Gresham Professor of Rhetoric

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The Professor of Rhetoric at Gresham College, London, gives free educational lectures to the general public. The college was founded for this purpose in 1596 / 7, when it appointed seven professors; this has since increased to eight and in addition the college now has visiting professors.

The Professor of Rhetoric is always appointed by the Mercers’ School Memorial Trust, which is administered by the Worshipful Company of Mercers. The title is a broad one, and Professors of Rhetoric have included historians, poets, educators and literary critics.

(Years given as, say,1596 / 7 refer to Old Style and New Style dates.)

1	Caleb Willis	March 1596 / 7
2	Richard Ball	1598
3	Charles Croke	14 Jan 1613/ 4
4	Henry Croke	26 May 1619
5	Edward Wilkinson	13 April 1627
6	John Goodridge	6 Nov 1638
7	Richard Hunt	29 Nov 1654
8	William Croune FRS	8 June 1659
9	Henry Jenkes	21 Oct 1670
10	John King	2 Oct 1676
11	Charles Gresham	20 August 1686
12	Edward Martyn	4 Dec 1696
13	John Ward	1 Sept 1720
14	Joseph Whateley	19 Jan 1759
15	Joseph Waugh	11 April 1797
16	F Newnham	7 Jan 1808
17	Edward Owen	13 Nov 1817
18	Charlton Lane	23 April 1863
19	Thomas Francis Dallin	9 July 1875
20	J E Nixon	4 Feb 1881
21	Foster Watson	22 Jan 1915
22	Oliver Elton	19 April 1929
23	George Stuart Gordon	2 May 1930
24	Arthur William Reed	8 Dec 1933
1939–45 Lectures in abeyance
25	Rowland Walter Jepson	6 June 1946
26	Lord David Cecil	27 June 1947
27	Nevill Coghill	14 Oct 1948
28	William Empson	1953
29	Richard Hughes	1954
30	Bonamy Dobrée	1957
31	Stephen Spender	1961
32	John Wain	1963 (Hilary term)
33	Cecil Day-Lewis	1963–64
34	Patric Dickinson	1965–67
35	Sir Robert Birley	1968–82
1983–84 vacant
36	John Morley Pick	1985
37	Jan Kott	1986
38	John Morley Pick	1987
39	J M Rae	1988
40	Sir Andrew Derbyshire	1990
41	Peter G Moore	1 Sept 1992
42	Peter Hennessy	1 Sept 1994
43	Lynette Hunter	1 Sept 1997
44	Richard Sorabji CBE FBA	1 Sept 2000
45	Kathleen Burk	1 Sept 2003
46	Rodney Barker	1 Sept 2007