THE SUDBURY PRIZE

John Sudbury (1604-1684), Dean of Durham, was a considerable benefactor of Emmanuel College, Cambridge where he had acquired his Bachelor and Master of Arts. He later became a Doctor of Divinity at Peterborough College. He was most notably Dean of Durham from 1661 until his death in 1684. In his will he left a sum of money to fund a prize to be given to the best undergraduate of the year in the form a piece of silver. A considerable study of the Sudbury prizes was undertaken by Timothy Kent and published by him in 1996, op. cit.. He cites an entry in the College order book dated 24 April 1677, which records that one sixth of the £500 Sudbury left to the college should be '...laid out upon a piece of plate to be bestowed upon ye most pious and best learned of those that commence the Bachelors each year according to ye judgement of ye Master and four Senior Fellows.'

The college archives also contain a letter written by the illustrious William Sancroft (1617-1693), Master of Emmanuel College from 1662-1664, Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral and then Archbishop of Canterbury, in which he lays out the wording to be engraved on the piece of plate - 'which may best express the original intention of the donor'. To achieve this he employed an Homeric quote which appears twice in the Iliad which when translated can be read as 'always to be the best' or 'always excel', the words of Peleus addressed to his son Achilles as recounted by Nestor, King of Pylos. The first Sudbury Prize was awarded to William Beever in 1676. A number of Sudbury Prizes survive and were recorded by Kent. They include, two handled cups, tankards, mugs and salvers, all similarly engraved. A further example, a cup by Thomas Whipham and Charles Wright, London, 1763 was sold at Christie's, London, 15 July 1998. Kent suggests that due to its large size the cost of Richard Farmer's prize mug may exceeded the £6 awarded.

RICHARD FARMER

Farmer, the son of a woolman and maltster, was awarded the Sudbury Prize in 1757. He was to become one of the most eminent of Emmanuel men; a great Shakespearean scholar, a prominent churchman and a leading figure in the University. A gregarious and deeply generous man, he was the member of three London Clubs, the Eumelean, the Unincreasable, and the Literary Club founded by Dr. Johnson and Sir Joshua Reynolds. It was said he liked nothing more than 'old port', 'old clothes' and 'old books'. He served as a fellow and then Master of Emmanuel College and was twice Vice Chancellor of the University. He was elected as the university librarian and had a magnificent library of his own. Even though people commented unfavourably on the condition of many of his books they were sold after his death for the great sum of £,210 in over 8,000 lots. He was one of the twelve preachers at the Royal Chapel and was prebendary of Canterbury Cathedral and later St. Paul's Cathedral. It is said he refused a bishopric on two occasions, but a contemporary comment cited in his entry in the Dictionary of Biography suggests there may have been reticence to enthrone 'One that enjoyed the theatre, and the Queen's Head, in the evening...'.

He never married but is thought he was engaged to the daughter of Sir Thomas Hatton of Madingley in Cambridgeshire, whilst Farmer was in his early 50s his fiancée was in her 30s. The match is said to have first been opposed by Sir Thomas and then broken off by Farmer. On his death he was buried in the college chapel. He left the majority of his estate to his brother, Captain Joseph Farmer of Leicester (d.1813), who noticeably singled out the Sudbury prize and his brother's silver inkstand when he made his own will, making them a specific bequest to his nephew.