The History of Colchester Royal Grammar School/Chapter 3
CHAPTER 3
The Colchester Free Grammar School thus established in Westons was provided with its regulations on January 13th, 1587, when the Lord Bishop of London and Alexander Nowell, Dean of St. Paul's, "ordained, published, and declared (twenty-one) Statutes, Ordinances, and Constitutions … by the Schoolmaster and Schollars to be observed and kept." These are reproduced in full by Morant, and make interesting reading. Perhaps the most significant in view of the School's status, is that (item 10) making provision for 16 free scholars, which ordered that the Schoolmaster, "shall have most care to instruct and profit the same free Scholars, and to preferr them in places and formes in the Schoole according to their capacitys and learning." There were to be 60 scholars in all, and if that number should happen to be exceeded the necessary adjustment was to be made at the cost of paying scholars and not of foundation scholars. The master was to be "of a sound and good religion," and was to lead the scholars in lengthy prayers daily, to conduct them to church every Sunday, "and on the Monday morning following to examine (them) how they have profited by the Sermon" (item 3). Mr. Nowell's Catechism was to be read each week, and examinations in it held. This continued until 1844 (Lib. Sch. Col.). The hours were long, from 7 a.m. until 11 a.m. and from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. In winter, and starting at 6 a.m. in summer (March 1st to October 20th); and during these hours all such scholars as were "reasonably able" were to speak only in Latin or Greek. There were "monitors," bearing a terrible responsibility, for they were charged "to find fault, if any false Latin shall be spoken, and to correct the said false Latin spoken by their fellows." The schoolmaster was to be assisted by an usher of his own appointment.
Watson held his post as master for little more than a year longer, and then was succeeded by Samuel Harsnett, a Colcestrian, who later became Archbishop of York. Harsnett was born in St. Botolph's Parish in 1561, and probably was educated at the School. He came in 1587 to take the post of master with very weighty recommendations, but followed "the painful trade of teaching" only for a year and a half, when he returned to Cambridge. He became successively Bishop of Chichester (1609) and of Norwich (1619), his further preferment being arrested owing to his unpopularity with the Puritan sect. In 1628, however, he was promoted to the see of York, an appointment which he retained till his death in 1631. He is buried in Chigwell Church, where he had been vicar (1597-1605), and where there is a magnificant brass over his tomb.
Of the next master, Bentley, Morant says that it was "impossible for any man to have ampler testimonials, or greater recommendations than he had," but we know nothing of the School's life under his rule. His successor, Kemp, was master for almost 40 years, and at his death left the nucleus of a school library, to which later additions were made. In 1620 the Borough Chamberlain paid, as appears from the Corporation Accounts:
This list may be compared with another in the Liber Scholae Colcestriensis of books left to the School by Kemp, with some later additions by other benefactors. Kemp's books are listed as:" to Mr. Kemp for three books, videlicet,
A Cooper's Dixonary 0 14 0 Ride's Dixonary 0 8 6 Nomen Claters 0 3 8for carredge of them from London, 6d."
"Cooper's Dictionary, printed at London, 1578. Minshaei Dictionar. printed at Lond. 1627 An old torn Scapula's lex. An old torn tome of Servius uppon Livy."
Scapula's Lexicon was replaced in 1660 with money given by Joseph Thurston, and later additions were Erasmus' Adagies, and a folio copy of the Bible.
Kemp was succeeded by William Dugard, who did not take up residence for several months; and in this gap appears an intruder-Mr. Prost. Prost seems to have had possession of the school house, and may have been an ambitious usher baulked of the expected mastership. Morant had a document that read :
" At the Audite daie in the Moot-hall the seacond daie of January Anno Dni. 1638. p'sent Mr Furlie Mayor and eight Aldermen and others—it was agreed that the twentie poundes (the ramainder of the fowerscore poundes received of the Duch) and remaininge in Mr Barrington's hands, shall bee paid to Mr Harrison in full paiement of those moneyes he disbursed about the puttinge out of Mr Prost from being Schoolemaster of the free Grammar-schoole of this towne. — John Furlie Mayor."
We are left to wonder how the twenty pounds had been spent. Were "those moneyes disbursed" to disreputables who hurled Mr. Prost out of the building, or was he enticed into Culver Street by the promise, or perhaps the sight, of the gold?
Dugard held the post for over five years, and improved the School in that time to a very great extent. Finding in 1637 10 scholars, by 1641 he had enrolled more than 60, and he spent his own money upon repairing the school-house. He was "a most excellent scholar," and a most conscientious schoolmaster, but he incurred the hostility of a section of the municipality (probably the Puritan) and was eventually forced to resign.
