Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/615

 familiar with the writings of 'Leighton and Burnet and Chalmers — from very early days' (The Eagle, xxiii. 106). He 'thumbed the "Corpus Poëtarum" from Lucretius to Ausonius.' Milton's verse, English and Latin, he 'nearly knew by heart' (First Greek Reader, p. xxxvi). In Oct. 1844 he began residence at St. John's College, Cambridge (on his interests as an undergraduate, see ib. pp. xli seq. and The Eagle, xxiii. 308). His college tutor was the Rev. Dr. Hymers, his private tutor [q. v.], ultimately Master of St. John's. He also read classics with [q. v.]. In the classical tripos of 1848 he was third in the first class. An elder brother, Robert Bickersteth, was third wrangler in 1842; his younger brother, Joseph Bickersteth, was second classic in 1851; all the three brothers were elected fellows of the college, the date of John's admission as fellow being 27 March 1849.

From 1849 to 1853 Mayor was master of the lower sixth at Marlborough College, and there he prepared his erudite edition of 'Thirteen Satires of Juvenal.' This was first published in a single volume with the notes at the foot of the page (1853). A second edition was published in two volumes (1869–78) with the notes at the end of each, and a third edition (1881) with the text of the 'Thirteen Satires' and the notes on Satires i., iii.–v., vii. in the first volume, and the notes on Satires viii., x.–xvi. in the second. A fourth edition of the first volume appeared in 1886.

In 1853 Mayor returned for life to St. John's, at first as an assistant tutor or lecturer in classics, but the vastness of his learning prevented him from being a good lecturer. He was ordained deacon in 1855 and priest in 1857. He subsequently kept the act for the B.D. degree (taking the subject of vernacular services versus Latin), preached a Latin and an English sermon, but never took the degree (The Eagle, xxiii. 107). To the 'Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology,' founded by Hort, Lightfoot, and Mayor in 1854, he contributed two learned and comprehensive articles on Latin lexicography (Nov. 1865 and March 1857).

Throughout life Mayor applied himself with exceptional ardour to various forms of literary and antiquarian research, and he proved indefatigable in amassing information. He brought together an immense library, which he stoned until 1881 in his college rooms over the gateway of the second court. In that year he acquired a small house in Jordan's Yard to make room for the overflow of books and papers. An accomplished linguist, he was not only with Latin and Greek but with French, Italian, and Spanish, and notably with German and Dutch. To the collecting of biographical material he devoted immense energy, and in later life he placed his biographical notes at the disposal of contributors to this Dictionary. His early publications include biographies of Nicholas Ferrar (1855), of Matthew Robinson (1856), of Ambrose Bonwicke (1870), and William Bedell (1871), as well as an edition of Roger Ascham's 'Scholemaster' (1863; new edit. 1883). But the history of his own university was one of his most absorbing interests, and he emulated the antiquarian zeal of [q. v.], the ejected fellow of the 18th century. He printed the four earliest codes of the college statutes (1859). He transcribed the admissions to the college from 1630, and his transcript was edited as far as 1715 by himself (1882–93). and as far as 1767 by Mr. R. F. Scott (1903). He calendared Baker's voluminous MSS. in the university library. He supplied material to Prof. Willis and [q. v. Suppl. II] for their 'Architectural History of Cambridge,' and he gave every aid and encouragement to [q. v.] in his labours on Cambridge history and biography, and accumulated manuscript notes for a continuation of Cooper's 'Athenæ Cantabrigienses.' Mayor foretold that his own biographical collections would survive with the manuscripts of Baker and Cole. In 1869 Mayor published for the first time Baker's 'History of St. John's College,' a solid work in two large volumes; he continued Baker's text, and added abundant notes to the lives of all the Masters of the college and of the Masters trained within its walls.

In 1864 Mayor was elected without a contest university librarian. He held the post for three years, and was never absent from his duties for more than eight days together. During his tenure of office the catalogue of MSS. was completed, and he substituted for the various series of classmarks a single series of Arabic numerals (a reform which was subsequently abandoned). Although his energy increased the life and vigour of the library, all his literary and antiquarian projects were in his own words put 'out of gear' by his duties, and in 1887 he withdrew to resume his private work. The revision of his 'Juvenal' chiefly occupied him between 1869 and 1872, and in the last year (1872) he was elected