Brasenose College and the Origins of Oxford Rowing

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William O’Chee

The exact date of the founding of the Brasenose College Boat Club is now as lost as Lyonesse, ﬂooded by the waters of time, like so many years of spring ﬂoods going down the Isis. Perhaps it is this very mystery which calls to us across the years, adding an air of elusiveness to a noble and proud history.

The Brasenose College Boat Club has historically laid claim to 1815 as a defining, if not a founding year; the year of the first Head of the River, which Brasenose won. However, there is no extant record of the Boat Club from that year, nor indeed, do we even know the names of many of the men who rowed in that crew. We do know that a race occurred in that year between a Brasenose crew and one from Jesus, for which the winner claimed, for the first time, to be the Head of the River.

As generations of Brasenose men and women also know, legend also has it that the Boat Club is the oldest rowing club in the world. This is a considerable and slightly contentious claim, especially when the date the club was established is not known with any certainty.

Moreover, any claim to be the world’s oldest rowing club cannot logically rest on the 1815 race alone. If it did, there would be no basis for arguing any precedence over Jesus College Club, and indeed Jesus themselves say that the two boat clubs share the honour of being the oldest in the world. There are also claims to greater antiquity which are sometimes made in respect of Westminster School and Eton College.

A thorough examination of the College archives fails to reveal any formal records of the Boat Club until 1837, when the earliest surviving Minute Book commences. Although we know that Brasenose were Head of the River in 1815 and 1816, beating Jesus in both years, the accepted wisdom has been that there is not much more than can be gleaned of these early years, nor is there much point in attempting to do so.

However, new research now makes it possible to discern some of the individuals who rowed for the Boat Club in its earliest years, and to trace the formative role played by Oxford men generally in competitive rowing. To put these things in perspective though, it is important to look at the history of rowing outside Oxford, as well as to understand the growth of rowing as a sport within the university, and more broadly in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Britain’s rivers had long been navigated before anyone at Oxford thought of making boating a sport; in fact, they had been navigated long before Oxford was a university. The Romans and the Vikings well knew the value of navigating England’s waterways, as did the Anglo-Saxons.

There was good reason for this. Roads were difﬁcult to construct and maintain, especially in a country as wet as England, such that many roads were little more than boggy tracks. This made carriage of heavy goods, and even large numbers of people, difﬁcult by road. The rivers however, were largely free of such impediments, and waterways throughout Britain were the island’s lifeblood; a vast network of arteries and veins which carried people and goods hither and thither.

Beyond commerce, England’s waterways also had a deeper symbolic or spiritual aspect about them, which preceded even the arrival of the Romans. To the Celtic inhabitants of Britain, rivers and pools of water were powerful liminal zones between the world of the living and the dead. This symbolism seems to have been especially associated with bends and confluences of rivers, and the Thames itself is home to numerous cursus monuments between Lechdale and Sonning. These extraordinary earthworks show, five thousand years on, the defining role played by the river in the landscape, and in the imagination.

The Romans too attached great signiﬁcance to rivers and springs, and upon the conquest of Southern Britain, wasted no time in appropriating the sacred Celtic spring at Bath to their own mythology, renaming the goddess Sulis as Sulis Minerva, and building a bath complex on top of the spring.

By the late tenth century Bath was a not insubstantial centre, so it is unsurprising that King Edgar chose Bath as the location for of Britain’s first coronation ceremony in 973. But it is Edgar’s claimed royal rowing outing in Chester which shows the significance of ancient rivers. According to various accounts, Edgar received the fealty of six Scottish and British kings, and,

...having set them to the oars, and having taken the helm himself, he skilfully steered it through the course of the River Dee and, with a crowd of ealdormen and nobles following in a similar boat....1

While some modern historians have questioned whether this outing actually took place, its occurrence is probably secondary to the symbolism of the event. Here was Edgar taking command of a crew of powerful men, and demonstrating his capability by “skilfully” steering the course of the river. The purpose of the story was to show the king’s prowess, and it was a story which any reader, or listener, in the eleventh or twelfth century would have readily understood.

Closer to Oxford, the upper reaches of the Thames in the Middle Ages would have been quite unlike the modern landscape. There were numerous abbeys and monasteries stretched along its banks in the vicinity of Oxford. Godstowe nunnery lay four miles upstream, and not far above that the abbey of Eynsham. Below Godstowe was Osney monastery, then Oxford itself, where Rewley Abbey and St Frideswide’s Friary were to be found. Below Oxford, one encountered religious houses at Abingdon, Dorchester, Cholsey, Goring and Streatley.2

The riparian land between these places was held by the religious houses also. Meadow was extremely valuable, and by a careful process of accretion, most of the manors along the Thames fell into the hands of the Church. The produce of these manors was transported from granges, and tithe barns by river to market.

There were also royal manors along the way. Some, like Woodstock, were hunting manors, situated by the river in substantial woods which were commonplace in the Thames Valley prior to the seventeenth century. Others, like Oxford Castle and Wallingford Castle, were important strongpoints guarding major river crossings.

1 The Chronicle of John of Worcester, quoted in Williams, “An outing on the Dee: King Edgar at Chester, AD 973” in Medieval Scandinavia, 14 (2004), pp. 229-43

2 Ackroyd, Thames: Sacred River, p 97. All of this made the Upper Thames a busy highway, where watermen carried people and goods in shallow drafted boats, known as “western barges”.3 Additionally, the growth of London as a port, and as a city, resulted inevitably in the increasing use of the Thames as a commercial waterway.

The professional watermen who serviced this trade were regulated by Parliament in 1514, and the Worshipful Company of Watermen was established by statute in 1555. The numbers of watermen were quite surprising: at the end of the sixteenth century it was estimated that there were some 3,000 watermen on the Thames. By the beginning of the eighteenth century the were 8,000 watermen, and by the end of the century, they numbered some 12,000.4

Competition among watermen for business was ﬁerce, and it takes little imagination to conclude that they would naturally have raced each other for reputation, as well as augmenting their earnings with the proceeds of wagers. These races would, by and large, have been scratch events, or one off spectacles organised by wealthy patrons.

The oldest such race is Doggett’s Coat and Badge, which was established by the Irish actor and comedian, Thomas Doggett in 1715. This was originally raced by apprentice watermen in wherries between The Swan pub at London Bridge, and The Swan pub at Chelsea. The race is still run today, although under somewhat different rules, and no longer in wherries, but single sculls.

