Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

BEDFORDSHIRE.

BEDFORD.

THE FREE GRAMMAR-SCHOOL.

FOUNDED 1552, a.d.

THE Free Grammar-school at Bedford was founded in the sixth year of the reign of Edward VI. by letters patent, on the petition of the mayor, bailiffs, burgesses and commonalty of the town of Bedford, for the education, institution, and instruction of children and youth in grammar and good manners, to endure for ever. The warden and fellows of New College, Oxford, were constituted visitors of the school, and in them was vested the appointment of the master and usher.

In 1556, the eighth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Sir William Harpur, Knight, alderman of the City of London, and Dame Alice his wife, granted lands for the endowment of the school and exhibitions to the universities, and for other charitable purposes. An Act of Parliament was passed in 1764, for the appointment of trustees and the carrying into execution the rules set forth for the management of this charity, of which the clear income was then about £3000 a year, but now exceeds £12,500.

The trustees were empowered to erect a statue in front of the schoolhouse, and a monument of marble in St Paul's church, Bedford, where the bodies of Sir W. Harpur and Dame Alice his wife were interred, with proper inscriptions, in testimony of the gratitude and reverence of the town of Bedford to the memory of the munificent founders of "the Bedford Charity."

Another Act of Parliament was passed in 1793, for the more convenient management of the Charity, and by Rule X. of the Schedule, it was provided that, after April 25, 1794, the trustees of the Bedford Charity shall, from time to time, for ever, grant exhibitions of £40 per annum, at either of the Universities of Oxford or Cambridge, for such scholars who have been at the school not less than four years, as may be deemed, after examination, most worthy of preference; but so that there be not more than three scholars receiving exhibitions at one time, and that no scholar hold his exhibition longer than six years. Each Scholar was to receive the payments yearly on producing a certificate from the college authorities that he had resided, had been attentive to his studies, and also moral and exemplary in his conduct.

The number of exhibitions has been increased to eight, and the value of each has been raised to £80 a year, for four years. By a late

arrangement, six of these exhibitions are appropriated to the sons of persons living in Bedford, but the other two are not so restricted.

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.

ETON COLLEGE.

FOUNDED 1440, A.D.

ETON College was founded and amply endowed by King Henry VI. for the perpetual increase of virtue and learning, by the name of "The College of the Blessed Marie of Etone besyde Wyndesore;" and designed to be a seminary for King's College, Cambridge.

The founder gave two charters in 1441, by the second of which he constituted the College to consist of a Provost, two Fellows, one Master, twenty-five Scholars, four clerks, six choristers, and twentyfour almsmen. He also gave a third charter de donatione in 1442, by which perpetual endowments were made over to the College.

It may however be observed, that the first formal act of the King respecting his projected foundations, was his Procuratorium, bearing the date of the 12th September, 1440. By this public instrument, the King delegated his proctors to treat with the bishop and chapter of Lincoln, for the appropriation of the then parish-church of Eton to his intended College, so as to make the chapel of the said College, which he should erect on the demolition of the old church, to be as well parochial as collegiate. On the 29th September, in the same year, the bishop of Lincoln notified his consent in due form, for making the parish-church of Eton collegiate; and thereupon the founder gave his orders for erecting the College, the first stone whereof was laid in the foundation of the chapel, in July 1441. With what care the royal founder provided for the soundness of the buildings appears from the language of his letters patent respecting the materials to he used :

"Laying aparte superfluity of too curious works of entayle and busie mouldings, I will that both mi sayde Colleges be edified of the most substantial and best abyding stuffe, of stone, ledd, glass, and iron, that may goodlie be had and provided thereto; and that the walls of the sayde College of Eton, of the outer courte, and of the walls of the gardens about the precincte, be made of hard stone of Kent."

The founder also granted a charter for assigning arms to Eton College, which have ever since formed its unaltered heraldic distinction.

In 1443, the King's Commissioners gave possession of the College to

:

the provost, fellows, clerks, scholars, and officers, under certain statutes which the King had caused to be composed for its government, and called "Statuta Primitiva," which were to be enlarged into a complete body, as future circumstances and experience might render necessary or desirable. The body of statutes was completed, and the Archbishop of Canterbury acknowledged his acceptance of them in 1446.

