Amongst others who have held the Linacre lectureship, and attained to scientific distinction, was Henry Briggs, who was appointed lecturer in 1592. He afterwards became Gresham Professor of Geometry and Savilian Professor at Oxford. He took up Napier's discovery of logarithms; the idea of tables of logarithms having 10 for their base, and the calculation of the first table of the kind, is due to him.
The second century of the College history opened quietly. Owen Gwyn was elected Master by the choice of the Fellows; John Williams, then a Fellow, afterwards Lord Keeper, Dean of Westminster, Bishop of Lincoln, and Archbishop of York, exerting himself on Gwyn's behalf. It appears that Williams in after years repented of the choice, and Thomas Baker, the historian of the College, speaks slightingly of Gwyn. Still, under his rule the College flourished, and Williams himself marked the period by providing the greater part of the funds for the new Library.
King James I. and Prince Charles (afterwards Charles I.) frequently visited the University; James holding his Court at Trinity, but being entertained at St. John's. On one of these occasions, comparing the great Court of Trinity with the two then existing Courts of St. John's, he is said to have remarked that there was no greater difference between the two Societies than between a shilling and two sixpences.
With the advent of the Stuart kings the practice arose of sending mandatory letters to Colleges, directing the election of named persons to fellowships. In theory it may have been correct enough; the statutes as enacted by Queen Elizabeth reserved to herself and her successors the power of rescinding or altering them. To direct that the statutory provisions as to elections should be dispensed with in favour of an individual was thus within the sovereign's power, however inconvenient it might prove in practice. One of the special grievances at St. John's was that King James directed the College to elect a Scotchman, George Seaton, M.A., to a fellowship, though there was none then actually vacant. The College obeyed, informing his Majesty that they had made their statutes wink to fulfil his bidding, and maintained an extra Fellow for a time. The practice was, however, followed by others; and Gwyn seems to have been deluged with letters from persons in high places, begging for his favour at elections. At some Colleges the device of "pre-elections" seems to have been resorted to; a promising man being elected to the next fellowship which should be vacant. Thus, when the vacancy became known, the College could, with a clear conscience, say that it had been already filled up; there is, however, no trace of this practice at St. John's.