For all it’s history, Doggett’s Coat and Badge does not lead to rowing as a sport in Oxford, nor, indeed, as a pastime in Georgian England, for this was a race among professional watermen. Moreover it fails to explain the existence of rowing clubs, which lie at the heart of amateur rowing.

Writing of Leander Club, Geoffrey Page has argued that rowing as a sport began with groups of men rowing in boats kept below public houses by the Thames.

3 Ackroyd, op cit, p 189.

4 ibid, p 167. Noting that the foundation date for Leander is now accepted as being 1818, Page outlines the previously generally accepted story about the origin of the club. He quotes from handwritten notes in the Leander archives, compiled by C.M. Pitman, to the effect that:

There existed in the last century [i.e. the nineteenth century] two clubs of repute, named the ‘Star’ and the ‘Arrow’, and it is believed that Leander arose from the ashes of these two, or embodied their members when it was established. The Club’s original coat-of-arms consisted of a shield on which was quartered a star and an arrow.5

Page recognises, however, that this story is not correct in so far as the Arrow club is concerned for it was still in existence in 1831. As to the founding of Star and Arrow clubs, nothing is known, save that they predated Leander, and hence may have been in existence prior to 1815.

An alternative view is that rowing started at schools - principally either Westminster or Eton - and spread from there to Oxford. This was certainly the opinion of Brickwood who, writing in 1876, stated:

The feats of the “Star,” “Arrow,” and “Shark” rowing clubs have faded from the memory of living men, and we are left with the Westminster ''Water Ledger” as the ﬁrst authentic documentary evidence of its practice on the Metropolitan river. This book commences in the year 1813, with a simple list of the crew of the six-oared boat '”Fly” viz., Messrs. N. Parry, E. 0. Cleaver, E. Parry, W. Markham, W.F. de Ros, and G. Randolph. The “Fly” continued to be the only boat of the school down to 1816 inclusive, in which latter year it “beat the Temple six-oared boat (Mr. Church, stroke) in a race from Johnson’s Dock to Westminster Bridge, by half a boat'”6

Brickwood also made mention of rowing at Eton, and recorded a number of boats being used in 1811.

As to rowing at Oxford, Brickwood observed:

5 ibid, p 16.

6 Brickwood, op cit, pp 148-150. Rowing at Oxford appears to have commenced soon after the beginning of the century, but the accounts are merely traditionary. There were college boats on the river some time before any racing took place. The ﬁrst known races were those of the College Eights in 1815, when Brasenose was the head boat, and their chief and perhaps only opponent was Jesus. There seems to have been great rivalry between these two colleges, as four-oared races were for some years continually taking place between them. There were three four-oars on the river, one belonging to Brasenose, one to Jesus College, and one to an amateur, named De Ros. In 1820 a race was rowed between the last-mentioned four, and a pair-oar rowed by a Brasenose man and a waterman, in which the four won after a hard race.7

While R. Harvey Mason, a former Eton master, claimed in the 1880s that rowing was known in Eton “from time immemorial”, there seems no record of rowing at Eton before 1801. Even then, there was no Eton boat club per se, but rather unofﬁcial clubs associated with individual boats, such as the Monarch.

In fact, rowing was ofﬁcially banned until 1840, and as Harvey Mason notes, rowing only became an ofﬁcial sport at Eton in 1840, after the drowning of a boy that year near Windsor bridge. The college authorities decided to recognise the sport, and require boys pass a swimming test before being allowed in boats.8

However, the reality was a little more complex than that. In a manner peculiar to Eton, boys did row, despite the sport not being sanctioned. The rowing would appear to have been done in boats organised by the boys, not the school, and there is no record of racing being conducted before that at Oxford.

A race between Eton and Westminster was agreed in 1820, but college authorities forbade it. The ﬁrst actual race between the two schools occurred in 1829, over a course from Putney to Hammersmith and back.9

7 Brickwood, op cit, pp 150-151.

8 ibid, pp 202-203.

9 ibid, p 208. Based on their own incomplete records, and perhaps encouraged by Brickwood’s work, both Eton and Westminster have asserted that boat racing originated in their respective schools, and that it migrated from there to Oxford and Cambridge. Proponents of this view cite the presence of De Ros as a member of the “Fly” at Westminster School in 1813, and his subsequent matriculation at Oxford in 1815, as proof of their argument.

New evidence has come to light which is inconsistent with these traditional accounts of rowing’s early days as a sport. What we now know is that rowing took place as a recreational activity on both the Isis and the Cam in the eighteenth century, although in a form somewhat different from today.

Henry Gunning, who went up to Christ’s College, Cambridge in 1784 gives a very good description of boating on the Cam in 1786, in which he states:

A very common practice, during the spring and summer months, was for a party to divide into two sets, one on a shooting scheme, and the other on a boating and fishing expedition, both parties agreeing to meet and dine at Clayhithe. There was a public-house on each side of the river, where fish was dressed to perfection; the charges were very moderate, and the ALE very good. The fishing-party (who frequently went as far as Up- ware, and occasionally to Dimmock's Court) scarcely ever failed to get an abundance of fish ; but if they were unfortunate, the landlord of the smaller house had well-stored ponds, from which the deficiency was quickly and amply supplied.10

It is clear, however, that this was a very different form of boating from rowed races, and the purposes were to ﬁsh and tour the fens.

The Brasenose College Monographs, published in 1909, make an even older claim to the river. Writing on Brasenose College Social Life 1690-1803, Reginald Jeffrey stated:

As the century drew to a close, undergraduate recreations became more rational, and consisted for the most part of fox-hunting with Captain Bertie's hounds, or rowing and sailing on the Isis. The latter form of sport came in about 1776, and by

10 Gunning, Reminiscences, pp 38-39. 1790 the boating-fraternity had adopted a strange garb, consisting of reefer jackets, trousers, and green leather caps. They sometimes went in 'a gay yacht the Hobbyhorse to Ifﬂey and Sandford, where Beckly provides accustomed fare'.11

Jeffrey seemed to be referring to Brasenose men in this passage, but it was, unfortunately, poorly referenced, and a closer examination is unable to bear out his assertions, at least in so far as Brasenose men rowing in a uniform in 1790 are concerned. It would appear that the latter part of this paragraph conﬂates two different sources, and erroneously ascribes to them the same date of 1790.

