\ 
 
THE FOUNDING 
 
 OF 
 EXETER SCHOOL 
 
♦• • 
 
Portrait of Hugh Crossing. 
 
THE 
 
 FOUNDING 
 
 OF 
 
 EXETER SCHOOL 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE STRUGGLE FOR 
 FREEDOM OF EDUCATION WITHIN THE 
 CITY OF EXETER 
 
 By 
 H. LLOYD PARRY 
 
 Tow^f Clerk of Exeter 
 
 JAMES G. COMMIN CUATTO & WINDUS 
 
 EXETER LONDON 
 
 1913 
 
UA6 3? 
 ''7 
 
 DEDICATED TO 
 
 THE 
 
 EXETER CITY COUNCIL 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter Page 
 
 Introduction - - - i 
 
 I. The High School - - 7 
 
 II. The Dispute between the City Chamber 
 
 and William Perr^anan ... 15 
 
 III. The Founding of the Free Grammar 
 
 School - - - 37 
 
 IV. The St. John's Hospital - - 59 
 
 (a) The Free Grammar School. 
 
 (b) The Orphanage. 
 
 (c) The Free English School. 
 
 V. Subsequent History of the High School 
 
 and the St. John's Hospital Schools 79 
 
 Conclusion - - - 96 
 
 APPENDICES 
 
 A. Letter and Order of the Privy Council 
 
 approving- the provision of a Free 
 Grammar School, a.d. 1630 - loi 
 
 B. Statutes and Ordinances for the Govern- 
 
 ment of the Free Grammar School, 
 
 A.D. 1633 - - - 104 
 
 C. Order of the Privy Council for the 
 
 provision of a Free English School, 
 
 A.D. 1636 - - - 113 
 
 D. Charter of Incorporation of the St. 
 
 John's Hospital, a.d. 1637 - 115 
 
 E. Letter of Bishop Temple to the Mayor 
 
 of Exeter relating to proposals for 
 re-organization of the Educational 
 Endowments of Exeter, a.d. 1872 - 127 
 
 f ^o^i ^^ 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Pagre 
 
 I Portrait of Hugh Crossing ... Frontispiece 
 
 2. Seals of the Franciscan Priory of St. 
 
 John the Baptist (13th century) ... 6 
 
 3. Seals of the St. John's Hospital and of 
 
 the Grammar School (17th century) 72 
 
 4. Plan of St. John's Hospital (a.d. 1759) ... 78 
 
 5. The Door of the High School ... ... 82 
 
 6. Plan of St. John's Hospital (a.d. 1878) ... 84 
 
 7. The St. John's Hospital — High Street 
 
 Frontage ... ... ... ... 92 
 
 8. Exeter School (present day) ... ... loo 
 
THE FOUNDING OF EXETER SCHOOL. 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 The valuable collection of archives belonging 
 to the Exeter Corporation has yielded in the 
 famous Shiliingford Letters* a series of documents 
 which throw a valuable flood of light upon the 
 social conditions and the methods of local govern- 
 ment that prevailed in this country during the 
 middle of the 15th century. They treat of a legal 
 dispute between the Municipal and Ecclesiastical 
 Authorities as to the extent of their respective 
 jurisdictions within the city. Neither the merits 
 of the conflicting claims of the two parties to 
 the action nor the legal points in dispute have, 
 however, at the present time, more than an 
 academic interest, as the object for which the 
 parties strove has long ago lost its significance, and 
 we can now view the result with indifference. 
 The main interest lies in the personal confidences 
 and the intimate details set forth in the private 
 letters of that worthy and doughty Mayor, John 
 Shiliingford, which enable us to acquire a familiar 
 acquaintance with the daily life of the individual 
 actors and steep ourselves in the social atmosphere 
 of the period in which they lived. 
 
 * Published by the Camden Society, 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 The Shillingford controversy represents a chap- 
 ter in the history of the conflict between the 
 Municipal and Ecclesiastical Authorities in the 
 City, which continued intermittently from the 
 time of the removal of the Episcopal See to 
 Exeter to quite recent years. 
 
 The Shillingford letters take pride of place 
 among the municipal archives, for they throw a 
 flood of light upon a period of history of which 
 records are scarce. The Ferryman papers, which 
 afford the main material for the history of the 
 founding of the Exeter School, serve to cast a 
 similar illumination upon the conditions of life 
 within the City of Exeter about a century and a 
 half later, but still nearly three centuries removed 
 from the present. 
 
 They also present a chapter in the long conflict 
 between the Municipal and Ecclesiastical powers, 
 but the question at issue, unlike that of Shillingford's 
 time, is one of intimate concern and interest to the 
 citizens of the present day, and had the result been 
 other than it was one may well doubt whether the 
 City would have been possessed to-day of that 
 complete educational system of which it is so 
 justly proud. For the history of the controversy 
 is the history of the foundation of this educational 
 system. Whatever differences of opinion there 
 were at the time, the cause of the City Chamber 
 now claims universal sympathy, for they were con- 
 tending for the overthrow of a harmful monopoly 
 and for the right of the citizens to provide for the 
 education of the poor children of the City. 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 It is strange that the interest and importance 
 of the Ferryman controversy should have so long 
 escaped the notice of our local historians, and 
 equally strange is the neglect of the history of 
 education in Exeter prior to the establishment of the 
 St. John's Hospital Trust, which now governs three 
 of the four public secondary schools of the City 
 and its premier Elementary School. The history 
 of the Trust from its foundation is fully set out in 
 the voluminous report of the Charity Commissioners 
 upon the Endowed Schools of Exeter, but no 
 historian has taken up the story of education within 
 the City prior to the period dealt with by this 
 report. This will account for the misapprehensions 
 that exist as to the circumstances of the founding 
 of the oldest of these schools — the Exeter School, 
 lately known as the Exeter Grammar School, and 
 originally as the Exeter Free Grammar School. 
 
 What are the current beliefs as to this school ? 
 They are as follows : 
 
 1. That it was founded and endowed in 1332 
 by Bishop Grandisson pursuant to the pious 
 intention of his predecessor Bishop Stapledon. 
 
 2. That it was carried on in the old Fran- 
 ciscan Priory of St. John the Baptist till the 
 dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIH. 
 
 3. That it was re-founded by Hugh Crossing 
 early in the reign of Charles I. 
 
 But what are the facts ? 
 
 I. Far from being an ecclesiastical foundation, 
 the Exeter School was founded in the face of the 
 strenuous opposition of the Dean and Chapter. 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 2. There never was a Grammar School in the 
 old Franciscan Priory of St. John the Baptist, and 
 the only connection between the Free Grammar 
 School and such monastery was in the accident of 
 a common site. 
 
 3, The charitable purposes of Hugh Crossing 
 had no reference to the establishment of a school, 
 and there is no evidence that he had any intention 
 to endow or benefit a Grammar School out of his 
 estate. 
 
 It is also surmised that the existing school is the 
 product of the amalgamation, in the middle of the 
 1 8th century, of the Free Grammar School founded 
 in the reign of Charles I. and an older school in 
 the City known as the High School. There is 
 no proof of this and the evidence is all to the 
 contrary. 
 
 There was, it is true, an educational foundation 
 connected with the St. John's Priory, but it was 
 merely a scholarship endowment with provision for 
 the scholars to be boarded within the precincts of 
 the Priory, the master and brethren of the Hospital 
 being appointed trustees of the endowment fund. 
 The foundation deed* was executed in November, 
 1332, and is printed in full in Oliver's Monasticon. 
 By this deed Bishop Grandisson, in fulfilment of a 
 project of his predecessor Bishop Stapledon, 
 appropriated, for the endowment of certain scholar- 
 ships, three acres of glebe land in the village of 
 Erniscombe together with the advowson of the 
 Parish Church. The scholars were to be elected, 
 
 * Copied in the Cartulary of St. John's Hospital, fo. 68b. 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 two from the Archdeaconry of Barnstaple, one or 
 two from the Archdeaconry of Totnes, two from 
 the Archdeaconry of Exeter, one or two from the 
 Archdeaconry of Cornwall, three from among the 
 choristers of the Cathedral Church of Exeter, and 
 one on the nomination of the chief lords of the 
 Church of Erniscombe. The sum of 5d. per week 
 was allowed for the support and maintenance of 
 each of these scholars, and provision was made for 
 the appointment of a warden and of a master in 
 grammar to take charge of the boys and regulate 
 their conduct. Oliver is not noted for his accuracy, 
 and his heading to this deed, " Appropriation of the 
 Church of Erniscombe and Foundation of a 
 Grammar School," is inexcusable, for a perusal of 
 the deed shews clearly that it did not effect the 
 foundation of a school. On the contrary it makes 
 reference to an existing grammar school in Exeter 
 at which the scholars were to pursue their 
 grammatical studies for five years according to the 
 custom of scholars in the City. The head master 
 of this school is given the right of presenting to the 
 warden of the hospital four boys from each of the 
 selected Archdeaconries for election to any 
 vacancies among the scholars and he is given a 
 voice in the dismissal of the master appointed to 
 take charge of the boys, who is permitted by the 
 scheme, and obviously intended, to be employed as 
 a teacher in the school. Provision is made for 
 increasing or decreasing the number of scholars 
 with any increase or decrease in the income of the 
 endowment. 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 It would have been strange had this deed 
 provided for the foundation of a grammar school in 
 the Priory. It is a common mistake that education 
 in the middle ages was undertaken by the monks, 
 but no instance is recorded of a monk teaching a 
 grammar school. We usually find that monasteries 
 were merely trustees of school endowments.* 
 
 Upon the dissolution of the monastery in the 
 reign of Henry VIII., this scholarship endowment 
 which then produced £i^ 12s. per annumf was 
 appropriated with the remainder of the hospital 
 estate. At that time there were nine scholars, each 
 costing the hospital for maintenance the sum of 
 eight pence per week. 
 
 The buildings of the hospital were granted by 
 the King to Thomas Carew in 1540. Part was 
 converted into dwelling-houses and part allowed to 
 fall into decay. Nearly a century later, in 1623, 
 the inheritance of these premises was purchased 
 from the Carew family for the purpose of a City 
 workhouse, and shortly afterwards a portion of the 
 premises was utilised for the Free Grammar 
 School. It is obvious, therefore, that there was 
 no educational connection whatever between 
 Bishop Grandisson's foundation and the Exeter 
 School. 
 
 * Leach's English Schools at the Reformation, p. rg. 
 t The value of money at this time was about ten times its present value. 
 
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CHAPTER I. 
 The High School. 
 
 What now of the Grammar School mentioned 
 in Bishop Grandisson's deed ? This was doubtless 
 the school known as the High School, which 
 appears to have been an ancient school in 1332. 
 The first known document relating to the school 
 is an entry in the register of the Archdeaconry of 
 Exeter, dated the 7th February, 1343, recording 
 an ordinance by the Lord Richard of Braylegh, 
 Dean and Canon of Exeter, by the consent of 
 Thomas of Nassington, Archdeacon of Exeter, for 
 the removal of the school from Smvthen Street 
 to a building in Trinity Lane (now called Musgrave 
 Alley)*, and the provision of a house on an 
 adjoining site as a residence for the head master. 
 The site was the property of the Chapter, and the 
 buildings were provided at the expense of the 
 Dean. In a deed of the following year it was 
 ordained that the head master, Walter de 
 Okysbourne, and his successors should pay a 
 
 * This Register is not contained among the existing records of the 
 Archdeaconry, but an official copy of the entry of the 7th February, 
 1343, was made by Archdeacon Thomas Barret in May, 1625, and is 
 contained in the document numbered 2477 of the Chapter Records. 
 No reference is made in this entry to the former location of the school 
 in Smythen Street. The fact is inferred from the words in vico 
 Fabrorum ubi aliquando scolae fuerunt, which occur twice in the 
 Cartulary of St. John's Hospital, fo. 36. 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 rental of 24s. a year, the money to be distributed 
 during the Hfe of the Dean as he should direct and 
 to be devoted after his death in celebrating his 
 obit in the Cathedral Church of Exeter.* 
 
 While this is the earliest reference to the school 
 that can be found, there is a reference in the 
 Exeter Episcopal Registers (Grandisson), vol. I., 
 p. 240, of date 5th December, 1329, to Richard of 
 Ratford, schoolmaster of the City of Exeter, doubt- 
 less then master of the High School. He was of 
 some distinction academically, for three or four 
 years earlier he had been Rector of Stapledon Hall 
 (Exeter College), Oxford. f This signifies that the 
 school was of some repute at that time. J 
 
 The headmastership of the school was in the 
 gift of the Archdeacon of Exeter " ad quem 
 spectat providere virum idoneum et bene literatum 
 tam in gramatica quam dialectica et ad prede- 
 cessores suos pertinuit ab antiquo." 
 
 For nearly two centuries afterwards the history 
 of the school remains a blank except for an entry 
 in the Obit Book of the Warden and College of 
 Vicars in the Cathedral Church of Exeter, dated 
 the 31st January, 1457, which records the receipt 
 
 * Chapter Records, No. 2228. 
 
 1 1 am indebted for this reference, as also for other valuable 
 assistance, to Mr. Frank Fletcher, M.A., of the Exeter University 
 CoUeg^e. 
 
 J Izacke's Meviorials of the City of Exeter, MS. fo. 28b, has the 
 following reference to the school under the year 1445: " The Deane 
 & Chapter fFounded & builte the High schoole w'hin this Citty for 
 the better education of youth in good literature, & allowed ye maister 
 thereof for his better incouragement a stipend of Twenty pounds ^ 
 annii." This statement, which has been copied by later historians of 
 the City, is obviously incorrect. 
 
 8 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 of ten marks sterling from the executors of 
 Laurence Bodyngton, late master of the Grammar 
 School of the City of Exeter, and one of the 
 secondaries of the Cathedral, for the repair of 
 the Cathedral edifice and for the celebrating of 
 the obit of the deceased.* 
 
 Among the Chapter Recordsf is a copy of the 
 appointment in 15 15 of Thomas David, M.A., as 
 Master of the School. The appointment is by 
 Bishop Oldham, and is expressed to be in exercise 
 of the jurisdiction of the Archdeaconry of Exeter 
 that office being then vacant in his hands. It 
 ordains that no person other than the lawfully 
 appointed master of this school shall conduct a 
 school in the City or within a distance of seven 
 miles from the City under penalty of the greater 
 excommunication. 
 
 The High School was not a free Grammar 
 School, nor did it possess any endowment. At 
 the time of the Reformation it was the only 
 Grammar School in the City, Bishop Oldham's 
 injunction preventing at this time the establish- 
 ment of any other such school. There was the 
 usual Song School at the Cathedral, and there 
 were doubtless a number of classes in the City 
 at which elementary instruction was given by the 
 priests and chaplains, particularly the Chantry 
 priests. Provision was made for one such ele- 
 mentary school in connection with the Wynard's 
 
 * Chapter Records, No. 3675. I am indebted for this reference to 
 Miss E. Lega-Weekes. 
 
 t Chapter Records, No. 2477. 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 almshouses, for under the terms of Wynard's will 
 the chaplain of the almshouses is required to 
 teach, as he may reasonably have leisure, at the 
 least three and at the most nine boys, at the costs 
 and charges of their parents and friends in all 
 things, — to read from the beginning of the alphabet 
 up to the great Psalter of Holy David, and to learn 
 the same. 
 
 Edward VI., in the Royal Visitation during the 
 first year of his reign, enjoined that in every 
 Cathedral Church where no free Grammar School 
 was already founded within the Close, nor any such 
 school near adjoining founded by any person, there 
 should be kept and maintained perpetually out of 
 the common lands and revenues of the Church a 
 free Grammar School, the Master to have yearly 20 
 marks {£13 6s. 8d.) and his house rent free, and the 
 usher yearly 10 marks (;£6 13s. 4d.) and his chamber 
 free. The Dean and Chapter and other ministers 
 of the Cathedral Church were also required 
 to " fynde suche chorusters as have servyd in the 
 churche fyve yeres or more and hath their voyces 
 chaunged at some gramer scole and gyve them 
 yerely thre powndes syx shillyngs eight pence out 
 of the revenuse of the comune landes for the space 
 of fyve yeres." The Commissioners also enjoined 
 that the nomination and election of the school- 
 master and usher of the Grammar School at 
 Exeter should thenceforth pertain to the Dean 
 and Chapter, and that the Archdeacon of Exeter 
 should be utterly secluded from the nomination 
 and appointment of the said schoolmaster. 
 
 10 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 The Injunctions also provide that, inasmuch as 
 the greater number of the twelve secondaries of 
 the church who were bound by the statutes to go 
 to the Grammar or Song School did not attend the 
 same but lived dissolutely and idly, the Dean and 
 Chapter should appoint to the Grammar School, in 
 the place of the secondaries, twelve scholars, poor 
 men's sons, preference being given to the choristers 
 of the church when their voices change. Each of 
 such scholars was to receive five marks {£^ 6s. 8d.) 
 yearly out of the revenues of the secondaries and 
 common lands of the church for the space of five 
 years. The twelve secondaries then in the church 
 were to be reputed for grammar children and enjoy 
 all the emoluments then to them appointed if they 
 would go to the Grammar School and diligently 
 apply their study there.* 
 
 In the Royal Visitation of the first year of 
 Queen Elizabeth's reign it was enjoined that such 
 of the vicars as were not able to study by them- 
 selves should daily at all times in the forenoon and 
 the afternoon, except during services, resort unto 
 the Grammar School and learn such things whereby 
 they might afterward be the more able to serve 
 God and the commonwealth. The schoolmaster 
 of the town and all the scholars of the town were 
 required to be present at the morning prayer. 
 
 An Order was also made by the Queen's 
 Commissioners in this Visitation that the Dean or 
 President of the Chapter should pay to the 
 
 * The Injunctions of i Ed. VI. are set out in the Chapter Records* 
 No. 3674. 
 
 II 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 executor of the late Walter Hart the sum of 
 ;^3 6s. 8d. which he had expended upon the 
 Grammar School and such further moneys as 
 should be proved to have been expended by him 
 upon the school.* This Walter Hart was head 
 master of the school and was dismissed from his 
 office by the Chapter in Easter, 1555. f 
 
 Upon the dissolution of the school in the 
 middle of the i8th century the Dean and Chapter 
 took counsel's opinionj as to their obligations in 
 regard to the maintenance of the school. He 
 advised that the Injunctions, especially at that 
 distance of time, had not the force of law, so far 
 as to subject or charge the revenues of the Church 
 with the payment of the salaries of the school- 
 master and usher, and it was a question how 
 far they were binding even during the life of 
 Edward VI., as the Act of Parliament which gave 
 the Crown a visitatorial power in ecclesiastical 
 matters was not passed until the first year of 
 Elizabeth's reign when the High Common Court 
 was first erected. § He stated that he could not 
 find that any such salaries were ever settled or 
 paid by the Chapter to the master or usher, and, 
 to shew that these Injunctions had not been 
 looked upon to be of any weight or authority, the 
 Archdeacon of Exeter had ever since, without 
 
 * The Injunctions of i Eliz. are set out in the Chapter Records, 
 Act Book III., No, 3552, fol. 137A — 142B. 
 
 t Chapter Act Book, 23 Feb., 1555. 
 
 t Chapter Records, No. 2477. 
 
 § The opinion omits to make any reference to the Act of i Ed. VI., 
 cap. xiv., which authorised the visitation of that year. 
 
 12 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 interruption, constantly nominated the master 
 notwithstanding the Injunction giving the nomi- 
 nation and election to the Dean and Chapter. 
 This statement is not quite correct, for the Dean 
 and Chapter on the 28th September, 1548, the year 
 following the Visitation of Edward's reign, decided 
 to augment the salary of the usher (hypodidasculus) 
 by 20s. per annum. It will also be seen, later, 
 that on one occasion, in 1602, the appointment of 
 the head master was not made by the Archdeacon. 
 
 It is clear, however, that the Dean and Chapter 
 in the main avoided the observance of these 
 Injunctions. 
 
 In 1569 the Dean and Chapter, for their own 
 protection, and in order to guard against any 
 pretended claim that might be made to a salary 
 in virtue of the Injunctions, took a bond from the 
 master, then nominated by the Archdeacon, in the 
 penalty of ;^ioo conditioned not to demand any 
 salary from the Chapter or the Archdeacon, and 
 succeeding masters were required to give a bond 
 to the same effect.* 
 
 Though the Dean and Chapter took rent for 
 the school building, they do not seem to have 
 taken upon themselves the responsibility for its 
 repair. Reference has already been made to the 
 expenses incurred by Walter Hart and the order 
 for its repayment by the Chapter. In 1561 the 
 master, Mr. Williams, made an appeal for funds 
 for its repair, and the matter was taken up by John 
 Hoker, the Chamberlain of the City, who raised 
 
 * Chapter Records, No. 2477. 
 13 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 among the citizens sufficient money to enable the 
 building to be " new buylded seeled* seated and 
 playstered."f Mr. Ferryman, who was appointed 
 master in 1602, "re-edified the school" and 
 claimed to have expended ;£30o upon this work, 
 the money being raised by subscriptions " from 
 the Justices and gentlemen of Devon and from 
 the magistrates and citizens of Exeter," supple- 
 mented by Mr. Ferryman (according to his own 
 account) out of his private income. 
 
 Such is briefly the history of the High School 
 up to the time of the dispute that led to the 
 establishment of the Free Grammar School. 
 
 * Wainscoted. f Hoker's Commonplace Book, fo. 354. 
 
 14 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Dispute between the City Chamber 
 AND William Ferryman. 
 
 In the story of the dispute between the City 
 Chamber and Wilham Ferryman we have the story 
 of the founding of the Exeter Free Grammar 
 School. This dispute extended over a period of 
 twenty-three years, from 1619 to 1632, and was 
 fought out by Ferryman with the utmost tenacity. 
 The local courts, the Lord Lieutenant of the 
 County, the Bishop of the Diocese, the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury and the Frivy Council were all 
 called upon in turn by this assiduous litigant to 
 hear and decide upon his complaints of the 
 harassing iniquity of the City Chamber. Regarded 
 from, this distance of time one recognises that the 
 merits of the dispute were with the Chamber, 
 but Ferryman had powerful influence at his back, 
 and it is amusing to note the shifts to which these 
 various tribunals had recourse in order to avoid a 
 definite decision in favour of either party. Hence 
 the protracted character of the dispute. 
 
 Ferryman was appointed master of the High 
 School in 1602. Upon the death or retirement of 
 Mr. Drayton in that year, the nomination of his suc- 
 cessor was placed by the Bishop in the hands of the 
 City Chamber. This was a curious circumstance 
 
 15 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 and must have been induced by some strong 
 reason. It appears that it was a compliment to the 
 citizens for their liberality in subscribing to the 
 restoration of the building earlier in Elizabeth's 
 reign. The minute of the City Chamber* in which 
 the favour of the Lord Bishop and the thanks of 
 the Chamber are recorded concludes, however, 
 with a resolution that inquiry should be made what 
 fee the schoolmaster of the City in times past had 
 had in King Edward's time or Queen Mary's time 
 of the Dean and Chapter for and in respect of a free 
 school. The matters were evidently connected 
 and the inference is that the Dean and Chapter 
 hoped by placing the nomination of the master 
 in the hands of the Chamber to escape such an 
 inquiry. If that was their expectation it met with 
 disappointment. 
 
 The Mayor, on behalf of the Chamber, sub- 
 mitted to the Bishop the name of Mr. Ferryman, 
 the Chamber having decided that if this nomination 
 should not please his Lordship Mr. Pasmore 
 should be nominated in the second place. The 
 appointment was given to Mr. Ferryman, a decision 
 which the Chamber had subsequently much reason 
 to regret. 
 
 A minute in the Chapter Act Book of the 
 23rd May, 1618, shews that building operations were 
 again taken in hand, for on that date the Chapter 
 handed Mr. Ferryman ^^lo towards the new building 
 of the High School, and allowed him to conduct his 
 school temporarily in the cloisters. 
 
 * 22nd May, 1602. 
 16 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 The first incident in the open quarrel between 
 the City Authorities and Ferryman occurred on the 
 22nd June, 1622, when Ferryman lodged a com- 
 plaint before the Magistrates that Zachary Wills, 
 an apprentice, and others had made an attack upon 
 his ushers and scholars in Southernhay. Failing 
 to obtain satisfaction he presented a petition to 
 the Frivy Council complaining of the outrage 
 offered unto him and his school and charging the 
 Magistrates with countenancing and abetting the 
 business. As his complaint was couched in general 
 terms and gave no particulars, the Frivy Council, 
 in a communication of the 15th July, 1622, com- 
 missioned the Bishop, Valentine Cary, to hold an 
 enquiry and report to them thereon that they may 
 make such order as the cause should require. 
 
