Gresham Professor of Rhetoric

The Professor of Rhetoric at Gresham College, London, gives free educational lectures to the general public. The college was founded for this purpose in 1597 when it created seven professorships; this was later increased to ten. Rhetoric is one of the original professorships as set out by the will of Thomas Gresham in 1575.^[1]

The title is a broad one; Professors of Rhetoric have included historians, poets, educators and literary critics. The Professor of Rhetoric is appointed in partnership with the Worshipful Company of Mercers.

List of Gresham Professors of Rhetoric

Note, years given as, for example 1596 / 1597, refer to Old Style and New Style dates.

	Name	Started
1	Caleb Willis	March 1596 / 1597
2	Richard Ball	1598
3	Charles Croke	14 January 1613 / 1614
4	Henry Croke	26 May 1619
5	Edward Wilkinson	13 April 1627
6	John Goodridge	6 November 1638
7	Richard Hunt	29 November 1654
8	William Croune FRS	8 June 1659
9	Henry Jenkes	21 October 1670
10	John King[2]	2 October 1676
11	Charles Gresham	20 August 1686
12	Edward Martyn	4 December 1696
13	John Ward	1 September 1720
14	Joseph Whateley	19 January 1759
15	Joseph Thomas Waugh[3]	11 April 1797
16	F Newnham	7 January 1808
17	Edward Owen[4]	13 November 1817
18	Charlton Lane	23 April 1863
19	Thomas Francis Dallin	9 July 1875
20	J E Nixon	4 February 1881
21	Foster Watson	22 January 1915
22	Oliver Elton	19 April 1929
23	George Stuart Gordon	2 May 1930
24	Arthur William Reed	8 December 1933
1939–1945 Lectures in abeyance
25	Rowland Walter Jepson	6 June 1946
26	Lord David Cecil	27 June 1947
27	Nevill Coghill	14 October 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	1963–1964
34	Patric Dickinson	1965–1967
35	Sir Robert Birley	1968–1982
1983–1984 vacant
36	John Morley Pick	1985
37	Jan Kott[5]	1986
38	John Morley Pick	1987
39	John Malcolm Rae[6]	1988
40	Sir Andrew Derbyshire[7]	1990
41	Peter G. Moore[8]	1 September 1992
42	Peter Hennessy[9]	1 September 1994
43	Lynette Hunter[10]	1 September 1997
44	Richard Sorabji CBE FBA[11]	1 September 2000
45	Kathleen Burk[12]	1 September 2003
46	Rodney Barker[13]	1 September 2006
47	Sir Richard J. Evans	1 September 2009
48	Belinda Jack[14]	1 September 2013
49	Sir Jonathan Bate CBE FBA FRSL[15]	1 September 2017
50	Joanna Bourke FBA[16]	2019
51	Melissa Lane[17]	2023