St. John, Norwich, raised by the munificence of his Grace the Duke of Norfolk, E.M. of England.
The term during which Dr. Baines held the office of President extended over seventeen years, from 1865 to 1882. Previous to his appointment as successor to Dr. Ilsley, his long experience as Procurator had given him a good business capacity, and even prior to his election he had manifested in a variety of ways his solicitude for the health and comfort of the students. During his tenure of office, out of resources bequeathed to him by friends in Portugal, he was enabled to make extensive improvements in the country houses both at Luz and at Pera. To the premises at Luz he added several commodious rooms over which he erected a dormitory of ample dimensions, and greatly improved by additions the domestic chapel; while at Pera he added two stories to the original building, thus making it sufficiently large to accommodate under the same roof the entire Community. In 1874 he was raised by Pius IX to the dignity of Domestic Prelate. At length, after showing signs for a considerable period of failing health, on August 6, 1882, he was found dead in his bed at the Villa of Luz, having succumbed to a stroke of apoplexy, in the seventy-second year of his age. His body was transferred to Lisbon, and a solemn Requiem celebrated for him in the College Church, and he was laid to rest in the public cemetery of the city, called the Prazeres. He was a native of Preston in Lancashire, born on September n, 1810, and entered the College on August 10, 1824, in which, therefore, at the time of his death he had passed fifty-eight years of his life. He had filled the various offices of Procurator, Vice-President and President, and the College, for which he always cherished the deepest affection, is much indebted to him for many material improvements which he was enabled to carry out. Amongst these should be mentioned the improved entrance to the college.
The Rev. J. Bamber, who on his retirement from the Mission in England some years before had been received as Superior into the College, was authorized to exercise
