Emmanuel College is a

constituent college A collegiate university is a university in which functions are divided between a central administration and a number of constituent colleges. Historically, the first collegiate university was the University of Paris and its first college was the C ...

of the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir

Walter Mildmay Sir Walter Mildmay (bef. 1523 – 31 May 1589) was a statesman who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer to Queen Elizabeth I, and founded Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Origins He was born at Moulsham in Essex, the fourth and youngest son of ...

Chancellor of the Exchequer The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is ...

. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican monks, and the College Hall is built on the foundations of the monastery's nave. Emmanuel is one of the 16 "old colleges", which were founded before the 17th century. Emmanuel today is one of the larger Cambridge colleges; it has around 500 undergraduates, reading almost every subject taught within the University, and over 150 postgraduates. Among Emmanuel's notable alumni are Thomas Young, John Harvard,

Graham Chapman Graham Chapman (8 January 1941 – 4 October 1989) was a British actor, comedian and writer. He was one of the six members of the surreal comedy group Monty Python. He portrayed authority figures such as The Colonel and the lead role in two P ...

and

Sebastian Faulks Sebastian Charles Faulks (born 20 April 1953) is a British novelist, journalist and broadcaster. He is best known for his historical novels set in France – ''The Girl at the Lion d'Or'', '' Birdsong'' and '' Charlotte Gray''. He has also pub ...

. Three members of Emmanuel College have received

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

Ronald Norrish Ronald George Wreyford Norrish FRS (9 November 1897 – 7 June 1978) was a British chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1967. Education and early life Norrish was born in Cambridge and was educated at The Perse School and E ...

George Porter George Porter, Baron Porter of Luddenham (6 December 1920 – 31 August 2002) was a British chemist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1967. Education and early life Porter was born in Stainforth, near Thorne, in the then West ...

(both Chemistry, 1967) and Frederick Hopkins (Medicine, 1929). In every year from 1998 until 2016, Emmanuel was among the top five colleges in the

Tompkins Table The Tompkins Table is an annual ranking that lists the Colleges of the University of Cambridge in order of their undergraduate students' performances in that year's examinations. Two colleges— Darwin and Clare Hall—do not have undergraduat ...

, which ranks colleges according to end-of-year examination results. Emmanuel topped the table five times (2003, 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2010) and placed second six times (2001, 2002, 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012). Its mean score for 1997–2018 inclusive places it as the second-highest-ranking college after Trinity.

History

Emmanuel College Chapel, Cambridge by Loggan 1690 - sanders 6176

The college was founded in 1584 by Sir

. The site had been occupied by a

Dominican friary The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of Cal ...

until the Dissolution of the Monasteries 45 years earlier, after which the Vice-Chancellor petitioned that the place be given over to the University. His request was refused, and, after passing through several hands, the former monastery was purchased to be the site of the new College in June 1583 by

Lawrence Chaderton Laurence Chaderton (''c''. September 1536 – 13 November 1640) was an English Puritan divine, the first Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge and one of the translators of the King James Version of the Bible. Life Chaderton was born in Lees, ...

, the Master-elect, and his brother-in-law, Richard Culverwell, for £550, acting on behalf of Mildmay, to whom they conveyed the place on 23 November 1582. Mildmay's foundation made use of the existing buildings. The architect was Ralph Symons, and in 1588 the new building was opened with a dedication festival, which Mildmay attended. Mildmay, a

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...

, intended Emmanuel to be a centre for the training of

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

preachers. According to

Thomas Fuller Thomas Fuller (baptised 19 June 1608 – 16 August 1661) was an English churchman and historian. He is now remembered for his writings, particularly his ''Worthies of England'', published in 1662, after his death. He was a prolific author, and ...

, Mildmay, on coming to court after the college was opened, was addressed by the Queen with the words: "Sir Walter, I hear you have erected a puritan foundation", to which Mildmay replied: "No, madam; far be it from me to countenance anything contrary to your established laws; but I have set an acorn, which when it becomes an oak, God alone knows what will be the fruit thereof". Like all the older Cambridge colleges, Emmanuel originally took only male students. It first admitted female students in 1979.

Buildings and grounds

Under Mildmay's instructions the chapel of the original Dominican Friary was converted into the College's dining hall and the friars' dining hall became a chapel. In the late 17th century the College commissioned a new chapel, one of the three buildings in Cambridge designed by

Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...

