The 17th Century

The founder of the Colony of Rhode Island, Roger Williams, graduated from Pembroke in 1627. But the event which most affected the College in this period was the English Civil War. Pembroke, like most of the Colleges, was Royalist and sent its plate to the King, retaining only the 'Foundress's' Cup and the 'Anathema' Cup. There were Royalist poets too - Richard Crashaw, the mystic, Thomas Stanley, editor of Aeschylus, William Hammond and John Collup. Another Pembroke Royalist, Matthew Wren, Bishop of Ely, suffered imprisonment in the Tower and during that time made a vow that, if he were released, he would build a new chapel for his College. This he did, choosing for the architect his nephew, and the Chapel of Pembroke, consecrated in 1665, is the first work of Sir Christopher Wren and the first chapel in Oxford or Cambridge in the classical style. The former chapel was converted soon afterwards into a library - the room with the magnificent plasterwork ceiling that is now known as the Old Library. Adjoining Wren's chapel a cloister was built, and in this are now recorded the names of 450 Pembroke men who fell in the wars of 1914-18 and 1939-45.

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