Women at Christ's

Objection, reaction, and recollection

Admission of women to degrees at Cambridge

Lives and wives in College

Lady Margaret Beaufort (1443 - 1509)

The College Statutes of 1506 provided guidance on the conditions under which women might be permitted to enter the College community. Women were forbidden to play any part in the College, except in the most exceptional of circumstances (such as at times of sickness), although a laundress might be employed if a suitable male launderer could not be found. Over the centuries that followed, women became more involved in the domestic aspects of College life, gaining employment as assistant staff in the gardens, kitchen and as ‘bedders’ (bedmakers).

Lady Margaret Beaufort's status as the mother of Henry VII and paternal grandmother of Henry VIII allowed her to be a generous patron of religion and education. Her legacy to education is best seen in her establishment of two Cambridge Colleges, Christ's and St. John's. In May 1505, she transformed Christ’s from its humble origins as God’s House into a fully-fledged College of the University of Cambridge.

Her legacy to Christ's is immortalised in the architecture of the College, where white Marguerite daisies and red Lancastrian roses are prevalent and the Great Gate proudly displays the College's coat of arms, which drew extensively on the Beaufort coat of arms. The Victorian extension to the Old Library, designed by George Frederick Bodley in the 1890s, incorporates numerous large embossed roses. In addition, lying in a bay of the Old Library is a plaster cast of Lady Margaret’s tomb in Westminster Abbey, the base of which displays her crest.

In November 1976, Christ’s College Governing Body took the momentous decision to admit women, after a vote on the motion was carried by 37 votes to 12, with two abstentions. Mary Redmond (later Fellow and Director of Studies in Law), held the honour of being the first woman to pass through the College’s Great Gate as a graduate student. Two female Fellows, Linda Colley and Rosemary Gay Robins, followed in October 1979, together with 31 female undergraduates.

The cause of women’s education progressed due to the efforts of individuals such as Mary Astell (1666-1731) and Elizabeth Montagu (1718-1800). In 1694, Astell published A serious proposal to the ladies for the advancement of their true and greatest interest, which recommended the founding of an all-female institution to provide both religious and secular education. The 1750s saw the formation of the Blue Stockings Society, led by Elizabeth Montagu. This informal organisation of privileged women (and men) met to discuss literature, philosophy and art.

The topic of university education for women came to the fore in Cambridge at the end of the nineteenth century. During the 1860s, educational opportunities for ladies had opened up and, from 1881, women were permitted to take University of Cambridge examinations. However, the ability to graduate remained an exclusively male privilege, and it was some forty years before women were admitted to the degrees that their scholarly efforts deserved.

In 1878, University College London became the first university in Britain to admit women to degrees, producing their first female graduate in 1880. With other institutions swiftly following suit, Oxford and Cambridge became the only established universities not to confer degrees on women.

The position of Master remained one of the few in College that brought with it the right to marry. Three years later after becoming Master, John Graham exercised this privilege, marrying Mary Porteous, with whom he had ten children. In his 1832 edition of Charles Blomfield’s A manual of family prayers, Graham documented the birth and baptism of the eight children that were born during the family’s residency in the Master’s Lodge (1830-1849).

Foundress Lady Margaret Beaufort,

Christ’s College Picture Store, CC00902

Charles Blomfield, A manual of family prayers (London: Printed for B. Fellowes, 1832), Christ’s College Old Library, T.17.48

Christ’s College Admissions book, 1688-2015, Christ’s College Muniment Room, T.7.3

Paradise lost?

Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

Writing home

The 1897 vote

Lady of Land

The fight continues

Social presence

Reaction

Christ's College Donations Book

John and Annette Peile

The Supplement to ‘Chronica Jacobi Philippi’

Sporting success

Correspondence between female relatives and friends and those who studied at Christ’s offers a valuable insight into the influence of women on Christ’s men. Women at Christ's highlights two collections of letters held by the Library.

The question of admitting women to degrees was put to the Senate House in 1897, with all University members holding an MA or higher eligible to vote. A special train service ran from London to Cambridge to encourage as many people as possible to vote.

Aside from financing the College and donating to the Library, Lady Margaret also secured land for the College which could be used as a retreat during times of plague. This included land at Malton, Cambridgeshire, acquired in 1506.

This text charts the history of the world from Creation onwards, beginning with the famous opening of the Book of Genesis, “in principio creavit Deus caelum et terram” (“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”).

Distinguished alumnus Charles Darwin (1809-1882) enjoyed a close friendship with his cousin and fellow student William Darwin Fox (1805-1880) while they were both at Christ's. Fox infected Darwin with his passion for beetle collecting, and the two went on to correspond regularly about the subject.

