Hills & Saunders was one of the leading Victorian photographic firms, started in 1860 as a partnership between Robert Hills, a hairdresser and wigmaker, and John Henry Saunders (1836–1890) [according to Wikipedia - the Hills & Saunders Website say they were formed in Oxfordshire in 1852].
They were social photographers with studios at different times in: London (society), Harrow, Eton, and Rugby, all locations of leading schools, Oxford and Cambridge, and Aldershot & Sandhurst (centres of the British army). They were successful, being appointed as photographers to members of the royal family, including the Prince of Wales and Princess Beatrice, and they were given a Royal Warrant as photographers to Queen Victoria in 1867; many of their photographs are still in the Royal Collection.
However, the network of branches did not remain united. The partnership of Robert Hills and John Henry Saunders was dissolved in 1889, although members of both families continued to operate local branches under the same name. Only the two main school branches, at Eton and Harrow, continued well into the 20th Century. Ultimately the Harrow business closed and the photo archive was acquired by the school, but the Eton business survived into the 21st century. In 2019 the historic company was acquired by its Oxfordshire based contemporary, Gillman & Soame, in order to preserve the extensive archives and ensure the future of the prestigious Victorian photographic studio. For further information and for copyright permission see: https://hillsandsaunders.co.uk/
Born in Bramford in Suffolk, the son of John Acton.
Admitted as a Fellow-Commoner at Clare on 30 January 1700/01.
MP for Orford, Suffolk, 1722, 1729.
High Sheriff for Suffolk, 1739.
Died in 1744 leaving £100 towards building the College Chapel.
Thomas Stearn (1825-1905), a Cambridge tailor, founded this firm of photographers around 1866. Later he ran the firm with his wife Eliza trading as 'Mr and Mrs Stearn'. Later still he took his sons Frank b:1856, Harry Cotterell b:1860, and Walter James b:1865 into the business, trading as Messrs Stearn and later as Stearn and Sons.
After Thomas died the business was run by his sons. Harry Cotterell Stearn died in 1906. Another son, Gilbert Stearn b:1866, was involved in the business at least until 1917. Walter James Stearn died in 1929. Thomas's niece, Edith was also involved with the firm.
Stearn’s operated throughout its history from 72 Bridge Street Cambridge, narrowly avoiding the loss of their premises in a fire in their darkroom in 1898. From 1908 to 1920 local directories also listed premises at Brunswick Terrace Cambridge. At some point between 1939 and 1943 the firm was taken over by A. H. Leach and Son, a well established and growing photo processing business based at Brighouse in Yorkshire.
A new limited company, Stearn and Sons (Cambridge) Ltd, was formed in April 1943, neither the shareholders not the Directors were from the Stearn family. During the period 1942 to 1950 the firm’s processing work was done by A. H. Leach in Brighouse. In 1966 A. H. Leach was taken over by an advertising company, Hunting Surveys, until the Leach family bought the business back from them in 1999. From 1968 the new company, Stearn and Sons (Cambridge) Ltd, did not trade on their own account but acted as agents of their holding companies. In 1970 the Cambridge firm joined Eaden Lilley Photographers.
Stearn and Son took most of the rowing photos until the late 1960's when they joined Eaden Lilley Photographers. Cambridge Central Library have a lot of the original negatives from 1942-1950. The copyright of the photos taken by Eaden Lilley has now passed to Lafayette Photography.
Born at Kirkthorpe, Yorkshire, and was baptised on 27 December 1602 in the parish church at Wakefield. He was the son of Francis Oley, clergyman, and his wife, Mary Watterhouse.
In 1607 Oley entered Wakefield grammar school.
In 1617 he was admitted to Clare College as a Cave Scholar.
Graduated BA in 1621.
Having been elected a probationer fellow of the foundation of Lady Clare at the college on 28 November 1623, he proceeded MA in 1625 and was elected a senior fellow in 1627.
In 1633 he was appointed to the college living of Great Gransden, Huntingdonshire, which he held for the rest of his life, but due to his duties as a Fellow he continued to live in Cambridge for many years.
In 1634–5 he served as taxor (price regulator), for the university, and in 1635–6 as proctor.
He started the rebuilding of Clare College on 19 May 1638, although work was not finished until 1715.
Oley was a Royalist and on 8 April 1644 he was ejected from his Fellowship by Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester on the grounds of non-residence in Cambridge and failure to appear before the commission of visitors. All his personal and landed property was confiscated and he was forced to leave Great Gransden.
During the late 1640s he led a wandering and impoverished life.
In 1643 and 1646 he was in Oxford.
During the sieges of Pontefract in 1644 and 1645 he preached to the Royalist garrison defending the castle.
By 1647 he had been sequestered from the impropriate rectory of Warmfield, Yorkshire, which his father had resigned in 1643.
Having helped Sir Marmaduke Langdale to escape in 1648 from prison and a death sentence, the following year Oley had to compound for delinquency in assisting the forces against parliament, and was fined £30. A further £50 was added in 1652, in lieu of which he was required to settle £5 a year on the minister of Warmfield.
In 1659 Oley returned to Great Gransden and on 9 July 1660 he was restored to his Fellowship at Clare College by order of the same Earl of Manchester.
On 3 August 1660 he was presented to the third prebendal stall of Worcester Cathedral.
In 1663 he left his Fellowship.
In 1664 he was the leading benefactor of the brick school house at Gransden, which he endowed with £20 a year. He built brick houses for six poor people on his own freehold land, leasing them for one thousand years to the churchwardens for the time being at a peppercorn rent, and he erected a vicarage.
He had given a pulpit to Gransden church in the first months of his incumbency in 1633 and in 1681 he provided wainscot seats for the chancel.
On 8 November 1679 he was nominated to the archdeaconry of Ely, but the following year he resigned this preferment because of doubts of his ability to discharge its duties. However, he retained the stall at Worcester until his death.
Oley died at Great Gransden on 20 February 1686, and in accordance with his will was buried there on the night of 22 February.
In his will he left 100 marks (£67) to Clare College for building a library, and £10 to the descendants of John Westley, the builder of the College.
A charity was set up in his name, with assets in Warmfield, Kirkthorpe, and Great Gransden, overseen by the fellows of Clare College and still operating with limited resources in the late twentieth century.