SCHOOLS 



law 7, to physic I, to the army i, to shop trades 56, to merchants and sea 53, 

 to business unknown 1 1, to county affairs 2, went from the upper school to 

 other schools 6, died 6. The numbers leaving, the average time of attend- 

 ance at school being five years, represents a school of about no boys. 



Golding's successor, James Taylor, of Oriel College, Oxford, ' B.L.' i.e. 

 B.C.L., not M.A., did not receive the augmentation of his predecessor, nor 

 apparently did he deserve it. He retired to the vicarage of St. Michael 

 1 8 April, 1722. Alexander Stafford Catcott, B.C.L., of Merchant Taylors 

 School, a fellow of St. John's College, Oxford, came in. Next year, 16 No- 

 vember, 1723, he petitioned for the augmentation, showing that in a year 

 and a half ' he had increased the number of boys from 20 to 70, which might 

 be looked upon as an instance of his past duty and an earnest of his care to 

 come.' The augmentation was granted ' during the pleasure and as the free 

 gift of this house.' The account book of the treasurer of the school lands 

 contains a catalogue taken 23 September, 1725, by Catcott of the school 

 library, the last that is extant. Catcott had dabbled in poetry before becom- 

 ing master with ' The Poem of Musaeus on the loves of Hero and Leander,' 

 and ' The Court of Love, a Vision from Chaucer." These and some volumes 

 of sermons have procured him a place in the Dictionary of National Biography. 

 He held office for 22 years. Thomas Fry, President of St. John's College, 

 Oxford, and Richard Woodward, bishop of Cloyne, are recorded as having been 

 amongst his pupils. In 1743 he retired to the vicarage of St. Stephen's, Bristol. 



On 1 8 January, 1743-4, Samuel Seyer, of Pembroke College, Oxford, 

 who became the father of the historian of the Bristol charters, was elected 

 head master. Next year new orders were made for the school, i May, 1745. 

 The chief changes were that for ' well affected to kingly government ' the 

 words ' well affected to the constitution in church and state ' were substituted 

 in the masters' qualifications ; and the requirement of the scholars that 

 they should be ' lawfully baptized ' was dropped. The opening hours of 

 school were altered from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. in summer and spring, and the 

 dinner hour from 1 1 a.m. to 12 noon, and return from dinner from i p.m. to 

 2 p.m. Tuesday, as well as Thursday and Saturday afternoons, were to be 

 half holidays and consecrated to writing lessons, while play-days were allowed 

 on days appointed not ' by the church rules ' but ' by public authority.' 

 Instead of finding a fire for the boys in the ' back kitchen,' the master was 

 now to provide this luxury in the school itself. 



It was not till 1757 that Mr. Seyer asked for and obtained the aug- 

 mentation of 20 a year granted to his predecessor. This may have been 

 because a large outlay was necessary on the school buildings, on which, 

 between 1757 and 1762, no less than 2,040 was expended. Seyer retired 

 in 1764 to the living of St. Michael. 



Charles Lee succeeded him with a new usher, Walter Trevenna. Lee 

 seems to have been successful in filling the school, as two years later, 7 June, 

 1766, a committee was appointed to consider what alterations and additions to 

 the buildings should be made for the better accommodation of the scholars. 

 This committee in July reported that 



it would be a public benefit if the master and scholars of the Grammar School were removed 

 to the buildings of Queen Elizabeth's Hospital, and the master and boys of that Hospital re- 

 moved to the Grammar School .... for the present apartments belonging to the Grammar 



375 



