The Oxford Historical Society was founded in 1884 by a group of dons in memory – and to fulfil a wish – of the Revd John Richard Green. This son of Oxford (his father had been a maker of academic gowns living in St John’s Street) had written A Short History of the English People (1874), which proved a runaway bestseller.
The Society’s inaugural work was an edition of Oxford University’s principal Register (or record book), covering 1449–63 and 1505–71. The founders were amazingly productive in that they published about 40 volumes in only 15 years. They developed Green’s vision of a publishing programme dealing with the totality of Oxford – town/city, university, and colleges. The early years also saw the launch of the ambitious project of publishing an edition of the diary of the Oxford antiquary Thomas Hearne (1678–1735), under the title Remarks and Collections of Thomas Hearne. It eventually ran to 11 volumes, published over 34 years.
The contribution of Andrew Clark
A striking feature of the Society’s history has been the disproportionate contribution of three scholars. The first was Andrew Clark (1856–1922), who produced three major works. The son of a farm worker, and student at St Andrew’s University, Clark came to Balliol College, Oxford, and then moved to Lincoln College, of which he became a Fellow in 1880. Through friendship with trustees of the OHS, he took on the editing of more of the university’s Register and produced four volumes, covering 1571 to 1622.
Clark then produced a two-volume edition of the History of the City of Oxford by the local antiquary Anthony Wood (1632–95), and also an edition of another work by Wood, his Life and Times. The latter work is in effect a detailed diary, and thereby a rich source for the history of Oxford and indeed English life in the 17th century. Clark’s definitive edition, in five volumes, includes detailed analytical indexes. In all, Clark produced 12 volumes for the OHS. He left Oxford in 1894 and for the rest of his life served the parish of Great Leighs in Essex.
Herbert Edward Salter (1863–1951)
Born in 1863, Salter was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford. In 1904, when serving as vicar of Shirburn (Oxon.), Salter offered to edit the cartulary of Eynsham Abbey, which possessed a considerable amount of property in medieval Oxford. This started a period of extraordinary industry. For the next five years Salter cycled into Oxford regularly to pursue his editorial work. Then in 1909 he gave up parish ministry and concentrated on the history of Oxford. He was elected a Fellow of Magdalen College in 1918, and funded the production of many of his OHS volumes from his stipend.
In all, Salter edited 34 OHS volumes – over 20 per cent of the Society’s publications. They covered the full range of the Society’s concerns: city records, university records, college records, and records of medieval institutions outside the university. An important work by Salter was published posthumously by the society, namely his Survey of Oxford, which provides historical information about individual properties in central Oxford.
‘Billy’ Pantin
William Abel Pantin, often known as ‘Billy’, was born in 1902 and educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford. After teaching at Manchester University, he returned to Oxford in 1933 as Fellow and Tutor in Modern History at Oriel College, where he remained until retirement in 1969. He also served as Keeper of the Oxford University Archives (1946–69).
Pantin became involved in the OHS in the 1930s through friendship with Herbert Salter. In 1940, the Society formally elected him as General Editor, and he thereafter largely led and directed the Society until his death. One of Pantin’s main contributions to the Society’s publications was a multi-volume collection of records relating to Canterbury College, one of Oxford’s medieval monastic colleges. Pantin also supported an assistant, Walter Mitchell, who produced five volumes for the Society.
The OHS since Pantin
Since 1971, several Oxford-based historians have sustained the Society’s work either as Chairman or General Editor. Chairmen have included Dr Roger Highfield of Merton College (1922–2017), Dr Jeremy Catto of Oriel College (1939–2018), Alan Crossley, formerly Editor of the Victoria County History of Oxfordshire. The current Chairman is Revd Professor William Whyte of St John’s College. Alan Crossley made a considerable contribution as General Editor in supervising the preparation of 15 volumes. Since Pantin’s death another 27 volumes have been published.
The OHS has remained true to J.R. Green’s vision in continuing to publish volumes about the city, the university and the colleges. In over 140 years, the Society has published 150 volumes, which have facilitated the writing of major histories of the city of Oxford and also the eight-volume History of the University of Oxford, and have also been used by countless historians for studies of numerous subjects.