The duties of the Orator are 'to write addresses for presentation to the Sovereign and formal letters for presentation to other universities and institutions. He shall present to the Chancellor and University persons on whom the titles of degrees are conferred honoris causa.' The office was founded by statute in (probably) 1521, but there are both earlier and later records of one-off payment for such compositions. The earliest, between 1483 and 1504, are to one 'Caius Auberinus', identified by Damian Leader as the English poet John Kay. There is an excellent account of the history of the office prefixed to James Diggle's Cambridge Orations 1982-1993 (Cambridge University Press, 1994). The title changed from 'Public Orator' to 'Orator' in 1926. Election is by the Regent House from between two members of the Senate nominated by the Council. Transcripts of letters written by Orators between 1506 and 1867 are to be found in the three volumes of Epistolae Academiae (Lett. 1-3).
1522 Croke, Richard
1528 Day, George
1537 Redman, John [1]
1538 Smith, Thomas [1], Sir
1542 Cheke, John, Sir
1546 Ascham, Roger
1554 Gardiner, Thomas [1]
1557 Stokes, John
1559 Ackworth, George
1560 Girlington, Anthony
1563 Masters, William
1565 Bynge, Thomas
1570 Lewin, William
1571 Becon, John
1573 Bridgewater, Richard
1580 Wingfield, Anthony
1589-94 Mowtlow, Henry
1594 Naunton, Robert, Sir
1611 Nethersole, Francis, Sir
1619 Herbert, George
1627 Creighton, Robert [1]
1639 Molle, Henry
1650 Widdrington, Ralph
1673-81 Paman, Henry
1681 Billers, John
1689-96 Felton, Henry
1696-1726 Ayloffe, William
1727 Castle, Edmund
1730-41 Williams, Philip
1741-46 Tunstall, James
1746-52 Yonge, Philip
1752 Skynner, John
1762-68 Barford, William
1768-78 Beadon, Richard
1778-88 Pearce, William
1788 Mansel, William Lort
1798 Outram, Edmund
1809-36 Tatham, Ralph
1836 Wordsworth, Christopher [2]
1848 Bateson, William Henry
1857 Clark, William George
1869 Jebb, Richard Claverhouse, Sir
1875 Sandys, John Edwin, Sir (Emeritus in 1920)
1920 Glover, Terrot Reaveley
1939 Guthrie, William Keith Chambers
1958 Wilkinson, Lancelot Patrick
1974 Stubbings, Frank Henry
1982 Diggle, James
1993 Bowen, Anthony John