A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



in the catechism and principles of the Church of England. The head 

 master was allowed to take twelve boarders. 



After the scheme came into force Mr. Watson resigned on obtaining 

 the living of Rothwell. The Rev. F. Tearle, scholar, prize-man, and 

 assistant tutor of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, elected master, quickly raised 

 the number of boys. A second master, Mr. Bailey, and a writing master 

 were provided. In 1856 new school buildings and a master's house 

 were erected at a cost of about ^T 1,700, of which about >C9oo was pro- 

 vided by subscriptions. The buildings were opened with grand orations 

 as to the noble work done for posterity. Alas! by 1883, posterity was 

 making scoffing remarks on a building with only one large schoolroom 

 and no classroom, and on the narrowness of the ideas of its ancestry as to 

 site, shown by a playground of only 17 yards square. 



By an Order of 6 March, 1859, the Court of Chancery varied the 

 scheme by enabling the master to take up 30 boarders instead of 12. 

 In 1862 there were 63 boys, 43 day boys and 20 boarders, and at the 

 beginning of 1864, 83, 55 day boys and 28 boarders. But in that year 

 Mr. Tearle accepted the headmastership of the Leicester and Leicester- 

 shire Collegiate School (which became extinct about twenty years ago), and 

 went off there, taking a considerable number of the boarders with him. 



The Rev. Thomas Widdowson, of St. John's College, Cambridge, 

 twenty-seventh wrangler and then second master of the school to which 

 Mr. Tearle was going as head master, was elected. 



In the latter part of 1864 the Schools Inquiry Commission found 

 him with 52 boys, of whom 4 were boarders. The boarders rose to 12 

 in 1867, but by 1869 had dwindled down to 4, when Mr. Widdowson 

 determined to take no more. The day boys had in 1 874 sunk to 25, though 

 the population of Kettering was rising rapidly. Yet the assistant com- 

 missioner, Mr. T. H. Green, had reported in 1866 that he found the 

 first class — it is true it consisted only of 3 boys — ' distinctly superior 

 to those usually found in the grammar school of a country town,' reading 

 Homer and Livy, and doing them well, and ' the general state of the 

 school distinctly satisfactory.' Everyone spoke well of his teaching 

 powers, but he was the sole master and did not prove attractive to the 

 district, in spite of or perhaps because of the very low tuition fees, £^7. a 

 year for Kettering boys, ^4 a year for outsiders. 



A debt of >r2,36o incurred in rebuilding the old cottage property of 

 the foundation, and a payment of ;r2 2 a year to pay off the costs of the 

 Chancery suit in 1850, proved a heavy burden. In 1878 a new scheme 

 was begun, but owing to the vested interest given to the existing master 

 by the Endowed Schools Act, it was not till 21 February, 1888, that the 

 scheme was approved by the Queen in Council. It constituted a 

 governing body on the model of that of Wellingborough. The tuition 

 fees were fixed at £^\ to £% a year, the preferential fees against outsiders 

 disappearing. Mr. Widdowson retained the headmastership under the 

 new scheme. At first there was improvement. In 1889 the number 

 of boys rose to 54, and in 1890 to 61 ; but by November 1896 it was 



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