SCHOOLS 



greate diligence and charitable cndevour of the said William Birde, founded at the Gauntz, 

 and xij poore children placed therein for a beginninge of the sayd good worke, to which 

 the sayd William Birde was a bountifull benefactor and gave thereunto 530 li in money for 

 the advancement thereof. 



The school was opened in September, 1590. In June, 1596, Carr's 

 trustees transferred the estate to the Corporation, who in the following year 

 obtained an Act of Parliament which settled the property on the charity for 

 ever. Anthony Standbank had given land and houses in Bristol before this 

 date ; Lady Mary Ramsey gave 1,000, which with 450 of corporation 

 money was by deed 22 March, 1609, laid out in land in Winterbourne. 

 Alderman Barker, in 1658, gave six houses in Bristol and 100. Edward 

 Colston in 1698 gave lands in parishes of Yatton and Congresbury. James 

 Gollop in 1710 gave lands, and Samuel Hartnell in 1716 gave 700. 



In 1651 the number of boys was raised to 24, in 1695 to 36 by Edward 

 Colston's gifts, and in December, 1700, to 40. The hospital was rebuilt in 

 1706. We have already seen how in 1769 these boys were moved into 

 St. Bartholomew's Hospital. 



The common council increased the amount paid to the master for 

 feeding, clothing, and educating the boys fromio to 12 per head in 1789, 

 and prescribed the diet. They were to have meat five days a week and milk 

 pottage on the other days ; breakfast was limited to bread and beer. 



In 1781 the corporation claimed to treat 3,000, which they had 

 advanced for the building of the hospital in Elizabeth's reign, as a debt, 

 bearing interest at 5 to 10 per cent., and unblushingly claimed to the Charity 

 Commissioners in 1821 that the hospital was, therefore, indebted to them in 

 the sum of 46,499. After the Municipal Corporations Act had transferred 

 the management of the charities to the Municipal Charity Trustees, a Bill 

 was filed in Chancery, and the corporation eventually agreed to a decree 

 against themselves in January, 1 842. The number of boys was then 42, which 

 the trustees at once increased to 120. In 1847 the school was moved to 

 new buildings on the north-west side of Brandon Hill, and the numbers 

 again increased. 



The Assistant Commissioner for the Schools Inquiry Commission in 

 1866 found 195 boys. He reported favourably on the education, some of 

 the boys learning Latin and the earlier books of Euclid. If they stayed 

 beyond the age of 14, which they could only do by special permission of the 

 trustees, they were expected to go in for the Cambridge Local examination. 

 But he pointed out that the results were not adequate to the size of the 

 endowment some 7,400. 



By a scheme made under the Endowed Schools Acts, 13 May, 1875, 

 for this and the Red Maids' School, which placed them under the same 

 governing body as the Grammar School, very ambitious developments were 

 contemplated. The hospital was to be for 1 60 boarders, while two purely 

 day schools for boys were to be provided. But those were the days when 

 rents were advancing by leaps and bounds. Then came a fall, and the net 

 income now is only 5,172. So not only have the day schools never been 

 started, but the hospital itself has had to be reduced in numbers, and at 

 present contains only 127 inmates. These are all admitted by competitive 

 examination by boys from public elementary schools in Bristol and the other 



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