Dugard's politics are very difficult to determine, but he seems to have been a Royalist. In 1650, after leaving Colchester and becoming master of the Merchant Taylors' School, he was imprisoned for printing a defence of Charles I; yet he was a friend of Milton, and in 1647 several supporters of the Parliamentarian party, including the Earl of Manchester and Sir Harbottle Grimston, wrote to the Mayor and Corporation on Dugard's behalf. This letter, dated January 6th, 1642, five days after the attempt by Charles to arrest the five members which the writers may have witnessed, spoke of Dugard's "faithfulness and integrity," and said that he "may justly expect from the Parliament protection in all his rights and priviledges, and encouragement and maintenance from you." It was also rumoured "that a disaffected party" intended to set up a rival schoolmaster in the town "to foment distractions and contentions which must needes breed great distraction in the Towne," and prayed protection for Dugard. This was of no avail, however, and he resigned in January, 1643.
One institution of Dugard's that survives today is the Liber Scholae Colcestriensis, a leather—bound volume of some 400 pages, still in excellent condition, with more than half its pages unused. His object was to make a comprehensive school record, which would have been almost unique and extraordinarily valuable if succeeding masters had been equally enthusiastic. The Liber Scholae Colcestriensis contains, at least for Dugard's period of office, the name, age and place of birth of each scholar, together with his father's name and rank; and interspersed with these lists are various details of school life and management. Thus we learn of "The Orders, Course and Customes of the Schoole in matters of chardge wherewith the parents of the Schollers must be acquainted," such as :—
" Item for Teaching 0 10 0 a quarter.
Item for sweeping of the Schoole lid at the end of the quarter.
Item every Scholler shall p'sently after Michaelmas bring xijd
apiece for their fireing in winter ; and i li. of candle to burn
in the Schoole.Item every Scholler shall uppon every Thursday in the
afternoone bring one farthing for wch hee shall dispute with
his ffellow in Grammaticall questions. And, if it fortune so
that neither party win of his ffellow, then both farthings
shall go to the Common box, and thence be given to ye
Schollers according to their deserts for exercises or otherwise
at ye Master's discretion."
When one considers that the disputations would be conducted in Latin, one appreciates the quality of the education offered by this little school in a provincial town, where the scholars must have been for the most part sons of merchants or country clergy; and with that realisation comes perhaps a clearer understanding of the whole educational system of the time which, drawing its strength from medieval tradition and Renaissance learning, only perished when a new, industrial, age brought new demands. For this system, designed as a prelude to the Universities, depended not on the few great Public Schools, but upon the ubiquitous free schools of the boroughs and country towns, and not least among the evils of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was a lowering of the status of these schools to a point that necessitated a reorganisation so drastic that it is even now not fully completed.
With the approach of the Civil War (1642—8) we find the School in martial mood. An account dated March 6th, 1641, in the Liber reads :
"A drumm was bought for ye use of ye Schoole wch cost i li. vjs 0d by ye contributions of those Schollers whose names are subscribed together with ye sums they gave towards it. (A list of 69 Scholars follows.)
.... Out of 1 10 5d.
Subduct 1 6 0d.Remaines towards buying colours 0 4 5d."
On January 17th, 1643, Dugard offered his resignation, with the stipulation that he should be reimbursed with the sums he had expended upon the repair of the School. The Corporation Accounts contain this acknowledgment of the offer:
" Assembly of 13th March 1642/3. At this Assembly it is ordained that whereas Mr Dewgard hath made offer to resigne his scholemastershipp of the free Grammar schole of this town upon condicon that the Mayor and Commonalty shall paie unto him the said Mr Dewgard the sume of one hundred poundes in full paiement and satisfaccion of all such debts, dues, and demands whatsoever . . . . It is now ordered and agreed that the said sume of one hundred poundes shall forthwith be paid to Mr Dewgard upon his resigning his school-mastershipp of the said Grammar Schoole and givinge to the Mayor and Commonalty of this towne a generalle acquitance." (Round : A List of Colchester Scholars, 1897.)
Dugard had been nominated by John Knowles, Town Preacher of Colchester[1] since 1635. Knowles was of the "nonconformist" persuasion, and in 1639, having fallen foul of Archbishop Laud, he resigned his preachership and sailed for New England. There he met Thomas Waterhouse, who was to succeed Dugard at Colchester in 1643. (Concerning Waterhouse see an article by H. J. Cape in The Colcestrian, No. 86, 1930; Essex County Standard, March 29th, 1930).
