Note 326 — Chapter IV · COLLEGIATE AND SOCIAL LIFE AT THE UNIVERSITY

The proctors are appointed according to a statutory cycle—they are nominated by the colleges in turn, two colleges nominating each year. The proctors at Oxford originally represented the north countrymen and the south countrymen. Entries of Cambridge proctors exist from 1350. The office, of course, is kin to that of the procurator of monastic orders; and the Cambridge proctors supervised Stourbridge fair, the markets, weights and measures, and all those matters which affected the supply of provisions for the university or its finances: to which were added their scholastic functions.