The passage quoted in the paragraph seems to have been sourced from Christopher Wordsworth’s book, in which he quotes a letter written by a Trinity man, Skinner, dated the 15th June, 1793. In it, Skinner refers to variously sailing, rowing and towing a boat called the Hobby-Horse from Folly Bridge to Ifﬂey where:

Beckly provides accustomed fare Of eels and perch and Brown Beefsteak, Dainties we oft taste twice a week Whilst Hebe-like his daughter waits, Froths our full bumpers, changes plates. The pretty handmaid's anxious toils Meanwhile our mutual praise beguiles; While she delighted, blushing sees The bill o'erpaid and pockets fees Supplied for ribbon and for lace To deck her bonnet or her Face! A game of Quoits will oft our stay A while at Sandford Inn delay, Or rustic ninepins:—then once more We hoist our Sail and ply the Oar To Newmham bound.12

11 Jeffrey, Brasenose Monographs, XIII pp 47-48.

12 Wordsworth, Social Life at the English Universities in the Eighteenth Century, p 2. The Hobby-Horse apparently was rented from a Mrs Hooper, for in another letter dated October, 1793, Skinner describes hiring the “gay yacht Hobby-Horse” from a spot on the river where:

!!...where a Dame, Hooper yclept, at station waits For gownsmen whom she aptly freights In various vessels moored in view, Skiff gig and cutter or canoe. Election made, each in a trice Becomes transformed with trousers nice, Jacket and catskin cap supplied, Black gowns and trenchers laid aside.13

That Jeffrey relied on Wordsworth is obvious because he repeats the latter’s error in dating to 1790, G.V. Cox’s recollection that:

Boating had not yet become a systematic pursuit in Oxford; as for boat races, they were no more thought of than horse races were thought of on Port Meadow. although,

Men went indeed to Nuneham for occasional parties in six-oared boats (eight-oar'd boats were then unknown), but these boats (such as would now be laughed at as "tubs") belonged to the boat-people ; the crew was a mixed crew got up for the day, and the dresses worn anything but uniform. I belonged to a crew of ﬁve, who were, I think, the ﬁrst distinguished by a peculiar (and what would now be thought a ridiculous) dress; viz. a green leather cap, with a jacket and trowsers of nankeen!'14

Clearly, the garb referred to by Cox is similar to that mentioned by Skinner in his later letter. Cox, however, was a New College man, not a Brasenose man (although he makes

13 ibid.

14 Cox, Recollections of Oxford, pp 57-58, quoted in Wordsworth at p 175. no allusion as to whether his colleagues were all from the same college). Moreover, an examination of his text shows that the events referred to are actually dated to 1805.

So, Jeffrey was incorrect, at least in part. As to Brasenose men rowing on the river in 1776, it is unclear the basis on which he makes this assertion, although it should not be dismissed out of hand. We do know from Skinner’s letters that rowing was a popular pastime by 1793, so much so that a living was to be had hiring boats to students.

However, an earlier date for students taking to the water would not be completely out of order, and may actually be quite supportable. The explanation lies in the changing landscape in and around Oxford, as well as the efforts of university authorities to stamp out some of the less salubrious, or more frowned upon pastimes in the second half of the eighteenth century. In the same monograph, Jeffrey wrote that:

All through the century the chief recreations were fox-hunting, horse-racing, cock- fighting, and bull-baiting, the last being held at Headington or Carfax. In 1772, however, cock-fighting and horse-racing were forbidden by statute, “forasmuch as the unbridled and deadly love of games for a monied stake has in some measure made inroads upon the University itself, whereby the fame and reputation of the University may be stained, from the hearts of young men being set upon horse- racing and cock-fighting.”15

Hunting was also enormously popular, at least during the ﬁrst half of the eighteenth century. This was so much so that the 1747 Statutes for Hart Hall decry the student who “...having been Hunting and Shooting for four or ﬁve Months in the Country, can think of nothing but Hunting and Shooting from the Moment he returns to his College.”16

Eventually the university statutes banned “hunting of beasts with any sort of dogs, ferrets, nets, or toils ; also any use or carrying of muskets, cross-bows,or falcons” as well as playing with cudgels.17

15 Jeffrey, Brasenose Monographs, XIII p 46.

16 Wordsworth, op cit, p 582.

17 ibid, p 177. As it would happen, the university statues may have had only a marginal impact on the recreations of students. Hunting was a popular pastime because of its convenience. Eighteenth century Oxford was still surrounded by forests to the north and the west, and had been for centuries. Woodstock had been a royal hunting palace, for example, since the twelfth century, and was famed for the abundance of game.

During the eighteenth century, though, various Enclosure Acts started to have an impact on the landscape around Oxford. Medieval forests were cleared, the land enclosed and many of the footpaths and bridleways disappeared. While the opportunity for hunting remained - as the famed incident of the stag hunt pursuing a deer down Woodstock Road and into Brasenose attests - it became progressively less convenient, and by the second half of the eighteenth century students were turning to other recreations.

Cricket was certainly one of these recreations, although Cox claims that it was principally maintained by men from Eton and Winchester, who comprised the better part of the membership of the Bullingdon Club.

With all of its prevalence on the Isis, boating was another pastime which came into its own. While most accounts have focused on students, it is apparent that dons also took to the water. A poem published in The Oxford Sausage in 1764 laments old age and declaims:

Safe in thy Privilege, near Isis' Brook, Whole Afternoons at Wolvercote I quaff't; At Eve my careless Round in High-street took, And call'd at Jolly's for the carnal Draught. No more the Wherry feels' my stroke so true; At Skittles, in a Grizzle, can I play? Woodstock, farewell ! and Wallingford, adieu! Where many a Scheme reliev'd the lingering Day.18

This appears to be the earliest known reference to recreational rowing occurring anywhere in the United Kingdom. So, recreational boating was not unknown prior to 1764, even if few details have survived to this day.

