The Petition and Argument of Mr Hotham, Part 1
The private buſineſs upon which at Doctor Seaman's Motion the grand Petition was at firſt laid aſide, though indeed it nothing concerned it, yet is a ſtory worth the reading, and therefore take it as follows.
WE had a Fellowſhip in our Colledge kept vacant for many years, as the Maſter pretended for the Colledge neceſſities, but as the Fellows well know, for the defrayment of his double Dividend; this Fellowſhip one Sr. Conyers Scholar of our Colledge obſerving the Committee had before in a parallel caſe, taken the diſpoſal of ſuch dormant vacancies into their own hands, petition'd to have confer'd upon upon him; whereupon the Committee ordered the Maſter and Seniors, or any two of them, to certifie the true ſtate of the caſe; which Order being read at a publike meeting, the Maſter was very urgent with the Society to certifie it as kept void for the Colledge-neceſſities; which the Fellows as not agreeable to truth, generally refuſed to do: ſo the Maſter (and one of the Society concurring with him ſo far) made onelyonly this general return, that it had ever ſince our coming to the Colledge been kept vacant, but for juſt reaſons. But the Maſter alone makes another return, ſpecifying ſome particular reaſons, as namely a debt of above one hundred pounds owing to him by the Colledge. Upon which Allegations he made a large deſcant before the Committee; which ended,
I put in ſome exceptions in writing, detecting ſomewhat of his fraudulent dealing with the Colledge, and further added ſome inlargements as I remember to this effect.
1. That the Fellowſhip had not been kept vacant by any publike vote, nor for thoſe reaſons he produc'd.
2. As to the debt, that once in a meeting, knowing our ſtock behind-hand, and we in an incapacity of disburſing money, he preſs'd hard upon us for this debt, and took the advantage to ſay, that if we did not preſently pay, or clear him of it, he would be at liberty, if he pleas'd, to diſpoſe of the Lands as himſelf ſhould think good. And being anſwered, that the preſent Revenue of the Land would neer amount to the payment of moderate Intereſt for his money, and that for his ſecurity he ſhould have the Colledge-Seal, upon which one of the Society had formerly lent the Colledge a hundred pounds; he ſlighted all, and nothing would content him, but either the money preſently, or ſome of our particular Bonds, or the Land to be at his own diſpoſe. So we being in this ſtrait, my ſelf, to give ſome breathing-time to the buſineſs, preſently offered upon that very ſecurity, viz. the Colledge-Seal, which the Maſter had ſo unbecomingly ſlighted, to lend the Colledge fifty pounds for ſome moneths, till we might think of ſome better way; and another, (I think 'twas Mr. Quarles) ſeconding me, offered the loan of forty pounds; which ninety pounds, together with another income then mentioned, would make up the whole debt. But the Maſter ſeeing his pretence of ſeiſing the Land to himſelf thus defeated, neither accepted our offer, nor ſpoke more of the buſineſs at that time.
And further, that this debt he now mentions as a plea for keeping void this Fellowſhip, was a meer pretence made uſe of for by-ends, might hence appear. That he had formerly in a Colledg-meeting twitted us again with this debt as a plea for keeping void another Fellowſhip againſt our common Conſent, yet gave way to his own man to defeat the Colledg of that Fellowſhip, not once appearing (though acquainted with his mans intentions) by Petition or otherwiſe in behalf of the Colledg right, which to have done was both the duty of his place, and his ſolemn promiſe before the Society, as many can See two Letters annex'd to the later end of this Book.witneſs.
3ly. That the Biſhop of Ely himſelf, in whoſe power the Committee was to act as to this caſe, could not by our ſtatute give way to the keeping vacant any Fellowſhip without the deſire and Counſell of the Maſter and major part of the Fellowes; but here there appeared no deſire of ſo much as one of the Fellowes to have it kept longer vacant. But the Maſter did it alone of his own head, contrary to the ſenſe of the major part of the Society, and contrary to our expreſſe ſtatute, which ſayes the Maſter ſhould not headily rely upon his own wiſdome, but ſtand to the diſcretion of the major part.
To theſe things the Maſter having replied what he thought fit, we were commanded to withdraw, and the Committee being, it ſeems, ſenſible that the Fellowſhip being void by death was not theirs, but the Colledges right to diſpoſe of, made this following Order.
March the 27th. 1651. At the Comittee for Reformation of the Ʋniverſities.
