SCHOOLS 





years, it may be that the Lowes had not gone to 

 college direct from Ipswich school, but had 

 followed him to Botesdale in 1630. William 

 Clarke was probably a Cambridge man, but 

 has not been identified between three persons 

 of that name who were contemporaries at 

 Cambridge at this period. The St. John's 

 College Register shows Mr. Holt as master in 

 1638. On 19 December, 1644, 



Mr. Glascok is made master and 20 bestowed upon 

 the schoolmaster's house, or, if he like not there he 

 shall have 45*. yearly towards the providing of him a 

 house elsewhere, and libertie to make benefit of the 

 schoolemaster's house over and besides. 



Christopher Glasscock was perhaps an Ipswich 

 man, as one of the name was chief custom-house 

 master there in 1604. But he was a boy at 

 Felsted School, 1 and B.A. at St. Catharine's Hall, 

 Cambridge in 1634. He sent boys to St. John's 

 up to 1650, when he resigned to be appointed 

 head master of his own old school, where he 

 attained great fame and held office for no less 

 than 40 years. 



Mr. Nathaniel Seaman, son of a draper at 

 Chelmsford, at the grammar school of which 

 place he was educated, and admitted a sizar at 

 St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1639, was 

 elected usher 20 May, 1645. 



In March, 1648^ he received promotion by 

 election to the head-mastership of Colchester 

 Grammar School which he combined with three 

 livings. On Glasscock's migration to Essex, John 

 Mereweather held for a year, to be succeeded by 

 Cave Beck. He was son of an innkeeper at 

 Clerkenwell, admitted pensioner at St. John's 

 in 1638. 



To St. John's he sent boys from Ipswich 

 up to 1655. He wrote 'On the Universal 

 Character.' In 1657 he was succeeded by 

 Robert Woodside ; in 1659 came Henry Wick- 

 ham; in 1662 Mr. Colson ; in 1663 Jeremy, 

 father of Jeremy Collier, the celebrated non- 

 juror. 



It is said 3 that Jeremy Collier himself was 

 educated under his father at Ipswich School, and 

 went thence to Caius College, Cambridge, in 

 1669, with an exhibition as a poor scholar. 

 But if he was at the school he owed little to his 

 father's tuition, as the same year, 1663, Joseph 

 Thomas became head master, and he also stayed 

 only a year in the place. 



Meanwhile the ushers, William Dixon 1657, 

 Andrew Weston 1658, John Hildeyard 1660, 

 Nathaniel Hudson 1661, Thomas Page 1663, 

 changed even more rapidly than the head masters. 

 At length the school rested for over 30 years 

 under Robert Stevenson, 1664-95. Whether 

 he was a successful master does not appear. He 

 sent no boys to St. John's College, Cambridge. 



1 f.C.H. Essex ii, ' Schools,' under Felsted School. 

 * Ibid, under Colchester .School. 

 3 Diet. Nat. Bug. 



His tombstone in the north aisle of St. Mary 

 Quay, Ipswich, records his death at the age of 

 61, on 10 June, 1695. Robert Conningsby, 

 16951712, renewed the connexion with 

 St. John's College, sending three boys there, one 

 the son of the parson of Woodbridge. Edward 

 Leeds who followed, from 1712 to 1737, was 

 a son of the head master of Bury St. Edmunds 

 School, 16661703, and was himself usher there. 

 He successfully asserted on his retirement his 

 rights to the full value of Felaw's lands, making 

 the corporation pay up all arrears, amounting 

 to about ^200. But the only result for his suc- 

 cessors was that they were admitted on terms 

 which precluded their claiming the rents. 



From 1734 to 1743 the Rev. Thomas Breton, 

 and from 1743 to 1766 the Rev. Robert Hinge- 

 ston held office. In 1767 the Rev. John King, 4 

 a Richmond (Yorkshire) Grammar School boy and 

 fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge, left the under- 

 mastership of Newcastle Grammar School for 

 the head-mastership of Ipswich. He was aho 

 given the town lectureship in the parish church. 

 He held office for 32 years. He is said to have 

 had 70 boarders at one time, and 9 sons of his 

 own. From 1776 he also held the college living 

 of Witnesham. He retired from the school in 

 1798 on account of ill-health, but survived till 

 1822. 



The Rev. Rowland Ingram held office but for 

 2 years, 1798 to 1800. Another long reign of 

 32 years, that of William Howorth, followed. 

 The free boys were restricted to 30, the salaries 

 of master and usher were combined, but only 

 amounted to 50, and boarders varied. James 

 Collett Ebden ruled from 1832 to 1842. In 

 that year the Black Friars' School was aban- 

 doned for a new building now 23, Lower 

 Brook Street next to the head master's house, 

 numbered 19 to 21 in that street. John Fen- 

 wick was the first master in the new site, 1843 

 to 1850. 



Next came Stephen Gordon Rigaud, D.D. 

 who has left his name and fame in one of 

 the boarding houses at Westminster School, still 

 called 'Rigaud's' from 1850 to 1858. In his 

 time the new school buildings in Henley Street, 

 on a hill then well out of the town, were erected 

 in 1850 to 1852. The new buildings, in the 

 Elizabethan style, though presenting a fine 

 appearance, were not scientifically built. A big 

 school on the old model was provided, in which 

 the whole school, including a junior school, in 

 some 9 forms, were all taught and prepared 

 their lessons together. Moreover, more rent 

 was exacted from the head master for the new 

 buildings than the total income from the endow- 

 ment, which even in 1864 was only ^109 a 

 year. Further, though land there was then 

 cheap only 6 acres were allotted for playing 

 fields, a most short-sighted parsimony. 



1 Annual Register (1822), p. 267. 



335 



