SCHOOLS 



Grammar School,' while the upper or Latin schoolroom was used for 

 ' parochial purposes.' At the same time William Brown, the master of 

 the English school, as it was now called, taught just 30 boys for his 

 stipend. 



The Rev. Charles Pryce succeeded in 1821, and so far as could be 

 done with the meagre endowment and the one schoolroom revived the 

 school. He was followed in 1826 by the Rev. Thomas Sanderson. 



Lord Brougham's Commission of Inquiry concerning Charities in 

 1830^ found that in Mr. Sanderson's time the number of Wellingborough 

 boys had increased from twelve to eighteen, and he had about five more 

 from a distance. They pointed out that it was the intention of the 

 Elizabethan decree ' to provide a suitable or competent salary for a master 

 rather than to fix a stipend,' and recommended an increase accordingly. 

 On the resignation of the old master of the English school, Mr. Sanderson 

 was appointed sole schoolmaster, with the duty of appointing an usher 

 under him, and with a salary of ^Ti 30 for the two. The feoffees informed 

 the commissioners^ on 30 June, 1830, that the result had been an increase 

 in both schools, there being 112 in the English school. The number in 

 the Latin school is not stated. Mr. Sanderson, who was also vicar of 

 Hardwick, close by, retired from the school after nearly forty years' 

 service, when the new scheme of the Charity Commissioners was made 

 in October, 1862. 



The new scheme provided for a salary of >r8o to the head master, 

 and a capitation fee of ^2 a year for every parishioner not exceeding 

 forty, while not more than fifteen boarders might be taken. As no 

 house was provided this liberty was not of much value. The school was 

 still to be free for classics and French, but the trustees might charge not 

 more than £^ a year for every boy in respect of German, English, or 

 mathematics. Religious restrictions were imposed, the head master being 

 required to be a clergyman, and to teach Church of England doctrines to 

 all boys except those taking advantage of a conscience clause. 



So little support was given to the grammar school that one efScient 

 assistant master could not be provided, no improvement was effected in 

 the school building, and there was no playground at the school. In 

 September, 1869, the Rev. Mr. Auden, unable any longer to try and 

 make bricks without straw, accepted a living, and left the school the 

 following Christmas. 



In 1870 the trustees asked the recently created Endowed Schools 

 Commissioners for a scheme under the Endowed Schools Act, not with 

 a view of benefiting the grammar school, but of saving the pockets of 

 the ratepayers by preventing the Lower School from being condemned as 

 inefHcient under the Elementary Education Act. The commissioners, 

 however, declined to apply the endowment to merely elementary 

 education. 



A new head master, the Rev. F. S. Cresswell, resigned after half a 

 year's experience. The election of George Plummer, his successor, was 



' Char. Com. Rep. xxiii, 304. ' Ibid. App. p. 670. 



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