Aldrichian Chairs

The Aldrichian Chairs were professorial positions at the University of Oxford during the nineteenth century, endowed by George Oakley Aldrich.

[11][12] He went on the Grand Tour and was in Rome in 1750 with John Neale – then an undergraduate at Merton, later parish priest at Tollerton, Nottinghamshire.

The portrait was rediscovered in the Bodleian Library's collection, and after conservation treatment by Simon Gillespie, it was confirmed to be by Batoni.

[13][17] In the 1770s, Aldrich had moved on from residence at Mansfield Woodhouse to Cockglode House near Edwinstowe in Sherwood Forest, which he began to build in 1774 and occupied under lease from the 3rd Duke of Portland from 1777.

[13][18] Aldrich married a second time, in 1783, to the much younger Sibylla Benson (died 1802), daughter of the Rev.

[20] Thomas Beddoes, of radical views and initially a supporter of the French Revolution, was a reader in chemistry at Oxford from 1787 to 1793, when he left for Bristol.

It has been suggested that Portland may have influenced Aldrich to include chemistry in founding by bequest the Aldrichian Chairs.

[13] The next tenant at Cockglode was Robert Shore Milnes, who left his position in Canada, which had brought him into contact with Portland, in 1805.