 The result of this enquiry was communicated 
 to the Frivy Council in February, 1625, upon the 
 hearing of a second petition from Ferryman raising 
 fresh grounds of complaint against the City 
 Authorities. The Bishop reported that the matter 
 of the riot w^as fully investigated by him in the 
 presence of divers wise and discreet gentlemen. 
 After hearing the evidence of both parties, he found 
 that great abuse had been offered unto the school 
 by some of the younger sort of the City and that 
 the Magistrates had failed to deal with the matter 
 until they learnt of Ferryman's petition to the 
 Frivy Council, when they formally bound some 
 few of the delinquents to good behaviour unto the 
 time of the next Sessions, but bound no one to 
 appear and lay anything to their charge. The 
 
 17 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 Bishop explained that he had not certified the 
 matter to their Lordships at the time for two 
 reasons, (i) because he was loath to do the City 
 any bad office, having been only recently appointed 
 to the Bishopric, and (2) because he hoped to 
 make peace between the parties and thought the 
 suppression of the certificate would tend to this. 
 To that end he had warned the schoolmaster to 
 carry himself respectfully towards the Magistrates 
 and exhorted the Magistrates to use him friendly. 
 He had, however, found his labour in vain, other 
 causes of dispute having arisen between the 
 parties. 
 
 The Mayor and Aldermen* at the same time 
 • presented their version of the affair. They stated 
 that the Court went very fully into the matter of 
 Ferryman's complaint immediately it was presented 
 to them, which was in the week following the 
 affray, and had sat for three days for the purpose. 
 Upon this examination they found both parties to 
 blame but bound over the townsmen complained 
 of and them only to take their trial at the next 
 Court of General Sessions. No one, however, 
 appeared to prosecute at this Court, and the 
 townsmen were accordingly discharged. They 
 stated that they had heard of the petition presented 
 by Ferryman to the Frivy Council, but had not been 
 allowed to see it, that the proceedings before the 
 Bishop were held in private, and they were 
 informed by the Recorder, who was present, that 
 
 * The Mayor, Recorder and Aldermen acted as the Magistracy of 
 the City till the ist May, 1836. 
 
 J8 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 Perryman, though accusing the whole of the 
 Magistracy in gross, could bring no specific 
 accusation except against one, Alderman Prowse, 
 and none of the Aldermen (Mr. Prowse excepted) 
 was ever called before his Lordship. The Mayor 
 and Aldermen were unable therefore to learn the 
 slanders against them and thus right themselves by 
 a course of law. 
 
 Perryman had also his say. Proof of the 
 justness of his complaint having been laid before 
 the Lord Bishop, he had on his Lordship's motion, 
 desisted from prosecuting his complaint further in 
 hope of winning by that means the love and favour 
 of the Mayor and Aldermen. 
 
 What the Privy Council made of these delight- 
 fully conflicting reports history does not relate, 
 but no decision on their part was required, for the 
 matter was by that time closed. 
 
 What are the facts in regard to this so-called 
 riot in Southernhay ? Fortunately, the Municipal 
 Records have preserved for us the depositions 
 of all the witnesses before the Magistrates.* From 
 this evidence we are able to piece together an 
 incident which, trivial in itself, is interesting for 
 the picture of the times which it affords. 
 
 On the 25th June, 1622, four days after the event, 
 the Mayor and one Alderman sat to take the 
 evidence of a witness who was suddenly called 
 away from the City. The next day the Mayor and 
 the full bench of Aldermen (with one exception) 
 took the evidence of sixteen witnesses, four on 
 
 • Proceedings in the Mayors' Court, Book No. 64, p. 82 et seq. 
 
 19 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 behalf of Zachary Wills, and twelve on behalf of 
 Ferryman. Among the latter were Ferryman, his 
 chief usher (Haytor) and nine of his scholars of 
 ages varying between 13 and 20. 
 
 It appears that on the day of the affray the boys 
 held a shooting match in Southernhay for a prize 
 and the post of captaincy. On the green with the 
 boys and the ushers were the gentlemen archers, 
 mostly of the merchant class, and on either side 
 at a respectable distance were assembled persons 
 of lower class, mostly artisans and apprentices. 
 Haytor was judging. When he gave his decision, 
 Zachary Wills, who had pressed forward towards 
 the centre of the green, took exception to it 
 and said that Mr. Faul's son had hit the mark 
 and should have got the chiefest prize. Haytor 
 told him he had no business there and bade 
 him go back among his fellows. Wills retorted 
 that he kept as good company as he, and again 
 protested against the decision. Words ensued, 
 and as Haytor walked away, Wills called him 
 *' base rogue " and " base rascal." Then Haytor, 
 coming back to Wills, asked him what he said and 
 Wills repeated the names. Whereupon, Haytor 
 gave him a thrust in the breast and bade him 
 begone. Then Wills struck him and they fell a 
 fighting, or fell by the ears as one witness expressed 
 it. Another of the ushers coming up to part them, 
 as was thought, was tripped up from behind by an 
 apprentice (name unknown). 
 
 Haytor deposed that after the quarrel, as he 
 was among the gentlemen archers desiring their 
 
 ao 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 opinion for deciding of the prize, one, Henry 
 Gandy, shouted " base rogue " at him, held up 
 his fist, and bade him come forth if he dared and 
 he would fight him himself. 
 
 Ferryman, who had now come upon the scene, 
 advanced to Gandy and bade him go upon his 
 business. Gandy affronted him and said he would 
 stand there in spite of Ferryman's teeth. Where- 
 upon Ferryman suspected there was a plot laid to 
 beat his ushers, so he willed them to withdraw 
 and stay among the gentlemen. 
 
 Evidence was called to shew that the affray was 
 premeditated. Two of the scholars stated that 
 before the quarrel they heard John Turner (in 
 company with Abraham Reed and three or four 
 others) say that if ever the ushers came without 
 Westgate they would need to have one hundred 
 men in arms to have them home again. Two 
 other scholars stated that after the gentlemen 
 archers had gone away they heard Abraham Reed 
 tell Wills that if Haytor did come down into the 
 Bonhay (evidently the apprentices' playing ground) 
 he would make him that he should never come 
 home again except he was brought home. 
 
 Wills' friends gave much the same account, 
 but their evidence was conflicting as to which of 
 the combatants first called the other a '' base 
 rogue" or "base fellow" and which struck the 
 first blow after the thrust. 
 
 A petty squabble to bring before His Majesty's 
 Frivy Council and the Lord Bishop of Exeter, but the 
 first scene in an act full of consequences for the City. 
 
 21 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 Perryman was soon furnished with fresh 
 grievances against the City. These had reference 
 (a) to a proposal of the City Chamber to establish 
 a new school and (b) to certain rates or charges 
 that had been levied upon him. It is probable 
 that there had been for several years a growing 
 dissatisfaction with the existing provision for the 
 education of the young within the City, and that 
 the citizens were beginning to discuss the establish- 
 ment of a new school even before Ferryman's 
 petition to the Privy Council in regard to 
 the affray in Southernhay. The action taken by 
 him in that matter would certainly have the effect 
 of enhancing his unpopularity with the citizens, 
 and tend to bring to a head any suggestions for 
 the erection of a new school. That the school of 
 this "learned but lashing master," as Izacke terms 
 him, was held in disrepute among the citizens 
 may be judged from the statements in a petition 
 presented to the City Chamber by certain in- 
 habitants of the City and neighbourhood, which 
 is not dated, but was doubtless presented soon 
 after the Southernhay affair. 
 
 During the Bishopric of William Cotton (1598- 
 162 1), a private school had been opened in the 
 City, with the permission of the Bishop, by a 
 schoolmaster named Thomas Spicer. An attempt 
 was made by Perryman to procure the suppression 
 of this private school which led to the petition to 
 which reference has been made. This petition* 
 is signed by Bartholomew Hore and three others 
 
 * Ancient Letters, vol. 6oD, No. 281. 
 22 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 in the behalf of themselves, their friends and of 
 many hundreds more within the City and in the 
 country. The petitioners state that they had put 
 their children to Ferryman's school, but that 
 Ferryman and his ushers, being over-pressed with 
 a far greater multitude of scholars than they were 
 able to teach, "■ they profited nothinge at all. For 
 " which Cause and for the Crewell and Tiranicall 
 " whippinge of Divers of o'' said children beinge 
 " apt to learne and of mild nature some Three 
 " fower ffive and Six tymes in one day whereby 
 " some of our Children pretendinge that they went 
 " to schoole went of Meechinge* halfe of yeare or 
 " more togeather others refusinge ever to goe to 
 " schoole to him chusinge rather to hange them- 
 ■'' selves drowne themselves cutt theire owne 
 " Throates or otherwise murder or mischeife 
 " themselves whereupon divers more compelled to 
 " put theire Children to theire greate charge att 
 " Country Scholes and others to keepe them att home 
 *' from schoole, divers of yo*" suppliants beinge in 
 " this perplexitie did put theire children to schoole 
 " to one Thomas Spicer where for the most parte 
 " they profitted more in one quarter of the yeare 
 " then they did in Twoyeares at the said Ferrimans 
 " Schoole. But so itt is yf itt may please your 
 "wo'"PPs that of late the said Ferriman hath 
 '• procured of a letter from Mr. Doctor Goach to 
 " prohibite the said Thomas Spicer from teachinge. 
 " By reason whereof your Suppliants and theire 
 " children are likely to be utteHie undone and to 
 
 * Playing truant. 
 23 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 " be barred from learninge w^^ is most lamentable." 
 The petitioners, therefore, prayed the Chamber to 
 take steps for the erection of another school. As 
 will be seen later the Bishop declined to prohibit 
 Mr. Spicer from teaching, but upon his death in or 
 about the year 1624 the school came to an end. 
 
 The first official action taken by the Chamber 
 towards the erection of a free school was in the 
 commencement of the year 1623, when the 
 Chamber deputed the Recorder, Alderman John 
 Prowse and Mr. John Chappell to wait upon the 
 Bishop in London and solicit his consent to the 
 establishment of another school in the City. 
 They were also, apparently, commissioned, if they 
 found it advisable, to obtain parliamentary powers 
 for this purpose. A letter from Mr. Chappell to the 
 Mayor, dated thei27th April, 1623*, states the result 
 of their mission. The Bishop took time to consider 
 his reply, desiring to consult those who possessed 
 a fuller acquaintance with the school than he had. 
 The deputation waited upon him later, when he 
 informed them that if, upon his return to Exeter, 
 he found the establishment of a new school would 
 benefit the City, he would yield to the request of 
 the citizens. The Chancellor of the Diocese, who 
 was present at this second interview, stated that 
 the number of scholars in the school did not exceed 
 140 and that the master did not make more than 
 a clear income of £100 a year out of the school, 
 which number and sum were far below what had 
 been stated by the deputation. Mr, Chappell was 
 
 * City Records, Ancient Letters, vol. 6oc, No. 234. 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 desired by the Recorder to inform the Chamber 
 that, in his opinion, the Chamber would not obtain 
 their purpose unless they could prove some 
 pregnant matter against Ferryman. He advised, 
 also, that it would be a hazardous expenditure of 
 money to move in the matter in Parliament, as 
 that assembly was so congested with business that 
 " if every day were a week " it would prove too 
 little to determine upon all the petitions and bills 
 that were then before the House. 
 
 About Michaelmas of this year a petition was 
 presented to the Chamber of Exeter signed by sixty 
 of the leading citizens, all subsidy men, importuning 
 the Chamber to solicit the consent of the Bishop 
 to the establishment of a free school. The Mayor, 
 Recorder and some of the Councillors thereupon 
 waited upon the Bishop and renewed the motion 
 made to him in London in the spring. In the 
 account of this interview furnished by the Bishop to 
 the Privy Council in February, 1625, he reported 
 that he enquired of them whether they had any 
 just charge to lay against Perryman, either of 
 insufficiency or negligence or misdemeanour or 
 undue usage of his scholars, to which they replied 
 that they had not. Thereupon he stated that he 
 saw no necessity for a new school, as the High 
 School, which had been recently rebuilt mostly at 
 Perryman's own charges, was so spacious that it 
 was able to receive a hundred more scholars, and 
 the staff was sufficient to teach many more scholars 
 than were then in the school. He considered it 
 would be a disadvantage to the City to have 
 
 25 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 another school, as indulgent parents would upon 
 slight occasion remove their children from school 
 to school to the detriment of their education. He 
 was unable therefore to yield to their desire. 
 
 The Mayor and his fellows replied to this that 
 if he would not grant their desire they would look 
 to a higher power from whom they had no doubt 
 they would obtain it. 
 
 The higher power to which the Mayor referred 
 was probably the Archbishop of Canterbury, for on 
 the 25th May, 1624, the Chamber resolved that a 
 letter be written to the Archbishop touching more 
 schoolmasters in the City. The City records do 
 not shew whether any action was taken upon this 
 resolution. 
 
 Ferryman's second grievance against the 
 Chamber arose in this same year. Hitherto he 
 had been discharged from payment of certain 
 assessments by virtue of his office, though 
 apparently not legally exempt. These assessments 
 were (i) a powder rate levied within the City and 
 (2) the first and second subsidies of the reign of 
 James I. and the fifteenths. 
 
 Among the City Records* is a precept dated 
 the 2ist March, 1624, under the hand of Francis, 
 Lord Lieutenant of the City and County of the 
 City of Exeter whereby the Lord Lieutenant 
 authorises and requires the Deputy Lieutenants, 
 of whom there were five (including the Mayor), 
 to assess the persons whose names are under- 
 written to the several amounts set opposite their 
 
 * Document No. 1741. 
 26 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 names for the raising of a sum of money to 
 purchase powder to be kept in store for the 
 preservation and safety of the City. It is thereby 
 enjoined that any person refusing to pay the rate 
 should be bound by recognizance in the sum of 
 ;f 10 to appear before the Lord Lieutenant at his 
 house in Westminster within twenty days after his 
 refusal to answer the contempt. The names of 
 498 citizens appear in the rate list, and among 
 them is that of William Ferryman, who is charged 
 to 7s. 6d. 
 
 Ferryman declined to pay, and after three or 
 four warnings, being still obdurate, was bound 
 over on the 22nd December to answer his contempt 
 before the Lord Lieutenant. Ferryman, nothing 
 loath to carry his grievances to the higher powers, 
 addressed a petition* to the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury and presented himself before the 
 Lord Lieutenant in London with such speed that 
 he arrived there before delivery of the letter and 
 recognizance from the Mayor and the other Deputy 
 Lieutenants. 
 
 In this petition Ferryman did not confine 
 himself to his grievance in respect of the powder 
 rate. He brought a sweeping charge against the 
 Magistracy of the City. He complained that out 
 of their malice against him for his complaint to 
 the Frivy Council in 1622 they had lately, besides 
 making divers false and malicious aspersions 
 defaming him, both in his person and his profession, 
 taxed him to the first and second payment of the 
 
 * Ancient Letters, vol. 6oc, No. 235. 
 27 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 last subsidy ; they had laboured to erect a new 
 school to the prejudice if not overthrow of his 
 most ancient school, notwithstanding his many 
 sacrifices in its behalf ; then, lastly, in further 
 execution of their continuing spleen, they had, 
 without any former usage, assessed him towards 
 the erection of a powder magazine, and had bound 
 him in this time of Christmas and dead of winter 
 to appear before the Lord Lieutenant in London, 
 and he could by no means beg a later and more 
 seasonable journey. He prayed his Lordship to 
 give protection to a poor scholar from such great 
 wrongs and oppression. 
 
 The petition was forwarded by the Archbishop 
 to the Lord Lieutenant with this note at the foot, 
 " January 4, 1624. I praie the L. Russell to give 
 the best assistance that his Lp can to this petitioner 
 in his honest cause, G. Cant."* 
 
 Lord Russell communicates his decision on the 
 matter to the Mayor on the 6th January.f It is an 
 ingenious attempt to give satisfaction to both 
 parties, but, as will be seen, failed to make peace. 
 What with the obligation to enforce his own 
 precept and to preserve the dignity of his Deputy 
 Lieutenants, and the desire to pay some regard to 
 the recommendation of the Archbishop, he was in 
 a difficult position and escaped as best he could. 
 
 Ferryman had brought before the Lord Lieut- 
 enant many complaints against the City Magistracy, 
 but Lord Russell found that the refusal to pay the 
 powder rate was the only matter within his 
 
 * George Abbot. t Ancient Letters, vol. 6od, No. 273. 
 
 28 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 jurisdiction. He approved and commended the 
 action of the Deputy Lieutenants and informed 
 Ferryman that his exemption from payment of 
 rates of the hke nature in the past was not of right 
 but of favour. On learning this, Ferryman adopted 
 a humble tone and submitted himself to the 
 judgment of the Lord Lieutenant. He acknow- 
 ledged his error in so obstinately insisting on his 
 right of exemption. He alleged that what 
 private means he had was acquired, for the most 
 part, not from the emoluments of the school, but 
 by marriage, and that he had laid out the greater 
 part of his fortune in re-edifying the school 
 by which expenditure the whole City benefited. 
 In consideration of these circumstances and having 
 regard to the special recommendation of the 
 Archbishop, the Lord Lieutenant decided to yield 
 to Ferryman's request that he should be spared 
 from contributing to this present charge on 
 condition that he confessed his error before the 
 Mayor and Deputy Lieutenants. It was enjoined 
 that this favour to a single scholar was not to be 
 drawn upon as a precedent for others of whatever 
 quality who may hereafter desire such exemption. 
 One must not assume too readily that the 
 action of the City Authorities in rating Ferryman 
 was dictated by a feeling of enmity. A reference 
 to the previous precept for a powder rate in 1615* 
 from which Ferryman had been exempted shews 
 that on that occasion the total assessment was only 
 £^6 and the number of persons rated 287. On 
 
 *City Records, No. 1730. 
 29 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 the second occasion the amount of the assessment 
 was £i^y 8s. 6d. and the number of persons rated 
 498. It may well be, therefore, that in any event 
 Ferryman's name would have been included in 
 this enlarged list of contributors. 
 
 The same may be said in regard to the rating 
 to the subsidies and the fifteenths. These were 
 raised under the Act 21 James I., c. 33, which 
 provides for the raising of three whole fifteenths 
 and tenths to be levied on personalty and three 
 subsidies to be levied on personalty and on realty. 
 They were to be raised in three payments — the 
 fifteenths and tenths by the loth July, 1624, the 
 loth December, 1624, and the loth May, 1625 ; the 
 subsidies by the 20th June, 1624, the loth October, 
 1624, and the loth March, 1625. Each subsidy 
 was fixed at 2s. 8d. in the ■£ on personalty and 4s. 
 in the £ on realty. The preamble to the Act 
 states that the object of the Aids was to provide 
 the King with money in expectation of a war with 
 Spain consequent on the dissolution of the treaties 
 of marriage with that country and for restitution of 
 the Palatinate, and it adds that this was the greatest 
 Aid ever granted to be levied in so short a time. 
 The assessment lists still preserved among the City 
 Muniments shew that Ferryman was rated at 8s. 
 (i.e. on an assessment of £Tf on his goods) in 
 respect of each payment of the subsidies, and is. 
 in respect of each payment of the fifteenths. 
 
 In the collection of these the assessors were 
 ordered to disregard the old rates and to rate every 
 man according to their own knowledge, not even 
 
 30 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 accepting his own declaration. There is evidence 
 that Ferryman's own declaration as to his means 
 was not accepted by the assessors. 
 
 Ferryman had an uneasy time of it when the 
 citizens learnt the character of his mission to 
 London. The Deputy Lieutenants decided to 
 extract the fullest satisfaction they could out of 
 Lord Russell's decision, and called upon Ferryman 
 to make public confession of his error, declining 
 to receive a written communication as a compliance 
 with his Lordship's order. They doubtless took 
 care that the citizens should be made acquainted 
 with the time appointed for this, and one can 
 imagine the crowd that would assemble at the 
 Guildhall to enjoy his humiliation. Ferryman was 
 not, however, prepared to exhibit before such a 
 concourse the humble demeanour which he had 
 assumed before the Lord Lieutenant. He made a 
 very qualified confession, which was apparently 
 accepted, but the reception which one can well 
 imagine he received from the crowd in the body of 
 the hall, evidently stirred him to hot anger, for 
 on his return home he immediately addressed a 
 petition to the Frivy Council* setting out all the 
 grievances which he had laid before the Arch- 
 bishop and the Lord Lieutenant, but in more 
 detail. 
 
 He commenced with a reference to his former 
 petition in regard to the riot in Southernhay and 
 gave his version of the examination before the 
 Bishop. He then charged the Mayor and 
 
 * Ancient Letters, vol. 6oD, Nos. 271 and 272. 
 31 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 Aldermen with malicious persecution of him and 
 in particular that : — 
 
 1. They had, contrary to the law and the 
 opinion of the Judges of that Circuit, the will of 
 the assessors and some of the Commissioners and 
 their own usage for 22 years, taxed him to the 
 payment of the first subsidy, and, though he was 
 discharged from that, taxed him to the second 
 subsidy, and, notwithstanding his discharge also 
 from that, they had taxed him to the fifteenths. 
 
 2. They were taking steps to erect a new 
 school, though he had taught in the City for 22 
 years, being drawn there by the City Chamber 
 themselves from a place of equal benefit. His 
 school was capable of receiving many more 
 scholars than it had, and he had spent ;^3oo out 
 of his private means in re-edifying the school and 
 had provided a staff of learned ushers at great cost. 
 
 3. They had assessed him to the erecting of a 
 powder magazine, though he had been previously 
 exempt, and had bound him in the dead of winter 
 by recognizance to appear before the Lord Lieu- 
 tenant in London. The Lord Lieutenant had 
 discharged him from the payment but had willed 
 that he should not stand upon his right of exemp- 
 tion but rather admit himself to be in error. Upon 
 his return he had acquainted them with this, 
 whereupon they had reviled him, saying he was 
 a proud, saucy, insolent fellow, and they would 
 whip him worse than he whipped any scholar. 
 Within a few days afterwards, to his further 
 disgrace, they called together an unusual assembly 
 
 32 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 and pressed him there to make public confession 
 of his supposed error. 
 
 He prayed their Lordships to exempt him from 
 future payment of the like taxes and charges and 
 to uphold the privileges of his ancient school and 
 to order some reparation for the disgrace he had 
 sustained. 
 
 Their Lordships forwarded a copy of the 
 petition to the City Chamber and ordered the 
 attendance of two Aldermen before them on the 
 1 8th February, 1624-5, t° answer the complaints. 
 
 The Chamber carefully drew up their answer. 
 They first of all presented their version of the 
 proceedings that had followed the riot in Southern- 
 hay, then dealt, as follows, with the specific charges 
 made by Ferryman.* 
 
 I. As to the subsidies, it was the duty of the 
 Commissioners to rate all persons who were liable, 
 and they had been advised by divers learned 
 lawyers that Ferryman was not exempt ; accord- 
 ingly his name had stood as the raters had 
 presented him. They had heard that two of the 
 Commissioners had afterwards certified for him 
 into the Exchequer and after some labour obtained 
 his discharge, with the direction however (as they 
 were informed) that he was not to expect the same 
 favour in the future. In further performance of 
 their duty they had rated him to the second 
 subsidy also but knew not whether he had been 
 discharged from that. 
 
 The reason why he had been exempt from 
 
 * Ancient Letters, vol. 6oD, Nos. 275 and 27SA. 
 
 33 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 former subsidies was that the best part of his 
 estate (as they understood) was in a tenement in 
 the County of Devon and that he was rated there 
 by the Commissioners for that County, but that 
 tenement having been sold they considered they 
 were in duty bound to rate him in the City. 
 
 2. They considered the complaint against the 
 proposal to establish a new school as strange, for 
 such had ever been regarded as an act of piety. 
 It was not conceived with the object of injuring 
 Mr. Ferryman. Their intention was that it should 
 be a free school endowed for its maintenance for 
 the good of posterity. 
 
 There were great complaints of the " verie 
 extraordinarie greate " charges made by Ferryman, 
 more than double what had been paid to any of 
 his predecessors. Owing to the populousness of 
 the City and the number of children who came 
 there from the country to be taught another 
 teacher was much needed, and in the past the 
 City frequently had two schools. 
 
 Ferryman had been an earnest suitor for his 
 present appointment, and had moved the Arch- 
 deacon to solicit on his behalf. And it was well 
 worth his endeavours, for his previous school was 
 a mean one in a country town and his present 
 place was more than seven times the value of the 
 former. 
 
 What he spent in re-edifying the school they 
 knew not, but he received large subscriptions from 
 the justices and gentlemen of Devon and from the 
 magistrates and citizens of Exeter, some being of 
 
 34 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 opinion that his receipts exceeded his disburse- 
 ments. 
 
 3. With regard to the powder rate, they acted 
 only in accordance with the precept and he was 
 treated no otherwise than were others who were 
 rated and declined to pay. Upon his return from 
 the Lord Lieutenant he had been treated with 
 every respect and the Chamberlain and one of the 
 bailiffs of the City (no ordinary messengers) had 
 waited *upon him with the notice of the time 
 and place appointed to receive his public con- 
 fession. He made a bare acknowledgment of 
 his supposed error, as he termed it, and it was 
 accepted by the Deputy Lieutenants in a peaceable 
 manner. 
 
