St John’s welcomes the eleventh great-grandson of former President Francis Willis

Francis Willis (1557/8 –1596)

Two decades prior to his presidency, Willis was a scholar at St John’s College. His name appears alongside that of the famous Jesuit martyr, Edmund Campion, in the list of scholars given in the second Foundation Deed of March 1558 (see image below). Willis took his BA in 1563 and his MA three years later. Following his graduation, he served first as the Bursar of the College and later as St John’s Clerk of Accounts. Willis’s appointment to these important financial positions reflects what College historians have described as his ‘methodical and careful’ character.*

Following the resignation of Tobias Matthew in 1577, Willis was elected as the sixth President of St John’s. Interestingly, Willis was the first serving President to be married. His wife, Katherine, lived alongside him in College, together with her daughter and sister: an arrangement that appears to have been unpopular with some of the College’s earliest members.

A great deal is known about Willis’s presidency and, indeed, his character thanks to seventy-two surviving letters from Sir William Cordell, the College Visitor** from 1567–1581, either to the Senior Fellows or to Willis directly. A detailed account of Willis’s presidency can be found in Stevenson and Slater’s comprehensive Early History of St John’s College. However, it must be noted here that it was during Willis’s presidency that St John’s finally achieved firm financial and academic footing and first became a significant influence within the University.

1587 was a remarkable year for Francis Willis. He was nominated by Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester and Chancellor of the University of Oxford, to serve for a year as his Vice-Chancellor. In January of the same year, and again on Leicester’s recommendation, Queen Elizabeth I appointed him as the Dean of Worcester Cathedral. He held the deanery past the end of his Presidency in 1590 and until his eventual death in October 1596; the St John’s statutes stipulated that the President could hold a benefice of any amount, provided that he continued to live in College.

Even after his death, Willis continued to contribute to the life and fabric of the College. His widow, Katherine, donated £10 from his legacy towards the construction of what is now called the ‘Old Library’.

Craig Willis’s recent visit

Francis Willis’s eleventh great-grandson, Craig lives with his wife, Linda, in Kansas City, Missouri. Craig is descended from Francis on his father's side. During a recent trip to England, Craig and Linda came up to St John’s for a tour of the College and were shown materials relating to his ancestor in the Archive. These included the second Foundation Deed, in which Willis is listed as a scholar; the College Accounts for the years 1568–72, corresponding to the period during which Willis served as Bursar; the first volume of the College Register, recording College activity during Willis’s presidency; and a letter from Sir William Cordell written during the first year of Willis’s presidency in 1577, commending him for his decisive action in dispersing the College during an outbreak of infection. Craig and Linda also visited the Old Library, the construction of which in 1596 was supported by Willis’s legacy.

Many thanks to Victoria Beningfield (Apprentice Archivist), Dr Petra Hofmann (College Librarian), and Jenny Diment (Executive PA to the President) for facilitating Craig and Linda’s visit to St John’s.

References and notes

*W.H. Stevenson and H.E. Slater, The Early History of St. John's College Oxford (Oxford, 1939), p. 206.

**Cordell was St John's first College Visitor, charged with ensuring the College's compliance with its College statutes and the duty to mediate in times of discord and otherwise act as a kind of advisory commissioner.