While the admission of women to degrees was a University-wide issue, it was to have profound significance for individual colleges, and particularly for Christ’s. Extracts from Christ’s College’s Debating Society minute books suggest that female suffrage and education were issues discussed within College as early as 1868.

Unsurprisingly, the admission of women to Christ’s in the 1970s sparked varied reactions amongst College members. In an article entitled ‘Look to your daughters’, the 1977 College magazine summarised the recent changes made by the Governing Body . The article concluded:

Christ’s College boasts a distinguished history of female sporting achievement. Shortly after the admission of the first cohort of female undergraduates in 1979, the Hippolytans Society was formed. Today, as at its formation, it aims to promote female sporting activity by bringing together the College’s finest sportswomen. It also fulfils a social function, organising termly dinners and reunions with previous members.

Cambridge Platonist and Christ’s Fellow, Henry More (1614-1687), corresponded with Lady Anne Conway (1631-1679), to whom he dedicated his book, An antidote against atheism (1652). Since she could not study at Christ’s, it is likely that she became acquainted with Henry More through her half-brother John Finch, who was admitted to the College in 1645 and was tutored by More.

John Oswald Routh (1816-1891) was admitted to Christ’s in April 1833. His letters to and from his mother, father and sister are indicative of familial and societal relations at the time: news and gossip about local families, potential suitors, and various parochial happenings permeate the correspondence, as does parental concern for Routh’s welfare and education.

In one of the letter on display, Routh’s mother, Hannah, alludes to the social convention associated with writing letters:

Annotations from Jacobus Philippus Bergomensis, Supplement to ‘Chronica Jacobi Philippi’ (Venice: Albertinus Vercellensis de Lissona, 1503), Christ’s College Old Library, BB.2.7

Photographs from the naming of the new women’s VIII boat, ‘Spirit of ‘84’

Michaelmas Term 1980 saw the formation of the first female rowing team at Christ’s, paving the way to sporting equality between male and female College members. The first women’s crew to achieve their ‘blades’ (that is, bumping up at least one place each day of the ‘Bumps’) did so in 1984. In May 2015, some thirty years later, this early female success was memorialised in the naming of the new women’s VIII boat, ‘Spirit of ‘84’.

So the message is not only: ‘Look to your daughters!’ We must add: ‘Look to your cousins and your sisters and your aunts!’

John Milton (1608-1674) is one of the College’s most famous alumni. His reputed nickname as the ‘Lady of Christ’s’, apparently due to his fair complexion, perhaps entitles him to be considered Christ’s first female student!

Just months after his first wedding, his new bride returned to her family home. The following year, Milton published The doctrine and discipline of divorce, the first of his four so-called ‘divorce tracts’. At that time, divorce was granted only in very rare circumstances, the most common grounds being adultery. Milton asserted that the Scriptures identified overcoming loneliness as a chief reason for marriage. On this basis, he argued, incompatible couples should be granted a divorce, since they were not technically married according to God’s law.

Milton revised The doctrine and discipline of divorce in early 1644 and published his second tract, The judgement of Martin Bucer, the following winter. The third and fourth tracts, Colasterion and Tetrachordon, followed in 1645.

Between 1904 and 1907 female Oxbridge ‘graduates’ could be conferred with degrees from Trinity College, Dublin. These recipients of ad eudem (‘at the same level’) degrees were dubbed ‘steamboat ladies’ on account of the method of transport commonly used to reach Dublin.

In 1921, the University of Cambridge finally began to confer degrees on women, although they were still forbidden from participating in the government of the University. Further progress was made in 1948, when the late Queen Mother became the first woman to be awarded an honorary degree from the University. In this truly momentous event, Christ’s College played a pivotal role. In his capacity as Vice-Chancellor of the University, Master of Christ’s, Charles Raven (1885-1964) officially admitted the late Queen Mother to the degree of Doctor of Law on 21 October 1948.

The social presence of ladies was a hot topic amongst College members in the decades preceding the admission of women to Christ’s. In 1925, the College played host to the first women to dine in a Cambridge college hall on the occasion of the 70th birthday of Fellow and influential anthropologist, Alfred Cort Haddon (1855-1940).

Shortly before the outbreak of the WWII, an array of letters to the editor of the College magazine debated the lack of a Ladies’ Room at Christ’s. Those students writing in support of the initiative directed the attentions of the Christ’s authorities to the provision of such amenities in comparable colleges, and to the necessity of upholding “gentlemanly courtesy” to the fairer sex. In response, a decidedly tongue-in-cheek riposte, delivered by “Yours misogynistically, J”, lamented the introduction of a ladies’ room as the first step in “break[ing] down the “battlements of our fortress” before the oncoming “menace of feminine invasion”!