18 “Ode to a Grizzle Wig by a Gentleman who had just left off his Bob” in The Oxford Sausage, 1764. Shortly after this date, Jackson’s Oxford Journal contains an account of an unfortunate drowning in Oxford in 1769. Apparently, three students were rowing in skiffs near the Ifﬂey lock when they got into trouble. One of them, Edward Raylor, of Christ Church, leapt out of his boat to avoid going over the lasher, and was sucked under and drowned. Another also abandoned his boat and managed to swim to shore. The third went miraculously survived without sinking.19

The poet, Robert Southey, who went up to Balliol in 1792, was wont to say that he “learnt but two things at Oxford, to row and to swim.”20 Apart from providing an insight as to the diligence or otherwise of late eighteenth century students, Southey’s comment is interesting for another reason. Prior to going up, he had spent four years at Westminster, yet by his own boast, had learned to row at Oxford. It would not be unreasonable to infer, therefore, that boating was not taking place at Westminster before 1792.

Southey returned to Oxford some years later, and in his ﬁctional collection of letters dated to 1807, describes a very busy Isis where students were engaged in sailing, rowing and canoeing.21 From this evidence, and that quoted above, we know therefore that boating of all sorts had blossomed in Oxford in the period between at least 1792 and 1807.

Shortly after this, at the end of the eighteenth century, regattas began to be conducted in a number of locations. One was held in London in June, 1796 to celebrate the king’s birthday. These were not, however, regattas in the current sense of the word, but processions of boats after which the participants would often come ashore to be entertained at lunch or dinner.

A regatta was held in London in 1801 by the East India Company, which is recorded in the metropolitan press. The Company’s barge proceeded up the river from London to Richmond Castle accompanied by a number of other boats containing the band of the East India House Volunteers, where a “sumptuous and very expensive dinner was ordered.” They seem to have been joined, along the way, by the Customs House barge,

19 Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 25th March, 1769.

20 Wordsworth, op cit, p 174.

21 Southey, Espriella, Letter XXXII. which was heading to dine at the Star of Richmond, and a number of other boats, such that the resulting “cavalcade formed a grand spectacle” which eventually included the Bishop of London.22 The ﬁrst evidence of rowing at Eton appears to be a similar regatta held in August of that year.23

Recreational rowing had clearly moved down river from Oxford to the metropolitan portion of the Thames at the end of the 18th century, but recreational rowing was also appearing in the provinces at about this time.

In the early 1800s, an annual regatta was held at Lake Windermere, which in those times was part of Lancashire. This involved both sailing craft and rowing boats, and a large picnic. A “Water Frolic” was held in Yarmouth from at least 1807, which coincided with the annual horse races. From 1808, this included a scratch race in six-oared boats which came to be rowed from Carrow Bridge and Whitlingham Point and back, a distance of a bit over four miles. The ﬁrst race may well have been between professional crews, for it was won by a salvage boat from Gorleston.24 This event was still going in 1814 when another salvage boat from Caister, the Punicity, triumphed over the Alexander to claim a silver cup. The occasion also included ten year old twins who rowed a quarter of a mile in single “gun boats” for a punch ladle.25

Scratch races were possible because by this time various public houses had taken to hiring out recreation boats, mainly six oared cutters and gigs. It was the prevalence of such boats on the Thames below Oxford which made possible the rowing witnessed at Westminster and Eton.

The beginnings of competitive rowing at Oxford lie in a now famous race between Brasenose and Jesus, which was contested in eight oared boats during the Trinity Term of 1815. This race seems to have commenced at Ifﬂey Lock, and ﬁnished at the Head of the River, near Hall’s boathouse.

22 Morning Post, 29th July, 1801.

23 Reading Mercury, 3rd August, 1801.

24 Norfolk Chronicle, 16th July, 1808.

25 Bury and Norwich Post, 24th August 1814 The names of the men who participated are not recorded, nor is the margin between the two crews, however what is recorded is that the crew from Brasenose won the event, which both sides seem to have agreed in advance would bestow the title of “Head of the River”.

The following year, 1816, Brasenose and Jesus again contested the event over the same course, and Brasenose again won, claiming its second Head of the River. Again the names of the crews are unknown and the margin are unknown, although the victor is clear.

Interestingly, these races not raced in four or six oared boats - the common craft of the day - but in purpose built eights. That means it was not a casual affair between two ad hoc crews from Brasenose and Jesus, but a clear race between established college boat clubs, for which they had commissioned purpose built boats.

Looking back over 200 years, the signiﬁcance of the event becomes clearer. Rowing had progressed from being the province of professional watermen, uncouth and unpopular, to being adopted as a recreational pursuit in Oxford, and shortly thereafter, at Cambridge. From there it was adopted by the privileged classes in London and the counties.

Now, for the ﬁrst time, rowing was undertaken in an organised competition between two clubs who prepared and trained for an established event. The modern sport of rowing as the world knows it, began in Oxford, between the clubs at Brasenose and Jesus. Moreover, it is clear that the Brasenose College Boat Club, and the Jesus College Boat Club are the oldest competitive rowing clubs in the world, for no club anywhere can boast of having rowed competitively prior to their race for the Head of the River in 1815.

The specially built racing eights are emblematic of this development. In his history of rowing at Oxford, Sherwood reproduces a picture of an eight near Hall’s boathouse, drawn in 1817 by G.M. Musgrave of Brasenose College, which Sherwood believes may represent the Brasenose boat.26 This is shown in Figure 1 below.

26 Sherwood, Oxford Rowing, p 8. Figure 1. An eight, believed to be Brasenose, near Hall’s Boathouse in 1817.

It is into this milieu that William de Ros followed Southey from Westminster to Oxford, having previously rowed in the “Fly” at Westminster School in 1813.

William de Ros was a considerable individual. He was elected to entry at Trinity College, Cambridge, but chose instead to go up to Christ Church. Upon graduating in 1819, he entered the Life Guards and pursued a career as a soldier. He rose to the rank of Lt- General, and served as Quartermaster-General during the Crimean War. Along the way he succeeded his brother as the 23rd Baron de Ros, and was Conservative Whip in the House of Lords.27

De Ros appears to have been something of a rowing fanatic, for he is also recorded as having taken his four-oared boat of Housemen down to Eton in 1819 and to have raced an eight, but was soundly beaten.28

27 Correspondence from the Archivist, Westminster School, April, 2014.

28 Brickwood, op cit, p 152. However, contrary to previous opinion, William de Ros, could not claim to have brought rowing from Westminster to Oxford, for he did not matriculate until December 1815, which was clearly after the ﬁrst Head of the River.

