A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



Tuesdays and Thursdays.! The ' Vacancies or Breakings up ' were 21 days from 24 December, 

 14 days at Easter, and 28 days at Whitsunday, 'according to the customs and rules of other 

 schools.' The custom of the summer holidays beginning at the end of July is the product of the 

 last half century. The boys were to be ' publicly examined in the books they have read once 

 every year on Easter Tuesday ' by the ' upper master,' who was to have 20J. a year deducted 

 from his salary, ' which shall be given and disposed in little honorary premiums or books to such 

 boy in each class as shall appear to have best deserved it by his industry and application.' To 

 prevent 'corporal severity' offences were to be punished with 'small pecuniary fines.' The under 

 master was to be paid ^18 a year and 'such voluntary premiums or gratuities as shall be given him 

 by the parents of any children of the said village of Darlington under his care,' the headmaster 

 receiving the net income of the rest of the school property. 



The only subject of instruction specifically mentioned is the Church Catechism. The absence 

 of all reference to Greek and the special mention of the elements of grammar seem to show that the 

 illiterate churchwardens had reduced the school to a very low status. 



Mr. Robert Cooke was as transient as his predecessors, being displaced on 1 1 May, 1750, by 

 the four churchwardens, one of whom could not write. Mr. Robert Meetkirke was then appointed, 

 with a new clause, ' for and during so long time as he shall well behave himself in the said place of 

 upper master.' On 22 February, 1755, he was succeeded by 'Thomas Morland, clerk,' who is 

 not stated to be a graduate, and who was not licensed by the bishop till nearly two years after- 

 wards — 7 December, 1757. The appointment in 1758 of 'John Dixon of Darlington, 

 gentleman,' to be ' undermaster and usher ' seems also to point to a degradation having taken 

 place. 



Morland, however, broke the evil tradition of transitoriness by presiding over the school for 

 the probably unexampled period of 51 years. George Allan the antiquary gave the school a 

 portrait of Queen Elizabeth in gratitude for having received his education in the school under him. 

 Morland resigned in 1806. The second master, the Rev. William Clementson, succeeded him. He 

 had 60 boys in 1816," of whom 4 were boarders. The day boys were absolutely free ; the boarders 

 paid 40 guineas a year. George Peacock, tutor and mathematical professor of Trinity College, 

 Cambridge, was educated by him — some testimony to the efficiency of the school. 



The salary of the second master was raised to ;^30 a year, and by 1829 ' to £^'jo ; the residue 

 of the income from endowment received by the headmaster being from ;^I20 to ;^I30 a year. 

 The fees were : entrance fees, from 5s. to £1 is. a year; payments for firing, is. ; Latin scholars 

 paid, IS. or 2s. bd. three times a year on breaking up, a customary exaction from 'free' scholars for 

 tuition fees ; while those who learnt the three R's paid 75. bd. ; and those learning ' mathematics 

 and the use of the globes ' £z I ox. to £1, a year. There were about 20 boys under the headmaster 

 who learnt classics. A few under the usher learnt Latin grammar, but for the most part the usher's 

 forms consisted of elementary scholars. 



The Commissioners of Inquiry remarked strongly on the evil of the governing body, few church- 

 wardens holding for more than two years, with, as a result, no regular meetings of the governors, 

 no minute book, and no accounts, while the land at Thornaby was let at less than its value. 



The Rev. J. Marshall, appointed in 1845, hcKl office till removed by a scheme approved by 

 Queen Victoria in Council under the Endowed Sciiools Act, 7 July, 1874. In 1855 there were 

 50 boys in the school. In 1865 36, of whom only 12 received more than an elementary education 

 and none learned Greek. As a result of the visit of Mr. J. G. Fitch for the Schools Inquiry Com- 

 mission a scheme was made by the Charity Commissioners in 1869 establishing a governing body 

 consisting of 6 churchwardens, 2 vicars, the mayor, and 2 members of the town council, and 



6 persons named. 



In 1872 the Endowed Schools Commissioners found the school in much the same case as 

 at the last visitation — 40 boys in all, of whom 2 learned Greek and 16 French. By a scheme of 



7 July, 1874, the churchwardens were eliminated, and a body was appointed, consisting of the M.P. 

 for Darlington, 4 members of the town council and school board, and 3 co-opratives, to whom were 

 added by scheme of 13 May, 1896, 2 appointed by the county council of Durham, and I by the 

 senate of Durham University. The school was closed pending rebuilding. A new and spacious 

 site in Duke Street, Darlington, was selected, and in 1878 the school was re-opcned in the present 

 fine buildings erected at a cost of over ^^14,000, of which no less than ;^i 1,313 was provided by 

 public subscription. Mr. Philip W.ird, M.A., of Edinburgh, where he obtained a first-class in 

 mathematics, was appointed lieadmastcr. There are now five assistant masters with visiting masters 

 for drawing and music. In December, 1890, there were 154 boys in the school, of whom 15 were 

 boarders. It has fluctuated about that number since. The tuition fees vary according to age from 



' These arc still the regular days at Winchester. ' Carlisle, Endowed Grammar Schools, i. 400. 



* Cliarity Com. Rff. xxi. 195. 



392 