 Two of the City Aldermen with learned 
 counsel appeared before the Privy Council on the 
 day appointed, Ferryman and his counsel being 
 also present. After many allegations on both sides 
 and much debate their Lordships adjourned their 
 consideration of the matter till the 23rd February 
 in order to obtain a report from the Bishop of 
 Exeter and, in particular, his certificate of the 
 result of his investigation into Ferryman's com- 
 plaint in respect of the Southernhay riot, which 
 had been deputed to him by the Council nearly 
 three years ago. The Bishop reported in writing, 
 being prevented by sickness from attending in 
 person. This report*, which dealt with the 
 circumstances of the riot and with the petition 
 of the Chamber to him in 1624 to permit another 
 
 * Ancient Letters, vol. 6oD, No. 276. 
 
 35 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 Grammar School in the City has been already 
 referred to. 
 
 In the end their Lordships found that some- 
 what too hard a hand had been carried against 
 Ferryman by the magistrates in some particulars 
 which put him to unnecessary charges and 
 vexation, that there was some warrant for their 
 action but as it appeared to have some mixture of 
 private ends, accompanied with some indisposition 
 towards the person of the schoolmaster (of whose 
 sufficiency and good demeanour the Board was 
 satisfied), they ordered that the magistrates should 
 be admonished to forbear to put any like unneces- 
 sary charges upon him thereafter and to give such 
 respect and countenance as belonged to a person of 
 his calling and profession, he demeaning himself 
 accordingly. Ferryman who was then present 
 before them was admonished that he should by a 
 respectful carriage endeavour to regain the love 
 and good opinion of the City. 
 
 It will be noted that the Council confined their 
 order to the question of the exactions. 
 
 36 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Founding of the Free Grammar School, 
 
 Ferryman's first and second petitions to the 
 Privy Council, though induced by his fear of the 
 estabhshment of a free school in the City, had 
 direct reference merely to the affray in Southernhay 
 and the charge of i6s. 6d. to the powder rate and 
 other assessments, matters of trivial importance 
 for the consideration of so high an authority. 
 These petitions were the preliminaries to his third 
 petition to the Council, when the question of the 
 Free Grammar School was directly raised and 
 settled. Though this question was raised in the 
 second petition in 1625, no order in the matter 
 could well be made by the Privy Council in respect 
 to so insubstantial a charge as a mere desire to 
 erect a free school, especially as any action to effect 
 that desire had been checked by the refusal of the 
 Bishop to grant a licence. By the year 1630, 
 however, the charge had become a substantial one, 
 for in the meantime desire had been translated 
 into action. 
 
 The refusal of Bishop Carey in 1624 to licence 
 a second master in the City had barred, for the 
 time being, any action by the City Chamber for 
 the establishment of a new school. In 1627 
 Carey was succeeded in the Bishopric by Joseph 
 Hall, and on the 21st November of that year the 
 
 37 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 Mayor and Aldermen presented to him their 
 congratulations upon his inauguration into the 
 diocese and made suit to him to allow two public 
 grammar schools in the City. They referred to 
 the expense and discomfort to which parents were 
 put in sending their children away to school, being 
 dissatisfied with the High School, owing to the 
 overcrowding and the ill-using of the scholars 
 there. They challenged any legal privilege in the 
 school, by patent or otherwise, to usurp the 
 monopoly of the teaching of grammar within 
 certain precincts of the City, and in support of 
 their contention referred to the fact that at divers 
 times in living memory there had been two public 
 teachers of grammar in the City, though of late 
 years, at Ferryman's instance, some had been 
 prohibited by the Bishop's predecessors.* 
 
 Bishop Hall did not, however, grant their 
 request, being influenced, so the Mayor and 
 Aldermen subsequently alleged, by the Dean and 
 Chapter. 
 
 With this fresh disappointment the citizens 
 might well have been excused if they had, for 
 the time being, renounced all idea of founding 
 another school, for it was evident that no sym- 
 pathy could be expected from the Bishop and 
 the Chapter, and the efforts to obtain a licence for 
 another master to teach in the City had been of no 
 avail. But the City Fathers were made of stern 
 stuff. They were determined to have their school 
 and, having failed to untie the knot of their 
 
 * Ancient Letters, vol. 6od, No. 306 (21st Nov., 1627). 
 38 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 difficulty, they boldly proceeded to cut it. On 
 the advice of counsel they took up the contention 
 that the Bishop's licence for a master to teach in 
 the intended Free School was not required. 
 Matters were precipitated by a legacy of ^^200* 
 in the will of Alderman Thomas Walker towards 
 the erection and yearly endowment of a school 
 whereby the children of the freemen of the City 
 might be instructed in the Latin tongue without 
 any charge to their parents. It was a condition of 
 the legacy that such Free School should be erected 
 within five years after the testator's decease. The 
 Will is dated the 15th November, 1628, and the 
 testator died on the 23rd February, 1628-9. This 
 bequest is worth chronicling, for this was the first 
 in the long list of gifts which have gone to the 
 establishment and the endowment of the Exeter 
 School, and, although the foundation of the School 
 is properly attributable to the joint action of the 
 leading citizens of that day, to Thomas Walker 
 belongs the credit of laying the first stone. On 
 the 13th December, 1629, died Elizabeth Dowrich, 
 daughter of Thomas Walker, and by her will the 
 sum of £^0 was bequeathed for the Free School. 
 
 These two legacies were followed by a gift of 
 ;^ioo by Alderman Walter Borough, and with this 
 ;^35o in hand the Chamber proceeded to brave the 
 embargo placed by the ecclesiastical authority and to 
 take measures for the provision of a school building 
 and for the raising of a permanent endowment. 
 
 * The value of money at this time was about four times its present 
 value. 
 
 39 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 Difficulty seems to have been met in finding 
 a convenient site for a building, but eventually 
 arrangements were made for adapting a portion 
 of the buildings of the old St. John's Hospital for 
 the purposes of such a school and a lease of the 
 premises was obtained. 
 
 The two legacies and Mr. Borough's gift were 
 formally handed over to the Mayor, Aldermen and 
 Bailiffs, who covenanted, in consideration thereof, 
 to provide a school building as soon as they should 
 be enabled thereunto by the charitable benevolence 
 of well disposed persons, and to appoint a school- 
 master freely to instruct, without charge, the 
 children of the freemen and inhabitants of the 
 City in the Latin and Greek tongues and other 
 learning. They also covenanted to grant a rent 
 charge of ;£20 a year out of the Manor of Exe 
 Island for the payment and maintenance of 
 such schoolmaster, with power reserved to transfer 
 the security for the charge to some other portion 
 of the corporate estate of no less capital value than 
 ;^35o. It was agreed that the school should be 
 called the Free School and be under the govern- 
 ance of the Mayor and Common Council. These 
 arrangements were incorporated in two deeds dated 
 the 30th January and 20th February, 1629-30. 
 
 The battle over the Free School was fought out 
 
 in this year of 1630, the previous events having 
 
 been mere skirmishes in the campaign. It was 
 
 felt that the provision of a school building and the 
 
 endowment of the school would place the City in 
 
 a strong position when the matter came to be 
 
 • 
 
 40 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 fought out before the supreme authority. It was 
 a risk well run and in the end the bold course paid. 
 
 The preparation of a building for the new 
 school was eagerly taken up and the contributions 
 of the citizens flowed in apace. On the 25th 
 May, 1630, the Chamber gave directions for the 
 felhng of some trees in Duryard Wood for beams 
 for the intended Free School, if other convenient 
 timber could not be conveniently gotten for 
 money, and by the same resolution an order was 
 given for the purchase of 200 deal boards for 
 which the sum of ;£ 16 was paid.* 
 
 On the loth June, eight members of the Chamber 
 were appointed and two deputed to each quarter of 
 the City to collect a moiety of the money which 
 " divers inhabitants of the Cittie had lovinglie 
 " under written to contribute to the founding of a 
 " Free Schoole." At the same meeting of the 
 Chamber, an order was given to fell six trees in 
 Duryard Wood for the better furtherance of the 
 work. On the 8th July it was agreed that the 
 remainder of the money promised towards the 
 founding of the Free Grammar School should be 
 called in and in consideration of its receipt a rent 
 charge of £;^o per annum was granted out of the 
 Manor of Exe Island. This investment did not, 
 however, represent the whole of the contribu- 
 tions, for a portion was devoted towards the cost 
 of the building operations. 
 
 As may be expected. Ferryman was again 
 spurred into action by this activity on the part of 
 
 * Minute 29th September, 1630. 
 41 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 the Chamber. In June of this year he presents his 
 third Petition* to the Privy Council. He refers 
 to their Order of the 23rd February, 1624-5, 
 admonishing the magistrates to forbear to impose 
 any further charges upon him hke to the assess- 
 ment to the subsidies and the fifteenths, and 
 states that the magistrates in contempt of such 
 Order, and contrary to the opinion of the Judges 
 of Assize in point of law, had since forced him to 
 pay new assessments, but that he (unwilling to 
 have any new differences with them) had been 
 content to pay and to forbear making any further 
 complaints to their Lordships. He had also 
 endeavoured "by all respective and good carriage" 
 to regain the love and good opinion of the magis- 
 trates, but they, conceiving causeless spleen against 
 him, were (contrary to the will of the Bishop and 
 of the Dean and Chapter) preparing material for 
 erecting a new school and had resolved to bring in 
 a schoolmaster of their own in order to impoverish 
 him. He again recounts the sacrifices he had 
 rnade for his school, and prays their Lordships to 
 stay the erection of the new school and preserve 
 him from any further trouble in the matter. 
 
 The Privy Council referred this Petition to the 
 Bishop and the Dean and Chapter for their 
 observations. In replyf they submitted the state- 
 ment presented to the Privy Council by Bishop 
 Carey in February, 1624-5, together with two 
 certificates, one by Bishop Hall and the other by 
 
 * Ancient Letters, vol. 6oE, No. 334. 
 t Ancient Letters, vol. 60D, No. 276. 
 
 42 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 the Dean and Chapter, confirming and expressing 
 their agreement with the statement of Bishop 
 Carey, the Dean and Chapter adding that it would 
 be very prejudicial to the privileges of their 
 Church and contrary to their local statutes that 
 a new school should be erected within the City. 
 At a meeting of the 25th June the Privy Council 
 made an Order* in which they reproved the dis- 
 respectful carriage and proceeding of the Mayor 
 and Magistrates and required that they should 
 forthwith forbear to erect any new school within 
 the City without the privity and licence of the 
 Board. They further ordered that the Mayor and 
 Magistrates should cause repayment to be made 
 to Ferryman of all such sums as had been taken 
 from him in contempt of the Board's Order of the 
 23rd February, 1624-5. In the recitals to this 
 Order their Lordships expressed themselves as 
 satisfied with the merits of Ferryman and the 
 sufficiency of his school and called to mind that 
 on the former hearing before the Board they had 
 declared to those who were then present as agents 
 for the City that they should erect no new school 
 without first acquainting the Board and obtaining 
 a licence in that behalf. 
 
 This Order was made without affording the 
 City any opportunity of a hearing, and immediately 
 it was communicated to the Chamber instructions 
 were given counsel to prepare a counter petition. 
 The City were advised throughout this dispute by 
 
 * Privy Council Registers, 25th June, 1630. Also City Records. 
 Ancient Letters vol. 60E, No. 335. 
 
 43 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 one of the ablest, if not the ablest, lawyer of the 
 day, William Noy, who was appointed Attorney 
 General in October, 163 1. He was a native of 
 Cornwall and educated at Exeter College, and was 
 doubtless from these connections on terms of 
 personal friendship with some of the leading 
 citizens. He was appointed counsel to the City 
 Chamber in April, 1625, at a fee of £t^ 6s. 8d. 
 per annum, and evidently performed his services 
 to the great satisfaction of the Chamber, for on the 
 22nd December, 163 1, they voted him a present 
 of the value of £"] or ;^8, and on the 22nd January, 
 1633-4, ^l^^y resolved that " a tonne of the best 
 " syder that cann be gotten and that two good samon 
 " pyes shall be provided att the charge of the Cittie 
 " to be bestowed uppon Mr. Attornye as a token of 
 " the thanckfulness of this Chamber unto hym for 
 " his greate love and care in the publick affaires of 
 "this Cittie." 
 
 The Petition* presented by the City Chamber 
 dealt, in the first place, with the charges made 
 by Ferryman against the Mayor, Aldermen and 
 Magistrates and then advanced reasons for the 
 establishment of a Free Grammar School within 
 the City. ' They stated that Ferryman had not 
 been assessed to any rate whatsoever since 
 the Magistrates had notice of any Order of 
 the Lords, the poor rate only excepted, and 
 this he had always willingly paid. They further 
 stated that upon receipt of the Order of the 
 25th June, 1630, the Mayor had enquired of 
 
 * Ancient Letters, Vol. 6ok, No. 342. 
 
 44 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 Perryman what assessment he meant by his 
 petition and what moneys he had paid, to which 
 he repHed that it was 8s. for one subsidy and 
 something to the poor, that of the poor he 
 weighed not but expected repayment of the 8s. 
 That assessment, it was explained, was made a 
 few days after the Order of 1624 and before the 
 Commissioners had any notice of it, and having 
 collected the money the Commissioners felt bound 
 to pay it to His Majesty. They never understood 
 that the Judges had delivered any opinion as to 
 Ferryman's liability to pay, but heard that Perry- 
 man had moved the Judges and told them he kept 
 a Free School, which was not true. The Com- 
 missioners, being advised by Counsel that he was 
 not exempt, considered it their duty not to pass 
 him by, for it was publicly known that he had a 
 great estate. Yet two of the Commissioners had, 
 in favour to him, raised [hefyed'] his case into the 
 Court of Exchequer that the Judges of that Court 
 might do him right, if he were wronged by the 
 assessment. 
 
 They denied that, in erecting a school, they had 
 knowingly done anything contrary to any Order of 
 the Privy Council, nor had they heard any declara- 
 tion of their Lordships restricting the erection of 
 any school within the City before the Order of the 
 25th June last, by which time a Free School had been 
 founded within the City by the charitable and liberal 
 bequests of divers worthy persons. Perryman was 
 not master of the High School at the time his 
 petition was presented, neither did he intermeddle 
 
 45 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 with the scholars, but farmed the school out at a 
 yearly rent. The pecuniary sacrifices which he 
 claimed to have made in the interests of his school 
 were also categorically denied. Reasons for the 
 erection of a new school were set out at some 
 length and the petitioners prayed that they might 
 have leave to perfect the said Free School and be 
 freed from the complaints of Ferryman, who had 
 often and without just ground molested them and 
 put them to great charge. They stated that they 
 did not desire to place any schoolmaster into the 
 Free School but such as should conform to the 
 doctrine and discipline of the Church of England 
 and be approved of by such as their Lordships 
 should think fit. 
 
 The first draft of the petition proposed that 
 this approval should be by the Lord Chancellor or 
 Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal for the time being, 
 if their Lordships should think fit, but this 
 proposal was struck out with a marginal note that 
 the Bishops would take exception. 
 
 Upon receipt of this petition the Privy Council 
 directed Perryman and the Bishop and Dean and 
 Chapter to write them a letter certifying their 
 reasons for opposing the erection of a Free School. 
 The Mayor and Corporation thereupon addressed 
 a further petition* to their Lordships, desiring 
 them, if they did not consider the reasons advanced 
 in the former petition sufficient to obtain a revoca- 
 tion of the Order of the 25th June, to summon all 
 parties before the Council, and to put them to the 
 
 * Ancient Letters, vol. 6oE, No. 343. 
 46 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 proof of their allegations so that some final Order 
 might be made in the matter. So proper a request 
 prevailed, and on the 26th November, 1630, the 
 Board appointed the second Wednesday in the 
 next term, being the Hilary term, for the hearing 
 of the cause.* All the parties opposing the City's 
 petition were ordered to send to the Clerk of the 
 Council, a full week before the day of hearing, the 
 reasons for their opposition and to send also copies 
 of the same to the petitioners that they may be 
 prepared to make answer thereto. The Chapter 
 had by this time ranged themselves definitely on 
 Ferryman's side, for on the 17th July of this year 
 they resolved that if thereafter Mr. Ferryman be 
 questioned by the citizens concerning the erection 
 of a new school within the City, they would give him 
 all the assistance and furtherance that they could. 
 
 The City Muniments contain a copy of Counsel's 
 brief with the answers of the City to the reasons 
 presented to the Privy Council in opposition to the 
 Free School. Every statement is attested by some 
 witness, and it is evident that the City spared no 
 pains or expense to make their case complete so 
 as to end the controversy once and for all. 
 
 The reasons presented by the opponents to the 
 Free School do not seem to have been preserved, 
 but they may be gathered from the City's answers. 
 The following is a summary of the case presented 
 by the City Chamber.f 
 
 * Ancient Letters, vol. 6oE, No. 344. 
 
 t The Documents summarised are Ancient Letters, vol. 60K, 
 No. 340 and Nos. 345 to 349, also Counsel's Instructions and 
 Depositions of Witnesses. 
 
 47 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 I. As to the Prohibition of another Schoolmaster. 
 
 The opponents had referred to the Ucence 
 granted by Bishop Oldham to Mr. David in 15 15 
 and the inhibition in the same instrument against 
 any other person teaching grammar publicly at 
 or within seven miles of Exeter. The reply is 
 that ' this could have had effect only temporarily 
 during the Bishop's life for he was dominus et 
 diocesanus pro tempore, nor could any act of his 
 bind his successors. If such power is given now 
 to one man he must be prepared to teach 1,000 
 scholars or more within that circuit. The multitude 
 of citizens has doubled or trebled, and four schools 
 at this time are not more competent than one 
 school was in those days. The inhibition was 
 intended for licensed schools at that time only and 
 not to any free school, and it will be proved that for 
 fifty years since and more there have been several 
 public teachers of the Latin tongue within the 
 City at one and the same time, all licensed as 
 it is conceived. One, Thomas Spicer, taught by 
 Bishop Cotton's approbation and authority within 
 the Citv and afterwards in the suburbs, nor did 
 Bishop Carey inhibit him, but when he died about 
 five or six years ago, the Bishop declined to license 
 another, though the Mayor, Magistrates and 
 Commons made earnest suit to the Bishop to 
 do so.' 
 
 At the hearing Counsel for the City, in evidence 
 of this statement, produced a license under seal 
 granted by the Archbishop of Canterbury to one, 
 
 48 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 Thomas Pasmore, B.A., to teach within the City, all 
 others being restrained, Mr. Drayton then master 
 of the High School alone excepted. 
 
 2. The Inadequacy of the High School. 
 
 'The present school is not convenient or 
 commodious enough for the children that attend, 
 being 300 or thereabouts.* The recent re- 
 edification has not enlarged, but rather lessened 
 the accommodation. Whereas it was a ground 
 room it is now an upper room and the stairs and 
 portal take away much of the largeness thereof. 
 For so many to meet in one room cannot but be 
 dangerous for infection.' 
 
 The opponents appear to have pointed to the 
 successes of the old pupils of the school as proof 
 of its efficiency. To this the reply is given that 
 ' such is a matter casual and common to schools 
 of such great resort, and that the number of fellow- 
 ships gained by the scholars at the Universities is 
 disappointing. Besides, the master of the school 
 never took any degree in any University.' 
 
 At the hearing before the Privy Council the 
 Dean and Chapter produced a certificate from 
 Dr. Prideaux (the Rector) and others of Exeter 
 College, which is preserved among the State 
 Papers in the Public Record Office. f They testify 
 thereby that since Mr. Perryman and Mr. Haytor 
 had been teachers of the High School of Exeter 
 as many well ordered and grounded grammarians, 
 
 • Elsewhere the number is stated to be "200 and more." 
 t State Papers Domestic, vol. clxxxii., fo. 4 (3rd Jan., 1631). 
 
 49 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 both in Greek and Latin, had come from thence to 
 that College as ever at any time, or usually 
 might be expected from such a place. At that 
 time they had from thence seven in their society 
 (being a third part of it), besides commoners and 
 others to the number of twenty and upwards. 
 They esteemed the school one of the chief nurseries 
 for supply of their western students of which their 
 College especially consisted. 
 
 3. The Exactions of the High School. 
 
 'The payments and exactions of the High 
 School {besides other great abuses) are of late 
 grown great and changeable, for whereas before 
 Ferryman's time a scholar paid only 6s. 8d. or 8s. 
 a year and never above los., Ferryman usually 
 takes 20s. a year and more for one scholar and his 
 ushers charge 8s., los. or 12s. and more for the 
 same person, besides other exactions, else they 
 will be sleighted.' 
 
 The Recorder of the City testified that he 
 paid but 4s. and afterwards 8s. a year, and 
 Dr. Vilvain gave evidence that at the time of 
 his training there Mr. Drayton the schoolmaster 
 required and received from the meaner sort only 
 6s. 8d. yearly, of most part 8s., and of the ablest 
 I OS. at most. 
 
 4. The Need for a Second School. 
 
 ' The City of Exeter is spacious and populous, 
 consisting of nineteen parishes besides the Cathe- 
 dral Church and its precincts, and there are 
 
 50 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 divers other great parishes near adjoining the 
 City. It is not right that such a multitude of 
 people should be tied to the humours of one 
 teacher, be he of good or evil reputation. When 
 two schools are licensed in one City there will be 
 the better discipline in either, for the masters will 
 strive to deserve best and civil emulation between 
 scholars is accounted a ready way for increase of 
 learning. As it is now, a scholar cannot be 
 prepared for the University within ten or twelve 
 years. 
 
 There is not the like precedent that in a City 
 or County there should be no free school. It is a 
 work of charity and conceived lawful for any man 
 to erect or endow a free school. Plymouth, a 
 sea-town of much less extent and resort, has two 
 public free grammar schools ; so also Bristol, 
 Salisbury, Gloucester and divers other towns in 
 this shire and elsewhere have one free school at 
 least. 
 
 It is the earnest desire of most of the chiefest 
 citizens to have another school. The City is the 
 chief place of all these western parts and many 
 gentlemen do often meet there and would rather 
 send their children thither than to other places 
 if there were another school to entertain them, 
 which would be beneficial to the City. Divers 
 gentlemen and others residing near the City 
 and many of the citizens also, who were wont to 
 send their children to school in the City, now send 
 them away to school to their great cost and greater 
 discomfort.' 
 
 51 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 5. The Site and Endowment of the New School. 
 
 'The intended free school is part of a Hospital 
 lately founded within the City and is a place most 
 fit for the purpose, and for air, situation and 
 spaciousness it far exceeds the present school. 
 There will be scholars enough for both schools. 
 
 The gifts to the intended school amount to 
 ;^i,ooo and upwards. A place and materials have 
 been provided and an annual salary granted to a 
 schoolmaster, all which was done before any notice 
 of any Order to the contrary. If the City is not 
 permitted to proceed in perfecting the school most 
 part of these gifts will be lost.' 
 
 6. As to the Proposals for Co-operation. 
 
 The Dean and Chapter had apparently pro- 
 posed that the City Chamber should confer with 
 them with the view to the moneys received for the 
 Free School being bestowed upon the High 
 School, such school to be made either wholly or 
 partially a Free School and the master elected 
 jointly by the Chapter and the Mayor and 
 Magistrates. 
 
 The reply of the Mayor and Magistrates is that 
 'such proposal is most unreasonable for since the 
 Chapter have withdrawn the stipend of ;^20 or £^0 
 a year, anciently due or given to the master for 
 teaching the poor sort gratis, there is no reason 
 why the citizens should confer their revenues on 
 the Chapter's School when they intend to erect a 
 new one of their own. Their chief end is to erect 
 a new school because one is not enough for the 
 
 52 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 City. Besides, a Free School must be erected on 
 fee simple land and the Dean and Chapter cannot 
 grant a fee of their school. As regards the 
 proposal for a conference, Virgil's Tiineo Danaos 
 et dona ferentes might well deter the Mayor and 
 Magistrates from accepting it, and they did wisely 
 to refuse it, for the Dean and Chapter preferred it 
 for their own advantage, either to gain time by 
 pretending to the Lords that they were upon terms 
 of treaty, or to entrap them otherwise.' 
 
 " Lastlie, for the proposicon of electinge the 
 '* maister of the Chymaerian free schoole to bee 
 " erected on the chapter's land and endowed with 
 " the cittizens largesses by the deane and Eight 
 " Cannons on the one part and the Maior and 8 
 " Aldermen on the other, constitutinge the Bishop 
 " for the time beinge for umpier in case of equalitie 
 " of suffrages, it is a mere moustrap : for the chapter 
 "will alwayes agree in their voices on one, so 
 " that if the Cittizens dislike or dissent the Bishop 
 "to please his brethren will adhere to the Canons 
 "and sticke to their choice so that the Maior 
 " and magistrates wilbee but Cyphers or Stales in 
 " the eleccon." 
 
 7. The Opposition of the Dean and Chapter. 
 
 * The Lord Bishop was at first willing to grant 
 the suit of the citizens for another school, but was 
 induced by the Dean and Chapter to refuse the 
 request. These have their own ends to serve for 
 they obtain a rent of ;^5 a year from Ferryman, 
 and whereas they used to contribute ^^20 or £^0 a 
 
 53 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 year to the maintenance of the schoolmaster, they 
 are now saved this payment, for Ferryman had 
 rather trust to the benevolences of his scholars 
 than to this stipend. 
 
