Blog
13 March 2026
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V is for ....Venus
Although in the early part of its history Emmanuel College was notable for its theologians, rather than scientists, it did produce several distinguished mathematicians and physicists. They included John Wallis, a founder member of the Royal Society, and Jeremiah Horrocks, his friend and contemporary at Emmanuel, who achieved posthumous fame for his contributions to astronomy. Horrocks, a native of Toxteth, was admitted to Emmanuel in 1632, aged 14 or 15. He returned home without taking a degree, but continued his studies in his spare time, corresponding with other astronomers and conducting some remarkable experiments. He was the first person to deduce that the moon circled the Earth in an elliptical orbit, and he also correctly predicted, observed and recorded the transit of Venus between the earth and the sun on 24 November 1639. Having set up his telescope and other paraphernalia, Horrocks began fretting about the weather, but all was well: ‘The clouds, as if by divine interposition, were entirely dispersed…I then beheld a spot of unusual magnitude and of a perfectly circular shape, which had already fully entered upon the sun’s disk on the left’. In January 1641, Horrocks was ‘snatch’d away by an untimely death in the flower of his age’, before he could publish his findings. His written account (in Latin) of the transit of Venus was eventually published in 1662, under the title ‘Venus in Sole Visa’. It included several remarkably accomplished poems on astronomical themes. John Wallis, dismayed that a ‘treatise of such importance to astronomy’ had lain inaccessible for so long, set about collecting as many other surviving Horrocks manuscripts as possible, and these were eventually printed as ‘Opera Posthuma’ in 1672. Incidentally, Horrocks’ name is recorded in Emmanuel’s admission register as ‘Jeremy Horrox’ (pictured, middle entry)
V is for…Victoria
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The baptism of the future Queen Victoria took place on 24 June 1819 in the Cupola Room at Buckingham Palace. It was an uncomfortable occasion for all concerned, as the king, George IV, grumpily objected to all the names proposed by the baby’s parents. Throughout the bickering and weeping, the Archbishop of Canterbury, officiating, was encumbered with the ‘plump as a partridge’ baby. Although Victoria’s christening story is well known, the identity of the luckless archbishop is often overlooked. He was Charles Manners-Sutton (pictured), an Emmanuel graduate, whose fame at his old college is somewhat overshadowed by its other Primate, William Sancroft. A grandson of the 3rd Duke of Rutland, Charles was admitted to Emmanuel as a fellow commoner, but he did not conform to the rich-loafer stereotype of that class of student. On the contrary, he graduated 15th Wrangler in 1777. His intellectual abilities, united with his congenial personality, marked him out early for a distinguished career. When Bishop of Norwich, Charles once dined with the celebrated diarist ‘Parson’ James Woodforde, who found the bishop ‘very agreeable and affable, as well as polite and sensible’. Appointed Dean of Windsor in 1794, Charles was a favourite of both George III, who robustly supported his elevation to Canterbury in 1805, and Queen Charlotte. As archbishop, Charles fostered many worthy causes, such as the establishment of the National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor. He did not forget his old college, contributing £200 to the appeal launched after the Westmorland Building fire of 1811. Queen Victoria’s coronation in 1838 was celebrated in Cambridge by a civic banquet, free to all and attended by thousands, on Parker’s Piece. Two engravings of the occasion were made. Interestingly, one depicts the new row of houses in Park Terrace as complete, while the other shows gaps where nos.11 and 14 now stand.
Amanda Goode, College Archivist