De Ros’s arrival at Christ Church certainly did yield an early boon for Christ Church, who are recorded as having been head in 1817, 1818, and 1819. However, after his departure in 1819, Christ Church appear not to have put on an Eight for some years.

Recent research by Mr Terry Morahan may shed some further light both on both de Ros, and the nature of the earliest college crews in Oxford. He has discovered that William de Ros kept a diary, presently in the possession of the 28th Baron. In his diary, de Ros recorded on the 17th February, 1817, that “my four-oared wherry arrived” in Oxford. He also records that there were only two other four oared boats in Oxford prior to that, one belonging to Jesus, one belonging to Mr Morres of B.N.C..29

While Brasenose College and Jesus College were racing in purpose built eights in 1815, they continued to put out in fours, and were joined by Christ Church in 1817. It would seem, therefore, that 1817 was the year referred to in Brickwood’s account of Oxford rowing, when he mentions the existence of a Brasenose four, a Jesus four, and a four belonging to de Ros. This four seems to have initially been made up of his Westminster friends, but eventually became the Christ Church Boat Club.

De Ros makes an important contribution, however, for he gives us the ﬁrst known name of a Brasenose rower, Thomas Morres.

Morres had gone up in 1813 and took his M.A. in 1820 before going on to become a clergyman. We also know that he had previously attended the Nowell School, which had no known rowing history, so he presumably learned to row at Brasenose some time between 1813 and 1816. Interestingly, Morres only had one arm, and rowed with the use of a strap.

Given that Morres was the organiser of a Brasenose four, it seems entirely reasonable to posit he also organised the eight, even if that is unattested. If that was indeed the case,

29 “Early Days of the Christ Church Boat Club”, at http://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/college/boat-club/features/ earlydaysboatclub, accessed 18th April, 2013. Morres may well have been the Father of Brasenose rowing, if not the Father of Oxford college rowing.

Besides Morres, the ﬁrst man unambiguously recorded as rowing in a Brasenose College eight would appear to have been Henry Bulteel, who matriculated in 1818, having come up from Eton. He is recorded by Sherwood as racing in a pair around that time with “Stephen Davis the waterman” against the De Ros four, which beat them “after a severe race.”30 Bulteel was still rowing with the college in 1822, when he is recorded as stroking the Childe of Hale, and was noted for his ability in running the boat out of the lock at the start of the race. This involved the stroke standing on the bow thwart of the boat and running down the boat, pushing against the lock gate as he went. Once clear of the lock, the stroke would then jump into his seat, and commence rowing, while the crew behind would perform the same manoeuvre.31

Woodgate published an excellent illustration of this manner of starting from Ifﬂey Lock in his book, Boating, which has been reproduced in Figure 2. It can be seen how the crew

30 Sherwood, op cit, p 9.

Figure 2. Starting an Eight from Ifﬂey Lock prior to 1825.

31 Buchan, Brasenose College, p 97. sat with their oars “tossed” to facilitate the stroke running quickly down the boat, and to reduce the prospect of any of the oars becoming hung up on the lock.

Bulteel went on to become a Fellow of Exeter College in 1823, and was a highly controversial churchman. So radical were his views that the Bishop of Oxford terminated his licence in 1831.32

The results of racing in 1820 are unknown, but it appears that Brasenose were the head boat in 1821, even if their old rivals from Jesus were the only opposition. A letter written by Henry Neech of Merton, and published in The Etonian in July 1821 records:

Returned to Oxford about Seven, and hurried to the Christ Church Meadows, to see the boat-race between the Brazen-Nose and Jesus. The former won the day by a foot or two. Eton and Westminster support their reputation on the Isis. The stroke is rather in favour of the latter: our men pull too quick.... 33

The 1822 headship was again contested between these two colleges, with Brasenose starting first, consistent with having been head the year before. However, the racing was mainly noteworthy for a dispute surrounding a claimed bump by Jesus on B.N.C. Apparently someone in the Brasenose boat caught a crab, leading to their being bumped by Jesus. Brasenose rowed on, however, and crossed the line first. Jesus hoisted their flag and the Brasenose men pulled it down, resulting, according to Woodgate in “some violence”. Eventually the two parties agreed to a rerow, which Brasenose won, and therefore went head.34

1822 was also noteworthy for the apparent presence of two watermen in the races. Although not a member of college, the aforementioned Stephen Davis seemed to have rowed in the Childe of Hale, while the other great Oxford boat builder, Isaac King was in the Jesus boat.

32 Dictionary of National Biography, vol 7 p 261.

33 ‘Letters from Oxford, IV’, The Etonian 2/9 (July 1821), 266-7

34 Woodgate, op cit, p 314. Davis was certainly in the Brasenose crew of 1823, and this was the source of some controversy. Christ Church took umbrage at a professional being in the boat, and whenever Brasenose turned out, the Housemen would run alongside it shouting, “No hired watermen!” Such was the strength of feeling on the matter that no races were held that year, and thereafter watermen were precluded from rowing in the bumps races.35

When racing recommenced in 1824, Exeter went head for the ﬁrst time that year in their famous “white boat” which was built at the Plymouth dockyard and brought to Oxford for them on a cart by Davis. The boat was a coastal boat, however, and sat too high out of the water, such that she had to be cut down.

Brasenose ended Eights in second place, and Christ Church were third. It is unknown whether Eights was rowed on a single night, or a number of nights, but a detailed account of the racing on the 1st June, 1824 was made by a visiting American, Nathaniel Wheaton. He recorded:

The banks of the Isis presented this evening a most animated scene. Just before sun-set, the students assembled by hundreds along the river, to the south of Christ Church Walk, to be the spectators of a rowing match between the elite of Exeter and Brazennose. Large parties had gone half a mile down the river to catch the earliest glimpse of the rival boats; others were distributed in groups over the plain, or stood along the green margin of the stream; and all appeared to enter, with the joyousness and animation peculiar to youth, into the spirit of the contest which was about to be decided. At length, when expectation was at the highest, “a shout, loud as from numbers without number,” from the throng which covered a bridge at the farthest verge of the plain, announced the appearance of the boats; and in a few minutes they came ﬂying through the water in very gallant style. First came the ﬂower of Brazennose, in a pearl-coloured eight-oared cutter, each rower stripped to his shirt sleeves, and resplendent with the yellow badge of his college. A few feet astern followed the youth of Exeter, decorated with a crimson scarf, in a cutter of dazzling white, and impelled by the same number of oars. The cheers of the spectators made the welkin ring; and old father Isis, vexed in his deepest recesses by the sturdy strokes of the oarsmen, dashed his waves indignantly against the

