Charles Thorp, 1783-1862

The University of Durham was founded in 1832, primarily through the vision and determination of William Van Mildert (1735-1836), Bishop of Durham, and Charles Thorp, Archdeacon of Durham and prebendary of Durham Cathedral. Van Mildert and Thorp saw the foundation of a university in Durham as a way of deflecting popular criticism of church wealth, and averting the danger that, unless the church itself redeployed some of its surplus, a reforming government would wield the scythe for it. They were eventually successful in persuading the Dean and Chapter of Durham to support the scheme and redeploy some of their property to provide an endowment. The struggle to win recognition and adequate endowment for the fledgling institution continued after Van Mildert's death in 1836 under his successor as bishop, Edward Maltby. The recruitment of staff, the content and development of courses of study, the level of fees and stipends, and arguments over admission of dissenters to degrees are all mirrored in the correspondence, as is the attempt to meet the particular educational needs of a mining and industrial region through the development of a course and qualification for student engineers.