St Scholastica’s Day pennies at Oxford

10 February · Oxford, Oxfordshire

No longer kept

On St Scholastica’s Day the Mayor of Oxford and sixty-two townsmen went to St Mary’s Church and each paid a penny in submission to the University. The magazine’s report of 1738 explained that it was the remnant of a fine laid on the city for a bloody riot against the scholars in the reign of Edward III.

This being St. Scholastica's Day, a certain number of the principal burgesses did publicly pay each one penny, in token of their submission to the Orders and Rights of the University.

From The Gentleman's Magazine Library, Manners and Customs, p. 226. Read the original

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