John Ayliffe

John Ayliffe, LL.D. (1676–1732) was an English jurist, expelled from the University of Oxford in a high-profile controversy.

Ayliffe was born at Pember, Hampshire, in 1676. He was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, where he matriculated February 1690, became B.A. 1699, M.A. 1703, LL.B. and LL.D. 1710. Up to 1710 he practised as a proctor in the chancellor's court. But his Whig political opinions stood in the way of advancement.

He was an ardent whig at a time when Oxford was the home of Tories and Jacobitism. In 1712, he issued a specimen of a work on Oxford for which he had collected materials while practising in the chancellor's court; but the scheme was received bady. The book was published, however, in 1714, about a week before Queen Anne's death. A few months later Ayliffe was summoned before the university court at the suits of Bernard Gardiner, then vice-chancellor, and of Thomas Braithwaite, the former vice-chancellor, for certain words reflecting on them. In the passage which gave offence he had gone out of his way to say that the funds of the Clarendon Printing House had been misappropriated. The result was that Ayliffe was expelled from the university, and deprived of all privileges and degrees. He was attacked also by John Cobb, the Warden of New College for another passage, where he remarked on the lack of distinction of the college's men. He was accused, moreover, of disobedience, and of having in a conversation with one Prince threatened to pistol the Warden. Rather than make submission he resigned his fellowship. ' The whole story is told in a pamphlet, called the Case of Dr. Ayliffe at Oxford; from internal evidence it is thought Ayliffe either wrote or inspired it. It claims that the real causes of the proceedings were his insinuation that the unwillingness of several colleges to give him an account of their benefactors' funds, his protest against the veto claimed by some heads of colleges, and his political opinions. Nicholas Amhurst described a public speech delivered just after George I's accession, in which Ayliffe was violently abused.

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