A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



On 28 September 1686, is one of the all too rare entries concerning the 

 school in the Chapter Books on a dispute as to ' the removal of children out 

 of the Lower to the Upper Schole.' It was ordered that the 



antient custom should be observed, that is, that noe child shall be removed out of the Lower 

 Schoole, nor admitted de novo into the Upper Schoole, untill he be so well grounded by the 

 Usher in the rudiments of the Latin tongue as that he shall be able to make for his exercise 

 5 or 6 lines of plaine true Latine and shall understand the scanning and parsing of verses, 

 and the making of 2 verses from one night's exercises. 



The standard in the Lower School, presumably the three lowest forms, was 

 not therefore very exalted. Presumably this entry was connected with the 

 retirement of Mr. Trippett and the appointment of John Hilton, M.A., as 

 usher. 



With the eighteenth century long masterships became the rule. 

 Wheeler held for twenty-eight years ; and then became a canon of Lincoln 

 and vicar of Wappenham, Northamptonshire. Among Wheeler's early 

 pupils was George Whitefield, the celebrated preacher and joint founder of 

 Wesleyanism, entered in 1725. 



In 1692, Mr. Benjamin Newton, minor canon, was elected head master 

 and sworn, but ' surrendered up his place as minor canon.' 



On 30 November, 1724, William Alexander of Campden, Gloucester- 

 shire, and Trinity College, Oxford, 8 July, 1697, M.A. 1704, and already 

 rector of Colesborne in 1713, came from Cheltenham Grammar School. 

 Joseph Gregg, appointed usher 30 May, 1727, got into trouble, and was finally 

 expelled for reasons which sound strange to modern ears. On 30 November, 

 1736, he was admonished 'for not attending divine service on holydays and 

 holyday eves, and lying out of the precincts of the colledge without asking 

 leave of the Dean.' On 19 May, 1739, he was warned a second time. He 

 had been absent 



many whole days and nights holding his place with two ecclesiastical benefices in the country 

 and an ecclesiastical office over the prisoners in the castle in violation of statute 21. 

 Likewise it appears that the school has for some time been declining cheifly through 

 Mr. Gregg's negligence of the proper school hours in the morning, for many years together, 

 whereby the lower boys have not been duly forwarded in their learning, so that those 

 parents and others are become generally prejudiced against the said school. 



Also he had not attended early prayers on pretence of health ' which if true 

 only shows him unfit for the business and he ought in conscience to resign.' 

 On 26 May he was expelled. But the chapter had only themselves to thank 

 if the usher had to hold benefices in the country and the prison chaplaincy 

 to eke out his living. They still continued to pay him only 11 odd. Yet 

 the salary of the master of the choristers, who in 1663 received only 

 7 ioj., had been raised to 22 ioj., or more than the head master, in 

 1665, to 3 in 1666, with 5 more for teaching them (pro choristis 

 instituendis) or ^35 in all. 



Gregg's successor as usher, Edward Sparkes, became head master on 

 5 June, 1742, and held office for thirty-five years. Robert Raikes, the 

 reputed founder of Sunday Schools, whose statue adorns the Thames Embank- 

 ment in front of the late London School Board offices, entered the school in 

 1750 ; but Thomas Stock, 'an old boy' who entered the school in 1727, 

 and became head master 18 December, 1777, is described, on his monument 



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