Upon Reading the Petition of Mr. Tobias Conyers Bachelor of Arts and Scholer of Peter houſe in the Univerſity of Cambridge, together with the teſtimonials of him hereunto annex'd, and likewiſe the return of the Maſter, and one of the Fellows of the ſaid Colledg, concerning the vacancy of Mr. Hanſcombs Fellowſhip, and upon hearing Doctor Seaman and Mr. Hotham before the Committee; It is Ordered upon debate of the matter, that the Maſter, or Preſident and Fellowes of the ſaid Colledg, do forthwith proceed to election of a godly and learned Perſon into the place of the ſaid Mr. Hanſcomb, and that they give an accompt thereof to this Committee on this day fortnight.
James Chaloner.
The Colledg having received this Order, proceeded according to their uſuall form within eight daies, unto an election. The reſult of which was the election of Sr. Conyers into the ſaid vacancy; to which election the Preſident, and all the Fellowes were conſenting excepting only three juniors brought in lately by the Maſters intereſt at London, and who indeed according to our Colledg ſtatutes being in their ſtate of minority, and not out of their year of probation, ſhould have had no voices in the election; yet theſe three not agreeing, neither, in any one man for a competitor.
The reaſons moving the Society to the election of Sr Conyers, were theſe.
Firſt he was one in a ſpeciall manner deſign'd out to us for that preferment by our Colledg ſtatute both in regard of poverty, a thing generally favoured in al ſtatutes, and likewiſe in regard of his Country, our ſtatute allowing two Fellowſhips for each County, and but one of them ſupplied with men of his qualification, and this Fellowſhip belonging to the Northern diviſion, which we were bound in the firſt place to ſee ſupplied.
2ly. Our ſtatute commands us to chuſe the ableſt man we know of or can find out. Now Sr. Conyers was known to be one of the greateſt eminency for learning and parts in our whole Colledg, inſomuch, that though we had a generall order made ſome years ago for examination of ſuch as ſhould ſtand for Fellowſhips, yet was it unanimouſly agreed even by thoſe that diſſented from the election, that they were all ſo well ſatisfied of his learning and ſufficiency, as that the former order for examination might well be ſuſpended for that time, except ſome man ſhould declare to the Preſident his intent to ſtand as a Competitor againſt him, in which caſe there ſhould be an examination; but no man adventured upon the triall.
3ly. He was well known to us for the generall courſe of his life to be one of a pious and vertuous converſation; Excepting onelyonly that once growing a little elated by a ſudden promotion, and falling acquainted with a malignant, he began to be a little ſeduced, in which time, (which was about two years ago,) 'twas his ill hap to be in the company of ſome Rakells of another Colledg, who drank the Kings health, and he with them: But for this fault with ſome concurring circumſtances, he did then receive moſt ſevere puniſhment every way anſwerable, if not greater then the offence. And for the malignant diſtemper, that held him not above two months; he was by his tutors and fathers Counſells ſoon reclaimed from it: and as his life had been before this one unhappy miſdemeanor, ſo was it all the time of his abode in the Colledg after, which was for above a year, exemplarily pious and vertuous. And he had both to his Tutor, and to ſome honeſt Scholers of his acquaintance given that full evidence of his change of mind both in reference to piety, and good affection to the State (which he had likewiſe evidenced by that ordinary way of taking the Engagement) that there could not be now left any ſcruple in any rational man's breſt concerning either his piety or good affection to the Common wealth. Beſides all this, he had a moſt ample teſtimony both of his piety and good affection to the State, ſuch as is not ordinarily given to any man, from ſome godly and well affected Gentlemen and Miniſters in Norfolke, where he had lived the laſt year of his diſcontinuance from the Colledge.
Some buzzings there were of ſome Heterodoxe opinions which he was ſaid to hold, but neither did the Maſter, nor any one of the Society, even of thoſe that deſſented from the election, lay any thing publickly to his charge, and the utmoſt that any of us could heare, ſo much as by rumour, was only of ſome innocuous, though unwary expreſſions uttered once at a hudling diſpute in the Schools, and at an after-ſupper diſcourſe at one of the Sophiſters feaſts; at which times all men know how ordinary it is, and how inoffenſive to maintain by way of diſpute the greateſt Paradoxes.
4ly. The order for election being made upon his petition, and ſent down to us, with our owne and the Norfolk teſtimoniall annex'd, wee look'd at him as one recommended to us by the Committee, as the godly and learned perſon intended (though in tenderneſs to the liberty of our election, not nominated) by their order. This election thus made, upon thoſe ſolid reaſons, with a full accompt of all our proceedings in it, we did according to order make a return of to the Committee, not for confirmation, for the election (which, being every way full and legall, needed it not) but onelyonly to ſhow, that in obedience to their order, the Fellowſhip was forthwith ſupplied by election.