The social origins and career patterns of Oxford and Cambridge matriculants, 1840-1900

Abstract

Education at Oxford and Cambridge universities has invariably been taken in modern times as a prime marker of ‘establishment’ status. Nevertheless, few searching studies of the social origins and subsequent career patterns among Oxbridge students have been undertaken. This article reports on a study of approximately 100 randomly selected students matriculating each at Oxford and Cambridge universities in 1840, 1870 and 1900 – a total of over 600 students. Precise information on the occupation, status and wealth of the father of each matriculant, their secondary schooling, and subsequent occupation, status and wealth was gathered from a wide variety of sources, many unused before. The picture which emerges is of matriculants drawn for the most part from the lower part of the solid middle classes, with surprisingly few landowners or aristocrats. There were also more businessmen fathers than found in previous studies. Most matriculants subsequently pursued very similar professional careers to their fathers, with extraordinary numbers of Anglican clergymen among the 1840 and 1870 cohorts. Despite the role of Oxbridge as the nursery of Cabinet ministers and the Whitehall-City elite, its function as the progenitor of modern Britain's elites is somewhat ambiguous, and it did not automatically provide a route to the very top.