University

The Jacobites looked on Oxford University as one of their strongholds. When its Jacobite chancellor, the Duke of Ormonde, was attainted in 1715, another Jacobite, his brother, Lord Arran, was elected as his successor, holding the post till his death in 1758. All the Members returned were Tories, the only question being whether they should be moderates or extremists. At Oxford the King did not possess the power of creating honorary doctors, by which a Whig majority was secured at Cambridge.

Oxford University was the chief seminary of the Church and pre-eminent as a focus of Toryism. The intensity of Tory politics in the university sharpened during the 1690s as a growing sense of grievance took hold among the ordinary fellows. Much of this annoyance stemmed from the government’s oft-seen failure to include Oxford dons among the recipients of ecclesiastical patronage, thereby turning many of them against the religious moderation of William III and his ministries. Discontent was also nurtured by the increasing difficulty of obtaining clerical livings in the parishes.

To the doctors and ‘actual’ masters of arts at Cambridge, who comprised the university’s senate and its parliamentary electorate, the ‘Church interest’ naturally made a powerful appeal, and High Toryism flourished no less than at Oxford. Indeed, half as many fellows and scholars again were ejected from Cambridge at the Revolution as from the other university, and some non-jurors continued in residence there under the protection of sympathetic heads of house, notably at St. John’s under its master, Humphrey Gower.

The traditional party alignments continued at Oxford long after they had vanished elsewhere. The old interest reigned supreme, and the university showed a preference for safe Midland squires. Several local noblemen had influence, and the Government carried weight through its disposal of clerical patronage and the regius professorships, but the university remained fiercely jealous of its independence. There was always considerable pressure to avoid the inconvenience of a contest, and the sitting Members were sure of re-election.

In 1754 the politics of the university of Cambridge were those of its chancellor, the Duke of Newcastle. Newcastle devoted special attention to Cambridge affairs, concerned himself with the details of university administration and appointments, and employed the ecclesiastical influence of the Crown to strengthen his position in the university. Cambridge was the Whig university, and as far as its parliamentary representation was concerned little better than one of Newcastle’s boroughs.