A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



Being unsuccessful, he retired in 1866. The school was then restarted on a lower plane in the 

 hands of Mr. George Taylor, a graduate of London, who had a private school in the place, and to 

 him the school was practically farmed out. He charged 10 for day boys and 35 to 50 guineas a 

 year for boarders. When visited by Mr. Fitch for the Schools Inquiry Commission in 1865 there 

 were 60 boys in the school, of whom 44 were boarders. He found the chief excellence of the 

 school to be rather in its mathematical than in its literary teaching, which, as the mathematics only 

 extended as far as Euclid, Book III., was not high praise. In 1874 the headmaster was the Rev. A. 

 Bennett, who procured an exchange, carried out 24 October, 1888, by which the original White 

 House was given for an extension of the playground adjoining the school. A substantial endowment 

 of 5,000 was given to the school by George Yeoman Heath, a surgeon of Newcastle, by a codicil 

 to his will proved 13 July, 1892, for scholarships to Durham University for intending students of 

 medicine. 



In October, 1893, Mr. F. L. Gaul, formerly an exhibitioner of Queen's College, Oxford, was 

 appointed headmaster. He had 20 boys in 1897, and now there are 13, of whom 9 are 

 boarders. 



The old buildings, a low two-storied house, form a picturesque feature in Houghton, standing 

 as they do on high ground looking down on the east end of the fine church, in which the monument 

 of the founder is one of the chief features of attraction, and beyond that to the spacious domain of 

 the rectory. But the buildings are not up to modern requirements, and part of them is in ruins 

 owing to subsidence, caused, it is alleged, by colliery workings. 



BISHOP AUCKLAND GRAMMAR SCHOOL 



At Bishop Auckland there is evidence of the existence of the collegiate church as early as 

 I239, 1 when Robert of Courtenay was presented by King Henry III. to the deanery of ' Aclent,' 

 by reason of the vacancy of the bishopric of Durham. On 14 January, 1292, Bishop Anthony Beck 

 made new statutes for the church, the canons having abandoned residence because there were no 

 proper houses for them to reside in. The bishop gave them land on which to build houses and 

 increased the revenues. The head of the college was called a vicar, and the then vicar, Mr. Robert 

 of Alberwyke, 3 now Abberwick, was made first dean, and given a new prebend consisting in tithes 

 of the lands lately taken into cultivation (novalium). There were 12 canons, 5 priests, 4 deacons, 

 and 3 sub-deacon canons, who had to maintain deputies or vicars-choral in their absence. On 

 28 September, 1428, the 'change of times always going to the bad, and the dearness of provisions,' 

 had again caused the staff of the church to become defective, the stipends fixed by Beck having 

 become wholly insufficient. So the prebends were readjusted, the poorer ones consolidated, the 

 richer ones subdivided, and the stipends of the vicars increased by ordinance of Bishop Langley, 8 

 leaving the total 12, as before. 



There can be no question that a church of this magnitude maintained a grammar school ; 

 but if so the school disappeared on the dissolution of the college, and it was not till the reign of 

 James I. that it was revived. Then by letters patent 7 December, 1603,* on the petition of 

 Anna Swyfte, the king erected for the instruction of youth in grammar and other good literature, 

 the Free Grammar School of King James within the town of North Auckland alias Bishop Auckland, 

 of one master and one undermaster. The master was to be M.A. or at least B.A., and both were 

 to instruct the scholars in Greek and Latin literature. They were removable at the pleasure of the 

 governors. The governing body of 1 2 governors named was incorporated ; new governors were 

 obliged to be inhabitants of the parish. Licence in mortmain was given to hold lands to the value 

 of 10 a year from Ann Swyfte, and not more than 20 marks, 13 6s. 8d., from others. 



Ann Swyfte seems to have been the widow of that name who, on 2 February, 1609, was 

 buried in the cathedral ; and was probably widow of Robert Swift, canon of Durham, and for many 

 years chancellor of the diocese. On 12 April, 1605, she endowed the school with a rent-charge of 



1 Dugdale, Man. vi. 1335. 



3 Misprinted in Dugdale, Albuwyke. This person, eminent in his day, has had the misfortune to have his 

 name perpetually miswritten and to be overlooked. He was one of the earliest fellows of Merton College, 

 Oxford, to attain distinction. He has been miscalled Albert when made 'third bursar 'of the college in 1276. 

 In 1286 he became vicar of Ponteland. It was too late for insertion in the text, and only in time for an entry 

 on an inserted page xlix that I was able to identify the man whom I had guessed to be dean of Auckland with 

 the fellow of Merton who attained the great preferment of provost of Beverley, 5 June, 1 304. Bever/ey 

 Chapter Act Book (Surtees Soc.), i. 27 ; ibid. ii. xlix. and xlix.* On 28 March, 1306, the usual sequestration 

 order of the Provostry was made on his death. Ibid. i. 1 1 6. 



8 The account given in Dugdale curiously misrepresents the documents given. 



1 Rep. of Com. of Inquiry concerning Charities in 1829; C. C. R. xxi. 38. James I. began to reign 

 24 March, 1602-3. 



396 



