SCHOOLS 



should not be able to maintain their charge, the 

 said boys to enter at the age of seven or up- 

 wards, to be instructed gratis by the master in 

 the same manner as the other children, and to 

 reside in the said school until sixteen years of 

 age, when they should be removed and others 

 admitted in their place. 



The rest of the money, 8 15 Sj^., and such 

 monies as should accrue from vacancies in the 

 places of the master or of any of the 4 poor boys 

 was to be put in some chest or safe place for the 

 repair of the buildings, ' and for the binding out 

 the said four boys as apprentices or otherwise pro- 

 moting them.' The cost of building the school 

 in the first place was to be paid out of the first 

 year's rents and the rents of some leasehold lands 

 in Darlton, Nottinghamshire, which he held, of 

 which two years were unexpired. The building 

 was to be ' after the form ' of the schoolhouse 

 and lodgings for the schoolmaster which he had 

 erected at Drax. 



The site for the school and house was given 

 by Mr. White, a landowner in Tuxford, and 

 the house duly erected. 



The choice of the master and boys was given 

 to Read's trustees, with the consent of the 

 visitors of the school, whom he appointed to be 

 the mayor or aldermen and common council of 

 Newark, with the minister of Newark and two 

 justices of the peace who should reside nearest 

 Newark not a very hopeful body judged by 

 the way the corporation and town of Newark 

 administered their own grammar school endow- 

 ment. 



It is probable that at first the four boys for 

 the university were really found and taught the 

 higher subjects, as we find John son of Richard 

 Charlesworth, clerk, of Tuxford, admitted a sizar 

 at St. John's College, Cambridge, on 17 January 

 1679-80. Moreover, by ordinances said to 

 have been made by the founder's executors in 

 1705, but which were verbatim the same as 

 those made for Corby in 1674, and were prob- 

 ably really of that date, it was provided that 

 'no person thereafter shall be elected school 

 master but such as shall be an M.A. of one of 

 the universities of Oxford or Cambridge, or at 

 least an orthodox minister of God's word and law- 

 fully ordained ' and ' no person shall be appointed 

 master who shall hold any ecclesiastical or 

 spiritual living other than the parish of Corby, or 

 who shall teach any other than that school, and 

 that if he shall hold any such preferment for six 

 weeks after his appointment his appointment 

 shall be, ipso facto, void ; with this saving, how- 

 ever, that he may hold any prebend or other 

 dignity under a dean of a cathedral church, 

 which shall be without cure of souls and have 

 no vicarage or parsonage other than impro- 

 priate belonging thereto.' 



The idea that any canon or dignitary of a 

 cathedral would seek the appointment of school- 

 master of Tuxford, unless he also held the living 

 of Tuxford, must have been somewhat chimerical. 

 We learn, however, from Carlisle, that one vicar 

 who was schoolmaster produced a distinguished 

 scholar, in his son Walter Taylor, who was a 

 fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Regius 

 Professor of Greek in the university (1726-44). 



The only higher element in the foundation, 

 that of the 4 boys for the universities, had 

 been discontinued at least from the appointment 

 of Mr. Martin Bowes or Bower (Carlisle dubs 

 him Bowes, the Commissioners of Inquiry 

 Bower) in 1815. He was not a graduate and 

 did not teach Latin. He received the 20 

 applicable for these boys, and so doubled his 

 salary. The school was from that time and 

 probably long before purely elementary. In 

 i8i8 2 there were 60 free boys and 20 paying 

 boys ; no language but English was taught. 

 Bower resigned in July 1836. His successor, 

 Mr. James Wood, 3 was also not a graduate, 

 though he professed himself qualified to teach 

 Latin, and ready to do so ' on the request of any 

 parent requiring it.' 



In 1867,* when the school was visited for the 

 Schools Inquiry Commission, Mr. John North 

 Dufty conducted a school of 60 to 70 boys in con- 

 nexion with the National Society. The assistant 

 commissioner found that ' the lessons on science, 

 &c. mentioned in the returns ' made to the com- 

 missioners ' are not yet given. One boy learns a 

 little algebra.' 



A scheme under the Endowed Schools Acts 

 approved by Queen Victoria in Council 6 Septem- 

 ber 1880 revived the secondary character of this 

 school under the name of Read's Grammar 

 School, Tuxford. It created a governing body 

 of eight persons, one elected by the vicar and 

 churchwardens of Tuxford, two by the School 

 Board, now the Nottinghamshire County 

 Council, and two by the justices of East Retford 

 Petty Sessional division, with three co-optatives. 



Tuition fees of 2 IDS. to ^5 were made, 

 payable by all boys. Latin and science were 

 introduced, while by a scheme for Lady White's 

 charities, approved 29 November 1881, half of 

 ji8 IOJ. was applied for scholarships in the 

 school. Mr. Dufty was, however, continued as 

 master. 



He was succeeded by William Pullen, M.A., 

 Oxon., who since 1903 has taken orders. There 

 are now 32 boys in the school paying tuition 

 fees of j5 a year. The standard aimed at by 

 the school is that of the Oxford Local Examina- 



tions. 



' Carlisle, End. Gram. Sch. ii, 291. 



* Char. Com. Rep. zxxii, pt. ii, 650. 



* Sck. Inj. Rep. xvi, 431. 



2 5 I 



