QUEEN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD. In 1340 Robert de Eglesfield, chaplain or confessor to queen Philippa, founded, by license from Edward III., a collegiate hall in Oxford, under the name of the hall of the queen's scholars. In his statutes he sets forth his motives and objects with unusual minuteness. Theological study was the main object of the foundation. Residence was rigidly enforced, and poverty enjoined with peculiar force. The original number of the provost and fellows was to be 13, in memory of our Lord and the 12 apostles; and the ultimate number of poor boys to be educated on the foundation was 72, in memory of the 70 disciples. Few colleges, however, have dis regarded more directly the wishes of their founders. When the commissioners under 17 and 13 Viet. c. 81, began their work, they found the poverty required changed into a provostship of £1000 a year, and fellowships of £300, the conditional preference to north countrymen converted into an absolute exclusion of all others; and the 72 poor children represented by 8 "taberdars," as they, are called, who were alone eligible to fellowships.
A separate foundation had been giVen to queen's by John Michel, Esq., in 1736, con F.sting of 8 open fellowships and 4 open scholarships. The commissioners introduced great changes. The foundations are consolidated,- and the college nosy consists of a pro vost, 19 fellows, 15 scholars or taberdars, 2 Bible-clerks, and 4 Eglesfield exhibitioners. There are also upward of 20 exhibitions in this college, some of which are confined to natives of the northern counties. There are 30 benefices in the gift of the college, also the principalship of St. Edmund hall.