His widow, Mary Fenner, carried on such business as was left and a bitter controversy, recalling the days of Thomas Buck, arose between her and her deceased husband's partners. The brothers James declared that they were £1000 out of pocket and had received not a penny in return; that Fenner had taken a grossly unfair advantage of the lease being in his name. Mrs Fenner, in reply, maintained that her husband had borne the brunt of many business difficulties alone and that his appeals to his partners for help and co-operation had been neglected. In their complaints to the Vice-Chancellor Thomas and John James did not mince their words: I humbly request (writes Thomas) that my Brother and I may be heard; that so the Scene of Iniquity carried on by Mr Fenner and now prosecuted by his Widow may be laid open ... for I do not find the change of Mrs Fenner's Religion has made any alteration in her morals. As to what Fenner's wife (writes John) (who I fear is of as bad a principle as he was) may alledge, I can only say, she has no other cause of complaint, than that I refused to throw away all I had in yͤ world, for the Knave her husband to make Ducks and Drakes with. [Illustration: TITLE-PAGE OF BENTLEY'S _BOYLE LECTURES_, 1735] The details of the controversy need not be examined here[101], but one short letter from Mrs Fenner to the Vice-Chancellor is worth preserving: London 19 Jun. 1735 Honͬͩ Sͬ these wates on you to beg the favour you will be so good as to stay three weeaks & then will wate on you, in that time will Do my indaver to See Mͬ James & if it is possable to bringe him to Some agreament I Rely upon your Goodness till that time & then Shall have an oppertuneyty to inform your worship of my case & will do wat is in my power to make you eassey as to the Deate is oing to the university I am Sͬ your Dutyful Sarvant Mary Fenner Only one book bearing the imprint of Mary Fenner (the sixth edition of Bentley's _Boyle Lectures_, 1735) has been preserved and her association with the university came to an end in 1738. In that year she relinquished her lease and John James agreed to pay £150 in settlement of the university's claim upon the ill-fated partnership. The chief cause of the failure of the Press to fulfil the high hopes of 1696 appears, in Monk's words, to have been the want of a permanent committee of management, a measure which, however obvious, was not adopted till many years afterwards. In the meantime, the receipt and disbursement of large sums of money, as well as the necessary negotiations with persons of business, were entrusted to the individuals holding the annual office of Vice-Chancellor, who in many cases possessed no previous acquaintance with the concern; a system which inevitably led to injurious and almost ruinous consequences.