35 ibid. shore. A victory at the Olympian games could not have been contested with a more ardent spirit of emulation. By some mismanagement on the part of the Brazennose steersman, they almost lost the little distance they had gained; and the cutters came out so nearly equal that it was decided to be “all but a bump.” To add to the spirit and joyousness of the scene, groups of ladies were hovering about in the walks at a distance; and the river was thickly bestudded with beautiful little two- oared shallops. 36

The Brasenose crew of 1824 is not completely known, however it can be partially pieced together. Bulteel had by this time gone to Exeter, and he rowed for them that year in the stroke seat, helping them go head. Woodgate says that the 1824 B.N.C. boat included William Meredith and James North, and was stroked by one Karle.37

Meredith and North both matriculated in 1821. Meredith came up from Winchester College, and North came from Manchester.

Assuming that Woodgate is correct, the stroke is more difﬁcult to identify. Nobody by the name of Karle nor any similar name ( e.g. Karl, Carl or Carle, Carles or Carless) matriculated at any college in the ﬁrst half of the nineteenth century. It would seem that Woodgate was mistaken, therefore.

Although it is impossible to be certain, there would appear to be two possible candidates for the stroke seat of the 1824 B.N.C. boat. A Thomas Carr matriculated at Brasenose in 1820, having come up from Eton, and it is possible that this was the man who stroked the 1824 crew, if he had been a rower. He certainly came from a school at which rowing was not unknown although, as we have seen, many B.N.C. rowers had learned to row once coming up.

Another possibility is that Woodgate’s Karle was not a Brasenose man at all. Worcester College make an interesting claim in this regard. The history of the college, written in 1900, states:

36 Wheaton, A Journal of a Residence During Several Months in London; Including Excursions through Various Parts of England; and a Short Tour in France and Scotland; in the years 1823 and 1824, pp 255-56.

37 ibid, p 315. In the ﬁrst college race of 1824, of which the history has come down to us, a Worcester College man joined with a Thames waterman to give gallant assistance to Brasenose College when that boat beat Jesus, the only other College to have a boat on the river. In the following year there was a race between Exeter, Christchurch, Worcester, and Balliol, in which Worcester ended third....38

There are some difﬁculties with this story. As we know, the ﬁrst Head of the River was in 1815, not 1824. Moreover, by 1824, Eights was being contested, by a number of colleges, notably Brasenose, Jesus, Exeter, and Christ Church. It is therefore wrong to say that the only two boats on the river in that year were Brasenose and Exeter.

However, there may be more than a kernel of truth in the story as well. Separately, Sherwood tells of a four oared race in 1824 between Brasenose and Jesus. Sherwood quotes a letter from the Rev Thomas Morres as saying the Brasenose crew was composed of himself, the ubiquitous Stephen Davis, Frederick Slade in the stroke seat, and a Worcester man.39 This was a match race arranged by Isaac King, which would explain the presence of Davis in the Brasenose crew. Slade went up to Oxford from Westminster in 1820, and took his degree in 1824, so was still at college. He would presumably also have rowed in the eight.

In his account of the race, Morres said:

We went down in the evening to Sandford : on our return to Ifﬂey Lock the Jesus refused to go up ﬁrst, so we pushed ourselves out of the lock, and were sharply followed by the Jesus, who nearly sent us down the lasher, but I cautioned the steerer to keep his hand upon the rudder. When we came to the third willow in the reach I asked Slade to quicken the stroke. We soon left them, and reached Davis' Barge seventy yards ahead, and met them returning, to the no small delight of Isaac King, who had made the match.' 40

38 Daniel & Barker, Worcester College, p 232

39 Sherwood, op cit, pp 11-12.

40 ibid It would seem that this was the race referred to in the Worcester history, although erroneously stated as being between the only two colleges to have boats on the river. What is not in doubt is that there was a Worcester man in the Brasenose VIII in 1824, and that he also rowed in the four oared race against Jesus that same year.

Careful perusal of the Worcester matriculation records shows that a John Francis Cole matriculated at Worcester in 1822. He is the only man of such or similar name at the university at the time. Cole is close to Karle, the name recorded by Woodgate, and it would seem that Cole is, more probably than Carr, the man who rowed with Brasenose in 1824.

That would suggest the 1824 eight would have included Meredith, North, Slade, and most probably the Worcester man, Cole. However despite appearing in the four-oared race, it is unlikely Morres was a member of the eight that year. At the time of the 1824 race he was a curate at Wokingham in Berkshire and is reported to have walked up 30 miles that morning for the race, and to have walked back the following day.

Parenthetically, for Morres to have been asked back to row in this four-oared race with Jesus, he must have been an oarsman of some reputation.

Given what we also know of Morres during the period between 1815 and 1816, it is not unreasonable to surmise that he may have been a member of the original 1815 crew, and that this match may have been arranged between some members of the original Brasenose and Jesus crews. Since professional watermen had been precluded from rowing in Eights, this would explain the presence of Davis in the Brasenose four, and King in the Jesus crew. There is little doubt that Davis had been rowing in the Brasenose eight from the beginning, and King had most probably done the same with Jesus.

The 1824 fours race shows that the use of small boats continued well after the adoption of eights as the preferred form of racing craft. As we have seen from the literary record, accounts of boating prior to 1815 reveal the variety of boats to be had: skiffs, gigs, cutter and canoes were all available and in use. Sadly, this also led to not uncommon incidences of loss of life. Jackson’s Oxford Journal of the 20th March, 1824 records a coroner’s inquest held in March into the drowning death of John Harvey of Wadham, who had rolled his skiff and died. Another drowning took place in March the following year, when Thomas Mitton Downing of Lincoln College rolled his skiff in the Cherwell above St Clement.

The period between 1823 and 1825 was one of signiﬁcant transformation in Oxford rowing. By 1824, paid watermen had been banished from Eights, but the crews sometimes contained a mixture of men from different colleges, as we have seen.