In 1964, the College’s Governing Body agreed in principle to junior members of the College inviting women to dine, with this privilege being afforded to Fellows eight years later. In June 1987, Fellow Dr Susan Bayly became the first woman to attend an annual dinner of the College Club.

Lady Margaret's passion for books and reading benefitted the College greatly. She left a total of 39 titles to the College, of which 27 remain in the Old Library today.

Her donations are recorded in Christ's College's Donations Book, a manuscript dating from 1623.

One such donation is The Supplement to ‘Chronica Jacobi Philippi’

Female university education was strongly backed by John Peile, Master of Christ’s (1887-1910), and his wife Annette. Under Peile’s direction as Senior Tutor, Christ’s was the first of the Cambridge colleges to allow women to attend lectures on its premises.

As Chairman of the University’s governing body, the Council of the Senate, John Peile was often asked to reconsider his position in support of the conferral of degrees on women. However, both he and his wife remained resolute, appealing to their numerous contacts to generate further support for the cause, such as their close friend and eminent physician, Sir Edward Henry Sieveking (1816-1904).

The vote took place in an atmosphere of chaos. The centre of Cambridge was filled with agitated male undergraduates. Banners of “No women” and “Down with women” were displayed and female effigies suspended above the crowd. This included a particularly iconic, immodestly dressed female mannequin on a bicycle.

The motion was lost by 1,713 votes to 662. Once the result had been declared, the cycling mannequin was taken to the gate of the all-female Newnham College and pushed through the bars by gloating male undergraduates.

Dating from 30 June 1828, this letter from Darwin to Fox includes beetle drawings thought to have been sketched by Darwin’s sister Caroline, with whom Darwin corresponded about his time in Cambridge. In fact, Darwin writes next to the second beetle, “the insect is more beautiful than the drawing”!

Women I believe are notorious for scorning rules and customs when they do not find it quite suitable to their opinion, so here I am breaking through the trammels of Saturday once more and sending you an epistle chit chattery in the middle of the week my dear Boy, in hopes it may prove an agreeable surprise to you to see my well known hand on your Breakfast Table.

Letter of attorney for Malton, 1506, Christ’s College Muniment Room, Malton L

The numerous marginal annotations, underlining and mutilations in this particular copy suggest that it was in heavy use by College members following its donation by Lady Margaret.

Reactions were also expressed through art, including an abstract pencil drawing by an anonymous artist entitled ‘The Entrance of Women into Christ’s College’. Dated 9 November 1976, it seems likely that this was produced in the immediate aftermath of the vote of the College’s Governing Body in favour of the admission of women, which had taken place earlier that month.

Another letter concludes with a loving request to her son to consider his health:

Most recently, Christ’s first women’s crew, W1, celebrated an unprecedented success at the 2015 Lent Bumps, gaining headship of the river for the first time in the Boat Club’s 185-year history. In recognition of this success, and in keeping with Cambridge tradition, a ceremonial boat was burned in Third Court.

Since the 1460s, Lady Margaret had signed herself ‘M. Richmond’. After 1499, however, she adopted ‘Margaret R’ instead. Presumably this was either a reference to her title, Countess of Richmond and Derby, or an indication of her royal associations, inferring the term regina (‘queen’), which was customarily used by female monarchs. The seal displays Lady Margaret’s coat of arms, as adopted by her Cambridge Colleges, Christ’s and St John’s.

The contents of the College’s Library were intended solely for use by the Master and Fellows, so any student who dared even to enter the Old Library was liable to incur a fine of two pounds!

John Milton, The doctrine and discipline of divorce (London: printed by T.P and M.S in Goldsmiths Alley, 1643), Christ’s College Old Library, EE.3.11

The late Queen Mother with former Master of Christ’s College, Charles Raven, 21 October 1948, Christ’s College Picture Store, CC01642

Annette and John Peile, Christ’s College Picture Store, CC02357

‘Entrance of women into Christ’s College’ by an unknown artist, Christ’s College, Room V 6ii, CC01067

Photographs of the 1897 demonstration against admitting women to degrees at the University of Cambridge, Christ’s College Picture Store, CC02005

Beginning of the list of donations given by Lady Margaret, Christ’s College Donations book, 1623, Christ’s College Old Library, MS 22

Letter extract from Lady Anne Conway to Henry More, 26 January 1652/3, Christ’s College Old Library, MS 21ii

Letter from Charles Darwin to his cousin William Darwin Fox, 30 June 1828, Christ’s College Old Library, MS 53ii

Photograph of boat burning and fragment of boat burnt to celebrate Christ’s W1 becoming ‘Head of the River’ in the Lent Bumps 2015

Extract of letters from Hannah Routh to her son John Oswald Routh, 20 December 1836 and 6 August 1836, Christ’s College Old Library, MS 253xxxii and MS 253xxvii