The Professor of Rhetoric at Gresham College, London, gives free educational lectures to the general public. The college was founded for this purpose in 1597, when it created seven professorships; this was later increased to ten. Rhetoric is one of the original professorships as set out by the will of Thomas Gresham in 1575.[1]
The title is a broad one; Professors of Rhetoric have included historians, poets, educators and literary critics. The Professor of Rhetoric is appointed in partnership with the Worshipful Company of Mercers.