(1677). After Wren's construction was opened the old chapel became the College library until it outgrew the space. A purpose-built library was completed in 1930. There is a large fish pond in the grounds, part of the legacy of the friary. The pond is home to a colony of ducks. The Fellows' Garden contains a swimming pool that was originally the friars' bathing pool, making it one of the oldest bathing pools in Europe and allegedly the oldest outdoor pool in continuous use in the UK. The Garden also contains an

Oriental plane ''Platanus orientalis'', the Old World sycamore or Oriental plane, is a large, deciduous tree of the Platanaceae family, growing to or more, and known for its longevity and spreading crown. In autumn its deep green leaves may change to blood red ...

tree that is reputed to have lived far longer than is typical for the species. It has been claimed that the college has the only privately owned subway (underpass) in the UK, connecting the main site to North Court, but in fact Oriel College, Oxford, has its own tunnel beneath

Oriel Street Oriel may refer to: Places Canada * Oriel, a community in the municipality of Norwich, Ontario, Canada Ireland * Oriel Park, Dundalk, the home ground of Dundalk FC * Oriel House, Ballincollig, County Cork * Kingdom of Oriel ('' Airgíalla'' in I ...

linking the Island Site with the main college buildings. The

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second- ...

in Oxford also has its own tunnel beneath Broad Street. File:Emmanuel College sports grounds - geograph.org.uk - 803309.jpg, College sports grounds File:Emmanuel College Chapel 1, Cambridge, UK - Diliff.jpg, The chapel looking towards the altar File:Emmanuel College Front, corridor, panoramica, Cambridge, UK, 2015.jpg, Chapel cloisters File:Emmanuel College Cambridge front.jpg, Front façade from Downing Street

Student life

The Emmanuel College Students Union (ECSU) is the society of all undergraduate students at Emmanuel College. It provides a shop, a bar, a common room, and funding for sports and other societies. ECSU's Executive Committee is elected at the end of

Michaelmas Michaelmas ( ; also known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels) is a Christian festival observed in some Western liturgical calendars on 29 September, ...

Term each year. The ECSU committee is staffed by undergraduates and holds such positions as President, Welfare Officer, and Ents Officer amongst others. The Emmanuel College Middle Combination Room (Emma MCR) is the society of all postgraduate students at Emmanuel College. The Room itself is a comfortable and well-equipped space in the Queen's Building. The MCR committee organises regular social events for graduate students, including well-attended formal dinners in hall every few weeks.

Sports and societies

There are numerous student societies and sports clubs at Emmanuel College. Sports clubs include tennis, badminton, cricket, squash, rugby, football, hockey and netball. Societies include the Emmanuel College Music Society (ECMS), the Christian Union, the Mountaineering Club, the recently relaunched Emmanuel College Art and Photography Society, the Emmanuel Vegan Society, the Politics and Economics Society, ROAR (the college satirical newspaper) and the Emma A soc. Funding for societies, old and new, comes from the Emmanuel College Students Union (ECSU).

People associated with Emmanuel

Former students

File:Sebastian Faulks.jpg,

, novelist File:John Harvard statue.jpg, John Harvard, namesake of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

File:JeremiahHorrocks.jpg,

Jeremiah Horrocks Jeremiah Horrocks (16183 January 1641), sometimes given as Jeremiah Horrox (the Latinised version that he used on the Emmanuel College register and in his Latin manuscripts), – See footnote 1 was an English astronomer. He was the first person ...

, astronomer File:Wu_Lien-teh_-_c._1910–1915.jpg,

Wu Lien-teh Wu Lien-teh (; Goh Lean Tuck and Ng Leen Tuck in Minnan and Cantonese transliteration respectively; 10 March 1879 – 21 January 1960) was a Malayan physician renowned for his work in public health, particularly the Manchurian plague of 191 ...

, physician File:Lawrence Ogilvie, Bermuda 1927.jpg,

Lawrence Ogilvie Lawrence Ogilvie (5 July 1898 – 16 April 1980) was a Scottish plant pathologist. From 1923, in his first job and aged only 25, when agriculture was Bermuda's major industry, Ogilvie identified the virus that had devastated the islands' high-v ...

, plant pathologist File:George Porter Nobel.jpg,

, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry File:Aankomst en vertrek, cineasten, actrises, Blair, Betsy, Bestanddeelnr 919-6997 (cropped).jpg,

Karel Reisz Karel Reisz (21 July 1926 – 25 November 2002) was a Czech-born British filmmaker, one of the pioneers of the new realist strain in British cinema during the 1950s and 1960s. Two of the best-known films he directed are '' Saturday Night and S ...