 As the Dean and Chapter will do no good work 
 themselves so they will hinder the like in others. 
 They were suspected heretofore of concealing or 
 misemploying moneys or lands given to charitable 
 purposes, and, upon an Inquiry held in the third 
 year of the reign of Elizabeth, were ordered to pay 
 yearly to the poor in Exeter ;f 34 3s. lod., which 
 they paid for many years afterwards, but which 
 now they withhold.' 
 
 A marginal note states that this can be presently 
 proved by the Commissioner and Inquisition. This 
 had reference to proceedings then pending, which 
 resulted in a decree of the Commissioners of 
 Charitable Uses whereby the Dean and Chapter 
 were ordered to continue certain payments to the 
 poor which they had withheld for some years.* 
 
 One of the chief witnesses for the City was 
 Robert Vilvain, the most noted physician of his 
 time in the west parts of England, and a distin- 
 guished author.f In his evidence, after setting 
 out the need for a Free School, he proceeds to 
 state that towards such work he " laboured long, 
 " and stirred up som pious Benefactors to further 
 " so necessary a work which was in a fair forwardnes, 
 
 * Report of Charity Commissioners on the Exeter Endowed 
 Charities, 1909, p. 43. 
 
 t An account of his life and literary productions is contained in 
 Wood's Athenae Oxoniensis, vol. iii., p. 631. 
 
 54 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 " had it not bin retarded by the cross-opposition of 
 " som malevolent Planets, who for their own privat 
 " ends seek by misinformations to blast the good 
 " intentions of others, and to support their own 
 " unjust monopoly, whereof this Kingdom cannot 
 " afford the like precedent." 
 
 Such being the sentiments of the citizens 
 towards the Dean and Chapter it is not surprising 
 that proposals for a compromise were incontinently 
 rejected. The Dean and Chapter had evidently 
 charged the Magistrates with a discourteous answer 
 to such a proposal, for the Magistrates in their 
 answers strongly repudiate such a charge. 
 
 The case was debated at large before the Privy 
 Council by learned Counsel on both sides, and on 
 the 9th February, 1 630-1, the Council made their 
 Order.* They state that, having regard to the en- 
 dowments already conferred upon the Free School 
 and further intended, they were careful not to give 
 the least check or discountenance to works of that 
 nature. They conceived that it would be for the 
 good of the City in general to have both schools, 
 but had cause to fear that the erecting of this Free 
 School would be the decay, if not the overthrow, 
 of the school already there, which deserved to be 
 upheld. They had decided, therefore, that it 
 should be first considered and provided by all 
 the best ways and means possible, that the erecting 
 of the new be not the undoing of the old, and they 
 directed that the Dean and Chapter should confer 
 with the Mayor and Magistrates for the making of 
 
 * See Appendix A. 
 
 55 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 the old school likewise a Free School and 
 procuring it to be endowed with some competent 
 maintenance, and that the two bodies do use 
 their joint endeavours to procure donations for 
 that purpose. They were required to certify to 
 the Council by the 27th of April next, the result 
 of their proceedings. 
 
 One of the Privy Councillors who was present 
 at the hearing of the dispute was William Laud, 
 afterwards Archbishop, but then Bishop of London 
 and Chancellor of the University of Oxford. 
 
 Counsel for the City had evidently alleged that 
 the fellowships gained at Exeter College by the old 
 pupils of the High School were close fellowships, 
 and consequently no criterion of merit. Laud, as 
 Chancellor of the University, made enquiries of 
 the Rector of the College as to the facts, to which 
 the Rector replied* that the election of their 
 fellows was not limited to any particular school, 
 and that the old pupils of the High School had 
 attained theirs from the conceived hope and worth 
 of their abilities. He also stated that Sir John 
 Acland gave ;£8oo to the building of their Hall, 
 and at his death remembered the College with 
 ;^i6 yearly for two poor scholars from Exeter 
 School, which was performed in the beginning for 
 a year and somewhat more, but for the past two 
 years and upwards these pensions had been cut 
 off ; that two poor youths had the title of Sir John 
 Acland's Pensioners, but not a penny of main- 
 tenance. He heard the City had reasons for this, 
 
 * State Papers Domestic, vol. clxxxiv., fol. 85 (14th Feb., 1631). 
 
 56 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 which they had omitted to acquaint the College 
 with. In charity he conceived their kindness may 
 be yet to come and, therefore, he was far from 
 making complaint or taking part, but thought it 
 well to inform his Lordship how the case stood. 
 
 The scholarship endowment referred to is 
 contained in the Will of Sir John Acland of 
 Culme-John, Devon, Knight, of the 14th Sept., 
 1609, whereby £16 a year was appointed to each 
 of two poor scholars to be approved by the Mayor, 
 the Recorder, the Schoolmaster of the High School, 
 the Rector of Exeter College, and the owner of 
 Culme-John or any three of them. 
 
 The Minutes of the City Chamber indicate that 
 they applied themselves honestly and diligently to 
 arrive at some composition with the Dean and 
 Chapter on the lines suggested by the Privy 
 Council. On the 5th April the Chamberlain and 
 Town Clerk were directed to repair to Mr. Dean 
 for the answer of the Dean and Chapter touching 
 the Lords' letter about the Free School, and two 
 members of the Chamber were deputed to see 
 what could be got by their friendly persuasions of 
 the chiefest inhabitants of the City towards the 
 endowment of the school desired to be founded by 
 the Dean and Chapter in co-operation with the 
 City. 
 
 On the 2ist April it was resolved that the Town 
 Clerk and two of the Chamber should go again to 
 the Dean and Chapter to conclude with them that 
 if they would deposit ;^6oo in money towards the 
 endowment of the existing school, as they did 
 
 57 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 proffer, the City would do the Hke upon reasonable 
 terms, or, otherwise, to consider with them some 
 other agreement whereby the new school might be 
 erected without further opposition, so that both 
 schools might subsist together. 
 
 The Dean and Chapter do not appear to have 
 been able to raise their share of the endowment, 
 but an Agreement was arrived at upon other 
 lines. This Agreement provided that the Free 
 School should be perfected and continue together 
 with the old school. It was further agreed, to 
 the end that no one of them should be pre- 
 judicial to the other, that neither of the schools 
 should entertain or take above 150 scholars until 
 the other school was completely furnished with the 
 like number, and that the master of the old school 
 should not demand for himself and his ushers 
 more than 20s. a year for the teaching of any 
 scholar. 
 
 The Agreement was signed by the Mayor and 
 Aldermen and the Lord Bishop and Dean and 
 Chapter, and on the loth May the Town Clerk rode 
 off to London for the confirmation of the Agree- 
 ment by the Board. This confirmation was duly 
 given on the i8th May and the Agreement ordered 
 to be entered as an Act of Council, to remain on 
 record for a final ending and determining of all 
 differences touching the two schools.* 
 
 * See Appendix A. 
 58 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The St. John's Hospital. 
 
 The circumstance that the Free Grammar 
 School was erected on the site of the dissolved 
 St. John's Hospital has led to two misconceptions 
 in regard to the origin of the school. The belief 
 that it sprang from an educational foundation of 
 Bishop Stapledon in 1332 has been shewn to be 
 erroneous. Scarcely less erroneous is the statement 
 commonly made that to Hugh Crossing is due, or 
 mainly due, the credit of the founding or (as it is 
 commonly termed) the refounding of the school 
 in the reign of Charles I. It is certain that Hugh 
 Crossing never contemplated the establishment of 
 such a school as part of his charitable designs. 
 The Free School was determined upon and 
 endowed by the citizens quite apart from any 
 intent of locating it permanently on the site of 
 the dissolved Hospital, or of appropriating for its 
 benefit any part of the Charity founded by the 
 Crossing family, known later as the St. John's 
 Hospital Trust. The school was grafted on to the 
 Trust by the accident of site and such benefit as 
 it eventually obtained from the charity of the 
 Crossings was but slight. 
 
 The site and buildings of the dissolved St. 
 John's Hospital were granted by King Henry VIII. 
 on the 29th April, 1540, to Thomas Carew, son and 
 
 59 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 heir of John Carew of Haccombe, who converted 
 some of the buildings into dwelling-houses. On 
 the 24th November, 1593, the body or lower part 
 of the Hospital Church, known as St. John's 
 Church, as far as the wall where the tower of the 
 church sometime was, and also the higher room 
 and loft over the lower part of the tower, were 
 leased by Humphrey Carew (the son of the grantee) 
 with Peter his son, to the Mayor, Bailiffs and 
 Commonalty of Exeter for ninety-nine years, if 
 the said Humphrey Carew and Peter Carew should 
 so long live, at the rent of 40s. per annum. Hugh 
 Crossing, an Alderman and Past Mayor of the 
 City, shortly before his death in 1622, began to 
 treat with Peter Carew for the purchase of the 
 inheritance of the site and buildings of the old 
 Hospital for the sum of £yoo, in order to found a 
 Hospital there for setting " poor children and 
 people " to work. He died before the purchase 
 could be completed, but his widow Joan and his 
 son Francis, for the accomplishment of his 
 charitable purpose, completed the purchase on the 
 2nd April, 1623. An offer was then made by them 
 to the City Chamber to convey the inheritance to 
 such gentlemen of the Chamber as should be 
 nominated by the Chamber in trust for the 
 establishment of the intended Hospital or Work- 
 house. The offer was accepted on the 25th August, 
 and at a meeting of the Chamber on the 25th 
 November, it was decided that Mr. Francis 
 Crossing should have the nominance of the title or 
 name of the Hospital. The conveyance was 
 
 60 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 effected by an Indenture of the 14th January, 
 1623-4*, to thirteen feoffees being members of 
 the City Chamber, the premises comprising the 
 house, site, circuit and precinct of the late dissolved 
 Hospital, and the site of the church and churchyard 
 of the Hospital and other messuages and lands 
 therein particularly mentioned. In the same 
 Indenture it was provided that if at any time it 
 should seem meet to the Mayor and City Chamber 
 that the feoffees should demise the site of the church 
 to the City Corporation, for any number of years 
 not exceeding thirty, for a storehouse or granary 
 for corn or for a cloth hall or for any other good 
 use for the City, the feoffees should from time to 
 time demise the same to the Corporation, for the 
 best yearly rent that could be obtained, such rent 
 to be expended upon the repair and maintenance 
 of the Hospital. It was also agreed between the 
 parties to the deed, by the consent of the Mayor 
 and Common Council, that the Hospital should be 
 named Crossing's Hospital. 
 
 The intent seems to have been to establish 
 a Work-house for poor children and adults, 
 but primarily for children. In the event, the 
 charitable design was confined entirely to 
 children. 
 
 The City Chamber were appointed governors 
 of the Hospital, the feoffees merely taking over 
 the legal estate. 
 
 The reparation and adaptation of the Hospital 
 buildings for their new purpose involved the City 
 
 *City Records, No. 1740. 
 61 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 during the next ten years in an expenditure of 
 £^io los. 2d.* 
 
 The premises seem to have been made ready 
 for the reception of children in July, 1625, for in 
 that month the Chamber appointed a Committee 
 to interview Thomas Brook of London, pin maker, 
 with a view to his appointment as master of the 
 Work-house. His appointment is not recorded, 
 but it probably followed. On the 5th February, 
 1628-9, Thomas Rose of London, pin maker, was 
 appointed master and the sum of ;£i2 to -£14 was 
 expended in London in the purchase of tools, and 
 ;^50 in the purchase of wire. In the following 
 May permission was given Rose to have two 
 apprentices to be appointed by the Mayor and 
 Aldermen. 
 
 It was in this month of February, 1628-9, six 
 years after the death of Hugh Crossing, that 
 Alderman Thomas Walker died, leaving the 
 bequest of ;£200 towards the founding of a Free 
 Grammar School, with the condition that such 
 school should be erected within five years of his 
 decease. Then it was that the City decided upon 
 the bold course of establishing such a school in 
 defiance of the claim that no such school could be 
 established without the licence of the Bishop. 
 
 Having taken this determination, one of the 
 first considerations was the selection of a site for 
 the new school. The whole of the church buildings 
 of the old Hospital and two rooms within such 
 buildings had been repaired and utilised as a cloth 
 
 •Chamber Minute of 22nd April, 1634. 
 62 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 hall.* No appropriate use had, however, been 
 found for the remainder of these buildings. This 
 suggested itself as an appropriate place for the 
 school, and on the 30th January, 1629-30 the feoffees 
 demised to the Mayor, Bailiffs and Commonalty for 
 a term of thirty years, with a covenant to renew, 
 the body or lower part of the church to the wall, 
 where the tower of the said church was, to be 
 employed for the intended school "to the end that 
 the godly intention of the said Thomas Walker and 
 others might take effect which had been delayed 
 for want of a convenient place to found the said 
 school and sufficient means to endow the same." 
 
 The location of the Free School in Crossing's 
 Hospital was evidently intended only as a temporary 
 expedient, for in a deed of the 20th February, 1629- 
 3of confirming this arrangement it was provided, 
 " to the intent the said school might thereafter be 
 the better and more orderly established, and a 
 larger maintenance for a schoolmaster and for 
 ushers therein provided," that it should be lawful 
 for the Mayor, etc., at any time thereafter, to 
 remove the school to any other convenient place 
 or house within the City, when thereunto enabled 
 by the charitable gifts of well affected persons. 
 
 The activity of the Chamber in effecting the 
 necessary repairs upon the old church has been 
 already described. The work was arrested by the 
 Order of the Privy Council of the 30th June, 1630, 
 but upon the confirmation of the Agreement 
 
 *City Chamber Minutes, loth Mar., 1624-5. 
 t Report on Exeter Endowed Charities, pp. i and 2. 
 
 63 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 between the City and the Dean and Chapter in 
 May, 163 1, it was free to proceed. 
 
 Mr. Francis Crossing, who was a member of 
 the Chamber, had signified his agreement with the 
 proposal to locate the school in the Hospital, but 
 some disagreement seems to have arisen between 
 him and the Chamber, for on the 28th July, 163 1, 
 the Chamber decided that, as Mr. Crossing had 
 not returned his answer touching the upper room 
 of the Cloth Hall, the rooms over the Eastgate 
 should be forthwith prepared for the Free School, 
 and arrangements were made for the tenant to 
 vacate the house. On the 9th August, however, 
 it was reported that Mr. Crossing and his mother 
 were pleased to agree that the higher part of 
 the Cloth Hall should be converted and made a 
 Free School in such manner as Mr. Mayor and 
 his brethren should think most fitting, and the 
 resolution of the 28th July was rescinded. 
 
 A fortnight later directions were given to 
 prepare the rooms over the Cloth Hall and adjoining 
 chamber for the school, such portions thereof as 
 need it to be taken down and rebuilt ; also to 
 prepare a chamber adjoining thereto over the gate 
 for the accommodation of the schoolmaster. A 
 Committee was appointed to supervise the work 
 and their names might almost stand for a Committee 
 of the present day, so persistent have been the 
 surnames in the City. They were J. Acland, 
 N. Martin, J. Hakewill, A. Bennett, J. Crocker, 
 J. Penny, T. Tucker, H. Battishill, R. Vilvain, 
 A. Paul, A. Salter, H. Crocker and S. Snow. 
 
 64 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 So much money was spent by the Chamber 
 upon this work of restoration that it was considered 
 desirable to obtain a greater security of tenure and 
 fix the school there permanently. Negotiations 
 were opened with the Crossings for the conversion 
 of the leasehold into a freehold, and by a deed of the 
 ist August, 1632,* the feoffees granted and enfeoffed 
 to the Mayor, Bailiffs and Commonalty, for a ground 
 rent of 5s. per annum, the body and the lower 
 part of the late church, together with the tower 
 standing between the church and chancel which, 
 since the dissolution, had been used as a gate or 
 entry into the hospital, upon trust to convert some 
 convenient part of the tower for a gate and passage 
 to and from the hospital and school, and so much 
 of the residue of the premises thereby granted as 
 the Mayor and Common Council should think fit 
 for a school house and as a house for the school- 
 master and ushers. It was provided that such 
 portion as was not required for the school, viz., the 
 ground room of the church (then used as a cloth 
 hall) should be used for such purposes, being for 
 the common good and profit of the City, as the 
 Mayor and Common Council should think fit. 
 
 In the following year, 1633, the Chamber framed 
 ordinances! for the government of the school. 
 These fixed an entrance fee of 6d. for every child 
 of a freeman, and 2s. for every child of a stranger. 
 The master was debarred from making any charge 
 for teaching the children or grandchildren of any 
 
 *Report on Exeter Endowed Charities, p. 2. 
 t See Appendix B. 
 
 65 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 freeman or of any such benefactor to the school as 
 the Mayor and Common - Council should think fit 
 to be exempted. 
 
 On the i8th June, 1633, the first headmaster 
 was appointed.* This was William Nosworthy, 
 M.A., and he entered upon his appointment on 
 the following Lammas at a salary of £-^^0 a year. 
 Shortly afterwards, an usher was appointed at a 
 salary of £10 a year, which was increased the 
 following July to ;^i5.t 
 
 It has been stated that certain portions of the 
 hospital buildings were converted by the Carews 
 into dwelling-houses. In Michaelmas of 1635 ^^e 
 tenancies of these were terminated J and thenceforth 
 the whole of the Hospital was devoted to the direct 
 purposes of the Charity, with the exception only 
 of the great room under the Grammar School, 
 which continued to be let for various public 
 purposes. 
 
 Free English School. 
 
 The next year, 1636, witnessed the founding of 
 the Free English School within the precincts of 
 the Hospital. This was not effected without a 
 dispute, for the settlement of which the intervention 
 of the Privy Council was again sought. 
 
 George Jourdaine of Exeter, grocer, by his will 
 dated the 22nd August, 1632, bequeathed £^0 to 
 the Free School. He died shortly afterwards, and 
 
 * City Chamber Minutes, i8th June, 1633. 
 
 t City Chamber Minutes, 22nd April, 29ih April and 5th July, 1634. 
 
 J City Chamber Minutes, 27th August, 1635. 
 
 66 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 his widow Elizabeth, by her will dated the 27th 
 September, 1633, bequeathed £soo to trustees 
 upon trust to employ it towards such good and 
 pious uses within the City as they should think fit ; 
 if they neglected so to employ it within four years 
 after her death the legacy was revoked. She also 
 died within a short time after making her will. 
 The City Chamber sought to obtain this money for 
 the Hospital, and the Privy Council were induced 
 by a petition from the Chamber to recommend the 
 trustees to apply the money to this purpose.* At 
 first the trustees intimated their willingness to 
 bestow the money upon the Hospital, f but being 
 informed that Elizabeth Jourdaine in her last illness 
 had mentioned, among other suitable objects for her 
 bequest, the erecting of a Free English School for 
 poor children, they proposed later that the money 
 should be specifically devoted to the establishment 
 of such a school.J 
 
 The Chamber at that time had under considera- 
 tion an application for a Charter of Incorporation 
 of the Hospital so as to obtain le^al sanction for 
 its establishment, and the City Recorder, purporting 
 to act on behalf of the Chamber, entered into an 
 informal Agreement with Mrs. Jourdaine's trustees 
 that, in the event of the Charter being obtained 
 and a room therein allotted for a Free English 
 School, the two bequests of £soo and £^0 should 
 be employed upon such a school within the 
 
 *Cit)' Records, No. 36S (30th April, 1635). 
 
 t City Chamber Minutes, loth October, 1635. 
 
 J State Papers Domestic, vol. cccxvi., fo. 54 (18th Mar. 1635-6). 
 
 67 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 Hospital " for teacheing of such poore Childeren 
 '' of the said Cittie whose parents are not able to 
 " mayntaine them ; and who now wander disorderlie 
 " aboute the streets, that they might bee taught to 
 " read and write and soe made fit to bee bound out 
 " apprentizes."* 
 
 The Recorder, though authorised bythe Chamber 
 to confer with the trustees, does not appear to have 
 had any authority to conclude an Agreement on 
 behalf of the Chamber, and it is clear that any 
 such Agreement could not extend to the sum of 
 £^0 which had been specifically bequeathed for 
 the Free Grammar School. 
 
 The arrangement failed to meet with the 
 approval of the Chamber, and on the i8th March, 
 1635-6, the trustees presented a petition* to the 
 Privy Council in which they complained that the 
 Chamber disclaimed the Agreement made by the 
 Recorder and claimed to have the legacy of ;£5oo 
 handed over to them to be devoted to the pur 
 poses of the Hospital as the Chamber should 
 think fit. 
 
 The large room under the Free Grammar 
 School which had been used as a Cloth Hall seems 
 to have been vacant at this time and it had probably 
 presented itself to the Chamber as a convenient 
 place for the proposed school. If so, the cause of 
 the disagreement with the trustees may be found 
 in the fact that the Chamber had in the meantime 
 found another and a more pressing use for the 
 room. Exeter had been the chief emporium for 
 
 * State Papers Domestic, vol. cccxvi., fo. 54 (i8th March, 1635-6). 
 
 68 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 wool in the West and a weekly market in this 
 commodity had existed in the City from time out of 
 mind. This market had grown in importance so 
 that the place where it was held had become too 
 small for the purpose. As a consequence, much 
 wool was being sold in inns and private houses, 
 which led to escape from payment of the customary 
 tolls. The Chamber, accordingly, decided on the 
 5th April, 1636, that the room below the Latin School 
 should be prepared and appointed at the public 
 charge of the City for a Common Hall and Wool 
 Hall for the weighing and sale of all " toddwooll,* 
 '' rudge-washt wooll,f and fieecewooll, and un- 
 " washed wooll," and that a market should be 
 held there every Wednesday and Friday from 8 a.m. 
 to 4 p.m. All handwashed wool and worsted and 
 combed wool were to continue to be sold in the 
 place heretofore accustomed — the wool market 
 within the Parish of St. Mary Major — every Friday 
 between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. The sale of wool 
 elsewhere than in these two markets was forbidden 
 for the future. 
 
 The proposal to locate the market for coarse 
 wool in the Hospital was frustrated for the time 
 being, by the receipt of an Order from the Privy 
 Council! requiring the Chamber to confirm without 
 delay the Agreement with the trustees of Mrs. 
 Jourdaine's bequest. 
 
 * Clean Wool made up into tods (i.e. bundles of the weight of 
 two stone each). 
 
 t Fleece wool that has been washed only on the sheep's back 
 
 J See Appendix C. 
 
 69 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 This Agreement was confirmed by an Indenture 
 of the loth January, 1636-7.* The Legacy of ;£5oo 
 was handed over to the Chamber and invested by 
 them and they covenanted that they would before the 
 2oth September following, at their own costs and 
 charges, obtain from His Majesty a licence for 
 founding and erecting a Hospital in the City, and 
 would before the same date provide a convenient 
 room in the Hospital for a school house to be 
 called the Free English School of the Hospital. 
 The schoolmaster was to receive fifty poor 
 children and teach them to write and cypher. This 
 number was to include the charity boys, and the 
 remainder of the pupils were to be sons of such 
 poor people as were relieved by, or likely to be 
 chargeable unto, the City. The children were 
 to be elected by the City Chamber upon the 
 nomination of the churchwardens and overseers 
 of the poor. The stipend of the Master was fixed 
 at ;£20 per annum, and upon any vacancy in the 
 office the trustees were to nominate two men for 
 the election of one by the Chamber. Upon the 
 death of the last surviving trustees the election was 
 to be wholly in the hands of the Chamber. 
 
 The licensing and incorporation of the Hospital 
 were effected by Royal Letters Patent bearing date 
 the 2nd June, 1637. f After reciting the various chief 
 benefactions to the Hospital and the charitable 
 intentions of the donors, the establishment of the 
 Free Grammar School in the part of the Hospital 
 which was anciently the body or lower parts of the 
 
 * City Records, No. 1754A. fSee Appendix D. 
 
 70 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 Hospital Church, the apphcation of the bequest of 
 £S^o by Ehzabeth Jourdaine " for the maintenance 
 *■ of a ffree Enghsh Schoole therein for the better 
 '• preparinge of the Children of the said Hospitall 
 " and others for the Grammar Schoole and other 
 "fitt professions," and the recent re-edification of 
 the higher part, or decayed chancel of the said 
 church, by the cost of Alice Hele, widow, as a 
 chapel for the use of the Hospital, the Mayor, 
 Bailiffs, and Commonalty are given power, licence, 
 and authority (i) "To place erecte found and 
 " establish, att or in the said house (heretofore 
 " called St. Johns Hospitall) within the cittie of 
 " Exeter and other the premisses thereunto 
 " adioyninge, One Hospitall, house or place of 
 *' abidinge for the findeninge sustentacon releife 
 " and educacon in learninge and all or any other 
 " lawfull Arts and Trades of poore children from 
 " time to time borne or inhabitinge within the said 
 " Cittie or Countie of the same. And for the 
 " habitacon releife and maintenance of aged or 
 " impotent poore people from time to time 
 " inhabitinge within the said Cittie or Countie." 
 '' (2) " To place erecte found and establish at 
 " or in the said Hospitall and other the premisses 
 " One ffree Grammar Schoole, and one ffree 
 '' English Schoole, for the instructinge teachinge 
 '' maintenance and educacon of poore children 
 " or Schollers borne or inhabitinge within the 
 " said Cittie of Exeter," and to appoint school- 
 masters and ushers '' and alsoe one learned and 
 "godlie Preacher to reade divine service and to 
 
 71 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 " teach and preach the word of God in the said 
 " Chappellto all the said persons poore people and 
 " children members and officers att or in the said 
 " house, with the allowance of the Ordinarie.'' 
 The Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen and Common 
 Council of the City for the time being are 
 appointed Governors of the Hospital, with certain 
 powers therein mentioned, and incorporated with 
 power to purchase and take lands, to sue and be 
 sued by their corporate name and to have a 
 common seal. 
 
