Plaque numbers 06 and 07 can be found at this location.
College of Matrons
This plaque can be found on the wall inside the College of matrons' extension.
This means that the plaque is not on show to the public.
The O/S grid position is SU 14271 East 29730 North.
This plaque commemorates
the tercentenary in 1982
of the
College of Matrons
and marks the opening
of this extension
to the College in 1981
The notice detailing the conversion of No 38 The Close into the extension, still existed in the cellars in July 2008, twenty eight years later! Its text is:
The Dean and Chapter and
the Trustees of the College of
Matrons are converting
No38 The Close to provide
additional accommodation
for the College of Matrons
Completion date: December 1980
Collegium Hoc Matronarum
This plaque can be found on the left immediately after entering the Cathedral Close via the High Street gate.
The O/S grid position is SU 14271 East 29730 North.
Honi Soit Qvimal Y Pense
Collegium Hoc Matronarum
Do Oo Mo
Humillime Dedicavit
Sethus Episcopus Sarum
Anno Domini
MDCLXXXII (1682)
This plaque is set amid very colourful surroundings and is on a prime route for visitors to the Close. Every year, thousands of people see it. It tells the story of a remarkable institution and a truly remarkable man.
Starting from the top: within the pediment of the building (under the lion's head) are the royal arms of Charles II. Below them, and immediately above the plaque, is a cartouche in which the arms of Seth Ward (see below) are combined ('impaled') with those of the diocese of Salisbury. This is surrounded by an inscription (Honi soit qui mal y pense) which is the motto of the Order of the Garter, founded by Edward III in 1348. The usual translation is ' Evil be to him who thinks evil of it'. Edward is supposed to have said this when the Countess of Salisbury, dancing at Eltham Palace, dropped her garter, much to the amusement of the onlookers. To spare her embarrassment, the king pulled it onto his own leg. A more idiomatic rendering of the motto might therefore be 'If you don't like it, too bad'. (See below for details of the link between the Order of the Garter and bishops of Salisbury)
The Latin inscription on the plaque says 'Seth, Bishop of Salisbury, most humbly dedicated this college of matrons to God the Best and Greatest in the year of our Lord 1682'.
Seth Ward (1617 - 1689) was born at Buntingford, Hertfordshire, and educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where his mathematical and astronomical talents soon came to light. As an undergraduate, he was elected 'praevaricator', which entailed making a witty and satirical speech at the expense of the university authorities at degree ceremonies. So effective was he in this role that he succeeded in offending the vice chancellor, who suspended Ward's own degree for a day. In spite of this, he became the university's mathematical lecturer in 1643. He was expelled during the turmoil of the civil war (he refused to take an oath of loyalty to the parliamentarians). In 1650 he went to Oxford as Savilian professor of astronomy, being the first holder of that professorship to teach the Copernican theory. He was a founder member of the Royal Society, and proposed Sir Isaac Newton as Fellow. He became involved in an unsuccessful attempt to devise a universal language of science based on symbols. He was elected president of Trinity College, Oxford in 1659 but resigned this post and his professorship to become vicar of St Lawrence Jewry (London) in 1660. His talents as a man of the Church soon emerged. He was elected dean of Exeter in December 1661and consecrated bishop there in the following July, so becoming the youngest bishop then in office.
He proved so able an administrator that he was translated to the wealthier see of Salisbury in 1667. Neglect during the period of the Commonwealth and earlier years had left its mark on Salisbury Cathedral, and Ward asked his friend Sir Christopher Wren to survey it (it was Wren who found that the spire was leaning by 27.5 inches to the south and 17 inches to the west). Surveys took place between 1667 and 1689: the floor of the choir was laid with marble, the canons' stalls were refurbished and the cloister was paved. Ward provided new communion plate and altar furnishings. The bishop's palace (which had apparently been used as a tavern) and the Guildhall were repaired. When Samuel Pepys came to Salisbury in 1668 (see plaque 11), he visited 'my friend Dr Ward' and found the cathedral in so good a state that he thought it 'handsomer than Westminster'.
