Non-graduate employees of the University and Colleges who were granted the privileges of University membership (and, indeed, were matriculated as such in early days) with regard to the use of the University courts (which were usually more expeditious than those of the town) and exemption from certain levies, notably Ship Money. The number of townsmen to whom the University granted this status was a frequent cause of grief to the town authorities who had to raise funds from a pool that was both smaller than it would otherwise have been and was, moreover, often deprived of its wealthiest members.
