A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



Carrington on 24 November 1906. They were 

 designed for 175 pupils, and there were 145 in 

 February 1907. The head mistress, Miss Mary 

 Christie, M.A., has a staff of seven assistant 

 mistresses as well as one visiting mistress, and a 

 visiting master for art. The girls are prepared 

 for the Oxford Local and London Matriculation 

 Examinations. The fees are 6 guineas a year. 



WOLVERTON COUNTY SCHOOL 



This is a mixed school for boys and girls 

 started by the Education Committee of the County 



Council in January 1902, under Mr. L. H. 

 Leadley, B.A., B.Sc., as head master. Ill-health 

 compelled his resignation, and he was succeeded 

 in January 1906 by Mr. E. J. Boyce, B.Sc., 

 London. He has a staff of three masters and two 

 mistresses, besides visiting teachers. There are 

 some 80 pupils, the numbers of boys and girls 

 being about equal ; among them are from 12 to 

 2O who hold scholarships from the elementary 

 schools, as well as pupil teachers. The fees for 

 paying pupils were formerly 5 guineas a year, 

 but are now 6. 



ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS, FOUNDED BEFORE 1800 



BEACHAMPTON. William Elmer, of Beach- 

 ampton, by will, 3 January 1648, conveyed 

 estates to trustees, who, after his wife's death, 

 were to erect a schoolhouse, containing three 

 bays of building, and appoint a sufficient man, 

 being a good scholar and single, to be school- 

 master, to teach all children who should resort 

 to him in the English and Latin tongues, and 

 to write and cast accounts. He was to take no 

 bribes of his scholars or their friends, but he 

 might charge id. as an entrance-fee. The rent 

 of the school land in 1832 was ^48 5*. The 

 master had from forty to sixty boys in attendance, 

 who learnt the three R's free of charge and a 

 few girls who paid. The education was still 

 elementary in 1867, when there were 43 scho- 

 lars, four of them boarders at 20 guineas a year. 

 This school appears to be the Beachampton 

 Church of England school, which had an average 

 attendance of 47 children in 1903-4, the last 

 year for which the Board of Education gives 

 complete statistics. 



IVER. A board in the church, apparently put 

 up in 1688, states that Robert Bowyer, late of 

 Huntsmoor, in this parish, gave the yearly sum 

 of jT2i iu. <}\d., in fee-farm rents in Dorset, 

 for ever, for maintaining a schoolmaster to teach 



7 O 



the children of poor people in the village to read 

 and write. An indenture of 28 October 1822 

 recites that the parties to it and two unknown 

 benefactors had subscribed certain sums amount- 

 ing to ^490, of which 280 had been spent in 

 repairing and enlarging the school, and directs 

 the remainder to be invested for the education 

 of poor children in the principles of the Church 

 of England and the three R's, and for the 

 salary of the schoolmaster. Twenty boys were 

 educated free, and in 1833 there were 40 more 

 paying id. a week each. In 1867 there were 

 55 boys at a fee of id. a week. The school is 

 now merged in the Iver Council School, which 

 in 1903-4 had an average attendance of 350 

 children. 



AMERSHAM : LORD CHEYNE'S WRITING 

 SCHOOL. By indenture of i January 1699, 



William Lord Cheyne granted to trustees a 

 yearly rent of ^20 on land in Amersham for 

 the maintenance of a schoolmaster to teach 

 children of the parish writing and arithmetic. On 

 the appointment of new trustees in 1717, Lord 

 Cheyne extended the privileges of the school to 

 the children of Chesham Bois. The school was 

 carried on in a room adjoining the grammar 

 schoolroom in the Church-house, which was 

 kept in repair by the churchwardens. The 

 average number of boys was 30 in 1832. They 

 paid 3^. a week for reading and spelling, 

 writing and arithmetic being taught without 

 charge, except id. a week for pens and ink. 

 There were 76 boys and 80 girls in the school 

 in 1867. It is now merged in St. Mary's 

 Church School with an average attendance in 

 1903-4 of 258 children. 



GREAT LINFORD. Sir William Pritchard, by 

 his will in 1702, devised to the minister and 

 churchwardens of Great Linford a yearly rent- 

 charge of 34, of which jio was to be paid to 

 an honest person to teach reading to as many 

 poor children of the parish as the trustees should 

 nominate. Lady Pritchard, who died 23 April 

 1718, gave by her will a yearly sum of "J ids. 

 for apprenticing boys from the school. 



The schoolhouse was in the same range of 

 buildings as an almshouse, founded by the same 

 benefactors. In 1832 the schoolmaster taught 

 about thirty boys to read gratuitously, the 

 parents paying id. a week for firing. The alms- 

 house and school had occasionally to be shut up, 

 to enable funds to accumulate for repairs. 

 There were only 20 boys in 1867. Under a 

 scheme of the Charity Commissioners, 17 July 

 1886, the charity was made applicable for 

 apprenticeships and prizes and for encouraging 

 children to prolong their education at elementary 

 schools. 



STOKE HAMMOND. John Hillersdon, on 

 16 September 1707, granted a yearly rent-charge 

 of ^5 ioj. on land in the parish of Stoke Ham- 

 mond for a schoolmaster to teach all the male 

 children of the inhabitants of Stoke Hammond 



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