 Building operations for providing the necessary 
 accommodation for the various purposes of the 
 Hospital became very active after the grant of the 
 Letters Patent, and private benefactions were 
 stimulated by the need of funds for this capital 
 expenditure. The sum of ;£300 was subscribed 
 by Alice Hele to be bestowed in the repairing and 
 beautifying of the chapel, any surplus to be 
 bestowed upon the perfecting of the Hospital.* 
 Of this sum ;£28o was expended upon the chapel, 
 which was consecrated in 1639. f 
 
 The whole of the late church was now converted 
 to its new purposes — the body and lower part for 
 the Free Grammar School and the Wool Hall, and 
 the chancel for a Chapel. Between the chancel 
 and the body of the church stood the tower, which, 
 
 * City Chamber Minutes, 24th March, 1635-6, 20th and 27th 
 Sept., 1636, 29th March, 1638. 
 
 tCity Chamber Minutes, 30th July, 1639, and 31st Dec, 1639, the 
 latter minute authorising payment of 20s. for the "writinge or 
 instrument latelie made and sealing by the Lo. Bp. for the conser- 
 vation or reconciliacon of the Chappie of St. Johns Hospitall." 
 
 72 
 

The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 since the dissolution of the old Hospital, had been 
 used as a gate or entry into the premises. This 
 was continued as the main entrance to the Hospital 
 and school. The tower over the gate was repaired 
 by the City Chamber in 1630 for the storage of 
 gunpowder and was used for this purpose till the 
 year 1663.* 
 
 Upon the incorporation of the Hospital, action 
 was immediately taken for the establishment of 
 the Free English School. 
 
 The first master of the English School was 
 Peter Hcllyar, elected by the City Chamber on 
 the nth January, 1637-8, with the consent of 
 Mr. Francis Crossing. The Chamber also decided, 
 with the like consent, that the great room under 
 the Latin Free School, or such part thereof as 
 should be thought fitting, should be prepared for 
 the accommodation of the School if another place 
 be not thought more fit. 
 
 Another place was evidently thought more fit, 
 for the great room under the Latin School was let 
 to a Mr. Mallack for one year from Michaelmas, 
 
 1638, at a rental of £6yf and on the 13th August, 
 
 1639, the Chamber decided that the same room 
 should be thereafter employed wholly as a Wool 
 Hall and the rent of £6 per annum devoted to the 
 reparation of the Hospital. 
 
 * The City Receiver's Roll, 5 and 6 Chas. I. shews an expenditure 
 of £1 IS. " for repairinge the Tower over St. John's Gate for a 
 roome to putt powder in." On the 4th Sept., 1663, the Chamber 
 were required by the Deputy Lieutenant to remove the arms and 
 ammunition from the chapel of St. John's Hospital to the magazine 
 in the Castle. (City Records, No. 432). 
 
 t City Chamber Minutes, 9th Oct., 1638. 
 
 73 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 On the 8th January, 1651-2, Peter Hellyar was 
 given the office of master of the Hospital in 
 addition to his office as master of the EngUsh 
 School. The Governors do not seem to have been 
 fortunate in the masters of the Workhouse or 
 Hospital. The appointment of Thomas Rose, the 
 pin maker, in February, 1628-9, has already been 
 mentioned. A minute of the City Chamber of 
 the 5th February, 1629-30, records a gift of ^^50 
 from Mr. Wakeman for the placing of six boys in 
 the Hospital, and on the same day the Chamber 
 made an arrangement with a resident in the 
 Hospital, named William Bickley, for him to take 
 into his service such boys as should be placed with 
 him by the Chamber. 
 
 The sum of £^ was allowed by the Chamber to 
 Rose and Bickley for each boy apprenticed to them, 
 both men being required to enter into a bond for 
 repayment of a moiety of the money at the end 
 of each boy's apprenticeship. In November of 
 this year, 1630, Rose the Pinner, as he was 
 generally called, had three apprentices and Bickley 
 seven.* Bedding and furniture for the boys were 
 purchased by the Chamber, and blue gowns and 
 caps provided for their apparel. f 
 
 Two years later. Rose the Pinner was arrested 
 and imprisoned for some offence, and the City 
 Chamber appointed William Godwin, his journey- 
 man, "to keepe the Boyes to work." Rose's wife 
 was retained as housekeeper and allowed 24s. weekly 
 
 • City Chamber Minutes, 4th Nov., 1630. 
 tCity Chamber Minutes, 9th and 30th Nov., 1630. 
 
 74 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 for the diet of the boys, the other ordinary charges 
 to be paid out of the profit of their work.* In the 
 following February the Chamber appointed what 
 would be termed in these days an After Care 
 Committee to find masters for the boys apprenticed 
 in the Hospital. Soon afterwardsf it was decided 
 not to " entertain " another pinner in the City in 
 the place of Thomas Rose, as it was conceived 
 that that trade was not so necessary as others for 
 the education of boys. The appointment of 
 Thomas Rose had been an unfortunate one, for 
 after his imprisonment an investigation was made 
 into his accounts and a deficit of £g^ 15s. id. was 
 discovered.^ 
 
 Certain statutes and ordinances for the regulation 
 of the Hospital were made by the Governors of 
 the Hospital on the 21st December, 1638. These 
 provided for the appointment of a steward to 
 receive the rents and keep the accounts, and of a 
 master to have in charge the keeping of the 
 Hospital and the care of the children admitted. 
 These children were to be chosen by the Governors 
 and no child was to be admitted under seven or 
 continued after fourteen years of age. The parents 
 or friends of such children were required at the 
 time of admission to pay to the Master of the 
 of the Hospital 40s. towards the decent apparelling 
 of the children, which money was to be repaid for 
 the benefit of the children when they should be 
 
 * City Chamber Minutes, 4th Dec, 1632. 
 
 t City Chamber Minutes, 12th March, 1632-3. 
 
 X City Chamber Minutes, 27th Oct., 1635 and 6th Sept., 1638. 
 
 75 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 placed with a master out of the Hospital. Every 
 child admitted was to have two suits of apparel 
 yearly at the cost of the Master of the Hospital, 
 except the gowns and caps which were provided 
 by the house. Every child was to be freely taught 
 in any of the free schools within the Hospital to 
 read, write and cypher, and in the Latin tongue 
 also, if the capacity of the child should be 
 conceived by the Master of the Hospital to be fit 
 for the same. 
 
 On the 2ist September, 1646, John Sprake, 
 Silkweaver, was elected Master of the Hospital in 
 the place of one, George Follett, and in January, 
 1651-2, Peter Hellyar was appointed to the office 
 in the place of John Sprake, who had been receiving 
 a salary of £^ per annum.* 
 
 Hellyar ranks among the benefactors of the 
 Hospital. Possessed of private means and having 
 no dependents except a sister, he gave freely of 
 his labour and money to the English School and 
 the Hospital. Izacke reckons that what with gifts 
 of money and salary and other payments renounced 
 he benefited the School and Hospital to the amount 
 of ;£i, 830.1 In consideration of his divesting 
 himself thus of his wealth the Governors agreed, 
 upon his request, to grant to his sister upon his 
 death an annuity of £10.% 
 
 Such was the first master of the Free English 
 
 * St. John's Hospital Act Book, 21st Aug., 1649. 
 
 flzacke's History of Exeter, MS., fo. 153. Jenkins in his 
 History of Exeter calculates the amount to be £,2,o;^o. 
 
 J St. John's Hospital Act Book, 24th Feb., 1656. 
 
 76 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 School, a happy choice, and happy less in the 
 benefit to the finances of the School than in the 
 good influence which a man of this character must 
 have exercised upon the boys entrusted to his care. 
 
 '' On the 26th June, 1660, the City Chamber in 
 ''regard of Mr. Peter Helliar'sage and indisposicon 
 " and weaknes of bodye and of his earnest request 
 " to have a fitt person to ease and helpe him in the 
 '' teachinge and educatinge of his Schollers" allowed 
 him to engage an assistant with a salary of £20 a 
 year, this " not to bee taken as a president for 
 " tyme to come, Mr. Helliar beinge a speciall 
 " Benefactor to this Hospitall."* 
 
 On the 9th September, 1663, an order was 
 made limiting the number of boys in the English 
 School to fifty. 
 
 Hellyar died in the autumn of 1666, Henry 
 Hooper being appointed in his place on the 31st 
 October, 1666, at a salary of ;^20 a year. 
 
 The name to be given to the Hospital seems to 
 have been the subject of considerable debate. 
 The deed of conveyance of the 14th January, 
 1623-4, provided that the name should be Crossing's 
 Hospital. This name, however, seems never to 
 have gained acceptance. Walter Borough (whose 
 gift of ;£ioo to the Free Grammar School has 
 already been mentioned), by a deed of the 28th 
 October, 1625, granted a sum of money to the 
 Hospital upon the condition that it should be called 
 St. John's Hospital or The City Hospital, but the 
 
 * St. John's Hospital Act Book, 26th June, 1660. 
 
 77 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 Minutes of the City Chamber shew that the name 
 to be given the new Hospital was still in debate in 
 1629 and 1630. After what seems a long discussion 
 by the Chamber on the 14th April, 1637, it was 
 finally decided to call it "The Hospital of St. 
 John's," and this title was formally conferred by 
 the Charter granted in the following June. Even 
 this authority failed to oust the old name and St. 
 John's Hospital it is called to this day. 
 
 78 
 
Site Plan of St. John's Hospital from Map Book of the Lands of 
 the City Chamber, 1759. 
 
 I. — Tenement in occupation of Thomas Cirovcr. 
 
 2. — Building- in same occupation, belongfing- to the City Corporation, consisting- 
 
 ot three little ground rooms, height - tt. g in. (nor intended to be built 
 
 higher so as to obstruct the lights ot the Chapel). 
 
 3 — Dwelling house and stable in occupation ot William Hill. 
 
 4 — Three dwelling houses in occupation of George Yard. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Subsequent History of the High School and 
 THE St. John's Hospital Schools. 
 
 The establishment of the schools in the St. 
 John's Hospital had important and valuable con- 
 sequences, for it was to the example thus set that 
 the City owes also the two schools now known as 
 the Maynard's Girls' School and the Hele's School 
 for Boys. Both originated during the Common- 
 wealth period. The former was founded as a 
 Hospital for poor maiden children commonly 
 known as the Blue Maids Hospital, being a sister 
 Institution to the Blue Boys Hospital at St. John's. 
 The Hele's School sprang from an educational en- 
 dowment to assist boys in obtaining education at 
 the schools in the St. John's Hospital, which endow- 
 ment was utilised for the erection and maintenance 
 of Hele's School by Royal Warrant of 1840 and 
 subsequent Instruments. The endowments of both 
 these schools are now administered by the Trustees 
 of the St. John's Hospital. The fourth of the 
 Exeter Endowed Secondary Schools known as the 
 Episcopal Modern School for Girls has sprung 
 from an educational endowment established by 
 Bishop Blackall in 1709. 
 
 The main object of this book is to narrate 
 the circumstances which led up to and which 
 
 79 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 surrounded the establishment of the Exeter School. 
 In point of time this may be regarded as terminating 
 with the commencement of the Commonwealth 
 Period. The subsequent fortunes of this school 
 and the history of the other endowed schools of the 
 City are set out in the Report of the Charity Com- 
 missioners, and the details of the administration of 
 the St. John's Hospital Schools may be gleaned from 
 the Act Book of the Hospital which commences 
 with an entry of the 21st September, 1638. For 
 the completion of the present narrative, therefore, 
 no more than a brief reference need be made to the 
 later history of the Exeter School and its kindred 
 Institutions connected with the St. John's Hospital. 
 
 The High School. 
 
 It will be appropriate, however, in the first 
 place, to follow the history of the old High School 
 to its close, particularly in view of the supposition 
 that the Exeter School, as we now know it, sprang 
 from the amalgamation of the High School with 
 the Free Grammar School. 
 
 The establishm.ent of the rival school made the 
 Dean and Chapter apprehensive for the fortunes 
 of the High School and on the 25th June, 163 1, 
 they decreed that if, upon building the New Free 
 School, the income of Mr. Haytor, the then Master 
 of the High School, should be found to be not 
 worth ;£ioo per annum they would subscribe £2>^ 
 per annum to make it up. This offer was personal 
 only to Mr. Haytor and was paid to him from the 
 time of the Restoration to 1670 or 167 1 when, 
 
 80 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 presumably, he died. The payment was not made 
 to any of his successors.* 
 
 The fierce controversy over the estabhshment 
 of the Free Grammar School seems to have left no 
 ill will against the High School, if one may judge 
 from the action of Dr. Vilvaine, who had been one 
 of the strongest advocates of the Free School. 
 He died on the 21st February, 1662, bequeathing 
 the greater part of his possessions to the City for 
 educational purposes. Among his bequests was 
 one of ;f32 yearly for four Exhibitions to Oxford 
 University, the exhibitioners to be chosen two out 
 of the High School in Exon and two out of the 
 Free Grammar School. The electors were to be 
 the Mayor and Recorder of the City and the 
 Master of the School out of which the exhibitioner 
 was to be appointed. They were to choose '' City 
 born children before strangers, caeteris paribus, if 
 they be so well qualified for learning, behaviour, 
 toward lives and poverty, without partial respect 
 of persons." The term of the exhibitions was 
 seven years. It was provided that, if the school 
 wherein an election was to be made had no scholar 
 at the time qualified to be elected, then the place 
 should be supplied out of the other school if it 
 had any scholar fit or eligible, also that if, there- 
 after, the two grammar schools should be turned 
 into one all four exhibitioners should, thenceforth, 
 be chosen out of the school remaining. 
 
 The last headmaster of the High School was 
 John Bradford, who was appointed on the 14th 
 
 •Chapter Records, No. 4521. 
 81 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 March, 1737. A letter written by him to the Dean 
 and Chapter on the 25th March, 1747, is extant in 
 which he stated that upon his invitation to accept 
 the appointment he was informed that the school 
 house had been lately fitted up at a great expense 
 for the reception of a master and scholars, and that 
 he would receive from the Chapter (though he was 
 not to regard this as a binding engagement) an 
 annual payment of twenty guineas a year on con- 
 dition he instructed as many choristers as they 
 thought proper to send him. He complained that 
 the school, far from being fit for his reception, was 
 in such condition that he was obliged to expend 
 £'^0 immediately upon it, that, some time after, he 
 paid to the Chapter's mason the sum of £1^ or £1$ 
 for rebuilding one of the walls which was about to 
 fall, not doubting but that he would be reimbursed 
 by the Chapter, and that he had frequently applied 
 for repayment but without satisfaction. He further 
 complained that since the first year he had received 
 no more for the schooling of the choristers than 
 after the rate of £2 per annum per boy, and that, at 
 the date of the letter, the number had been reduced 
 to three, while in the meantime the taxes of the 
 School house had been increased. He stated that 
 all these circumstances rendered the school not 
 worth his pains unless he met with some redress in 
 his grievances.* 
 
 The Act Books of the Chapter shew that he re- 
 ceived in the three following years ;^8, £11 los., 
 and £10 for teaching the choristers Latin. The 
 
 * Chapter Records, No. 4661. 
 82 
 
Door of the High School. 
 
 Photo by H. Turner Hems, Exeter. 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 last of these annual payments was made on the 31st 
 March, 1750. About the same time the Chapter's 
 Surveyor was given instructions to survey the 
 building and report upon its condition, and a few 
 years later the premises were leased for other pur- 
 poses than a school. The evidence, therefore, points 
 to 1750 as the date of the dissolution of this High 
 School which had probably existed since the trans- 
 ference of the seat of the bishopric from Crediton 
 to Exeter exactly 700 years before. 
 
 It appears, therefore, that there was nothing in 
 the nature of an amalgamation between the High 
 School and the Free Grammar School, and as the 
 former had no endowments and no educational 
 trust attached to the school premises, it ceased 
 utterly to exist. 
 
 The premises were purchased in 1778 by the 
 Wesleyan Methodists and used as their place of 
 worship till 181 2.* It was subsequently used as a 
 place of worship by other religious denominations 
 till 1868 when it was demolished to make room 
 for business premises. The sole relic of this most 
 ancient School is the entrance door made in 1593 
 which is still preserved.! 
 
 St. John's Hospital Schools. 
 
 It has been stated that the first master of the 
 Free Grammar School was appointed at a salary of 
 ;^30 per annum. He was also allowed occupation 
 
 * Mr. Chick's History of Methodism in Exeter, Chap. iv. 
 t This door is now in the possession of Mr, Harry Hems, of 
 Exeter. 
 
 83 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 of a house within the Hospital and part of the 
 garden behind. In consideration of this renumera- 
 tion he was required to instruct freely all such 
 scholars as should be admitted into the School, 
 being the sons of any freeman, citizen, or inhabitant 
 within the City. In 1664 the Master's salary was 
 increased to £/\.o per annum, but in 1776 a new 
 house was built for him upon land outside the 
 City wall at the cost of ^1,700, whereupon his 
 salary was reduced to -^20 per annum. He was 
 allowed to take boarders and the new house was 
 doubtless provided to enlarge the accommodation 
 for this purpose. Upon the election of a Master 
 in 1809, it was resolved that he was not to charge 
 day boys more than six guineas per annum without 
 the consent of the trustees. Two years later the 
 fixed salary was restored to the former sum of 
 £/\^o per annum. In 1819 it was resolved that 
 the head usher should be a clergyman of the 
 established church, and the under usher a graduate 
 of one of the Universities, also that divine service 
 should be performed twice on Sundays in the 
 chapel of the Hospital. This service was conducted 
 generally by the master of the school, but occa- 
 sionally by one of the Mayor's chaplains. Seats 
 were reserved in the chapel for the Mayor and the 
 members of the City Chamber, and the Master 
 had the privilege of letting the other seats, which 
 at the time of the Commissioners' Report in 182 1 
 brought him in an income of £iy or ;£i8 a year. 
 By this time (182 1) only the sons of freemen were 
 considered to be entitled to a free education, and 
 
 84 
 
HIGH STREET 
 
 
 Site Plan of St. John's Hospital from the Ordnance Survey, 1878. 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 it was required that they should be appointed 
 by the Governors. The Commissioners reported 
 that of the sixty day boys then attending the 
 school only two were free scholars. 
 
 The two offices of master of the Hospital and 
 master of the Free English School which had been 
 temporarily united in the hands of Peter Hellyar 
 were permanently united in the year 1812. The 
 holder was given a salary of £2^ a year and an 
 allowance of ;^i6 a year for each Blue Boy in con- 
 sideration of which he furnished each bov with 
 board, lodging, washing and a complete suit of 
 clothes once in each year. The boys were in- 
 structed in reading, writing and arithmetic and each 
 was entitled to a premium of £6 on being bound 
 apprentice if a proper master could be found. 
 These boys were instructed with the day boys in 
 the English School referred to in the Commission- 
 ers' Report as the Blue School. The day boys were 
 charged fees which the master was allowed to take. 
 At the date of the Report of 1821 the school con- 
 tained 60 day boys and 21 Blue Boys. 
 
 Upon the passing of the Municipal Corporations 
 Act, 1835, ^he City Chamber ceased to be Trustees 
 of the St. John's Hospital foundation and a body of 
 trustees (known as the Municipal Charities Church 
 List) was appointed by Order of the Court of 
 Chancery to administer the funds of the en- 
 dowment. 
 
 In 1852 the Grammar School was to a consider- 
 able extent reconstructed and improved at a cost of 
 about ;^2,30o. 
 
 85 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 The Commissioners' Report in 182 1 shewed that 
 the accounts of the St. John's Hospital trust had 
 become very confused in the hands of the City 
 Corporation and Httle care had been exercised in 
 keeping the Charity properties distinct from the 
 City properties. Proceedings were taken in the 
 Court of Chancery to straighten out the tangle and 
 after a long inquiry a settlement was arrived at 
 which was embodied in a Deed of the 12th May, 
 1858. Certain properties therein described were 
 definitely assigned to the Charity and the claims of 
 the Charit}'' to certain charges upon the City pro- 
 perty were discharged in consideration of a mone- 
 tary payment. The house which had been built 
 outside the City Wall for the residence of the 
 master of the Grammar School, together with the 
 portion of the wall adjoining such school house, 
 were made the absolute property of the Charity. 
 
 Reports upon the schools of the St. John's 
 Hospital were made in 1859 on behalf of the 
 Charity Commissioners,* and in 1867 on behalf of 
 the Schools Inquiry Commission. f 
 
 From these it appears that the number of boys 
 in the two schools were as follows : 
 
 Grammar School. 
 
 In 1859 — 2 free boys, 55 day boys and 26 
 
 boarders. 
 In 1867 — 43 day boys and 12 boarders. 
 
 * This report was not published, 
 t Reports of the Schools Inquiry Commission, vol xiv. 
 
 86 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 Blue School. 
 
 In 1859 — 25 blue boys and 85 day boys. 
 
 In 1867 — 25 blue boys and about 170 day 
 boys. 
 
 In the year 1876 a scheme re-constituting the 
 Charities of the St. John's Hospital, Hele's School 
 and the Blue Maids' Hospital was framed under 
 the Endowed Schools Acts and approved by the 
 Privy Council. This scheme, as also a scheme of 
 the previous year dealing with the Episcopal 
 Charity Schools, though emanating from the 
 Endowed Schools Commissioners, were the work 
 of Bishop Temple who was a member of the 
 Commission. They brought into being the two 
 secondary schools now known as the Maynard's 
 Girls' School and the Episcopal Modern School 
 for Girls (originally known as the Modern School), 
 and constituted a complete system of secondary 
 education within the City. 
 
 The main principle underlying these schemes 
 was the allocation of a substantial portion of the 
 educational endowments of the City to secondary 
 education. The endowments of the Grammar 
 School and of the English School and the Orphanage 
 in the St. John's Hospital, where they were not joint 
 in their origin, had in course of time become 
 merged, and in the allocation of the income the 
 eleemosynary side of the trust had been favoured at 
 the expense of the educational, and the elementary 
 school at the expense of the secondary school. The 
 Elementary Education Act of 1870 had but 
 
 87 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 recently come into force, and the expectation 
 which this Act gave of the provision of an efficient 
 system of rate aided and state aided elementary 
 schools within the City not only removed any 
 claim for preferential treatment on the part of 
 the elementary school, but suggested that a larger 
 proportion of the endowment for the education 
 of boys should be devoted to the provision of 
 education above the elementary, and that some 
 proportion of the endowment for the education of 
 girls should be devoted to the provision of higher 
 education for that sex. 
 
 It is a thorny task to interfere with charitable 
 endowments, though it be only to restore them to 
 their original purpose or to adapt them to new 
 needs and the changing circumstances of time, 
 and the proposals of the Endowed School 
 Commissioners roused strong opposition within 
 the City. The intent of these schemes and the 
 reasons for the changes which they effected are 
 admirably set out in a letter from Dr. Temple to 
 the Mayor, dated the 5th February, 1872,* which 
 had the effect of allaying suspicions and secured 
 for his proposals the general support of the citizens. 
 
 It is a striking proof of the greatness and the 
 foresight of Dr. Temple that the principles upon 
 which he based his proposals for the re-organisation 
 of the system of endowed education within the 
 City and which he had to advocate against all the 
 strength of public opinion, have by this time each 
 grown into a truism. These were (1) the desirability 
 
 * See Appendix E. 
 
 88 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 of the provision of higher education for girls ; 
 (2) the right for all classes of the community to 
 rate aided and state aided education ; (3) the 
 advantages of home life over institutional life in 
 the education of the young, regarding education 
 in its highest aspect as the formation of character ; 
 (4) the degrading effect of charity that is dependent 
 upon solicitation and personal favour. Who now 
 regards the provision of an Upper School for girls 
 as something " especially incongruous " and who 
 would now challenge the claim of every child, 
 however poor, to the education, however high, for 
 which his talents fit him ? A ladder of education 
 for boys, with its lowest rung in a charity school 
 and its highest in a University, was part of 
 the original scheme of the St. John's Hospital 
 endowment, but it had fallen to the ground and 
 it was for Dr. Temple to re-erect it. 
 
