The professorship was founded by Henry VIII in 1504 with a stipend of £40. In 1652 John Crane bequeathed to the University, for the use of the professor, a house on a site subsequently required for the building of the Senate House and so exchanged, in 1724, for one in Market Street. The professorship was re-assigned from the Faculty of Clinical Medicine to the Department of Medicine by grace 3 of 18 March 1987. The Regius Professor is head of the School of Clinical Medicine established in 1976. Appointment is by the Crown. The files cover the entirety of the tenure of Sir Lionel Whitby, Regius Professor 1945-56, and in the case of the MD degree the first four years of the tenure of J.S. Mitchell, Regius Professor 1957-75.