Little changed in the century up to 1785; the average age of fellows, mostly "youthful clerics", remained a little under thirty, having been elected to the fellowship at 23, on average, to serve for around fifteen years [REF].
Wholesale reform of Oxford examinations began in the late eighteenth century, proposed by, among others, Brasenose's John Napleton in his pamphlet Considerations on the Public Exercises for the First and Second Degrees in the University of Oxford.