William Waynflete was the schoolmaster of Winchester College, when the King made his first visit. He had held that position for about eleven years, and had discharged his duties with such diligence, ability, judgment, and success, that Henry removed him with some of the fellows and scholars, in 1440, to his new College at Eton. He was appointed provost in 1442, and afterwards was raised to the see of Winchester, and became the founder of Magdalene College, Oxford.

King Henry, in the final settlement of his College at Eton, placed it upon a more enlarged scale than appears to have been contemplated in his second charter, by increasing the number of scholars to seventy. Edward IV. deprived Eton College of some of its estates, and attempted in 1463 to unite it with the College of St George at Windsor*. This object was not permitted to succeed, by the resolute stand of William Westbury, who (appointed provost in 1447) by his noble protest and appeal against such union and incorporation, protected the institution of the founder. The merit of his conduct was acknowledged by his opponents, and it is recorded in the register of Windsor College. King Edward, by his letters patent, in the seventh year of his reign, made certain remunerations, if they were not altogether restorations, for the violent injury which he had done to Eton College, employing, at the same time, conciliatory expressions of regard, and declaring his wishes for the future prosperity of the College.

* "Etonense etiam Collegium auctoritate Regali, necnon papali, Pii scilicet secundi, huic Regiæ Capellæ annectitur, et appropriatur pensionibus quibusdam Præposito et sociis, etc., ad terminum vitæ eorum assignatis. Sed Gulielmus Westbury, tunc Præpositus, summa prudentia et animi fortitudine præditus, huic unioni acquiescere noluit, sed se totis viribus opposuit. Unde post aliquantulum, regnante Edvardo quarto, initiationem, (sic), tamque præclari ædificii ruinam minitantem, Fundatio prædicta Henrico Septimo rerum potito, auctoritate Parliamenti redintegratur et stabilitur, Bulla prædicti Pii secundi per Papam Paulum secundum prius revocata et annihilata."-Extract from Windsor MSS.

"In Curia Romana procurator Regius Edvardi quarti quarto, Bullam Papalem pro annexatione Collegii de Eton huic liberæ Capellæ obtinult; cui Decanus et Canonici pro labore suo in hoc negotio impenso £66. 13s. 4d. in parte majoris summæ dederunt."-Extract from the Catalogue of Deans, Windsor MSS. (Car lile's Endowed Schools, note, pp. 57, 58.)

By a patent of Edward IV. in 1479, a licence was granted to the Provost and College of Eton to purchase lands in perpetuity to the yearly value of £20, being an exemption to that amount from the operation of the Statute of Mortmain.

On the union of the houses of York and Lancaster under Henry VII. (who had been educated at Eton), Eton College appears to have been regarded in a more favourable manner. In the year 1489, the fourth year of his reign, an Act of Parliament was passed, by which the King confirmed the foundation of Eton in its charters and privileges. He also restored some of the estates of which it had been despoiled, and granted licences to divers persons to enable them to give or bequeath their lands to the College, notwithstanding the Act of Mortmain.

1854. The Society of Eton College consists of a provost, seven fellows, a master of the upper school, and a master of the lower school, two conducts, seventy scholars, an organist, ten lay-clerks, ten choristers, with inferior officers and servants, and almspeople.

There are also 15 assistant masters, and 7 mathematical masters, and about 520 scholars besides the seventy scholars on the foundation.

The scholars on the foundation must be born in England of parents legally married. They are admitted between the ages of eight and sixteen years, and are superannuated at the age of eighteen, unless placed on the indenture as nominated for King's College at seventeen, when they may continue in College till nineteen years complete, and beyond that age they are not to continue on the foundation. (See p. 266.)

1695. Rev. Moses Holwey founded two Scholarships at St Catharine Hall, Cambridge, each of the value of £6 a year, with a second preference to scholars from Eton College.

1749. William Berriman, D.D. formerly fellow of Eton, left £200 three per cent. Annuities, the interest of which he directed to be applied as an exhibition to a superannuated colleger, in any College at either University. This exhibition is tenable for five years, if the exhibitioner be resident.

1757. John Reynolds, Fellow of Eton College, left £1450 South Sea Annuities to found three exhibitions to educate superannuated King's scholars at Exeter College, Oxford, if they can be accommodated there; if not, elsewhere. They must be designed for holy orders, and may hold the scholarship till twenty-four years of age. Value now about £45 per annum.

[ocr errors]

1770. William Hetherington, formerly fellow of Eton, gave £200 three per cent. Annuities for augmenting Dr Berriman's exhibition.

« PreviousContinue »