RootsChat.Com
Some Special Interests => Occupation Interests => Topic started by: ausgenjourneys on Tuesday 22 January 08 13:19 GMT (UK)
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Hi everyone,
My ancestor James PRESTON and some of his sons were College Servants in Oxford in the late 18th and 19th centuries.
Does anyone know, would records of their employment still exist?
Does the term 'College servant' cover all servants who worked at the colleges, or was this a particular type of servant?
Thanks,
Aillin,
Australia
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You'd need to know which college, as they're all autonomous. Then you might be able to trace the people, because most colleges have yet to learn to throw any paper away. College Servant was the general title for people -other then academic staff- employed by a college.
Maggott
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Thanks Maggot,
James' son Joseph PRESTON was employed at Worcester College I think, so possibly his father was also employed there.
Thanks again,
Aillin
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You'd need to know which college, as they're all autonomous. Then you might be able to trace the people, because most colleges have yet to learn to throw any paper away. College Servant was the general title for people -other then academic staff- employed by a college.
Maggott
I hope the colleges never learn to throw away those valuable bits of paper 8)
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I always associated the term college servant with the "scout" that is a servant allocated to look after a number of individual students or members of the college.
David
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there is a Joseph preston ..at Worcester College early 1850's .he lived in Worcester Place.
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Yes, it does apply to scouts, but also to other employees doing non-academic work. I imagine when there were fewer gadgets, there were more college servants.
Christopher: Keep your fingers crossed. For generations they just didn't sling stuff, but now some of the colleges are tottering towards the 20th century & thinking of computerising their records. And every space that can accommodate conference delegates is being pressed into use... It'll end in tears, I suspect, because the blighters tend not to want to hand their records over to the County RO
Allin: why not send Worcester an email? I'll pm you the email address
Maggott
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There was a Joseph Preston in New College living in Holywell
Dj
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me again....yes maggott
i agree, i would like records for the Choiristers at Christchurch ::)
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Dunno anything about the choir school, I'm afraid. Why not try a phone call?
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Hiya Maggott
found a site..and.....
apparently due to Ring Worm at The College , the authories ordered everything that could be burned had to be burned....so the records do not exist now :(
Debz
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Hi Debz Ringworm!!! you couldn't make it up :)
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Ringworm indeed!
You'd think College Archivists would know all about preserving valuable documents.
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Indeed you would :o 1890 apparently ! my great grandfather started about 1875 !!
and one wonders if they burned ALL the library books and the hymn books as well ..... ::)
Debz
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Thanks Maggott, Christopher, David and Dj. Great discussion!
there is a Joseph preston ..at Worcester College early 1850's .he lived in Worcester Place.
There was a Joseph Preston in New College living in Holywell
Dj
Dj, where did this information come from? I have an idea that I read somewhere that he (Joseph) was a 'common room man' at Worcester college. What would this position have entailed?
apparently due to Ring Worm at The College , the authories ordered everything that could be burned had to be burned....so the records do not exist now
Is this true of all the colleges? Or just some?
Thanks,
Aillin
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Click (http://www.york.ac.uk/admin/presspr/40thanniversary/1960s5.htm) to see a photo of the smartly dressed Porters at York University in the 1960s. Now have a look at a picture of a porter's lodge at a University. (http://lusu.co.uk/gsa/graduateguide/grad.html#lodge)
Aillin,
Some Universities in the UK had three Common Rooms ... Junior, Middle and Senior. Generally JCRs are associations of undergraduates and SCRs are an association of tutors and academics associated with a college. Postgraduates are sometimes given their own MCR, or placed in with either of the other groups. Source: Wikipedia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Room_(university))
Christopher
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Hi Christopher,
Thanks for the links to the photos, and the information about the common rooms!
Regards,
Aillin
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hi Aillin
i also found a RICHARD PRESTON who was a tailor in Gloucester Green ( used to be the bus Station.)
There were hundreds of Tailors for all the gowns and repairs needed but only a percentage had outlets , the rest were all "sub contracted out"
but it is very central to Oxford of course in about the 18th c Oxford was just 1 square mile around Carfax.
Debz
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The website of the King's Hall and College of Brasenose, Oxford,
contains tips on tracing College Servants. http://tinyurl.com/3sjuct
I always associated the term college servant with the "scout" that is a servant allocated to look after a number of individual students or members of the college.
David
There was a good post about "scouts" on RootsWeb in October 2002 http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/OXFORDSHIRE/2002-10/1034923006
Christopher
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Thanks Christopher.
Since I posted my message I have had some success in my search for the Prestons. Joseph was a common room man at Worcester college, he has a portrait there apparently, and he is mentioned in a few books accessible through Google Books
e.g.
http://books.google.com/books?lr=&q=%22joe+preston%22+worcester
http://books.google.com/books?lr=&spell=1&q=%22joseph+preston%22+%22common+room%22
All very interesting :)
Regards,
Aillin