To modern readers, the presence of a Worcester man in a Brasenose crew might seem surprising, but it would not have been at the time. Worcester had no boat club of its own; we also know that Christ Church was not unaccustomed to calling upon men from other colleges to row in its crews. Chronicling the early years of Oxford rowing, Rev. W.K.R. Bedford wrote:

De Ros established a racing four-oar at Christ Church between 1815 and 1820, in which, though nominally a college crew, he availed himself on occasion of the services of out-college friends, thinking it probably better to borrow an Old Westminster from Oriel than to hire, as Brasenose did about the same time, a waterman to ﬁll a place. 41

It would seem, therefore, that the outrage of the House at colleges using watermen in their boats did not extend to using men from other colleges in their own.

What we do know is that the rules of racing were amended in 1825 to stipulate that “no out-college men may be allowed to row in any boat.” 1825 was also the year in which the Worcester College Boat Club was formed, possibly drawing upon the experience of J.F. Cole, if Cole it was, who had rowed with Brasenose the previous year.

Worcester’s gain may well have been B.N.C.’s loss. While Worcester made their debut in Eights in 1825, Brasenose was absent. Taking advantage of this, Christ Church went head, having bumped Exeter, who presumably started first. Worcester finished third, and fellow debutantes, Balliol, finished fourth.

41 Bedford, “University Rowing Fifty Years Ago” in Badminton Magazine, June 1897. The increase in the number of college crews participating in Eights also led to another important change in the rules in 1825. For the ﬁrst time, the crews did not start in Ifﬂey Lock, but along the bank above it.

Whatever the reason for Brasenose not rowing in 1825, they returned to the river in 1826. Woodgate records that a set of rules were agreed for the Eights that year, and quotes them as follows:

Rule186.—Resolved(1) That racing do commence on Monday, May 1. (2) That the days for racing be Monday and Friday in each week, and that if any boat does not come out on those days its flag do go to the bottom. (3) That no out-college crews be allowed to row in any boat except in cases of illness or other unavoidable absence, and then that the cause of such absence be signified to the strokes of the other boats. (4) That the boats below the one that bumps stop racing, and those above continue it. (5) That there be a distance of fifty feet between each boat at starting. (6) That the boats start by pistol shot. (7) That umpires be appointed by each college to see each boat in its proper position before starting, and to decide any accidental dispute.42

These rules were signed off by the captains of each of Christ Church, Exeter, Jesus, Brasenose, and Balliol, with North signing on behalf of B.N.C..

Christ Church started ﬁrst, and retained the headship, but behind them, Brasenose bumped Exeter and Balliol to ﬁnish second. Exeter held down third position, and Balliol remained fourth. Worcester did not repeat their efforts of the previous year, and failed to boat a crew.

The ﬁrst complete crew list in existence is for the 1827 Childe of Hale. According to Sherwood, this crew was composed of:

Bow: !E.T. Leigh

42 Woodgate, op cit, p 316. 2:!J.S. Birley (matr 1824, Lancs; Noted Oxford Eight (Capt) 1827) 3:!W.A. Price 4:!J. Swainson 5:!G. Mason 6:!J. North 7:!R. Entwhistle Str:!R. Congreve 43 Cox:!H.C. Partridge

Starting in second position, this crew went head. Christ Church plunged to fourth, with Balliol second, and University College third.

Of the crew, we know North to have rowed in the 1824 B.N.C. boat, after having matriculated in 1821. Edward Trafford Leigh seems to have been the oldest man in the boat, having come up in 1820 from Rugby School. Whether he rowed in earlier crews is a matter of conjecture, but there seems no reason for him not to have done so. He took his MA in 1826, but seems to have still found reason to row with the college the following year.

Sadly, Richard Entwhistle, who matriculated in 1825, and rowed in the seven seat was to die just a few years later in 1831. He died in a shooting accident after the accidental discharge of his gun. He was 24 at the time of his death.44

One thing that is interesting about the 1827 crew is that none of the oarsmen came from known rowing schools like Westminster and Eton. Actually, most of the crew came from Lancashire, or were otherwise privately educated. This suggests that the inﬂuence of these schools on Oxford rowing was, at best, overstated. The fact is that four colleges - Brasenose, Christ Church, University and Balliol - boated crews in Eights, that year, of which only Christ Church had any signiﬁcant association with Eton or Westminster. The majority of oarsmen in the early years of college rowing learned their sport after coming up to the university.

43 Congreve’s presence in this crew is attested in a note in the Brasenose College Archives dated the 12th October, 1888. Mada records W.E. Buckley as stating he had been told by H.N. Goddard, who went up in 1824, that Congreve was stroke of the Eight from 1825 to 1827. Since B.N.C. did not put on in 1825, it is uncertain whether there was an Eight, which did not race, or if Goddard’s recollection is not entirely correct.

44 Brasenose College Register 1509-1909, p 476. Some explanation for the success of such men on the river can be found in the Treasurer’s Book of the Exeter College Boat Club. The “private regulations” of committee of 1831 record two resolutions dated the 6th February to the effect that:

Each member shall be allowed half of six lessons with Stephen Davis, provided never less than two practise together. and,

That when Stephen Davis goes down with the eight oar, the crew shall pay for themselves, and not charge any part of the expense to the college.45

It is obvious that Exeter had put in place a regime for training members of the College Boat Club to a standard where they could be considered for the Eight, whereafter they were expected to pay for their own training at Davis’s hand.

Whether or not Brasenose followed exactly the same procedure in paying for Davis’s services is unclear. However, it is obvious that he had been training oarsmen from both colleges for over 15 years, and with notable success.

1827 was also the ﬁrst year in which Torpids are heard of in the Oxford rowing vernacular. These were originally the college second crews. There is an undated scrap of paper in the BNC Minute Books which states:

Humphreys thinks that " Torpids" were allowed to row in the races with other boats when there were not many on, but that when there were enough there were separate races.46

The Humphreys in question would appear to be F.J. Humphreys, who coxed the Childe of Hale in the 1880s, so his opinion, while undoubtedly correct, does not constitute contemporaneous evidence. The fact that from 1838 onwards, Torpids were forbidden

45 Sherwood, op cit, p 18.

46 Minute Book, and quoted in Wace, Brasenose College Monographs XIV.1, p 10. from putting on with racing boats makes clear that they were college second crews. This is also clear from later rules about the eligibility of oarsmen who had rowed in a college ﬁrst crew to row in them. Until 1852, Torpids were rowed either between nights of Eights, or after them.