In 1669 Ward brought about the return of the chancellorship of the Order of the Garter to the bishops of Salisbury (a right that had originally been granted in the 15th century) and himself became Chancellor of the Order in 1671. [Chancellorship of the Order of the Garter remained with the bishops of Salisbury until 1837 when, following diocesan border changes, it was transferred to the bishops of Oxford. In 1937 it was transferred again, this time to lay members of the Order. The current chancellor is Lord Carrington.] This may be the reason why the Garter motto is displayed above the plaque.
In 1672 he declined a move to Durham, preferring the conditions in Salisbury. In 1675 Ward supported a project to make the Avon navigable to the sea at Christchurch. An enthusiastic proponent, he dug the first spadeful of earth but despite considerable work continuing until 1730, the scheme ultimately failed.
He divided his time between Salisbury and London, where he was active in the House of Lords, and encouraged charities in both cities. He was a keen horseman. His hospitality, especially to visiting clergy, was legendary. He contributed to Chelsea Hospital, endowed scholarships at Christ's College, Cambridge, supported Wadham College, Oxford, established a hospital for 10 old men in Buntingford (his birthplace) and in his will left £1000 for the upkeep of Salisbury Cathedral. He left books on medicine, mathematics and astronomy to the cathedral library. Unfortunately, his last years were darkened by a dispute with the dean and other clergy over appointments, in which he was ultimately vindicated. He died in 1689 and is buried in the cathedral. John Chandler (Endless Street) has described him as ' one of the few Bishops of his century to win the love and respect of the city' and elsewhere he has been characterised as 'a man of outstanding ability and intellectual curiosity'.
His memorial (a bust surmounting a plaque with a lengthy Latin inscription and a collection of mathematical instruments and telescopes) is on the west wall of the southeast transept in the cathedral. The vestry now occupies this area, and so to see the memorial you will first have to visit the verger's office. Ward's portrait (by John Greenhill) is in the Guildhall: the staff there are very helpful and will probably take you to it.
The College of Matrons is one of Ward's charitable foundations. He established it in 1682 to provide housing for 10 widows of clergymen in the Salisbury and Exeter diocese (a huge area, since the Exeter diocese then included Cornwall). It was the first charitable foundation by a bishop of Salisbury within the Close since the 13th century. The charity was probably modelled on the matronal college founded by Bishop Moberly at Winchester in 1673 and the title 'college' was similarly chosen to avoid the demeaning associations of 'hospital' in the 17th century. Ward bought the freehold of the site from Thomas Hawkes, a city merchant, and the building work was completed by Thomas Glover of Harnham at a total cost of £1,193 12s 6d. For many years it was thought to have been designed by Wren, but it now seems more likely that Glover was both architect and builder.
According to the original statutes, the residents were to be 'widows at least 50 years old, of good fame and reputation and prudent and religious behaviour'. Each would receive pocket money of 6 shillings a week and would have her own garden but there was a communal pump and privy. The gates were to be closed at 8 p.m. each evening. Generous as these terms would appear, there seems to have been at least one rebellion, for in October 1694 the matrons were summoned before the Dean and Chapter to have the college statutes read out to them.
As can be seen from plaque 06, the College continues to serve the community, having undergone a major refurbishment in 1870 and an expansion in 1981. However, the original restrictions on the occupants no longer apply. The charity now caters for 'single ladies resident in the area and able to live independently', giving preference to widows and unmarried.
The Salisbury Cathedral website
Endless Street - John Chandler, Hobnob Press 1983
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry on Seth Ward- author John Henry
A brief account of the charity called the College of Matrons, founded by Seth Ward, Lord Bishop of Sarum, with some particulars of the life, habits and pursuits of the Bishop. Bennett Brothers, Salisbury 1879
Seth Ward, Bishop of Salisbury 1667 -89 - Robert Latham - Salisbury Cathedral Bookshop 1983
Bishops in Brief - Jean Perkins, Salisbury Cathedral Library, 1996
The Wikipedia entry on the Order of the Garter.
Salisbury - the houses of the Close. Royal Commission on Historical Monuments in England and Wales HMSO 1993.
Salisbury Cathedral - perspectives in architectural history Cocke and Kidson RCHME/HMSO 1993
History of Modern Wiltshire - Hoare, Benson and Hatcher - published by John Bowyer Nichols and Son, 1843
The housing care website (EAC)
Particular thanks are due to the Local Studies Librarian (Bruce Purvis) and his colleagues at Salisbury Library.
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