THE STORY OF ENGLISH EDUCATION. 271 



fact that the charity schools movement — largely supported by dis- 

 senters — to some extent synchronized in its early rapid development 

 with this school endowonent movement. The Act of Uniformity (16G2) 

 pressed with great severity on the dissenting schoolmasters, and, in 

 order to give them relief, Dean (afterwards Archbishop) Tillotson 

 and Richard Baxter (the distingiiished writer and dissenter) com- 

 bined in 167-1 to draft a 'Healing Act' that should make the spread of 

 elementary education possible. The bishops would not accept the 

 compromise, but it is probable that it had some indirect effect, for 

 the church made few attempts to interfere with dissenting schools, 

 though they were often attended by church children. 



The earliest 'voluntary' schools were started in Wales in 1672 by 

 Thomas Gouge, a clergjinan of the established church, who had been 

 ejected from his living on Bartholomew's Day, 1662, under the provi- 

 sions of the act of Uniformity. The bishops sanctioned his Welsh 

 schools, and in 167-1 a strong committee of churchmen and dissenters 

 was formed in London to carry on the good work. In 1675 there were 

 1,850 children at school, of whom 538 were educated by Welsh voluntary 

 subscriptions. John Strype, writing before 1720, connects this work 

 with the charity school system, started in 1698 by the Society for Pro- 

 moting Christian Knowledge. This latter movement was immensely 

 successful and spread all over the country. In 1729 there were no less 

 than 1,658 schools, containing 3-1,000 children. I have elsewhere 

 estimated that, allowing a considerable margin for overlapping be- 

 tween the endowment movement and the charity school movement, 

 there were over 2,500 schools of all classes founded in England and 

 Wales between 1660 and 1730, that over one hundred schools received 

 supplementary endowments and that 650 unattached educational chari- 

 ties were created. These schools supplied the poor with such educa- 

 tion as was to be had in the eighteenth century — the education given 

 was ineffective enough, but it was at any rate better than nothing. Spe- 

 cial efforts were made in heathen Wales. Griffith Jones, a clergyman of 

 the established church, in 1730 started 'circulating schools' in the 

 towns, villages and wild country districts. The teachers stopped in 

 each district for a few months only and then passed on to other centers. 

 The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge helped the movement, 

 and large funds were supplied by a Mrs. Bevan, who carried on the 

 schools after Griffith's death in 1761. At that date there had been 

 3,000 schools opened, in which 150,000 scholars had been taught. 

 There were 10,000 children in the schools in 1760. In 1779 Mrs. 

 Bevan died and bequeathed her large property to the carrying on of 

 the work. Her estate was thrown into chancery and the schools were 

 closed for thirty years. Such were the changes and chances of educa- 

 tion in the eighteenth century. All higher education — apart from 

 the work, often great, of individuals here and there, such as Isaac 



