The Esquire Bedells

Summary

Perhaps the most picturesque officers connected with the University are the Bedells. They reach back to the earliest times; though their former somewhat homely attendances have developed into the dignified duties of the Esquire Bedells, and their primitive wooden staves into elaborate silver Maces. They are thus linked with our oldest functions; and they are concerned with our latent ceremonies.

They were almost always men of substance, at least as compared with our poor scholars; they generally held some other occupation; and the early lists of benefactors contain a remarkable number of University Beadles. Later on from being merely “privileged persons,” they became Esquire Bedells, and the office has long been held by distinguished graduates.

In the latter part of the fifteenth century, the three Bedells–for there were formerly three of these officers–were classed as the Bedell of Divinity (and Canon Law), the Bedell of Arts, and the “other Bedell.” It may at once be stated that in the middle of the nineteenth century, on the death of Mr Leapingwell, of Corpus, the third Bedellship was abolished; but, before this, they had long been accounted “equal,” though the oldest in office was always called “the Senior Bedell.”

As they generally served for many years, and, as the technicalities of the many ceremonies were often intricate, they naturally became the storehouse of information and precedent.