age and stating he was willing to accept any terms placed upon him.

Transcript

Madam,

I have been this morning at Billingbeare to pay my duty to your Ladyship and should have done it before you had left the country, but was obliged to go to London the day after you came from bath, & I did not return from London till Wednesday last. However, I had the pleasure of hearing from Mr Watts, that your Ladyship was perfectly well.

I should not have presumed, Madam, to have ventured upon this application if your late kind readiness to serve my brother when the livings of Wargrove & Waltham were vacant, had not encouraged me to do what I fear you will now blame me for. But the desire of assisting a brother who is deserving of every thing I can do for him, must be my excuse.

In short, Madam, the Mastership of Magdalen College in the University of Cambridge is now vacant, as I am informed, by the death of Dr Chapman. I know your Ladyship designs this piece of preferment for a young gentleman, who for some years to come will not be capable of holding it. The request therefore which I have now to make to your Ladyship is, that you would be so kind as to present my brother to this dignity in the University, in trust only 'till the person you design it for, is of age to take it. Whatever security your Ladyship shall require for my brother's performing the terms you shall please to impose upon him, will be most readily and thankfully complied with.

Mr Aldworth, at whose house I write this, begs leave to present his best respects to your Ladyship & to join with me in this request, which give me leave to say comes from a family, who claim an immemorial right to you Ladyship's favour and protection. I must desire your Ladyship will present my duty to my vey good Lord and that you will believe me to be with the most perfect esteem and regard,

Madam,
Your Ladyship's most obliged and most humble servant Charles Hayes

Handwritten extract from the will of the Countess of Portsmouth [she died in 1762].

Transcript

Whereas I am entitled to the patronage, donation or free disposition of the Mastership of Magdalene College in the University of Cambridge, I do hereby give and bequeath the same to George Jennings of Newsells in the county of Hertford Esq & William Hervey of Chigwell in the County of Essex Esq & the survivors of them and to the Executrix, Administrators and assigns of such survivors for the term of 99 years. If the Honourable Barton Wallop Grandson of my dear husband John Earl of Portsmouth shall so long live upon trust to present or nominate the said Barton Wallop to the said Mastership upon the first vacancy thereof after he shall be duly qualified to take and hold the same. And it is my will that until the said Barton Wallop shall be duly qualified to take & hold the said Mastership my said trustees or the survivors of them or the Executors, Administrators or assigns of such survivors shall from time to time as the said Mastership shall become vacant nominate & appoint such person or persons to the said Mastership as the owner or owners for the time being of my capital mansion house at Audley End in the county of Essex shall nominate direct or appoint after the nomination & appointment of the said Barton Wallop then the said term of 99 years to cease & be paid

Deed of presentation of George Sandby to the Mastership by the Countess of Portsmouth, with her signature and seal at the bottom.

Copy of the deed of presentation of George Sandby to the Mastership by the Countess of Portsmouth.

[for the original see MCGB/6/16]

A bond of resignation of the Mastership prepared and signed by George Sandby. This was a condition of his appointment as Master by the Countess of Portsmouth [Visitor] who wished to give the Mastership to her step grandson Barton Wallop when he came of age. This duly took place in 1774.

The bond was witnessed by John Palmer, Butler of Magdalene College and William Murfitt, cook of Magdalene College