Savilian Professor of Astronomy - Appointment

Appointment

Savile selected John Bainbridge to be the first astronomy professor; Bainbridge had impressed him with a description of a comet seen in 1618. In the documents establishing the professorship (sealed by Savile and the university in August 1619), Savile reserved to himself the right to appoint the professors during his lifetime, although he died in 1622 before the position fell vacant. He provided that after his death, vacancies should be filled by a majority of a group of "most distinguished persons": the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor, the Chancellor of the university, the Bishop of London, the Secretary of State, the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, the Chief Justice of the King's Bench, the Chief Baron of the Exchequer and the Dean of the Court of Arches. The Vice-Chancellor of the university was to inform the electors of any vacancy, and could be summoned to advise them. The appointment could either be made straight away, or delayed for some months to see whether "any eminent mathematician can be allured" from abroad.

As part of reforms of the university in the 19th century, the University of Oxford commissioners laid down new statutes for the chair in 1881. The professor was to "lecture and give instruction in theoretical and practical Astronomy", and was to be a Fellow of New College. The electors for the professorship were to be the Warden of New College (or a person nominated by the college in his place), the Chancellor of the University of Oxford, the President of the Royal Society, the Astronomer Royal at Oxford, the Radcliffe Observer, a person nominated by the university council and one other nominated by New College. Changes to the university's internal legislation in the 20th and early 21st centuries abolished specific statutes for the duties of, and rules for appointment to, individual chairs such as the Savilian professorships. The University Council is now empowered to make appropriate arrangements for appointments and conditions of service, with the college to which any professorship is allocated (New College in the case of the Savilian chairs) to have two representatives on the board of electors. The professorship is one of two permanent chairs attached to Oxford's Sub-Department of Astrophysics.