, filmmaker File:AbpWilliamSancroft.jpg,

William Sancroft William Sancroft (30 January 161724 November 1693) was the 79th Archbishop of Canterbury, and was one of the Seven Bishops imprisoned in 1688 for seditious libel against King James II, over his opposition to the king's Declaration of Indul ...

, Archbishop of Canterbury File:John Wallis by Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt.jpg, John Wallis, mathematician, invented the

infinity symbol The infinity symbol (\infty) is a mathematical symbol representing the concept of infinity. This symbol is also called a lemniscate, after the lemniscate curves of a similar shape studied in algebraic geometry, or "lazy eight", in the terminol ...

(

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) File:Hugh Walpole, 1934.jpg,

Hugh Walpole Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (13 March 18841 June 1941) was an English novelist. He was the son of an Anglican clergyman, intended for a career in the church but drawn instead to writing. Among th ...

, novelist File:Young Thomas Lawrence.jpg, Thomas Young, scientist and polymath Emmanuel graduates were prominently involved in the settling of British colonies in North America. Of the first 100 university graduates in

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

, one third were graduates of Emmanuel.

, the first college in the United States, was organised on the model of Emmanuel as it was then run. Harvard is named for John Harvard (BA, 1632), an Emmanuel graduate. Emmanuel and Harvard maintain relations via student exchanges such as the

Herchel Smith Herchel Smith (May 6, 1925 – December 20, 2001) was an Anglo-American organic chemist. His discoveries include the key inventions underlying oral and injectable contraceptives. In later life, he was a major benefactor to university science. In E ...

scholarships, the Harvard Scholarship, the Paul Williams Scholarship, and the Gomes lecture and dinner held each February at Emmanuel in honour of the late

Peter Gomes Peter John Gomes (May 22, 1942 – February 28, 2011) was an American preacher and theologian, the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard Divinity School and Pusey Minister at Harvard's Memorial Church of Harvard University, Memori ...

, erstwhile minister at Harvard's Memorial Church. Early Emmanuel graduates included several translators of the 1611 Authorised Version of the Bible, for example

Laurence Chaderton Laurence Chaderton (''c''. September 1536 – 13 November 1640) was an English Puritan divine, the first Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge and one of the translators of the King James Version of the Bible. Life Chaderton was born in Lees, ...

and

William Branthwaite William Branthwaite (1563–1619) was an English scholar and translator. The son of John Branthwaite, William Branthwaite was baptised at St Peter Mancroft, Norwich on 13 June 1563. Branthwaite entered Clare Hall, Cambridge in 1579, graduating ...

. Fictional characters who have been said to have gone to Emmanuel include

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dubl ...

Lemuel Gulliver Lemuel Gulliver () is the fictional protagonist and narrator of ''Gulliver's Travels'', a novel written by Jonathan Swift, first published in 1726. In ''Gulliver's Travels'' According to Swift's novel, Gulliver was born in Nottinghamshire c. ...

. It is implied that

's eponymous

Engleby ''Engleby'' is a 2007 novel by the author Sebastian Faulks. It tells the tale of a working-class boy who wins a place at an esteemed university and becomes a suspect in a murder investigation after the disappearance of a girl from a nearby colle ...

and Thomas Richardson also matriculated at Emmanuel. The protagonist in Samuel Butler's novel ''

The Way of All Flesh ''The Way of All Flesh'' (sometimes called ''Ernest Pontifex, or the Way of All Flesh'') is a semi-autobiographical novel by Samuel Butler that attacks Victorian-era hypocrisy. Written between 1873 and 1884, it traces four generations of the ...

'' also went to Emmanuel. The uncompleted

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...

serial ''Shada'' was also partly filmed in the college, with the character

Professor Chronotis Professor Urban Chronotis is a fictional character created by Douglas Adams. He was originally created for the 1979 ''Doctor Who'' serial '' Shada'', starring Tom Baker and Lalla Ward. However, the filming of the serial was never completed due ...

having rooms in New Court.

Miscellaneous

College grace

References

External links

Emmanuel College website

Emmanuel College May Ball website

Emmanuel College Middle Combination Room (MCR)

Emmanuel College Students' Union
{{Authority control 1584 establishments in England Educational institutions established in the 1580s Colleges of the University of Cambridge Christopher Wren buildings Grade I listed buildings in Cambridge Grade I listed educational buildings Grade II* listed parks and gardens in Cambridgeshire