The Second Cambridge Company
THE SIX COMPANIES OF TRANSLATORS
James directed that the entire text of the Bible was to be divided into six sections, with roughly the same number of men allocated to the translation of each section. Two were assigned to meet at Westminster, two at Oxford University, and two at Cambridge University. The first group of three companies were assigned the Old Testament, and a second group of two the New Testament. A sixth group was entrusted with the apocryphal works. When each section had completed its tasks, twelve delegates were to be chosen (two from each company from the entire body of translators). These would meet together to review and revise the entire work.
Finally, the finishing touches would be applied to the work by the bishops of Winchester and Gloucester. Though Bancroft appears to have drawn no attention to the fact, he had reserved for himself the privilege of making revisions to what all had hitherto thought of as the final draft.
Careful study of the various lists of translators shows that the maximum number of fifty-four translators specified by James was not achieved. In his magisterial study The History of the Reformation of the Church of England, Gilbert Burnet (1643–1715) identifies only forty-seven names. Other lists allow up to fifty-one to be identified. The traditional explanation for the inconsistency may well be correct: it is suggested that early deaths led to the number of translators being reduced from the original intention of the king. Another explanation is offered by the fifteenth of Bancroft's translation rules, which allows for “three or four” additional persons to be allocated as required to the translation teams; this suggests that a translation team of fifty or fiftyone was appointed, on the assumption that three or four others would be called upon as required.
The details of the six companies of translators, along with brief biographical details, are set out below. It should be noted that this list has been drawn up on the basis of the best records of the seventeenth century, but that uncertainties remain at several points concerning the precise identity of some figures. It is clear that the translators were all highly educated, and were virtually entirely supporters of the religious and political establishment. The translators were drawn almost entirely from the southeast of England, with important implications for the type of English used in the translation.
THE FIRST WESTMINSTER COMPANY
ASSIGNATION: Old Testament: Genesis to 2 Kings
HEAD: Lancelot Andrewes, dean of Westminster Abbey, subsequently bishop of Chichester (1605), bishop of Ely (1609) and bishop of Winchester (1619)
MEMBERS:
William Bedwell, rector of St. Ethelburgh's, London; a noted Arabic scholar of his day
Richard Clark, vicar of Minster, Isle of Thanet, Kent
Geoffrey King, Regius Professor of Hebrew, Cambridge University (1607)
John Layfield, rector of St. Clement Danes, London
John Overall, dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, London
Hadrian à Saravia, prebendary of Westminster Abbey
Richard Thompson, fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge
Robert Tighe, archdeacon of Middlesex
THE FIRST CAMBRIDGE COMPANY
ASSIGNATION: I Chronicles to the Song of Songs
HEAD: Edward Lively, Regius Professor of Hebrew, Cambridge University
MEMBERS: Roger Andrews, rector of St. Martin's, Ongar, Essex
Andrew Bing, fellow of Peterhouse
Laurence Chadderton, master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge (and one of the Puritan representatives at the Hampton Court Conference)
Thomas Harrison, fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge
John Richardson, Regius Professor of Divinity, Cambridge University
Robert Spalding, fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge
THE FIRST OXFORD COMPANY
ASSIGNATION: Isaiah to Malachi
HEAD: John Harding, president of Magdalen College, Oxford (1607)
MEMBERS: Richard Brett, rector of Quainton, Buckinghamshire
Richard Fairclough, rector of Bucknell, Oxfordshire
Thomas Holland, rector of Exeter College, Oxford
Richard Kilby rector of Lincoln College, Oxford
John Reynolds, president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, from 1598–1607 (and one of the Puritan representatives at the Hampton Court Conference)
Miles Smith, prebendary of Hereford Cathedral
THE SECOND OXFORD COMPANY
Assignation: the Four Gospels, Acts, and Revelation
HEAD: Thomas Ravid, dean of Christ Church, Oxford, bishop of Gloucester (1605); bishop of London (1607)
MEMBERS: George Abbot, dean of Winchester
John Aglionby, principal of St. Edmund Hall
Richard Eedes, dean of Worcester
John Harmer, warden of St. Mary's College, Winchester
James Montague, bishop of Bath and Wells (1608)
John Perin, Regius Professor of Greek, Oxford University
Ralph Ravens, rector of Great Easton, Essex
Sir Henry Savile, warden of Merton College, Oxford
Giles Thomson, fellow of All Souls' College, Oxford
THE SECOND WESTMINSTER COMPANY
ASSIGNATION: the New Testament letters
HEAD: William Barlow, dean of Chester, bishop of Rochester (1605)
MEMBERS: William Dakins, Regius Professor of Divinity, Gresham College, London
Roger Fenton, prebendary of St. Paul's Cathedral
Ralph Hutchinson, president, St. John's College, Oxford
Michael Rabbet, vicar of St. Vedast, Foster Lane, London
Thomas Sanderson, rector of All Hallows the Great, London
John Spencer, president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, from 1607
THE SECOND CAMBRIDGE COMPANY
ASSIGNATION: the Apocryphal books
HEAD: John Duport, master of Jesus College, Cambridge
MEMBERS: John Boys, rector of Boxworth, Cambridgeshire
William Branthwaite, master of Gonville and Gaius College (1607)
Andrew Downes, Regius Professor of Greek, Cambridge University
Jeremiah Radcliffe, vicar of Orwell, Cambridgeshire
Robert Ward, prebendary of Chichester Cathedral (1606)
Samuel Ward, master of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
It is important to note that, with virtually no exceptions, the scholars assembled for the purpose of translating the Bible were based in the south of England. It is true that William Barlow, who headed the Second Westminster Company, was dean of Chester, a cathedral city in the northwest of England. Yet Barlow was born in London, educated at Cambridge, and was prebendary of St. Paul's Cathedral from 1597–1601, when he exchanged his stall at St. Paul's for one at Westminster Abbey. He was appointed dean of Chester in 1602, but did not stay long in this northern city; he became bishop of Rochester in 1605. The implications of this point for the form of English used in the translation will be discussed later in this work.
It seems that the work began immediately, although the documentary evidence is not as clear as might be hoped. The dean of Westminster Abbey, Lancelot Andrewes, excused himself from a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries in November 1604; that afternoon, he explained, was “translation time.” It is clear that initial progress was slow—so slow, in fact, that some accused the translators of laziness. In fact, the initial stages of the work were bound to be somewhat ponderous, as James had made it clear that he wanted existing English translations to be reviewed and, where possible, to be the basis of the new version.