The Ancient Styles and Designations of Persons. 331 
Mr. Cooke further remarked that at all the colleges at Oxford, 
Masters of Arts are styled “ Mr.” ; Bachelors of Arts, ‘‘ Dominus,” 
and under-graduates the name only, without any prefix ; and I was 
informed by Mr. Henry Simonds, one of the Fellows of King’s 
College, Cambridge, that down to the present time at Cambridge, 
Masters of Arts are styled “Mr.” for Magister, and Bachelors of 
Arts “ Ds.” for Dominus ; and in the register of the books borrowed 
by members of Christ Church College, Oxford, to read at their 
rooms, which now lies on the table, there I found books borrowed 
by “ Mr. Baker” and “ Ds. Price,” the former being a Master, the 
latter a Bachelor of Arts. 
It would therefore seem that in strict correctness, “ Sir,” or the 
Latin “ Dominus,” would denote that the person was a Bachelor of 
Arts, and that “ Mr.,” “ Master,” or “ Magister,” would denote a 
Master of Arts ; but I was informed by Mr. Duffus Hardy that from 
the time of Edward the Fourth to the time of James the First, 
“Sir” was prefixed to the names of clergymen without any strict 
regard to their university degrees, and with this accord the obser- 
vations of Fuller before cited, and he must have been a good 
authority, as he was a Doctor in Divinity at Cambridge, and 
chaplain to Charles the Second. It should however be observed 
that the author of the ‘ Decacordon” is incorrect in saying that 
“by the laws armorial civil and of Arms, a Priest is always before 
any Esquire, as being a Knight’s Fellow by his Holy Orders,” as 
in the Commission of the Peace for the county of Wilts and every 
county in England, so far from the Priests being placed with the 
Knights, the persons placed in the commissions next to the Knights 
are the Doctors in Divinity, Physic, and Law; then come the 
Esquires, and last of all the Clergy, who are there styled “ Clerks;” 
but Mr. Hardy’s observation is further confirmed by the fact that 
nearly or quite all the Incumbents of Chantries in the county of 
Gloucester, whose names are in the Commissioner’s certificate, 
2 Edw. 6, have “ Sir” prefixed to their names, although it is very 
improbable that they should all have been Bachelors of Arts. 
Before concluding this part of my subject, I may mention that I 
find an instance of ‘“ Sir” prefixed to the name of a Hermit. Henry 
202 