 It will be observed that he advocated the 
 establishment within the City of three grades of 
 schools above the elementary. What he called 
 the Third Grade Schools corresponded with what 
 has been since known in other parts of the country 
 as Higher Elementary Schools. This proposal, 
 though countenance was given to it by Prof. Sadler 
 in his report of 1905 on Secondary and Higher 
 Education in Exeter, has not found favour, and 
 the scheme of education for the City, as finally 
 adopted and approved by the Board of Education, 
 provides for only two grades of schools above the 
 elementary. With this exception, Dr. Temple's 
 proposals were adopted almost in their entirety, 
 
 89 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 and, as has been already stated, effect was given 
 to them by the scheme of the 28th April, 1876, 
 made under the Endowed Schools Acts. 
 
 This scheme of 1876 placed the administration 
 of the endowments of the Charities of St. John's 
 Hospital, the Hele's Gift andthe Blue Maids' Hospital 
 in the hands of a body of trustees, called the St. 
 John's Hospital Trustees, representative of interests 
 within the Parliamentary Borough of Exeter. The 
 administration of the Exeter School was placed 
 under a Governing Body representative of interests 
 within Exeter and the County of Devon and of 
 the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. A 
 Governing Body representative of interests within 
 the City was also appointed for the Maynard's 
 Girls' School. The St. John's Hospital Trustees 
 acted directly as the Governing Body of the Hele's 
 School and the St. John's Elementary School till 
 the coming into operation of the Education Act, 
 1902, when a separate Governing Body was 
 appointed for the Hele's School, and school 
 managers, in accordance with the requirements 
 of the Act, were appointed for the Elementary 
 School. 
 
 The desirability of removing the Grammar 
 School from the St. John's Hospital to the suburbs 
 of the City had become obvious some years prior 
 to the making of the Order of 1876. 
 
 In 1866 an appeal was made by the then Master 
 of the Grammar School with the approval of the 
 Governors for subscriptions towards raising a fund 
 for the purchase of a field of five acres in the 
 
 90 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 Higher Barnfield, Exeter, as a site for a new school 
 and a playfield, at a price of ;^2,ooo. A sum 
 of about ;£i,300 was subscribed by the public, and 
 the purchase was effected, but the intention to 
 build a new school upon this site was subsequently 
 abandoned, and it was sold in 1878 to the Governors 
 of the Maynard's Girls' School, who utilised a 
 portion of the land for the erection of their 
 existing school. 
 
 The reason for this sale was that a more 
 spacious and suitable site for the Grammar School 
 had in the meantime presented itself. This was 
 the site now occupied by the School, which lies 
 partly within the City and partly within the Urban 
 District of Heavitree. An Order of the Charity 
 Commissioners was obtained in December, 1877, 
 for the purchase of this land, comprising an area 
 of about twenty and a half acres, for the sum of 
 £7,^00. Upon this land new school buildings 
 were erected in 1880 at the cost of ;£i6,75o, the 
 money being raised partly by the sale of some of 
 the endowment securities with provisions for gradual 
 replacement, and partly by the sale of the site of 
 the old Grammar School. An Act of Parliament 
 was obtained in 1878 authorising the sale of the 
 Hospital Chapel and, under the powers conferred 
 by this Act and certain Orders of the Charity 
 Commissioners, part of the chapel site and part 
 of the Grammar School playground were sold for 
 ;^3,ooo for the purpose of the erection of the 
 existing Post Office. The site of the old Grammar 
 School buildings with the headmaster's house and 
 
 91 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 the remainder of the playground were sold for 
 £6ySi2 los. for the erection of business premises 
 and for a street widening. 
 
 Several valuable additions have been made to 
 the Exeter School since the erection of the main 
 buildings in 1880. In 1886 a chapel was erected 
 at the cost of about ;^2,i30, provided partly by 
 the proceeds of the sale of the site of the St. 
 John's Chapel and partly by voluntary contributions. 
 A swimming bath was provided in 1889 at the cost 
 of about ;^200, a sanatorium in 1893 at a cost of 
 £S73 15s- 6d., a gymnasium in 1897 at a cost 
 of ;f402 IS. 8d., and new science schools in 1905 
 at a cost of ;£3,240 8s. 4d. The money for the 
 swimming bath and gymnasium was raised by 
 voluntary contributions. 
 
 Under the Order of April, 1876, the original 
 Free English School was constituted a Public 
 Elementary School within the statutory definition 
 in force for the time being, tuition fees to be 
 charged at a rate of not less than 6d. and not more 
 than 9d. a week. Certain structural alterations 
 have been effected for this school, the chief being 
 the construction of a new class room and cloak 
 room in 1890 at a cost of £soo, and the construc- 
 tion of a new class room and the tar paving of 
 the playground in 1899 at a cost of ;^46i is. 11 d. 
 
 By the same Order of 1876 the administration 
 of the endowment of the Orphanage within the St. 
 John's Hospital was placed in the hands of the 
 Governors of the Hospital, with power to continue 
 the existing Orphanage or apply the endowment 
 
 92 
 
ji '^ 
 
 .S? c? 
 
 I I 
 
 JS a: 
 
 ■5- t- 
 
 'S 
 
 o 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 funds in the award of exhibitions to orphan 
 children resident in the Parliamentary Borough of 
 Exeter, tenable in any of the schools of the 
 Trust or elsewhere. The Orphanage was closed 
 at Easter, 1908, there being at the time eight 
 orphans lodged there at the cost per head of about 
 ■£31 per annum. In 1876 the annual income of 
 the Trust apportioned to the Orphanage was ;£5oo. 
 This continued up to 1907, when it was reduced to 
 ;£45o and later to ;f400. Of this income ;£25o is 
 devoted to boys and £iS^ to girls. Out of the 
 sum of ;£25o, £iS^ is expended in providing ten 
 exhibitions of £1^ a year tenable at St. John's 
 School, ;^5o in providing five exhibitions of ;^io 
 a year tenable at Hele's School, and ;^5o in 
 providing exhibitions of £2^ a year tenable at 
 Hele's School or in providing instruction in a 
 Manual School or kindred Institution for the 
 exhibitioners of St, John's School after the age of 
 14 or 15. Out of the sum of £15^ provided for 
 girls, ten exhibitions of ;^i5 a year is expended 
 upon the maintenance and clothing of orphan 
 girls and the payment of fees for their education 
 at an elementary school, ^^30 a year in making 
 provision for these exhibitioners proceeding to a 
 secondary or technical school including a school 
 of cookery or domestic economy, and £;^o in three 
 exhibitions of ^10 a year at the Modern School 
 or other secondary school approved by the 
 Governors. 
 
 Such was the scheme of education established 
 by the Order of 1876 and its amending Orders, 
 
 93 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 whereby a complete scheme of school education 
 for boys and girls was provided for the City of 
 Exeter and for the surrounding districts of the 
 County of Devon. 
 
 The Education Act of 1902 which, for the first 
 time, placed upon Local Authorities the duty of 
 providing an efficient system of secondary education 
 for their areas left little more to accomplish. 
 Certain slight alterations were made in the schemes 
 governing the four secondary schools so as to make 
 them eligible for government grants. The City 
 Council made provision for an annual grant from 
 the City rates to all four schools, and the County 
 Council made provision for an annual grant from the 
 County rates to Hele's School and the Episcopal 
 Modern School for Girls, the two Local Authorities 
 being given representation or additional represent- 
 ation upon the Governing Bodies of the schools to 
 which they contributed. 
 
 This scheme of school education is capped 
 by the Educational Institution located in the Royal 
 Albert Memorial buildings in Queen Street, the 
 foundation stone of which was laid in the year 1865, 
 Humble in its beginnings it has gradually, through 
 the energy and generosity of the City Council and 
 the munificence of private donors, grown into the 
 composite Institutions of University College, 
 Training College for Teachers, School of Art, and 
 Manual School which are doing such excellent 
 work for the education of the geographical County 
 of Devon and the adjoining areas. 
 
 " Exeter is the Educational Metropolis of the 
 
 94 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 West. It inherits a great historic position and no 
 small measure of intellectual prestige." These are 
 the words of Prof. Sadler, and, with such a system 
 of education as is described above, it must be 
 conceded that the City has striven well to justify 
 the proud title which he conferred upon it. 
 
 95 
 
Conclusion. 
 
 A perusal of the foregoing pages shows that 
 such eminence as Exeter now possesses in its 
 educational administration is attributable in its 
 origin to the energy, the courage and the generosity 
 of the leading citizens of the period which witnessed 
 the establishment of the Free Grammar School 
 in the reign of Charles I. The Church, the early 
 custodian of education, had lamentably failed in 
 her trust, though this failure was redeemed in 
 later years by the efforts and the enlightened 
 foresight of Bishop Blackall and Bishop Temple. 
 
 At no time in the history of the City has the 
 flame of municipal patriotism burned brighter 
 than during the Tudor period and the earlier half 
 of the Stuart period. The struggles against the 
 two great insurrections of the West and the 
 religious distractions of the Reformation consumed 
 the energies of the citizens during the early part 
 of the Tudor period. The great commercial 
 prosperity which followed enabled the leading 
 citizens to amass great wealth and it became a 
 matter of pride and of duty to contribute freely 
 of this wealth to the public services of the City 
 which they loved so well. Their generosity found 
 an outlet during the reigns of Elizabeth and 
 James I. mainly in the endowment of the numerous 
 Almhouses and other Charities in which the City 
 
 96 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 is so rich. This was succeeded by the estabhsh- 
 ment of the educational trusts which have been 
 here described. 
 
 The government of the City was in those days 
 an oligarchy. The members of the City Chamber 
 were appointed for life and new Councillors were 
 elected by the Chamber itself. Whatever the evils 
 and dangers inherent in that system it had certain 
 advantages and was doubtless the best adapted for 
 that time. The members were, for the most part, 
 men of ripe experience in municipal work, there 
 was no temptation to opportunism, and a continuity 
 of policy was secured. The schemes of the 
 Chamber were laid upon deep and broad founda- 
 tions and were often in disfavour with the populace 
 who had less foresight and were less content to 
 sacrifice the present for the future.* 
 
 This system of government had also the effect 
 that the members of the Chamber regarded the 
 City as somewhat in the nature of their private 
 estate and hesitated not to subscribe largely out 
 of their private means to carry through a scheme 
 for which the public funds proved insufficient. 
 
 The leading citizens of the first half of the 
 17th century seem to have regarded the claims of 
 the City upon their fortune as superior even to 
 
 * There is no finer instance of this than the extension of the 
 Exeter Ship Canal at the end of the 17th century, carried out in 
 face of the active opposition of the City and the surroundings districts. 
 An application for an Act of Parliament to borrow part of the 
 cost was defeated, the opinion of the Chamber being too far in 
 advance, not only of the commonalty of their City, but of the 
 Legislature. Oliver estimates that this extension cost not less than 
 ;{;25o,ooo. 
 
 97 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 family claims, and it was a common practice for 
 them, after providing a sufficiency for their families, 
 to bequeath the remainder of their estate to 
 trustees to be expended for the benefit of the 
 City in such manner as the trustees should in their 
 discretion deem to be most beneficial. Hugh 
 Crossing died intestate, but his charitable intentions 
 were known to his widow and son and were 
 faithfully carried out. The St. John's Hospital 
 Trust, which they founded originally as a work- 
 house, grew eventually, as we have seen, into an 
 educational trust. In that form it immediately 
 captivated the sympathies of the whole City and 
 during the next half century scarcely a citizen of 
 note died without some bequest to swell its 
 endowment. Certainly no charitable institution in 
 the long history of the City has been more 
 productive of benefit and more lasting in its effect 
 than the educational endowment of the St. John's 
 Hospital. 
 
 It is abundantly evident that the dole charities 
 which were founded so profusely during the 
 previous half century had conduced, as such 
 charities inevitably do, to the manufacture of 
 pauperism, and the wisest among the citizens had 
 begun to realise that charity which is not confined 
 to the helpless is effective only so far as it helps 
 the recipients to help themselves. They, therefore, 
 eagerly welcomed this new form of charity which, 
 by placing education and the learning of a handi- 
 craft within the means of the poorest, fulfilled 
 the highest purposes of charity without the evil 
 
 98 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 consequences which charity so often brings in its 
 train. 
 
 Unemployment is no new disease and the 
 spectacle of youths loafing about the streets of 
 the City, with no settled employment and incapable 
 of turning their hands to any skilled trade, was a 
 matter of grave concern to the citizens, and is 
 frequently referred to as the motive for the 
 contributions that flowed into the hands of the 
 trustees of the St. John's Hospital. 
 
 History repeats itself, and it is interesting to 
 note how the whirligig of time has brought us 
 round full circle to the attitude of the City of 
 the mid-Stuart period. The desirability, in the 
 interests of the community, of securing for every 
 boy, however poor, provided his abilities warrant 
 it, the means, through education, of attaining the 
 highest station in life, nay, the even greater 
 desirability of securing for every child the training 
 which will enable him to secure the most effective 
 position to which his abilities entitle him, was made 
 the conscious aim of the founders of the St. 
 John's Hospital — Exeter College, Oxford, for the 
 aristocracy of talent, a handicraft for the rank 
 and file. Leaving scholarships for the former, 
 apprenticeship or manual training for the latter, 
 with such preparatory education as each is fitted 
 for. Such was the scheme which these wise good 
 citizens devised and such is the scheme to which 
 we have again awakened. 
 
 Imperial history has its lessons which all may 
 learn, but local history, too much neglected in the 
 
 99 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 past, has also its lessons. Nor is their value much 
 less, for though the issues are not so great they 
 come closer home. Of all the chapters in the 
 long and glorious history of this City of Exeter 
 there is none more valuable, none more stimu- 
 lating to its present day citizens, than that which 
 deals with the foundation of the St. John's 
 Hospital. 
 
 100 
 
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APPENDIX A. 
 
 Letter & Order of the Privy Council Approving the 
 Provision of a Free Grammar School.* 
 
 At Whitehall the gth of February, 1630. 
 
 Present : Lo. Keeper Lo. V. Wimbledon 
 
 Lo. Treas. Lo. V. Dorchester 
 
 Lo. Priuie Seale Lo. Bp. of London 
 
 Ea. of Suff Lo. Newburgh 
 
 Ea. of Dorsett 
 A Ire to the Lo: B^p of Exeter and to the DeaneTand 
 Chapter of the said Citty. 
 
 We have heard at large the difference in question con- 
 cerning the erecting of a ffree Schoole in the Citty of Exeter 
 debated before us by Counsell learned on both p"- Now 
 however upon the Repsentacon made to us of the En- 
 dowm" alreadie conferred and of the Charitable Intencons 
 of some others of that Citty towards the same We are 
 carefull not to give^any the least Checque or discountenance 
 to Works of that Nature. Yet finding Cause to doubt that 
 the erecting of this ffree Schoole wilbe the decay if not the 
 overthrowe, of the Schoole alreadie there (W^'' for the long 
 continuance therof and the Reputacon it hath hitherto had 
 appearing to us by verie good Testimony, deserves to be 
 upheld) We in that reguard, as alsoe for that Wee conceive, 
 it would be more for the good of that Citty in generall, (being 
 now growne soe populous) to have both Schooles subsist have 
 thought it best that it be first considered, and pvided, by all 
 the best wayes and meanes possible, that the erecting of the 
 new, be not the undoeing of the old. Wherin the best 
 Expedient for the psent occurring to us is, that all former 
 differences and unkindnesses growne hereby being forgotten 
 * Copied from Privy Council Registers, vol. vi. 
 
 lOI 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 and buried, yo' Lo^p and the Deane and Chapter there doe 
 conferr and advise; w"* the Mayo' and Magistrates of that 
 Citty (unto whom we have directed o' lyke Lres) for the 
 makeing of the old Schoole lykewise a free Schoole and 
 pcureing it to he endowed by them w"' some competent mayn- 
 tenance on that behalfe from the lyke charitable and pious 
 donacons of such well affected psons, as we wish and hope 
 may be invited and incourraged thereunto, by yo' pswasions, 
 ioyning togelther and dealeing effectually therein. Soe ex- 
 pecting and requireing that you pceed w"* effect, aswell in 
 this pticular Coarse by us ppounded as by all other good 
 wayes & meanes w'^'' may be found out, betweene you and 
 the Citty for the accomodacon of this busines in such sorte 
 as that the new Schoole being erected, both Schooles may be 
 upheld and mayntayned. And to this end requireing from 
 you a CertifP" by the 27"^ of Aprill next, of yo' doings and 
 pceedings herein ; We bid yo' Lo^p &c. 
 
 Ut ante : A like Lre mutatis mutandis to the mayo' and 
 magistrates of the said Citty. 
 
 At Whitehall the 18"' of May 1631. 
 Present : Lo: Keeper Lo: Vis: Wentworth 
 
 Lo: Irer Lo: Vis: ffalkland 
 
 Lo: Privie Seale Lo: Bp of London 
 
 Lo: Chamb Lo: Newburgh 
 
 Ea: of Salisbury Mr. Trer 
 
 Ea: of Exeter Mr. Comptroll' 
 
 Ea: of Danby Mr. Vicechamb 
 
 Lo: V: Dorchest' Mr. Seer Coke 
 
 Lo: Vis: Wimbledon Mr. Chancell' of the Excheq' 
 Whereas there was an Intendm' of erecting anew ffree 
 Schoole within the Cittie of Exeter, w"^*" was in June last 
 opposed by a Peticon of William Periman Scholemaster of 
 the high Schole within y' Cittie, for causes therein specified, 
 
 102 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 seconded by a Certificate of the Lo: Bp Deane and Chapter 
 of that place, whereby the said matter hath at generall tymes 
 bin heard and debated at this Board and in fFebruary last past 
 Lres were directed to the Mayo' and magistrates of the said 
 Cittie, and to the said Lord Bp Deane and Chapter, for the 
 according of those differences, w"^ they have don accor- 
 dingly, and Certified the same to this Board in theise words. 
 May it please yo' hon'" Whereas that" Hon^''^ Board lately 
 referred unto us the accomodacon of a difference w''*' did 
 arise about a ffree Schoole intended to be erected within the 
 Cittie of Exeter, Wee are bold hereby humbly to certifie 
 yo' LoPP' that wee have had divers meetings about the 
 same and by amutuall consent of all pties have agreed that 
 the said new ffree Schoole shall be provided in and pfected, 
 and the same with the old Schoole to continue together ; 
 And to th'end that no one of them may be preiudiciall to 
 theother, it is further agreed, that neither of the sd Schooles 
 shall intertaine or take above one hnndred and ffiftie Schoolers 
 untill the other Schoole shall be compleatly furnished with the 
 like number And that the Schoolemaster of the old Schoole 
 shall not demand for himselfe and his Ushers for the teaching 
 of anie Schooler that shall be putt unto him above the some 
 of Twentie shillings a year — w"*" agreem' if it so please 
 yo' LoPP' wee desire may be confirmed by order of this 
 Hono^'^ Board / In hope whereof wee humblie take o' 
 Leaves and rest &c. Exon io° May 1631 Their Lopp' 
 haveing heard the same read at the Board, being signed 
 by the Mayo' and Aldermen, and the Lo: Bp and Deane 
 and Chapter, did verie well approve and allow thereof, and 
 in everie point ratifie and confirme the same according to 
 their desire, and comanded that it should be entered as an 
 Act of Counsell to remaine of Record for the finall ending 
 and determining of all differences, and confirmacon of the 
 Articles before menconed touching the said Schooles. 
 
 103 
 
APPENDIX B. 
 
 -STATUTES ^ ORDINANCES made & estab^ 
 lished by the Maior & fFower & Twenty of the 
 Comon Counsell of the City of Exeter Governors 
 of the ffree Gramar schoole w*''in the said City 
 fFounded by the Citizens of the said City for 
 y^ good order rule & governem' of the Schoole- 
 niaister usher & SchoUers of the said Schoole the 
 ffirst day of August in the Nynth yeare of the 
 Reigne of our Soveraigne Lord Charles by the 
 grace of God of England Scotland ffraunce & 
 Ireland Kinge Defender of the ffaith &c Annoq, 
 Dfii: 1633 as folio weth — 
 Inprimis to th'end that such psons may bee alwayes 
 hereafter chosen into the said places of a Schoole- 
 maister & usher of the said ffree Gramar schoole as 
 may bee fittest for the same, It is ordayned ordered 
 & established by the said Maior & Comon Counsell of 
 the said City that there shalbee one schoolemaister & 
 one usher of & in the said schoole to bee chosen by 
 the Maior & ffower & Twenty of the Comon Counsel! 
 of the said City for the tyme beinge or the greater 
 parte of them, And that every pson that shalbee soe 
 elected or chosen to bee schoolemaister or usher of the 
 said schoole shalbee of approved skill & knowledge in 
 the latyne & greeke Tongues & bee able to teach the 
 same, & shalbee alsoe of good name & credyte & of 
 honest conversation of life & conformable to the estab- 
 lished Doctrine & discipline of the Church of England, 
 & not take uppon him duringe such tyme as he sha,ll 
 From Izacke's MS. memorials of the City 0/ Exeter, fo. 178 et seq. 
 
 104 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 continue in either of the said places to teach exercise or 
 practice any other Arte science faculty or function by 
 preachinge, or otherwise, w'^'out leave first had from 
 the said Maior & Comon Councell, nor preach att any 
 tyme w'^'out the consent of the Maior of the said City & 
 Wardens of the said schoole for the tyme beinge, And 
 before any bee admitted into either of the said places 
 they shall take such oathe & oathes for his due 
 Allegiance & obedience to his Ma"^ his Heires & 
 Successors as by the lawes and Statutes of this Realme 
 are in that behaife ordayned & appointed. 
 
 Item forasmuch as the erection & ffoundation of the said 
 schoole is appointed & ordayned to bee only A fFree 
 Gramar schoole for the psons hereafter menconed 
 wherein schoUers shall & may from tyme to tyme bee 
 taught to learne & understand the latyne & greeke 
 Tongues freely, Bee it ordayned as aforesaid that none 
 bee taken or received to bee A schoUer in the said 
 schoole but only such as can reade English well & 
 bee fitt to enter into the learninge of the latyne Tongue, 
 And further if any such scholler soe qualifyed as afore- 
 said shall at the tyme of his admission into the said 
 schoole or afterwards bee infected or troubled w"* any 
 disease or infirmity w'^'' may be daungerous or hurtfuU 
 to the rest of the Schollers in the said schoole, the said 
 pson soe infected uppon due pofe & examination thereof 
 shalbee foorthw"" removed out of the said schoole by 
 the Maior of the said City & wardens of the said 
 schoole for y"^ tyme beinge. 
 
 Item. It is further ordayned as aforesaid that every day 
 (except sundayes & Holydayes) att sixe of the Clocke in 
 the Morninge the schoolemaister & usher shall make 
 their repayre to the said schoole, & there ioyne in 
 Prayer & singinge of A psalme togeather w"* the 
 
 105 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 schollers then & there ^sent, w'''* beinge ended, the 
 schoolemaister & usher findinge any scholiar under 
 their severall charges to bee absent shall foorthw"* send 
 for him, & att his comeinge shall examyne the cause of 
 his absence, w''^ beinge not reasonable, shall correcte 
 him discreetly accordinge to his demeritt, And shall 
 alsoe enter into hearinge teachinge & instructinge all 
 the schollers under their severall charges in the partes of 
 the Grafner & other exercises of learninge, in such 
 manner as the schoolemaister for the tyme beinge shall 
 from tyme to tyme thinke most fitt, And the said 
 schoolemaister & usher shall then continue their said 
 exercises in the said schoole untill Eight of the Clocke, 
 & then they and the schollers there shall departe to 
 their breakfast, & att nyne of the clocke shall retourne 
 agayne pforminge their severall exercises before men- 
 coned in the said schoole untill Eleaven of the clocke, 
 & then to departe to their Dynner, & att one of the 
 clocke to come togeather agayne & to continue their 
 severall exercises in the said schoole untill fifive of the 
 clocke att night, att w'^'* tyme (after prayers said & a 
 psalme sunge) every one to departe to their own severall 
 homes or lodginges, the said schollers goeinge foorth of 
 the said schoole, and passinge through the streets in 
 civill & Decent manner. 
 
 lUm for avoydinge licentious liberty of playinge, It is 
 further ordayned as aforesaid that y" schollers shall 
 have noe leave to playe w^^'in the howers before men- 
 coned in that weeke wherein is any holyday, And 
 every weeke wherein is noe holyday to have licence but 
 for Two afternoones vidett Tuesdayes & Thursdayes, 
 att the most att the discretion of the schoolemaister 
 for the tyme beinge. 
 
