Honouring our Principal Benefactors

A new, hand-carved stone plaque, listing the College’s principal benefactors in chronological order, has been installed in Old Court’s G archway, opposite the Paul Mellon inscription.

Carved in slate by the renowned, Cambridge-based Cardozo Kindersley Workshop, the plaque names all those, beginning with the foundress herself, who have given or bequeathed a 7-figure sum (in today’s money) to support the College and its educational mission, down to the present day.

As well as honouring those who have sustained and supported Clare, the plaque also forms an enduring record of the history of philanthropy at the College. And its clever design means that further names can be added in due course, to keep the roll-call up to date.
It is noteworthy that the College benefited from only 8 such benefactors in the first 600 years of its existence, compared to 14 in the past century.

The historic benefactors named on the plaque are as follows:

Elizabeth de Burgh, Lady of Clare (the name by which the foundress chose to be known in the Statutes she gave to the College in 1359): between 1336 and 1360 she gave the rectories and advowsons of Great Gransden, Duxford St. John, Litlington, and Wrawby; and bequeathed the furnishings of her own chapel, a sum of money, and many other gifts.

Richard Baudewene: about 1367, he bequeathed Baldwin’s manor in Great Gransden.

John Tapton: in 1490, he bequeathed lands and tenements (‘a considerable bequest’) in Cambridge and Chesterton.

John Freeman: in 1617, he left a bequest worth around £2 million today to found two fellowships and ten scholarships.

William Butler: in 1618, he bequeathed his gold plate, the poison and falcon cups, and all his books.

Samuel Blythe: in 1713, he left a bequest worth around £1 million today to establish the Blythe Fund, which still forms a major part of the College’s endowment.

John Wilcox: in 1761, he bequeathed money for the replacement of the Chapel (which was rebuilt and consecrated in 1769).

Thomas Coles: in 1867, he left a bequest worth around £2.3 million today to found two fellowships and five scholarships.

Paul Mellon: between the 1980s and the 2010s, the College’s most generous benefactor of the 20th century funded the construction of the Forbes Mellon Library and endowed the Paul Mellon Clare Trust to contribute towards major repairs and capital improvements to Old Court, the Chapel, and Clare Bridge in perpetuity.