Waterhouse provides an interesting link between Colchester and the oldest municipal foundation in North America. The City of Dorchester, Massachusetts, was founded in 1630 by a group of emigrants from Dorset, and was the first town in the New England Colonies to have a municipal governing body. It was also the first town in New England to found a "Free—School" (1639), when a salary of £20 per annum was provided for a master to teach "English, Latin, and other tongues, and also writing." The first master of this school was Thomas Waterhouse, who held the post for four years; he then returned to England, where he was elected master at Colchester in 1643.
The man who was thus the first master of North America's oldest town school and then became master of what we believe to be England's oldest town school was born in England about 1600. Educated at Charterhouse and the Puritan College of Emmanuel, Cambridge, he was, like many other Puritan ministers, forced to sail to New England, but, as we see, returned to his native country, At Colchester, as at Dorchester, he held the mastership for four years. (This may have been the agreed term at Dorchester; it was certainly specified here, for Kemp, Dugard and Waterhouse all were bound to stay for that period, unless granted the Bailiffs' licence to leave.)
We learn, however, from Palmer's Nonconformist Manual that he had not long been in Colchester "before he had an impulse upon his spirit that some remarkable judgement would befall that place, upon which he determined to remove, and no arguments could prevail with him to stay." He resigned in 1647, and retired to Coddenham, in Suffolk, "where his wife's estates lay." The next year, in June, 1648, Colchester was devastated by the 12-weeks' siege.
Waterhouse, having escaped these dangers, lived to the age of 80, but in his old age was silenced (disqualified from preaching) by the Act of Uniformity (1662). Nevertheless, moving to Ipswich, he preached upon several occasions, "but his principal employment was teaching School, for which he was peculiarly qualified."
Upon the resignation of the next master, Nathaniel Seaman, a Mr. Cotton was recommended by the Town Preacher, but he was not elected, and John Ruting received the post. But Mr. Cotton's wife was apparently not one to accept defeat quietly, for she managed to gain possession of the school house. On September 29th, 1659, the Corporation ordered that:
"Mr John Brazier, Mr George Crasse, and Mr Stephen Emaus or any two of them shall forth with goe to the Grammar Schoole and schoolehouse belonging to this town and presently take the possession of them with all the bookes and appurtenances, for the use and benefitt of the mayor and Cominalty of this towne; And to deliver the possession of the said Schoolehowse and Schoole with the bookes and appurtenances to them belonging to Mr John Ruting master of the said grammer schoole, And it is further ordered that the request of Mrs Cotton and the accompts of Mr Seaman shalbe taken into consideracon the next time the howse shall meete."
Morant says that Mrs. Cotton "endeavoured forcibly to keep" the house, and it seems that she had initial success, for five days later it was agreed:
"That Mrs Cotton shall free the schoolhowse and deliver the possession thereof to Mr Ruting within one monethe. … "
The matter was in the end settled in favour of Mr. Ruting, but we do not know, unfortunately, how the scholars reacted to this excitement. Order, it would seem, had been restored by November, for upon "Gunpowder Treasondaie, in the year of our Lord 1659" it was the intention of the Mayor and Corporation "to goe from hence to visite the grammer schoole, and from thence to the sermon accordinge to the usual custome"; but the disturbance seems to have caused the "accompte of Mr Seaman" to be neglected, for not until January 17th, 1660, was it decided that at the next meeting "the accompts of Mr Seaman about the repaire of the Grammar School shall be perused and debated."
There were other disputes, and one which arose concerning the endowment was not settled until the beginning of the eighteenth century. The foundation deed had stated that the properties to the yearly value of 20 marks were "assigned, limited, layd out, and conveyed, for the maintenance of the said Free—school, and the Schoolmaster thereof for the time being, for ever," which meant that while a master was in office he was entitled to the full income. The municipality, however, had acquired the extremely profitable habit of paying the master an annuity of 20 marks (the original annual value of the properties assigned to his use), and putting "the over-plus into their own pockets, or at least into the common stock" (Morant, iii, II).
Taking the value of 20 marks as £13/6/8, the profit in 1635 must have been £20/13/4, and in 1643 £18/13/4, when the properties were leased to Philip and Thomas Neville respectively. At last, as the result of a complaint to the Visitor, the Bishop of London, a bill against the Mayor and Corporation was filed in Chancery in Michaelmas Term, 1696, and a decree obtained in October, 1698, although nine years more passed before an agreement was effected. On September 16th, 1707, the properties were vested in trustees, for the master "to have, possess, and enjoy the said messuages, etc., and to take and receive the rents, issues, and profits thereof to his own use." The first trustees were Sir William Luckin, Bart., of Messing, Sir Isaac Rebow, Kt., Joseph Thurston, Hope Gifford, John Potter, Nathaniel Lawrence, Jnr., and Thomas Ruse; and the properties were from time to time conveyed to new trustees.