 Item that good manners may bee had & increased w"* 
 
 106 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 learninge as is seemly, It is further ordayned as afore- 
 said that the schoolemaister & usher shall from tyme 
 to tyme diligently instructe admonishe & charge their 
 schollers to demeane & behave themselv's scholler like, 
 that is to say, dutifuU to their Parents elders & betters, 
 soberly in the howses of their Parents Hostes & Tutors, 
 and courteously to all men, that they weare their 
 apparell cleane & decently \v"'out wilfull spoylinge 
 thereof, & the defects and decayes therein to intreate 
 their Parents Tutors & Hostes to cause to bee amended 
 in tyme fittinge, that they use not swearinge ribaldrye or 
 filthy Comunication, nor frequent Tavernes Alehouses 
 or howses of gaminge & such like, w'^'' particulars that 
 they may bee the better observed, It is further ordered 
 as aforesaid that Two of the said schollers shall weekly 
 bee chosen by the schoolemaister for the tyme beinge, 
 w""^ Two schollers shalbee called Custos, whose office 
 shalbee diligently to inquire after & oversee their ffellows 
 & weekly or oftener to psent to the said schoolemaister 
 the names of any of them that shall transgresse or 
 breake any of the said particulars in this ^sent Article 
 menconed, that such condigne punishm' may bee 
 imposed on the Offendors as the offence shall meritt by 
 the discretion of the schoolemaister for the tyme beinge, 
 who shall likewise examyne & punish the neglects & 
 defaults of the said Custos accordingly. 
 Item it is further ordayned as aforesaid that there shalbee 
 a Register Booke kept of every schollar that shalbee 
 admitted into the said schoole. In w""* Booke there 
 shalbee sett downe the day & yeare of his admission, 
 the name & surname of everyone soe admitted his ags 
 & place of aboade, & alsoe of the tyme of his leavinge 
 & departinge from the said schoole agayne, of w"'' 
 Booke there shalbee A true transcripte made by the 
 
 107 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 schoolemaister of the said schoole for the tyme beinge and 
 delivered unto the wardens of the said schoole w^'in 
 One moneth after Michaelmas yerely, for w'^'' paynes & 
 labour every one that is soe admitted at the tyme of 
 his admission into the said schoole shall pay unto the 
 schoolemaister of the said schoole for the tyme beinge 
 as foUoweth, viz' every Childe of any ffreeman of the 
 said City sixe pence, every Childe of any Inhabitant of 
 the said City that is not fTree of the said City Twelve 
 pence, & every Childe of any stranger Two shillinges 
 respectively, and noe more to bee demanded for 
 y'= admission of anie of the said Children, And further 
 that the said schoolemaister shall demand or take 
 noethinge by contracte for the teachinge of the Childe 
 or Children or grandchildren of any ffreeman of the 
 foresaid City of Exeter uppon payne of loosinge his 
 place, nor of any other such Benefactors to the said 
 schoole as the Maior & Coinon Counsell of the said 
 City for the tyme beinge shall thinke fitt to bee exempted. 
 Item to th'end that noe schollar shalbee discouraged from 
 the attainement of good manners & learninge. It 
 is further ordayned as aforesaid that the schoolemaister 
 & usher shall beare one & the like Countenance & 
 favour unto all their schollers under their severall 
 teachinges, & that they shall not teach any one more 
 then other in the publique schoole for reward or hope of 
 gayne from the rich, nor refuse nor neglecte to teach 
 others in respect they are poore, or will or cannot give 
 rewards, neither shall spare correction where it is 
 deserved, nor minister punishm' w"'out iust cause 
 for any favour or disaffection whatsoever, but to teach 
 & instructe all w"' indifferency in like manner, 
 accordinge to the severall capacities & defects of all the 
 schollers. 
 
 io8 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 8. Item it is further ordayned as aforesaid that if any schollar 
 of the said schoole deservinge correction shall resiste to 
 bee Corrected by the Maister or usher, the same beinge 
 Complayned of by the schoolemaister to the wardens of 
 the said schoole for the tyme beinge, And such schollar 
 beinge called before the said wardens shall not submitt 
 himselfe to the schoolemaister and ushers Correction 
 then he shalbee foorthw"" expelled the said schoole, 
 Or if the parents or ffriends of any such scholler shall 
 controll checke or quarrell w"* the schoolemaister or 
 i;sher for Correctinge any such scholler, the cause 
 not first complayned of to the said wardens, & if 
 uppon examination thereof there shalbee noe iust cause 
 of the said complaynt or faulte found in the said 
 schoolemaister or usher for such Correction, then if the 
 said scholler w"* his Parents or ffriends consent shall 
 not likewise submitt himselfe to the said schoolemaister 
 & usher, that schollar shalbee expelled the said schoole 
 alsoe. 
 
 g. Item whereas att the fifeastes of the Birth of o' Lord 
 God, Easter, & Whitsontyde, schoolemaisters doe use 
 to leave of their teachinges, & the schollers resorte 
 to their ffriends & dwellinges. It is further ordayned 
 as aforesaid that the schoolemaisters of the said schoole 
 shall not leave of his ordinary course of teachinge 
 above ffower or ffive dayes before any of the said 
 ffeasts att the most, And further that the schollers of 
 the said schoole shall make their repayre to the said 
 schoole agayne & bee received the Munday of the 
 fhrst weeke next after any the said ffeastes are ended. 
 
 10. Item it is further ordayned as aforesaid that neither the 
 schoolemaister nor usher shall for his or their recreation 
 or busines absent themselv's from the said schoole for 
 longer tyme then Twenty schoolinge dayes in one whole 
 
 log 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 yeare (Except he bee in forced thereunto by sicknes, or 
 some other reasonable cause to bee allowed of or by 
 the Maior & Cofnon Counsell of the said City for the 
 tyme beinge) And that both of them shall not bee absent 
 att one & the same tyme, And further that if either of 
 them intend such absence above one day att one tyme 
 that then he give notice thereof & of the tyme of his 
 retourne unto the wardens of the said schoole for the 
 tyme beinge one day before hand who are to take 
 speciall notice of the number of the dayes & tymes of 
 all such absences. 
 
 11. Item forasmuch as the intention of the ffoundation & 
 erection of the said schoole was for the education of 
 youth in the way of true Religion & vertue It is 
 further ordayned as aforesaid that the schoolemaister & 
 usher of the said schoole shall not teach their schollers 
 or reade unto them any Author Booke principle or 
 Rules tendinge to Heresy schisme supstition or Error 
 in Religion, or to vice or corruption in life or Conversa- 
 tion, but shall teach & instructe their schollers in the 
 pfession of the true & orthodoxe Religion established 
 in the Church of England, & in obedience to the Kinges 
 Mat'* his Heires & Successors & to observe all vertuous 
 & civill Conversation. 
 
 12. Item it is further ordayned as aforesaid that the Maister 
 
 usher & schollers shall alsoe observe pforme & 
 keepe all the foresaid Ordinances, & alsoe all other 
 orders & rules w"** shall from tyme to tyme bee made 
 ordayned or established by the Maior & ffower & 
 Twenty of the Cofnon Counsell of the said City for 
 the tyme beinge for the further instruction rule order 
 or governem' of the said schoole schoolemaister usher 
 & schollers or any of them, And that it shalbee 
 lawfull for the said Maior & ffower & Twenty of the 
 
 no 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 said Comon Counsell from tyme to tyme & att all tymes 
 as occasion shall require to revoke alter adde to or 
 chaunge any the orders or Ordinances aforesaid, or any 
 other hereafter to bee made in such sorte & manner as 
 they shall thinke fitt, And if the schoolemaister usher 
 or schoUers or any of them shall after notice thereof 
 wilfully neglecte or refuse to observe & pforme the 
 said orders or any of them, & shall not w"'in One 
 moneth after notice thereof given by the wardens of 
 the said schoole for the tyme beinge reforme the same 
 & conforme himselfe to the observation thereof, that 
 then every such scholler shalbee expelled the said 
 schoole, And the said schoolemaister & usher shall 
 loose their severall places. 
 
 13. Item it is further ordayned & established as aforesaid for 
 
 the better observation of the orders aforesaid. That 
 there shalbee Two of the fFower & Twenty of the 
 Comon Counsell of this City (whereof one to bee 
 chosen out of them that have before that tyme borne 
 the Office of Shereeve of this City, & the other out of 
 the younger sorte of the ffower & Twenty) yerely 
 chosen by the said Maior & Comon Counsell att the 
 tyme of th'election of the Maior of this City, or w'^'in 
 One moneth thereafter, & shalbee called the wardens of 
 the said schoole, & shall continue therein for One whole 
 yeare, who shall see y^ said schoolehowse repayred, & 
 all the Ordinances & Orders appointed for the governe- 
 ment of the said schoole to bee accordingly duely 
 observed. 
 
 14. Lastly it is ordayned as aforesaid that the Maior 
 
 Aldermen and Comon Counsell of this City shall once 
 in every yeare att some Convenyent tyme by them to 
 bee appoynted repayre to the said schoole, then & 
 there to visite the said schoole, & to heare & 
 
 III 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 reforme all abuses therein 
 Ordinances aforesaid bee 
 
 John Hakewill Maior 
 Peter Balle Recorder 
 Ig. Jurdain 
 John Lynne 
 Thomas fflaye 
 Gilt : Sweete 
 Tho : Crossinge 
 Jn° Acland 
 John Crocker 
 John Hayne 
 Chr. Clarke 
 Henry Battishill 
 
 , & to examyne whether the 
 duely executed & observed. 
 Will : Nosworthy 
 
 Nicholas Mercer 
 
 ffrancis Crossinge 
 
 Adam Bennett 
 
 Roger Mallocke 
 
 James Tucker 
 
 John Pennye 
 
 Ric^ Saunders 
 
 Robert Walker 
 
 112 
 
APPENDIX C. 
 
 Order of the Privy Council for the Provision of a 
 Free English School,'- 
 
 At the Court at Whitehall the 27th of March, 1636. 
 
 Present : 
 
 The Kings most Excellent Maiestie. 
 Lo Arch Bpp of Cant Ea of Salisburie 
 Lo Keeper Ea of Exeter 
 
 Lo Arch BPPof Yorke Ea of Holland 
 Lo Treasurer Lo Newburgh 
 
 Lo Privie Seale Mr Treasurer 
 
 Lo D : of Lenox Mr Comptroller 
 
 Ea Marshall Mr Sec Coke 
 
 Lo Chamberlaine Mr Sec Windebanke 
 
 A letter to the Mayor and Aldermen of Exeter. 
 Wee have been informed by a Letter from John Hayne 
 Wa : Yonge John Davis and John Champnes that since the 
 receipt of a former Letter from this Boord they have had 
 divers meetings, and conferences w"' yo" about one Legacie 
 of 5octi and another of 40*1 given by one Mrs. Jordan to bee 
 imployed to such good uses, as the Parties aforesaid should 
 thinke fit, And it was mutually assented unto betweene 
 yo' Recorder, and them, that if there might bee an hospitall 
 legally erected, and a Roome therein allotted for a free 
 Englishe Schoole that the said five hundred pounds, and 
 forty pounds should bee ymployed to a free English Schoole 
 in that Hospitall for teachinge such poore Children of the 
 Citty to reade and write (whose parents are not able to 
 maintaine them, and nowe wander disorderly about tlje 
 * Copied from the Privy Council Registers, vol vi. 
 
 U3 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 Streets) so they might bee made fitt to bee bounde out 
 Apprentizes. All w'''' was intended to bee established to the 
 use aforesaid as by Counsell on both sides should bee advised: 
 But instead of proceedinge accordingly yo" nowe disclayme 
 the said agreement, and would have the moneys paid over 
 into yo' hands, forasmuch as wee cannot perceave but 
 the Course by them resolved upon (w"* the consent of 
 yo' Recorder) is both agreable w"* o' direccons, and the 
 donors intencons. Wee doe therefore hereby require 
 yo" w'hout any further dispute or delay to confirme the 
 agreement made as aforesaid, and ioyne togeather in a 
 freindly way that the said Somes may bee disposed of for 
 the most advantage, and good of the poorer sort of the said 
 Towne, accordinge to the agreemente, and as the donor 
 directed, and by the time lymitted. Hereof yo" may not 
 faile, and so &c. dated the 28"" of March 1636. 
 
 Signed 
 Lo Arch Bpp of Cant Ea of Suflfolke Lo Newburgh 
 Lo Arch Bpp of Yorke Lo Morton Mr V. Chamb 
 
 Lo Chamberlaine Lo V. Willmot Mr Sec Coke 
 
 Mr Sec Windebanke 
 
 114 
 
APPENDIX D. 
 
 Charter of Incorporation of St. John's Hospital. 
 
 Charles by the grace of God Kinge of England Scotland 
 flFrance and Ireland Defender of the ffaith &c. To all to 
 whome these psents shall come greeting Whereas by the The Petition 
 humble peticon of the Maior Bayliflfes and Comynaltie of our 
 Cittie of Exeter wee are informed of their pious and charitable 
 intencons and desires to erecte an Hospitall w'hin the said 
 Cittie for the releife settinge on worke and educacon in good 
 learninge and otherwise of poore children borne or inhabitinge Thecondicon 
 w*hin the same Cittie, who either have noe Parents, or those °|^.|^'?® 
 soe poore, as are not able to maintaine them, as alsoe for the 
 releife and maintenance of such aged or impotent poore people 
 inhabitinge w^hin the same Cittie as are not able to worke> 
 And that amongst other oar subiects there well affected to 
 this pious worke, Johan Crossinge the widowe of Hugh 
 Crossinge Esq deceassed late one of the Aldermen of the said Founders 
 Cittie, and ffrancis Crossinge Esq their sonne one of the nowe 
 Aldermen of the said Cittie, in psecucon of the charitable 
 intendm'^ of the said Hugh Crossinge, have purchased a 
 large and convenient house w'hin the said Cittie, w*^*" before 
 the dissolucon of Monasteries was an hospitall, called S" 
 Johns Hospitall, And likewise one Tenement neere adioyninge 
 and sometimes pcell of or belonginge to the said Hospitall, 
 w'^'' are held of us by Knight service in Capite, and have 
 given the same for an hospitall or workehouse. And that 
 sithence by the Charitie of Thomas Walker Esq deceassed 
 and Elizabeth Dowrich widowe deceassed and of divers others, 
 there is a Decent Schoolehouse made and reedified in a park 
 of the said Hospitall w'^'' was ancientlie the bodye or lower 
 
 children to be 
 putt into the 
 Hospitall. 
 
 The 
 
 115 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 parte of the said Hospitall Church, and a free Gramar Schoole 
 therein alreadie setled by the appbacon of our privie counsel!, 
 and that the higher parte or decayed Channcell of the said 
 Church is lateHe by the Cost of Ahce Hele widowe deceassed 
 decenthe reedified and ppared for a Chappie for the use of the 
 said Hospitall, And that there is alsoe ffive hundred pounds 
 (w"'' was given by Elizabeth Jurdaine widowe deceassed for 
 charitable uses w'hin the said Citie and Countie of Exon in 
 pursuance of certain orders made by our privie Counsell) 
 applyed to and for the maintenance of a fFree English Schoole 
 therein for the better pparinge of the children of the said 
 Ilospitall and others for the Gramar Schoole and other fitt 
 pfessions. And that there have byn alsoe divers lands Tene- 
 ments and somes of monye heretofore given by Walter 
 Borough Esq and Nicholas Martyn Esq deceassed Dame 
 Marie Prydeaux and others, and more pmised by severall 
 other psons to bee given for the supporte and enlargement 
 of the same Hospitall, Whereuppon the said Maior Bayliffes 
 and Comynaltie have made humble suite to us for o' grace 
 and favour in licenceinge them to erecte and found an 
 The names Hospitall for ever in the said house (to bee called the 
 of the Hospitall of S'- Johns w*hin the Cittie of Exeter, founded 
 Hospitall by Hugh Crossinge Esq and others) And a ffree Gramar 
 desired. Schoole and an English Schoole therein, And to renewe 
 and continue divine service in the said Chappie for the said 
 Hospitall, And that the said other parts of the said house 
 might bee for ever imployed for the Dwellinge releife and 
 educacon in learninge and all or any other lawfuU Arte and 
 Trades of poore children borne and inhabitinge w'hin the 
 Thelimitacon said Cittie or Countie of the same under the age of Sixteene 
 of the tyme yeres And for the habitacon releife and maintenance of aged 
 the children ^^ impotent poore people inhabitinge w'hin the said Cittie or 
 
 Countie of the same. And of soe many children and aged 
 rr-mayne in ' "^ . . 
 
 the Hospitall. & impotent psons as the Governo" of the said Hospitall for 
 
 ii6 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 the time beinge shall thinke fitt, and for the dwellinge of one 
 or more Schoolemaisters to instructe the said Children, And 
 that the Maior Recorder Aldermen and Comon Counsell oi 
 the said Cittie for the time beinge might bee the Governo" of Who 
 the said Hospital! and of the members goods lands revenewes shalbe the 
 and hereditaments of the same att all times hereafter for ever, overnors. 
 and might have the electinge and placeinge of Schollers 
 Schoolemaisters ushers Chaplaines and other necessarie 
 officers children and poore people, And that the said 
 Governo'' and Hospitall might for ever bee incorporated 
 and founded in name and in Deede A Bodye politique and 
 Corporate to have continuance for ever, by the name of the The name of 
 Governo" of the Hospitall of S'- Johns wVm the Cittie of [^^ 
 Exeter founded by Hugh Crossinge Esq and others And ^gXir*''^''" 
 that the said Governo" might have ppetuall Succession and 
 by that name they and their Successors might for ever here- 
 after have possesse and enioye aswell the said house and 
 Tenement given by the said Johan Crossinge and ffrancis 
 Crossinge as aforesaid notw'hstandinge the Statute of Mort- 
 maine ; as all other lands Tenements Rents & hereditam'' 
 goods and Chatties reall or psonall w'''' are or shalbe given 
 unto the said Hospitall or purchased by the Governo" of the 
 same, Soe as all the said lands Tenements hereditaments and 
 rents soe to bee purchased or given (except the said Hospitall 
 house and Tenement adioyninge) in the whole togeather shall 
 not exceede the cleere yerelie value of ffive Hundred pounds, 
 and should not bee held in Capite or by Knights service, 
 And that the said Governo" and their Successors or the maior 
 parte of them might have power to make lawes and ordinances 
 for the well governinge placeinge and displaceinge of the 
 members or other Officers of the said Hospitall, not repugnant 
 to the lawes of o' Realme, and to make eleccon of such officer 
 or officers concerninge the said Hospitall or the lands goods 
 and revenues of the same ; as they or the maior parte of 
 
 117 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 Maior 
 
 Bayliffes and 
 
 coialtie their 
 
 power. 
 
 them shall thinke fitt, And that the said Governo" and their 
 Successors might bee the visitors of the said Hospitall, 
 And might have and use A Comon Seale to lease or 
 otherwise dispose of their lands Tenem" or hereditaments 
 goods or chatties, or for any other use touchinge or concern- 
 inge the said Hospitall, w"* such other powers liberties and 
 priviledges as shalbe meete for the well orderinge and 
 establishinge of the said Hospitall. KNOW YE therefore 
 
 His Ma''" That wee greatlie afFectinge such pious and Charitable works 
 Grantetothe ^^^ q^j. ^f q^- Royall inclinacon to pmote and advance the 
 same ; Off our especiall grace certaine knowledge and meere 
 mocon Have given and graunted And by these psents for us 
 our Heires & Successors doe give and graunte to the said 
 Maior Bayliffes and Comynaltie of the Cittie of Exeter full 
 power licence and lawfull authoritie at all times hereafter 
 To found an att their Willes & pleasures to place erecte found and 
 
 Hospitall. establish att or in the said house (heretofore called S*- Johns 
 Hospitall) w'hin the Cittie of Exeter and other the ^misses 
 thereunto adioyninge, One Hospitall, house or place of 
 abidinge for the findeninge sustentacon releife and educacon 
 in learninge and all or any other lawfull Arts and Trades of 
 poore children from time to time borne or inhabitinge w'hin 
 the said Cittie or Countie of the same, And for the habitacon 
 releife and maintenance of aged or impotent poore people 
 from time to time inhabitinge w'hin the said Cittie or Countie 
 of the same, And of soe many Children or aged or impotent 
 poore people and such other members and Officers of the 
 said Hospitall as to the Governo" of the said Hospitall 
 hereafter named and their Successors or the greater parte 
 of them for the time beinge shall seeme meete, And that the 
 said Governo'^ for the time beinge and their Successors shall 
 have full power licence and lawfull authoritie att their Willes 
 
 To place a and pleasures from time to time and att all times hereafter 
 M'- &c. to place therein such Maister or head of the said Hospitall 
 
 Ii8 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 and number of poore people and Children and such other 
 members and officers of the said Hospitall as to them or the 
 greater parte of them for the time beinge shall seeme con- 
 venient, And further wee of our especiall grace certaine 
 knowledge and meere mocon Have given and graunted 
 And by these psents doe give and graunte unto the said 
 Governo" and their Successors att their Willes and pleasures 
 full power licence and lawfuU authoritie att all times here- 
 after to place erecte found and establish att or in the said 
 Hospitall and other the pmisses One ffree Grafnar Schoole 
 and one ffree English Schoole for the instructinge teachinge 
 maintenance and educacon of poore children or Schollers 
 borne or inhabitinge w*hin the said Cittie of Exeter or 
 Countie of the same, And that the said Governo'^ for the time 
 beinge and their Succcessors shall have full power licence 
 and lawfull authoritie att their Willes and pleasures from 
 time to time and at all times hereafter to place therein such 
 number of poore children or Schollers as to the Governo" of 
 the said Hospitall for the time beinge and their Successors 
 or the greater parte of them shall seeme conveniente. And 
 likewise one or more learned able and sufficient pson or 
 psons to bee Schoolmaister or Schoolemaisters of the same 
 Schoole or Schooles, And one or more other able and 
 sufficient pson or psons to bee usher or ushers thereof to 
 teach and instructe the said Children, And alsoe one learned 
 and godlie Preacher to reade divine service and to teach & 
 preach the Word of God in the said Chappell to all the said 
 persons poore people and children members and officers att 
 or in the said house, w'** the allowance of the Ordinarie there 
 for the time beinge And further wee of our said speciall grace 
 certaine knowledge and meere mocon Have ordayned con- 
 stituted assigned limitted and appointed. And by these psents 
 for us our Heires and Successors doe ordayne constitute 
 assigne limitt and appointe That the said house and other 
 
 To found a 
 free Gramer 
 Schoole 
 ?r English 
 Schoole. 
 
 Schoole- 
 maisters 
 & Ushers. 
 
 A Preacher. 
 
 With the 
 all<= of the 
 Ordinary e. 
 
 119 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 ^misses shall from hencefoorth for ever hereafter be remaine 
 The house to continue and bee converted imployed & used for an Hospitall 
 be continued ^jj^j house or place for the abideing dwellinge sustentacon 
 or an ^^^ releife of such number of poore people and children, 
 as the said Governo" of the said Hospitall and their 
 Successors for the time beinge or the greater parte of them 
 shall name assigne limitt or appointe to be lodged 
 harbored abide and to bee maintayned and releived there, 
 And for the abideinge dwellinge sustentacon and findinge 
 of one or more Schoolemaister or Schoolemaisters usher 
 or ushers one Preacher and of one head or Maister of the 
 said house & Hospitall as aforesaid, And that it shall & 
 may be lawfull to and for the said Maister Preacher Schoole- 
 maisters ushers poore people children members and Officers 
 of the said Hospitall, or therein to bee placed, for the time 
 beinge, to assemble bee remaine abide and cohabite togeather 
 The name of in the said Hospitall, And that the said Hospitall shall 
 the Hospitall fQj. gyg^ hereafter bee incorporated named and called, the 
 Hospitall of S'- Johns w'hin the Cittie of Exeter founded by 
 Hugh Crossinge Esq and others. And that the same 
 Hospitall Chappie and fFree Schooles by the name of 
 the Hospitall of S*- Johns w hin the Cittie of Exeter 
 founded by Hugh Crossinge Esq and others, wee doe 
 firmelie by these psents for us our Heires and Successors 
 erecte found establish and confirme to have continuance 
 for ever, AND for the better maintenance and continuance 
 of the said Hospitall fFree Schooles and other the said 
 godlie and charitable uses intents and purposes, and that 
 the same may have and take the better effecte, And that 
 all and everie the Messuages lands Tenem'^ rents revercons 
 services and hereditaments goods and Chatties heretofore 
 given graunted conveyed assigned devised willed liiiiitted or 
 appomted or hereafter to bee given graunted conveyed 
 assigned devised willed limitted or appointed for the 
 
 120 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 maintenance sustentacon and releife of the psons aforesaid 
 in the same Hospltall may be the better governed used 
 imployed and bestowed for the maintenance of the psons in 
 the said Hospitall for the time beinge to have continuance 
 for ever, Wee will appointe assigne limitt and name, And for 
 us our Heires and Successors doe graunte and ordayne by 
 these psents That the Maior Recorder Aldermen and Comon 
 Counsell of the said Cittie of Exeter for the time beinge 
 shalbe Governo" of the said Hospitall, And of the lands 
 possessions revenewes and goods thereof, And that the said 
 Maior Recorder Aldermen and Comon Counsell of the said 
 Cittie shalbe incorporated and have a ppetuall Succession 
 for ever in Deede facte and name, And shalbe one Bodye 
 Corporate & politique, And that they the said Maior Recorder 
 Aldermen & Comon Counsell of the said Cittie and their 
 Successors shalbe incorporated named and called by the 
 name of, the Governo" of the Hospitall of S' Johns w'hin the 
 Cittie of Exeter founded by Hugh Crossinge Esq and others, 
 and them by the name of the Governo" of the Hospitall of 
 S'- Johns w hin the Cittie of Exeter founded by Hugh 
 Crossinge Esq and others, one bodye Corporate and politique 
 by that name to have ppetuall Succession for ever to endure, 
 Wee doe for us our Heires and Successors reallye and fuUie 
 incorporate make erecte ordayne name constitute and establish 
 by these psents. And that they by the same name bee and 
 shalbe and continue psons able and capable in the lawe from 
 time to time for ever hereafter, and shall by that name of 
 Incorporacon have full power authoritie and lawful capacitie 
 and abilitie to purchase take hold receive enioye and have to 
 them and their Successors for ever aswell the foresaid 
 Hospitall house and Tenement adioyninge w'hall the buildings 
 Curtelages orchards gardens and apptennces thereunto 
 belonginge as any other Messuages Manno'' lands Tenements 
 Rents revercons Annuities and hereditaments goods and 
 
 The Maior 
 Recorder 
 Aldermen & 
 Comon 
 Counsell to 
 be Governors 
 
 A Bodie 
 Politique. 
 