The following year, 1828, saw Brasenose bumped by Christ Church, who went head. B.N.C. remained in second place, though, with a record six colleges competing, including ﬁrst appearances on the river by both Trinity and Oriel.

1829 was an unremarkable year for Brasenose, as Christ Church retained the headship, although it was an otherwise important year for rowing in Oxford, with the ﬁrst Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge.

The origins of the Boat Race seem to lie in the decision of Dr Christopher Wordsworth, the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, to send his son Charles, who was schooled at Harrow, to attend Christ Church at Oxford. Charles Wordsworth was originally a cricketer, and seems to have played a role in the ﬁrst Blues Cricket match in 1827. Once up at Oxford, he also seems to have taken up rowing, as he explained in Annals of my Early Life:

I had then begun to take to rowing also, and was frequently on the river in the evening, pulling stroke in an amateur six-oar with a crew of Christ Church friends. The practice thus acquired brought me into notice as an oarsman, and when I was at Cambridge in the following Christmas and Easter vacations, enabled me to take a place occasionally in the Johnian Boat, then, I think, at the top of the river, on the invitation of my old schoolfellow, Charles Merivale, now Dean of Ely, and others of that crew with whom I became acquainted, especially G.A. Selwyn, afterwards Bishop, and Snow, the stroke, both Etonians. Encouraged by the example of the inter-University cricket match, which had taken place in 1827, we talked over the possibility of getting up a similar competition in rowing.47

Burnell notes that Cambridge University Boat Club was established some time between 1828 and 1829, for on the 28th February, 1829 they passed a resolution “that Mr Snow, St

47 Quoted by Burnell, The Oxford & Cambridge Boat Race 1829 - 1953, p 25. John’s, be requested to write immediately to Mr Staniforth, Ch. Ch. Oxford, proposing to make up a University Match.” Staniforth replied, and a formal challenge followed from Cambridge, with the eventual decision to race in Henley on the 10th June that year.48

Notwithstanding its place on the river, Brasenose provided no oarsmen for the ﬁrst Oxford Blue Boat, which was composed six men from Christ Church, two from Balliol, and one from Worcester. One may speculate on the absence of Brasenose men, which may have been an indicator of form, or the necessity of preparing for Schools. Just eight days before the race, Wordsworth wrote to Merivale to say:

The fact is, our boat has been reduced to a considerable pickle, owing to some of our best oars not being able to pull, Stephen Davis’ mismanagement, and one or two minor considerations. We have at last, however, got under way with a ﬁxed crew, and matters are proceeding rather more swimmingly.49

Come race day, Cambridge won the toss, and chose the Berkshire station for the race, which gave them the advantage of the inside running of the course from Marsh Lock downstream to Hambleden Lock. Oxford were evidently intent on crossing onto the Berkshire station, and went off at a sprint in order to do so. Shortly after the start, there was a collision between the crews, although who was to blame is not known. At any rate, the race was restarted, and Oxford this time succeeded in getting sufﬁcient lead to cross onto the Berkshire station without further incident, go on to win the race easily.

With no further race between the universities until 1836, the focus returned again to Eights in 1830, when six colleges competed. These included Christ Church, which remained head, Balliol, Brasenose, University, St John’s and Worcester. Balliol finished second after bumping B.N.C., who finished third. Worcester marked their return to the river in fourth place, St John’s were fifth, and University fell to sixth.

The college’s fall to third presaged worse to come. In 1831 they failed to put out a boat for Eights, and failed to do so again in 1832. This state of affairs was clearly of some embarrassment to the undergraduates. That year rowing at Brasenose received its ﬁrst

48 Burnell, op cit, pp 26-27.

49 ibid, p 27. mention in the Ale Verses, a series of verses set to music, which are sung at a feast in College on Shrove Tuesday each year, accompanied by copious quantities of mulled ale. The anonymous author opined that the explanation foe the Boat Club’s predicament lay in a decline in the consumption of alcohol:

And if the Undergraduates drank, As much beer as their betters, The College ne’er had lost her rank In Cricket, Boating, Letters.

For once she was in manly play The pride of Bullingdon; And ever on the racing day First on the River shone.50

The fact was that much of the 1830s was a poor period for Brasenose rowing. After being absent from the river in 1831 and 1832, the College put out a crew for Eights in 1833, but only finished fourth. Queen’s, who had debuted the previous year and finished second, bumped Christ Church to go head. Jesus returned to the river in third, and Exeter were fifth.

Brasenose again failed to boat a crew for Eights in 1834, and in 1835 ﬁnished third out of the four colleges which rowed in Eights that year. In 1836, Brasenose were the last out of six colleges in Eights. This was the lowest they had ﬁnished at any time to that date. And as in 1829, there were no Brasenose men to be found in the Dark Blue boat that raced Cambridge that year.

While this would seem an unremarkable year, it is notable from the point of view of history in that there is a crew list for the 1836 Eight in the hand of W.E. Buckley, which shows the crew to have been:

Bow: !E.O. Kyfﬁn 2:!G. Sandbach

50 Vincent, Brasenose Ale, p 32 3:!H. Formby 4:!J.A. Ormerod 5:!W.E. Buckley 6:!J. Whittaker 7:!W. Dixon Str:!R. Hale Cox:!M. Holme

More importantly, Buckley tells us that they College was still rowing in the “old boat, which had a gangway throughout the middle of the boat - a relic of the time when the stroke push the boat out of the lock and then take up his oar at stroke to being rowing.”51

This would appear to be the boat built for the 1815 race, which was still in use twenty years later, notwithstanding that crews by this time started from bunglines and not the lock.

Within a few more years, Brasenose rowing would undergo a renaissance, and garner outstanding successes on the Isis and at Henley, which are the basis of the the incredible pride felt by Brasenose men and women today.

51 Brasenose College Archives, SL 8 B11-1 Bibliography

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Southey, Robert 1814. Letters from England by Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella. London, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown.

Vincent, J. (publisher) 1857, Brasenose Ale, Oxford.

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Williams, Ann. “An outing on the Dee: King Edgar at Chester, AD 973” in Medieval Scandinavia, 14 (2004), pp. 229-43.

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