The College of St George was founded by Edward III in 1348. The College statutes of 1352 established a chapter of thirteen Canons, one of whom was to be Dean. These men were to be responsible for the government of the College, making decisions over expenditure, appointments of staff, management of the estates and all other affairs relative to the business of the College. The Chapter Acts form a record of the issues discussed and the decisions reached, and as such shed light on the weird and wonderful goings on in the College.

On the 7 April 1674, one of the Canons, Dr Hascard, informed the Chapter that all the glass windows on one side of his house were all broken. He enquired what he should do about it, and requested that Chapter seek out the person responsible. Two other Canons, Dr Butler and Dr Scott, duly set about investigating the problem, and confirmed that his windows were indeed largely broken. It was their opinion that whoever had done this had done something “which was very scandalous”.

Hascard’s neighbour, Dr Brideoake, Canon of Windsor from 1660 to 1678 and Dean of Salisbury from 1667, was accused of having broken the windows in a dispute regarding privacy, since the windows in question overlooked Brideoake’s yard. Gregory Hascard had recently spent a large sum of money improving his accommodation, and it seems that many of his changes were very unpopular with his neighbour who had written to the Lord Keeper to complain “that his lodgings at Windsor were offended with a light newly enlarged and which over-looked all the privacies of his house”. He was given permission by the Lord Keeper to erect blinds to preserve his privacy.

Rather than resolving the issue, these blinds had “occasioned much discontent and trouble”. The problems between the two families escalated until eventually Hascard’s windows were deliberately broken, with Brideoake the key suspect.

However, during the year 1674, Brideoake had permission from the King to be absent from the College on business in Salisbury, and had been away from the College for some time so how could he have been the one responsible? It was noted in the Acts that the Canons believed that “Dr Brideoake was no way privy to this action” and that “the Act of Chapter ought to be to reconcile and pacify the parties to prevent further scandal”.

A few weeks later, Chapter ordered that the blinds were not to be re-erected without permission, and significantly a copy of this Act was to be delivered to Mrs Brideoake.

It would therefore seem that it was Brideoake’s wife Mary who had engaged in the act of vandalism! Hascard was given permission to mend his windows, with the money to be repaid to him by the one responsible.

The Chapter Acts do not record whether the dispute was resolved, but no more breakages were reported. On 5 October 1678 Ralph Brideoake passed away, bringing an end to any remaining hostility. His impressive monument can be seen in the Bray Chantry.

Eleanor Cracknell (Assistant Archivist)

Canon John Neale Dalton

John Neale Dalton was a chaplain to Queen Victoria and tutor to her grandsons, Albert Edward [Eddy] and George Frederick [later George V], from 1871 to 1885. On ceasing to be their governor, he was appointed a Canon of Windsor, a role he continued until his death in 1931.

Dalton was a man of great intellect and learning, with extraordinary energy and vigour. He was also however a difficult man to get along with. Albert Baillie, Dean of Windsor from 1917 to 1945, wrote in his memoirs, My First Eighty Years, published in 1951:

“When I was appointed to follow Eliot, [Randall] Davidson said to me, “Your great difficulty will be Canon Dalton.” On my very first day in the Castle, Lord Stamfordham, the King’s Secretary, repeated this warning, and added, “It’s not too much to say that Dalton has made your predecessor an unhappy man for quarter of a century.”

As an intimate of the King, Dalton wielded great power and was not afraid to say exactly what he thought. Baillie went on to describe how “He approached every meeting determined to fight over the smallest details, only to prevent his colleagues, whom he despised, from having their way.” He continues:

“There was a story which Davidson told with great enjoyment. When Dalton was a young Canon in Davidson’s time there was one Chapter Meeting at which he had been particularly fractious. In those days there was with them the much revered Canon Courtenay, who had all that polish and courtesy and self-restraint which marked the best men in the Oxford Movement. For a time he was patient with Dalton and then, for the first and probably only time in his life, he lost his temper, his beautiful and refined self-discipline vanishing. “I tell you what it is, Dalton,” he exploded. “I wish we were back in school-days – I’d kick your bottom hard.”

Despite his prickly manner, Dalton achieved a lot during his time as Canon. He had electric light introduced into the chapel, played a key part in the restoration work of the 1920s, being instrumental in the decision to split the organ, opening up views of the whole vaulting, and was also responsible for cataloguing the College records.

However, it is as the irritable Canon that he is most remembered, and it would seem that his manner passed on to his son, Hugh, a prominent politician.  John Henry Ellison, Vicar of Windsor and one-time pupil of Dalton, wrote in his diary on 11 June 1940 [SGC M.140/B/5/2]:

“It was odd 2 nights ago to hear Hugh Dalton speaking on the wireless as Minister of Economic Warfare, with his father’s voice, and in the same bullying tone that was resented in old days at St George’s School – the bullying now being directed to Hitler.”

Eleanor Cracknell (Assistant Archivist)

The Chapter Acts of the College of St George record that on May the 17^th 1687 the College:

Ordered that the County Coroner be forthwith sent for, to enquire of the Death of Captain Montgomery one of the poor Knights.

Two days later decisive action was taken against the deceased Captain Montgomery:

Mr Maleverer, Mr Wright, & Mr Sewell appointed the chapters Messengers for the seizing and sale of the good of Edward Montgomery they being forfeited to the College By the said Edward Montgomery being found felo de see [i.e. to have committed suicide] (within the precincts of this College) by a verdict of the coroners jury.

It is not known how or why Captain Montgomery committed suicide; his goods were seized because, until 1961, suicide was a criminal offence in the United Kingdom.

Kelda Roe (Archives Assistant)