 The name 
 of the 
 incorporacon 
 
 Power to 
 purchase 
 Landes, &c. 
 
 121 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 To sue & to 
 
 be sued. 
 
 To have a 
 ComonSeale. 
 
 All persons 
 
 there to be 
 
 ordered &c. 
 
 by the 
 
 Governors. 
 
 Chatties whatsoever aswell of us our Heires and 
 Successors ; as of anie other pson or psons whatsoever, 
 And alsoe that the said Governo' for the time beinge 
 and their Successors shall have full power and lawful! 
 authoritie by the aforesaid name of Governo" of the 
 Hospitall of S'' Johns w'hin the Cittie of Exeter founded 
 by Hugh Crossinge Esq and others to sue and to be 
 sued impleade and to bee impleaded to answeare and to 
 bee answeared unto in all Co'" and other places w'hin 
 this our Realme or elsewhere in all manner of suits what- 
 soever and of what nature or kinde soever such suite or 
 accon bee or shalbee, in the same and in as ample manner 
 and forme to all intents Construccons and purposes as anie 
 other pson or psons Bodyes politique or Corporate of this 
 our Realme of England beinge able psons in the lawe may 
 doe, And furthermore wee will and graunte by these psents 
 for us our Heires and Successors unto the said Governo" 
 for the time beinge and their Successors, That they and there 
 Successors shall have and enioye for ever A Comon Seale 
 wherew"' the same Corporacon shall and may seale any 
 manner of Deed Writings or instrument touchinge the same 
 Corporacon or the Manno" lands Tenem*^ rents revercons 
 Annuities & hereditaments goods Chatties and other things 
 thereunto belonginge or in any wise touchinge or concerninge 
 the same, And wee do further of our especiall grace certaine 
 knowledge and meere mocoii for us our Heires and Successors 
 give and graunte That the said Maister Preacher Schoole- 
 maisters ushers poore people Children Schollers members and 
 Officers of the said Hospitall and everie of them shalbe 
 allowed ordered governed directed visited placed or displaced 
 by the said Governo" and their Successors or the greater 
 parte of them accordinge to such allowances rules Statutes 
 & ordinances as shalbe appointed set foorth devised or 
 established by the said Governo" for the time beinge, or their 
 
 122 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 Successors or the more parte of them, Soe as the same rule 
 Statutes and ordinances soe farr foorth as they shall concerne 
 the Preacher of the said Hospitall bee made and sett downe 
 w'h the allowance of the ordinarie there for the time beinge, 
 And further wee have given and graunted And by these 
 psents doe give and graunte to the said Governo'^ and their 
 Successors for the time beinge or the more parte of them 
 full power and authoritie to make sett downe and appointe 
 such rules Statutes and ordinances for the rule goverm' and 
 well orderinge of the said Hospitall and of the said Maister 
 Preacher, Schoolemaisters ushers poore people Children 
 Schollers members and Officers for the time beinge and for 
 their and everie of their Wages stipends and allowances for 
 and towards their or anie of their maintenances and releife ; 
 as to the said Governo''* and their Successors for the time 
 being or the more parte of them shall seeme meete and 
 convenient, Soe as the same soe farr as they shall concerne 
 the said Preacher be made w"^ the allowance of the said 
 ordinarie for the time being, And that the same orders rules 
 Statutes and ordinances soe by them to bee made sett downe 
 and pscribed as aforesaid shalbe and stand in full force and 
 strength in lawe to all constructions intents and purposes, 
 The same not beinge repugnant to our progative Royall, nor 
 contrarie to the lawes and Statutes of this Realme of England, 
 or to any Ecclesiasticall Cannons or Constitutions of the 
 Church of England w''' then shalbe in force, And that for 
 the better government of the said Hospitall the said 
 Governo" for the time beinge or the greater parte of them 
 shall and may have full power and iawfull authoritie to 
 visite the said Hospitall, and to order governe punish place 
 or displace the Maister Schoolemaisters ushers poore people 
 Schollers members and Officers of the said Hospitall and 
 everie or any of them And to order reforine and redresse all 
 & everie the disorders misdemeano" offences and abuses in the 
 
 Those 
 touchinge 
 the Preacher 
 to be all** of 
 by the 
 Ordinarie. 
 
 Power to 
 
 make 
 
 ordinances. 
 
 The 
 
 Governors to 
 be visitors & 
 to redresse 
 disorders 
 in the 
 Hospitall. 
 
 Power to 
 displace. 
 
 123 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 A Lycence to 
 
 purchase 
 
 aswell the 
 
 Hospital 
 
 house &c. as 
 
 any other 
 
 Landes not 
 
 excedinge 
 
 500" ^ annu. 
 
 psons aforesaid and everie or any of them, or in the said 
 Hospitall or fFree Schooles, or in or touchinge the Goverment 
 order and disposeinge of the same as to the said Governo" for 
 the time beinge and their Successors or the more parte 
 of them shall seeme fitt iust and convenient, Soe as 
 the same soe farr as it concernes the Preacher for the 
 time beinge bee done w"" the allowance of the ordinarie 
 there for the time beinge And further knowe yee that 
 wee for the consideracons aforesaid of our especiall grace 
 certaine knowledge and meere mocon Have given and graunted 
 And by these psents for us our Heires and Successors doe 
 give and graunte to the said Governo'' and their Successors 
 for ever our especiall licence and free and lawful! libertie 
 power and authoritie to gett purchase and take to them and 
 their Successors for ever for the maintenance sustentacon and 
 releife of all and everie the pson and psons to bee placed in 
 the said Hospitall of and from the said Johan Crossinge and 
 ffrancis Crossinge their Heires & Assignes or any other pson 
 or psons, aswell the said Hospitall house and Tenement 
 adioyninge w"" th' apptennces ; as any other Mano'' Messuages 
 lands Tenements rents revercons Annuities and hereditaments 
 whatsoever of and from any other pson or psons whatsoever, 
 Soe as the same pmisses or any of them (excepte the said 
 Hospitall house and Tenement adioyninge) bee not holden of 
 us our Heires or Successors in capite nor holden of us our 
 heires or Successors or of any other pson or psons by Knights 
 service, And soe as the same Manno" Messuages lands 
 Tenements hereditaments and pmisses (excepte the said 
 Hospitall house and Tenement adioyninge) doe not exceede 
 in the whole the yerelie value of ffive hundred pounds 
 p Ann above all charges & reprizes, the Statute of 
 Mortmayne or any other Acte Statute ordinance or pvision 
 whatsoever to the contrarie thereof in any wise notw"*standinge 
 Alsoe wee have likewise given and graunted And by these 
 
 .124 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 psents for us our Heires and Successors doe give 
 and graunt to everie of the subiects of us our Heires 
 and Successors speciall licence and free and lawful! 
 power & authoritie, That they or any of them shall 
 and may lawfullie and freelie give graunte sell bequeath 
 alienate or convey to the said Governo" and their Successors 
 aswell the said Hospitall house & Tenement adioyninge 
 w"" th' apptennces as aforesaid as any other Messuages 
 Manno'^ lands Tenements Tithes Rents revercons and other 
 hereditaments w'''' are not holden of us our Heires or 
 Successors in Capite nor by Knights service, neither of any 
 other pson or psons whatsoever by Knights service and soe as 
 all the said Manno" Messuages lands Tenements Rents 
 revercons and other the hereditaments (excepte before 
 excepted) soe as aforesaid to bee given graunted aliened 
 bequeathed or conveyed doe not exceede in the whole the 
 cleere yerelie value of ffive hundred pounds above all charges 
 and reprizes, The Statute of Mortmayne or any other 
 Statute Acte ordinance or pvision heretofore made had 
 published ordayned or pvided or anie other thinge cause or 
 matter to the contrarie thereof in any wise notw^'standinge 
 And further of our especial grace certaine knowledge 
 and meere mocon wee doe for us our Heires & Successors 
 graunte to the said Governo" of the said Hospitall and their 
 Successors, That these our Ires Patentes or the inrollement 
 thereof shall stand and be good firme stronge sufficient and 
 effectuall in the lawe to all the intents and purposes aforesaid, 
 and shalbee expounded construed taken and adiudged 
 in all our Co"* of this our Realme & elsewhere 
 stronglie against us our Heires and Successors ; And most 
 benignely favourablie & beneficiallie to and for the said 
 Governo" of the said Hospitall and their Successors, not- 
 w^'standinge an ad quod dampnu hath not byn awarded 
 touchinge the pmisses, or any omission impfeccon or defecte 
 
 A lycence to 
 all subiects 
 to give any 
 landes &c. 
 not exceed- 
 inge 500" p 
 annu. 
 
 That these 
 presents 
 shalbe efFect- 
 uail in the 
 lawe & 
 taken 
 
 beneficiallie 
 for the 
 Governors. 
 
 125 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 in these our letters Pattents or any other thinge cause or 
 
 matter whatsoever to the contrarie thereof notw'^standinge, 
 
 The liberties Nevertheles our intent and meaninge is And wee doe hereby 
 
 of the Bp declare the same to bee, That these psents, nor any thinge 
 
 & Deaiie therein conteyned shall extend or bee construed to extend to 
 
 ^^ ^J the ^iudice of any the rights powers priviledges and Juris- 
 
 diccons of or belonginge to the Lord Bp of Exeter for the 
 
 time beinge, or to the Deane and Chapter of the Cathedrall 
 
 Church of S'- Peter in Exeter and their Successors or any of 
 
 them, Althbugh expresse mencon of the true yerelie value or 
 
 certentie of the pmisses or anie of them or of anie other guifts 
 
 or graunts by us or by any of our pgenitors or pdecessors to 
 
 the said Governo" heretofore made in these ^sents is not 
 
 made, or any Statute Acte ordinance pvision pclamation or 
 
 restrainte to the contrarie thereof heretofore had made 
 
 ordayned or pvided, or anie other thinge cause or matter 
 
 whatsoever in any wise notw^'standinge. In witnes whereof 
 
 wee have caused these our letters to bee made Patents, 
 
 Witness ourselfe att Westminster the Second day of June 
 
 in the Thirteenth year of our Raigne 
 
 p breve de private Sigillo 
 
 WOOLSELEY. 
 
 126 
 
APPENDIX E. 
 
 Letter of Bishop Temple to the Mayor of Exeter. 
 
 The Palace, 
 
 5th February, 1872. 
 
 My dear Mr Mayor, 
 
 I should have been very glad if other engagements 
 had left me free to take my part in the discussions which 
 will take place in this City on the proposals made by the 
 Endowed Schools Commissioners for the re-organisation of 
 our Educational Endowments. But I am compelled to go to 
 London, and shall not be back for some little time. 
 
 For this reason I wish to take this opportunity of trying 
 to put the proposals of the Commissioners in a brief, clear 
 form, and to express my opinion on them in detail. 
 
 The Commissioners propose to re-organise the endowments 
 in such a way as to provide a complete system of schools 
 from the lowest to the highest. 
 
 They assume that Elementary Schools will be provided 
 under the Education Act. And there is no reason to doubt 
 that, after a little while, this part of the educational system 
 will be as efficient as the careful control of the citizens and 
 the supervision of the Government can make it. 
 
 The grade of education next above, it is proposed to 
 supply out of the Episcopal Charity and Maynard's Charity. 
 
 The Episcopal Charity is to build an elementary school 
 in connection with the Training College. This school, while 
 an elementary school within the meaning of the Education 
 Act, would be not the practising, but the model school of 
 the Training College, where the students could watch and 
 study the best method of teaching, but not be themselves 
 
 127 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 ordinarily employed as teachers. The fees would be between 
 6d. and gd. a week. It would thus stand midway between 
 the ordinary elementary schools and the schools of the Third 
 Grade. A certain number of selected children from the 
 elementary schools might be admitted either free or at lower 
 terms, and their fees either partially or wholly paid for them. 
 
 The schools of the third grade would be held in the 
 present buildings of the Episcopal Charity Schools. The 
 fees would be between £i and £/^ year. For the present 
 boys and girls would be taught in different parts of these 
 schools. Hereafter, when the schools had grown (as they 
 are sure to do), the girls would have schoolrooms of their 
 own suppHed, or partly supplied, out of Maynard's Charity. 
 
 The second grade of education would be given as proposed 
 by the City Committee at Hele's School. 
 
 The highest grade would be given by the Foundation 
 which includes the St. John's Hospital and the Grammar 
 School. It is important to notice that this is but one 
 Foundation, and that from its origin both the purposes which 
 it now professes to fulfil were contemplated, and, moreover, 
 that the amount of the propejty to be assigned to either 
 purpose is not determined by anything in the original 
 instrument, but simply by usage. The Grammar School, as 
 a matter of fact, has been almost ruined, in spite of laborious 
 headmasters, by the small amount assigned to it, and this 
 merely because an arrangement had gradually come into 
 force which no one was willing to disturb. 
 
 It is proposed, therefore, to assign to the purpose of higher 
 education a much larger share of this joint endowment, and 
 to give girls a portion of it as well as boys. To make the 
 education complete and thorough this is absolutely necessary ; 
 and as the Indenture of 1629 (the starting-point of the present 
 Foundation) in more than one place speaks of the good of 
 the City and the inhabitants thereof as a part of the general 
 
 128 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 aim, it is certainly no real departure from the original purpose 
 to make such a rearrangement of the revenues as the general 
 good requires. No argument is needed to show how sorely 
 Exeter suffers from the want of a good Grammar School for 
 boys and of a good Upper School for girls. The wealthier 
 can, of course, provide for themselves. They can send both 
 sons and daughters to a distance. But the great body of the 
 middle class, who will be now for the first time rated, and 
 perhaps heavily rated, for Elementary Schools, have no really 
 efficient schools for their own children. And although it seems 
 to be thought that there is something especially incongruous 
 in providing an Upper School for girls, I cannot see how it is 
 to be maintained that the middle classes, from the shop- 
 keepers upwards, do not need efficient schooling for their 
 girls as well as for their boys, nor how provision for it is 
 inconsistent with the purpose of a Foundation which aims at 
 the good of the citizens generally. Our ancestors, to whom 
 we owe this Foundation, were wise men. They gave to their 
 upper education the completeness, and to their lower education 
 the form, that suited their day. We must do the same, or 
 else, though we may mimic their acts, we shall not copy the 
 example of their wisdom. 
 
 The working of these schools should be this : each school 
 would be attended by the children of those parents who 
 could afford to pay the fees. But children selected by merit 
 from the Elementary Schools would be admitted free into Third 
 Grade Schools, and children selected by merit from the Third 
 Grade Schools would be admitted free into Second and 
 First Grade Schools. Thus a child even of the poorest 
 parents might rise by his merit as far as his powers would 
 fit him to rise. This would be done by means of the 
 Exhibitions. 
 
 Less is said in detail about Exhibitions in the Memorandum 
 sent to us than the subject deserves, and this for an obvious 
 
 129 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 reason. It is not possible to estimate beforehand the nature 
 and amount of the Exhibitions that will best suit the 
 educational needs of the place. It is therefore usual in all 
 good schemes of schools to leave the Governors a great 
 latitude of discretion in dealing with the Exhibition Fund. 
 
 But it possible to indicate the form Avhich these Exhibitions 
 will probably assume. 
 
 The spare money of the Episcopal Charity will probably 
 be best used in providing means by which children from 
 the Elementary Schools may be brought into the schools of 
 the Third Grade, either at low fees or free, or even with a 
 small amount of money in hand over and above the fees to 
 compensate them for not at once beginning to earn wages. 
 Besides these Exhibitions for children from the Elementary 
 Schools there must be also provided from this fund Exhibitions 
 to enable selected scholars in the Third Grade Schools to go 
 to the Schools of a higher grade. If this be not provided, 
 the Third Grade Schools will languish for want of the 
 stimulus which these Exhibitions alone can give. 
 
 The remaining income of the Foundation which now 
 includes St. John's Hospital and the Grammar School, ought 
 be used chiefly to fulfil a purpose which was once fulfilled by 
 every Grammar School in the country, and which the 
 inevitable change in the nature of modern education has 
 rendered it impossible for them to fulfil any longer. 
 
 It was once the case (and it would not be necessary to 
 go very far back in the history of Exeter to find instances of 
 it here) that a poor boy might, and often did find that the 
 Grammar School near his home, provided the means of rising 
 to high distinction and of doing honour to his school and to his 
 town by his after life. By diligent use of the faculties that 
 God had given him, without being beholden to anybody, the 
 poor lad could attain the aims of an honourable ambition. 
 And the perpetual recurrence of the phrase in hundreds of 
 
 130 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 Foundation Deeds, that it was intended that poor boys might 
 be brought up to serve God in Church and State, shews how 
 much the idea of making this possible prevailed in the minds 
 of those who founded the Schools. 
 
 This the poor have now lost, not because anyone has 
 purposely taken it away, but because the old system of 
 Grammar Schools has perished and cannot be revived. It 
 is a boon better worth restoring than any other that can be 
 given, and one which I believe the founders had more closely 
 at their hearts, 
 
 I do not much like the form of the proposal in this matter 
 submitted to our consideration by the Commissioners. It is 
 matter of much doubt whether the twenty Exhibitions will 
 be the best mode of using the money. And I should 
 prefer to leave the actual apportionment of the money to the 
 discretion of the Governing Body, under the restraint of one 
 simple rule, viz., that it should be used to enable, not poor 
 children, but children who had been educated in the public 
 Elementary Schools of the Parliamentary Borough of Exeter 
 to carry on their education further, in proportion as they 
 showed such diligence and capacity as to be likely to profit 
 by doing so. 
 
 Now this scheme is objected to as a robbery of the 
 poor, and more particularly because it proposes no longer 
 to maintain St. John's Hospital on its present footing. 
 
 How it is possible for thoughtful men to believe that an 
 educational system for the whole City which provides that 
 every poor boy, if he have diligence and capacity to profit by 
 the boon, shall have the means of using that system from 
 one end to the other is not preferable to the maintenance 
 and instruction of twenty-five poor children, it is difficult for 
 one to understand. 
 
 Consider what benefit the Hospital now confers. We bring 
 a child in and give it a great boon. But, meanwhile, what 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 have we done for those whom we have left outside ? Is 
 there any single soul the better besides this child and the 
 relations that are no longer burthened with it ? The sum 
 total of the benefit is that out of this large City, you have 
 taken care of twenty-five children. On the other hand, the 
 Scheme of the Commissioners says to every Godfearing 
 father and every careful mother that the pains taken to 
 bring their child up well, to see that it is regular in its 
 attendance at School, to see that it is diligent, attentive, and 
 obedient, to encourage it in its learning, to see that the home 
 life does not undo School lessons,— these make the most 
 likely road to immediate and visible success, a success earned 
 and not solicited, a success which is an honour to both 
 parents and child. 
 
 It is argued that such benefits are confined to clever 
 children. It is true that where God has given special fitness 
 for higher learning to any child, however poor, this Scheme 
 recognises the claim (it seems to me an exceedingly strong 
 claim) of that special fitness. But it is a mistake to suppose 
 that this, and this alone, will decide all such competitions. 
 Diligence, regularity, attentiveness, will tell most heavily, 
 and in these points almost everything depends on the homes 
 in which the children live and the parents to whom those 
 homes belong. 
 
 It is no slight blessing to the poor that a scheme of 
 education should improve every Elementary School with the 
 powerful stimulus of hope. Our Elementary Schools at 
 present are often well taught, well managed, well examined ; 
 but they are all alike deficient in that brightness and life 
 which hope alone can give. There is no aim set before the 
 learners which they can easily appreciate. There is little 
 encouragement to the parents. While all other classes of 
 society are eager for improved education, for the poor, and 
 the poor alone, we are driven to use compulsion. And why ? 
 
 132 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 Chiefly, you may be sure, because every other kind of school 
 oflFers rewards in plenty, and the Elementary School offers 
 none. 
 
 Nor is it a small matter to set the poor absolutely free in 
 this matter from all need of soliciting trustees or patrons. 
 Who can measure the mischief which such solicitation causes, 
 or the many occasions when the wrong choice is made on 
 such a system ? The Trustees may do their best, and yet on 
 any system which makes them the dispensers of patronage it 
 must constantly happen that the most deserving cases are 
 passed by in consequence of their own desert. The poor 
 widow who is so unselfish as always to fancy that her 
 neighbour is in greater need than herself, the poor widow who 
 thinks it a duty never to ask for help if she can possibly 
 provide for her own by her own exertion, these are constantly 
 and inevitably overlooked, even by the most careful trustees, 
 and the boon is obtained by the importunate and the plausible. 
 
 You may be sure, Mr. Mayor, that all boons given to the 
 poor are multiplied tenfold in value if they are given in such 
 a form as to recognise the poor man as a fellow citizen among 
 citizens, and not as belonging to a class apart. In our 
 private charities we cannot help aiding the poor as poor ; 
 but then we are able, if we choose, to do it without attaching 
 to our aid any public stamp of poverty, and to take off much 
 of the evil of teaching the lesson of dependence by making 
 the receiver feel that our gift is one of sympathy between 
 man and man, and not of favour from rich to poor. And 
 even then the many mistakes we make compel us to feel that 
 our Lord has given us no harder problem to solve than how 
 to aid the poor without doing them harm. But in dealing 
 with public and permanent institutions, where it is possible to 
 calculate beforehand how aid is to be obtained, it is of 
 priceless importance to give aid in a form that shall encourage 
 self-respect and self-reliance. I would wish the poor man to 
 
 133 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 get what can be given him out of these Endowments, not 
 because he is poor, but because he is a citizen of Exeter — 
 not because he has begged for it, but because he has fairly 
 won it — with no sense of humiliation, but with that honest 
 satisfaction which attends the success of conscientious labour. 
 And I have that opinion of my poorer fellow citizens, that I 
 feel confident that if they thoroughly understood the alterna- 
 tive, they would much prefer a scheme which recognised their 
 place in the whole body, and duly provided for what belonged 
 to that place, to one which set them apart to receive a favour 
 conferred on a few by the award of personal patronage. 
 
 This is the most important question now in dispute. But 
 there is another of less importance which deserves a very few 
 words. It is proposed to treat the Grammar School as not 
 only an Exeter, but also a County School, and to put it for 
 that reason to a great extent under County management. It 
 is obvious that Exeter may be considered in two respects, 
 either as an ordinary town of 40,000 inhabitants, or as the 
 County town of Devon, and the Cathedral City of both 
 Devon and Cornwall. In dealing with the Grammar School, 
 it is proposed to consider Exeter in the latter capacity, and 
 in that capacity, if it holds eight places out of twenty on the 
 Governing Body, it certainly has no reason to complain. 
 Now I do not think it at all unnatural that it should appear 
 at first sight as if there were no reason for this, and as if the 
 school ought to be treated as simply an Exeter School. But 
 on the other hand, it is to be remembered that it is for the 
 interest of the school itself to hold county rank. The 
 difference which this makes in the position of the Headmaster 
 is very considerable, and you will assuredly attract much 
 abler men to take charge of the school if that rank is given 
 to it. The whole difference between a truly great and a very 
 poor school will depend on the sort of men you put at the 
 head. Men of learning and ability are^often keenly alive to 
 
 134 
 
The Founding of Exeter School 
 
 the dignity of the position which they are asked to occupy, 
 and to make the School a County School will greatly increase 
 its chances of thorough efficiency. 
 
 In conclusion, Mr. Mayor, let me express a little regret 
 that the reorganisation of our Endowments should have been 
 made, as I see that it has been made, in some degree, a party 
 question. It is not really a party question at all. The 
 supreme consideration is the good of the whole City, and 
 especially of our poorer fellow citizens as citizens of the City, 
 and though it is natural that, till the matter is closely studied, 
 party predilections should enter, they cannot remain if we 
 examine deeply. Both sides have really one aim. I believe 
 that both sides, if they had time to look into all the evidence, 
 would come to one conclusion. For I remember the extreme 
 divergence of views in the Schools' Inquiry Commission when 
 it first met. And yet in the end we never had one difference 
 of opinion on what we should recommend. I cannot help 
 hoping that here, too, the longer we reflect the more we 
 shall tend to unanimity. 
 
 I have, the honour to remain, 
 
 Yours very faithfully, 
 
 F. ExoN. 
 The Right Worshipful the Mayor of Exeter. 
 
 135 
 
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