B I R 



447 



B I R 



(1835) is about 4000/. The income was thus appropriated 



in the year mentioned : 



. s. d. 



Salaries, &c. .... 1393 15 10 



Branch schools . . . 370 1 10 



Exhibitions . . . . 315 



Secretary and law charges . 433 12 8 



Repairs and improvements . 126 18 3 



Taxes, &c 155 5 9 



Balance against the charity from pre- 

 ceding year . . . . 114 9 2 



Total . . . 2909 3 6 

 The funds of the charity ha* - e been applied to the main- 

 tenance of a grammar-school and other schools in the town 

 of Birmingham. The smaller schools have amounted to 

 eight: six for the instruction of boys in the English lan- 

 guage (in one of which drawing was also taught), and two 

 for the instruction of girls in reading, knitting, and sewing. 

 In 1827 all but one of these had been discontinued, in con- 

 sequence of the question which had arisen concerning the 

 validity of some of the statutes, and in consequence of the 

 proceedings in Chancery on the subject. The governors 

 however continued to exercise the privilege of sending sixty 

 children to the national school in Pinfold-street, in lieu of 

 a ground-rent of 15/. payable to them by the trustees of that 

 institution. 



The proceedings in Chancery alluded to above commenced 

 in 1824 ; and in July, 1825, anorderwas made by the master 

 of the rolls, directing an inquiry, by a master in chancery, 

 into the state of the property, and the propriety of rebuild- 

 ing the school-house, and also directing the preparation of 

 a scheme for the future establishment of the school. This 

 order was confirmed by the vice-chancellor in January, 1828; 

 and in March, 1829, the master made his report and pre- 

 sented the scheme, which was varied, amended, and con- 

 firmed by a Chancery decree, dated June 7, 1830. The 

 scheme provided, among other things, that in the said 

 grammar-school tha learned languages shall be taught, 

 and be conducted by a head-master and usher, with an as- 

 sistant to each. That a master to teach writing and arith- 

 metic should also be appointed by the governors, at a yearly 

 salary of IQOl. That the head-master and usher should 

 have taken at least the degree of M.A. of Oxford or Cam- 

 bridge, and be members of the Church of England and in 

 holy orders, but to hold no ecclesiastical office requiring 

 them to perform m person weekly parochial duty. That the 

 salary of the head-master should be 400/. per annum, ex- 

 clusive of the rents and profits of certain lands, for which 

 however the governors are empowered to compound ; and 

 that of the usher 300/. per annum : each of them to be also 

 provided with a house free of rent and taxes. That the 

 master and usher should each nominate his own assistant, 

 subject to the approval of the governors, and that the salaries 

 of such assistants should be 200/. per annum each ; and in 

 case of the master or usher not filling up a vacancy within 

 three months of its first occurring, then the governors alone 

 to appoint such assistant. That no boy should be admitted 

 into the school under eight years of age, or who is unable to 

 write and read English, nor any boy continue in the school 

 after having attained the age of nineteen. That boys not 

 sons of inhabitants of Birmingham or adjacent places shall 

 pay such sums for their education as the governors shall fix. 

