SCHOOLS share of the sixteen scholarships founded by Arch- deacon Johnson at the four colleges, St. John's, Sidney-Sussex, Clare, and Emmanuel. Appar- ently the school exhibitioners were as a matter of course elected to one of these scholarships. With regard to the justice of both these grounds of complaint the St. John's College registers afford striking evidence, showing between 1630 and 1726 only 65 entrants from Oakham and only 57 from Uppingham, of whom again only about two-thirds *' were likely to have held school exhibitions and, consequently, college scholarships. From 1700 to 1726 the entries from Oakham almost average one a year (24), but there are only 15 from Uppingham in the same period. The effect of this decision was fatal to Uppingham, which had fallen on evil days, confiscating as it did in effect its chief attraction, though, no doubt, with the patriotic intention of safeguarding the interests of the foundation and the locality as a whole. The superiority of Oakham over Uppingham towards the middle of the 1 8th century is shown by the fact that in the course of the next twenty-five years Adcock's pupils appropriated no less than twenty-two Uppingham exhibitions.*' Between 1733 and 1767 as many as 28 Oakham boys en- tered at St. John's and 18 at Emmanuel,*' while the numbers from Uppingham were but 8 and 2. From 1750 it is more difficult to apportion the division of the spoil ; ' for the next 20 years the schools of the exhibitioners are more difficult to trace, and soon after this the custom seems to have died out.' ** Another decree of the governors *' made in the following year suggests that some previous appointments to school exhibitions had proved very unsatisfactory, or had laboured under a sus- picion of favouritism : — That for the future all candidates for exhibitions be lockt up ill the school to make a theme or copy of verses upon any subject which shall be given them by the governours before they be chosen into the said exhibitions, and be further examined by the governours as they shall think fit. Among John Adcock's pupils were William Weston, the son of the usher, Nathaniel Weston, who entered at St. John's 26 April 1728, B.A. 1 73 1, M.A. 1735, B.D. 1742, a fellow of his college, and a Prebendary of Lincoln Cathedral ; *" William Ridlington of Trinity Hall, B.A. 1739, M.A. 1743, LL.D. 1 75 1, Regius Professor of Civil Law in the University of Cambridge ; William Talbott, fellow of Clare Hall, B.A. " Of 20 entrants between 1 706 and 1726 all but six held school exhibitions.
- W. L. Sargant, op. cit. 10.
" E. S. Shuckburgh, Emmanuel Coll. 141-2. " W. L. Sargant, loc. cit. " Ibid. ■^ Admissions to St. John's, pt. iii, 56, 41 5. 1742, M.A. 1746 ; Noah Thomas, son of Hop- kin already mentioned, who entered at St. John's 18 July 1738, B.A. 1742, M.A. 1746, M.D. 1753, F.R.S. 1757, censor of the Royal College of Physicians, and physician in ordinary to George III, by whom he was knighted in 1775 ;" John Cranwell, the poet, second wran- gler in 1747, fellow of Sidney-Sussex, B.A. 1747, and M.A. 1751 ; William Dodd of Clare Hall, B.A. 1750, LL.D. 1766, of ambiguous memory, author of The Beauties of Shakspere, and executed for forgery in 1777 ; and Seth Thompson, of the same college, B.A. 1756, RLA. 1759, and fellow from 1759 to 1768. The earliest usher under Adcock was William Hubbard, who stayed till 1734. In 1725 a resolution was passed ' that Mr. Hubbard be acquainted that the Governours require that the usher sit in his proper place with the scholars in their scaffold, as often as he is at church with them and not officiating in the said church.' Hubbard was succeeded by an old boy, Cul- pepper Tanner, of Emmanuel College, B.A. 1723. He was followed in I 745 by Thomas Ball, who after leaving Winchester, matriculated at Hertford College, Oxford, on 18 March 1 740-1, but graduated B.A. from New College in 1744. Nichols'^ says that became to Oakham in 1 75 1. He was a candidate for the mastership on Adcock's death ; in 1756 he was appointed master of Melton Mowbray Grammar School, in I 766 prebendary of the Collegiate Church of Brecon, and in 177 1 lecturer at St. George's, Bloomsbury. When John Adcock died in 1753, William Powell of Magdalene College, Cambridge, B.A. in 1743, succeeded to the mastership. His most distinguished pupils in the five years of his rule were John Lettice, poet and divine, afterwards of Sidney-Sussex College, Cambridge, B.A. 1761, M.A. 1764, B.D. 1771, and D.D. 1797, Sea- tonian prizeman in 1764 : and Baptist Noel Turner, seventh wrangler in 1762, fellow of Emmanuel, who returned to his old school as head master in 1769. A new usher was ap- pointed under Powell in 1756, Mr. Parsons. In 1758, on Powell's death, an Oxford man, Enoch Markham, of Christ Church, B.A. 1752, M.A. 1756, took over the reins. He has the credit of reckoning among his pupils two suc- cessive head masters of the rival school of the foundation — John Fancourt (1771-7), and Jeremiah Jackson (1777-93). The former, after entering St. John's College, Cambridge, on I July 1760, migrated to Hertford College, Oxford in 1762, whence he graduated B.A. in 1766, returning to Cambridge in 1769 to take his M.A. degree. He was usher at Oakham at the time of his appointment to Uppingham, having been elected to the post as early as 1762, " Ibid. 92, 497. " Illus. of Lit. Hist, ofxviiith Cent, vi, 258. 275
