Keeper of the Archives

The archives were moved from the University Church of St Mary the Virgin into the Tower of the Five Orders in the Bodleian Library under Twyne and his successor, and some of the storage cupboards built at that time are still in use.

[1] Reginald Lane Poole, who was in office from 1909 to 1927, took a much narrower view on what should be kept, and criticised his predecessors for their "fatal inability ... to destroy things when they are done with".

[2] The third to hold the position, John Wallis (who was also Savilian Professor of Geometry), prepared an index of the collection that was still used into the 20th century.

[5] Under Twyne and Gerard Langbaine, his successor as Keeper, the archives were moved into one of the rooms in the Tower of the Five Orders in the Bodleian Library; three of the wooden cupboards that were built at that time to store them are still in use.

[6] The statutes provided that "hereafter and for ever, some person shall be sought for", to collect and guard the archives, "that he may produce them without delay whenever occasion requires it".

"[6] Students at the university (unless exempted by poverty) were to pay 1 shilling towards defence of Oxford's rights, and £40 from this fund was to be paid to the Keeper of the Archives as his salary.

Bailey was the first full-time Keeper of the Archives: he was previously the Archivist under his predecessor, David Vaisey, but a decision was taken to combine the two posts in 2000.

An elderly man with some strands of white hair visible from beneath a close-fitting black cap; he is wearing red and black robes with a red academical hood and broad white bands at his collar
The mathematician John Wallis , Keeper of the Archives from 1658 to 1703.
A man in red academic robes sitting in a chair with a city scene visible through a window
Philip Bliss , Keeper of the Archives from 1826 to 1857.
Jeffrey Hackney , who held the position from 1987 to 1995 (pictured in 2010).