Sidney Sussex College

SIDNEY SUSSEX COLLEGE was founded in 1596 by the bequest of Lady Frances Sidney, widow of the third Earl of Sussex, and aunt of Sir Philip Sidney, on the site formerly occupied by the Franciscans or Grey Friars, who settled here about 1240.

The house was dissolved in 1538, and the buildings and site were conveyed by Henry VIII. to his Majesty's new College of Trinity in 1546. The site was sold by that College to the executors of the Countess under an order by Queen Elizabeth but Sidney continued to pay an annual rent-charge of 20 marks (£13 6s. 8d.) to Trinity.

The object of the foundation, as stated in the letters patent by Queen Elizabeth, was "the education of young men and others in piety, virtue, discipline, letters and science, to the common use and advantage of the Church of Christ, our Kingdom and our subjects." The foundation stone was laid in 1595.

Ralph Simons was the architect, and the building, as represented by Loggan, was plain and simple, of red brick with stone facings in the Elizabethan style. A second court was added a few years later. Early in the 19th century additions were made and the character of the buildings was completely changed, according to the designs of Sir Jeffrey Wyattville, who built the present gateway of stone, and cased the rest of the College in stucco.

In 1890 a new wing, designed by Mr. J. L. Pearson, R.A., was erected. The Chapel and the College Library are on the east side of the South Court. The latter contains a collection of hooks of the 16th and 17th centuries for the most part, including an almost unique copy of the York Pie (pica sive directorium Eboracense) dated 1509, which contains elaborate rubrical directions for Church services.

There is also a small but valuable collection of manuscripts in The Taylor Library in the Hall Court consists of mathematical and scientific works.

There are pleasant gardens at the back of the Master's Lodge. Oliver Cromwell entered this College as a fellow-commoner on April 23rd, 1616, two days before his seventeenth birthday and on the day of Shakespeare's death ; but he left in 1617, owing to the death of his father, without taking a degree. He was made a freeman of the town of Cambridge in 1639, and represented it in the two Parliaments of 1640; and he held the office of High Steward of the town from 1652 till his death.

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