 That ten exhibitions of 50/. a year each should be founded 

 for the grammar-school boys going to Oxford or Cambridge, 

 two exhibitioners to be elected in one year, and three in the 

 following year, and so on alternately : the exhibitions to be 

 held for four years, but residence during terms to be indis- 

 pensable. That an annual visitation be held, and an ex- 

 amination of the boys take place, as to their proficiency in 

 learning, ' and whether they appear to be instructed and 

 well-grounded in the fundamental principles and doctrine 

 of the Christian religion ; provided nevertheless that no boy 

 shall be subjected to such examination if the parents or 

 guardian of such boy shall in writing state to the examiners 

 that they object to that part of the examination.' That the 

 governors should have power, with the advice of the bishop 

 of the diocese, to provide a library for the use of the school, 

 and to establish a system of rewards for eminently deserving 

 boys in or quitting the school. Exceptions were filed to this 

 report, which were overruled, and the report confirmed. In 

 April, 1830, the master's report was presented, recommend- 

 ing the rebuilding of the school-house, and Showing the in- 



creasing value of the property. This report also stated 

 that it would be of great benefit to the inhabitants (of Bir- 

 mingham) if a school were established for the education and 

 instruction of boys in modern languages, the arts, and sci- 

 ences ;' and ' that the governors conceived that it would be 

 for the benefit of the said town of Birmingham, and not pre- 

 judicial to the objects of the said charter (f. e. to the old 

 grammar-school), to apply a portion of the said surplus re- 

 venue of the said charity to support a school of the descrip- 

 tion last mentioned.' The better to carry the above reports 

 into effect, an act was obtained in August, 1831, regulating 

 the grammar-school according to the scheme just detaileif, 

 with the exception of limiting the number of boarders to be 

 respectively taken by the master, usher, and assistants, which 

 had been fixed by the scheme at thirty, twenty, and ten, to 

 eighteen, twelve, and four ; any future assistants not to be 

 allowed to take any boarders, and the governors to have no 

 power to increase the number of boarders to be taken by the 

 master and usher. It is enacted also that the new school 

 for teaching modern languages, the arts, and sciences, shall 

 be regulated by a scheme to be approved of by the Court of 

 Chancery, upon a petition to be preferred by the governors ; 

 and the governors are empowered to purchase a surrender 

 of certain leases in order to erect the school-house, mastere' 

 houses, and other erections for the purposes of the said 

 school. Also power is given to the governors, and they are 

 required within eight years from the passing of the act, to 

 appropriate a sum not exceeding 4000/. for the establishing 

 of four schools for the elementary education of the male and 

 female children of the poorer inhabitants of Birmingham, 

 and to nominate masters and mistresses with such salaries, 

 payable out of the rents of the charities, as they may think 

 expedient. In case of there being any surplus remaining, 

 or hereafter accruing, such surplus to be applied, under (ho 

 direction of the Court of Chancery, in ' improving, en- 

 larging, extending, or increasing the said free grammar- 

 school, the said new school for teaching the modern lan- 

 guages, the arts, and sciences, and the said elementary 

 schools, or either of them, or for promoting the objects of 

 the said respective schools.' An abstract of the accounts of 

 the income and expenditure is to be annually published in 

 some newspaper printed and published in Birmingham ; but 

 no alteration is made in the appointment of the governors, 

 who remain self-elective, subject to certain qualifications. 

 We have elsewhere mentioned that the building of these 

 schools is in progress. 



Blue-coat School. This school was founded in 1722, dy 

 subscription among the inhabitants, assisted by a grant of 

 a site for the school and some surrounding land from Lord 

 Digby, the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, and others. 

 The property, as augmented by subsequent bequests of 

 lands, and premises, and money, produced 1029/. in 1827, 

 of which 1731. 16*. arose from investments in the funds, 

 other moneys having been invested in land. Adding to 

 this annual subscriptions and collections, and casual bene- 

 factions, the whole income exceeds 2000?. The greater part 

 of this amount is annually exhausted by the current ex- 

 penses of the school, at which about 160 children of both 

 sexes are instructed in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and 

 the principles of the Christian religion as professed by the 

 Church of England, and are entirely clothed, lodged, and 

 boarded. The institution is under the management of a 

 committee of the subscribers. A number of children, vary- 

 ing from ten to twenty, are also kept in this school, under 

 the charity of George Fentham, a mercer of the town, who by 

 will, dated 1690, left property now producing about 308/. per 

 annum, a proportion of which was to be applied to teaching 

 poor children, male and female, ' to know their letters, spell, 

 ind read English,' and to putting them out as apprentices. 

 The trustees pay to the Blue-coat school l\l, per annum 

 for the board and lodging" of each child, and allow to the 

 master and mistress of the school a gratuity of 10/. for their 

 additional trouble. These children are fully clothed once a 

 year : they leave the school at the age of fourteen ; and if 

 opportunity offers, they are apprenticed (without premium). 



Piddock's charity. The rents and profits of a farm, be- 

 queathed by William Piddock, became applicable in 1763, 

 to the schooling, apprenticing, or otherwise to the benefit, 

 of poor boys of the parishes of St. Martin and St. Michael. 

 The farm now lets at 45/. Previously to 1820, the trustees 

 used to contribute 30/. per annum to the Madras school of 

 the town, in consideration of being allowed to place sixty 

 children therein ; but a debt having been contracted in re- 