When William Turner died in office in 1786 he received this remarkable, if cautiously worded, tribute from the Suffolk Mercury :
" Monday, January 31, 1726. On Monday night last dy'd the Worthy and Learned Mr Wm Turner, Master of the Free Grammar School at Colchester in Essex, he had been for many years Master of the Free School at Stamford in Lincolnshire, from whence he removed to Colchester (being elected by the Free Burgesses) on the Death of Mr Allen the former Master, about three Years ago. He was a man of that Universal good Behaviour that we don't hear he hath left one enemy behind him, his Death being generally regretted by all that knew him."
Later in the same year the same paper carried an advertisement by Turner's successor, David Comarque, who not only said that "young Gentlemen are at a reasonable rate to be boarded," but tempted further custom with this note: "The family is intirely French, whereby Boarders will have the Advantage to learn that Language most effectually, and with very little Hindrance to their other Studies."
Palmer Smythies, who followed Comarque, established a record for this School by holding the office of master for 50 years. In this time, however, little progress was made, and the number of scholars fell so much that at one period the School was closed. But Smythies was succeeded by an illustrious figure, Dr. Samuel Parr, famed for his wit and wisdom, who in the course of his short term of office restored the prosperity and prestige lost since Dugard's time. Parr was born at Harrow and educated at the great school there, and later at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Returning to be assistant at his old school he became so popular among the boys that there was virtually a rebellion when another man was elected by the governors as headmaster. Parr resigned, and opened his own school at Stanmore before coming to Colchester. He brought with him 24 boys as boarders, and admitted nine more in that year. He closed his entries in the Liber Scholae Colcestriensis with this note :
"Boarders 34
Foundation Boys 7
Oppidans 11
resigned the Mastership of the Colchester School January 1st, 1779."
Parr lived until 1825, and at the time of his death was said to be the only clergyman in England still to smoke in the vestry. It was further alleged that he chose long hymns to afford an opportunity to fortify himself with his pipe before the sermon. He once explained to a friend who discovered him thus occupied, "My people like long hymns, I like a long clay."
A most furiously contested election for the post of master occurred in 1779, when Parr had resigned. Cromwell compares the struggle then to one in which "the object had been that which has so frequently convulsed this ancient borough, the return of its members to Parliament." Of the two candidates, Hewitt of Bristol and Duddell of Coggeshall, Hewitt was supported by the "Church Party," who looked upon Duddell as a "Calvanist." After a long campaign, enlivened by riots and processions, during which "many of the voters were brought from a great distance " for the four days of polling, the result was: For the Rev. Mr. Charles Hewitt, 487; for the Rev. Mr. John Duddell, 470," when the former gentleman was in consequence declared elected."
Upon that note we reach the end of the eighteenth century, for when Hewitt resigned the new century had opened. In the next hundred years the School was to see great changes, and the second great step in the evolution of the modern school. The School in 1800 bore a close resemblance to the School of 1584, not only in that it occupied the same house, but in its very spirit. In that same house in Culver Street, with the like small number of scholars, the Free Grammar School at Colchester was typical of the many almost medieval institutions which one might have found in England at that time, but like the others it could not escape the changes which transformed the country in the century then starting.
- ↑ Town Preacher (Morant, i, 96). "The bailiffs, and afterwards the Mayor, had a chaplain, styled the General or Common Preacher, or Lecturer : and the first was about the year 1564. He was generally some noted Preacher from Cambridge, chosen during the pleasure of the Bailiffs (or Mayor) and Commonalty; and presented to, approved, and licensed by the Bishop of London. His business was to preach on Sundays in the afternoon, Wednesdays in the forenoon, on the greater festivals, and on the fast and fair days, coronation days, at elections, gaol deliveries, &c. At length, the office dwindled to a few Sermons, preached by some of the Clergy in the town, the election and swearing of a Mayor. Their maintenance at first was by subscription: but in 1576, a salary of 40l. . . . was settled upon them. In 1593 it was increased to 100 marks. . . . To that in 1610, an addition of 10l. was made for a house. In 1620, the salary was raised to 100l. besides the 10l. for a house." The salary eventually fell to £70. The office of Mayor replaced that of Bailiff in 1635.