A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



as, according to the local historian, writing in 

 1828, no salary at all had been paid to him by 

 the corporation 'since Lady Day 1821.' This 

 was no doubt because a case was certified to 

 the Attorney-General to take proceedings for the 

 recovery of the school lands. The case became 

 a 'leading case.' He filed a bill in Chancery 

 7 July 1821; on i February 1825 the Master 

 was directed to inquire ; and on i May 1 830 he 

 made his report. This was objected to by the cor- 

 poration, and in 1831 a trial at law was ordered 

 as to some of the lands. The corporation were 

 beaten on that. The case then returned to the 

 Master in Chancery ; at last it came on before 

 Sir John Leach, Master of the Rolls, 13 who de- 

 creed restitution 10 June 1833, and directed an 

 inquiry into what corporate property the corpora- 

 tion had out of which they could make restitu- 

 tion, and ordered the corporation to pay the costs. 

 On appeal, which took five years to come to a 

 hearing, Lord Chancellor Cottenham, on 14 No- 

 vember i838, 13 reversed so much of the decree as 

 directed a general inquiry into the corporate 

 property. But the corporation had to restore the 

 school property. The master, William Mould, 

 died before the last decree, and the school was 

 in abeyance. On 5 March 1847 ^e corpora- 

 tion were ordered to pay into court 2,753 8s. 4^., 

 the value of the lands alienated by the corpora- 

 tion, and the Master was directed to prepare a 

 scheme for the school. This took him seven 

 years, his report being made I March 1854, and 

 being confirmed 1 5 May following. So that 

 it took the Court of Chancery more than a 

 generation to arrive at a decision and remedy on 

 as plain a case of breach of trust and misapplica- 

 tion as could well be imagined. 



Under this scheme a new site was provided, 

 and the present school buildings were erected at 

 a cost of 10,000, with class-room accommoda- 

 tion for 1 20 boys, and a head master's house with 

 room for 20 boarders. 



The Municipal Charity Trustees of the 

 borough appointed by the Court of Chancery, 

 but in practice self-elective, were the governors. 

 The scheme imposed tuition fees from 3 to 

 6 a year on all boys according to age, except 

 that the classics and Scriptures were to be taught 

 free to those who asked for them in writing. The 

 income from the recovered endowment amounted 

 to a little under 400 a year. 



In October 1857 the Rev. Jonathan Page Clay- 

 ton was appointed master, and the Rev. Henry 

 Clarke Hutchinson second master. In 1860 the 

 school numbered 35 boys, of whom 9 were board- 

 ers. The return made to the Schools Inquiry 

 Commission, 1864, reported 60 boys, of whom 53 

 were day boys and 7 boarders. But in 1 867, when 

 it was visited by Mr. W. H. Eve, for the com- 

 missioners, the numbers had risen to 7 8, of whom 



2 My. & K. 35. 



" 3 My. & Cr. 484. 



II were boarders. The Rev. E. S. Sanderson, 

 M.A., was the head master and the Rev. Arthur 

 Evans second master. The school was not pro- 

 nounced successful, the master having at first tried 

 to make it too exclusively classical, and then hav- 

 ing gone to the other extreme of letting the parents 

 decide whether the boys should learn Latin or 

 French or both or neither. The school was divided 

 into two departments, classical and English. The 

 result was chaos, and while those who were 

 going to the universities went to other schools, 

 the lower classes were badly taught in elemen- 

 tary subjects. It is curious to find that as in the 

 days of Edward VI the fourth form was the 

 highest form. But probably it was very much 

 below what that form was three centuries before. 

 The boys could construe Caesar tolerably, but 

 were deficient in accidence and almost entirely 

 ignorant of syntax. Five or six boys learned Greek, 

 but none had advanced further than Valpy's 

 Greek Delectus. Mathematics were fair, but no 

 one proceeded beyond simple equations. There 

 were scarcely any boys above fourteen years old. 

 The school in fact rose little above the third 

 grade. A very different tone was given to the 

 school when the present head master, the Rev. 

 Thomas Gough, B.Sc., was appointed in 1886. 

 At school at Elmfield College, York, he went to 

 the Royal College of Science at South Kensington 

 and obtained a first class in Botany and a second 

 class in Geology in London University. He 

 was seven years an assistant master and seven 

 years head master of his old school before he 

 became head master at Retford. 



Shortly after his arrival a scheme promoted by 

 the Charity Commissioners under the Endowed 

 Schools Acts became law by the approval of 

 Queen Victoria in Council on 7 March 1887. 

 This scheme constituted a representative govern- 

 ing body of fourteen members, three appointed 

 respectively by the Town Council and Municipal 

 Charity Trustees of Retford, two by the School 

 Board, now absorbed in the Town Council, two 

 by the justices of the Retford Petty Sessions, for 

 whom were substituted by an amending scheme 

 of 27 November 1896 two representatives of the 

 Nottinghamshire County Council. Besides these 

 there were four co-optative governors. The 

 tuition fees were raised to a minimum of 4 and 

 a maximum of 10 a year for all boys, except 

 holders of scholarships, allotted on a competitive 

 examination at the rate of not more than one 

 for every 10 boys in the school ; while Greek 

 was made an extra at 3 a year. 



Under Mr. Gough the school has laid itself 

 out with great success for modern subjects, par- 

 ticularly natural science. In the buildings large 

 developments have taken place in his time, es- 

 pecially in the provision of laboratories and lec- 

 ture rooms for science and the making of science 

 an effective subject in the curriculum. There 

 are now 120 boys, of whom 50 are boarders in 



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