SCHOOLS 



TEWKESBURY GRAMMAR SCHOOL 



In 1535' there is evidence of the existence of the usual Almonry, or 

 charity school, in the abbey, with incidentally mention of what must have 

 been the usual public or grammar school outside. The almoner gave 



in alms distributed to certain poor scholars to the number of 16, as in woollen cloth to 

 clothe them, in ordinary years 7 13*. d. ; and to certain poor boys in the same office 

 [i.e. the Almonry] limited by the ordinance of foundation as well in eatables and drink- 

 ables and other necessaries as in maintenance (exhibicioni) of the same boys at school 

 (ad itudium) in ordinary years ,3 I is. Sd. 



In Edward VI's Chantry Certificates * of 1 548 there is a memorandum 

 that Tewkesbury * is a verye grete markett Towne . . . Having many 

 children likely and apt throughe good instruccion to atteigne to learninge,' 

 therefore the inhabitants are ' humble suters ' to the king to give ' some 

 convenyent stypend for the mayntenaunce of a Free Scole there for ever,' and 

 Tewkesbury is one of four places in Gloucestershire where ' Grammerscoles 

 are to be newlye erected.' 



A school was apparently established, as in 1609 Sir Dudley Digges 8 gave 

 1 60 for the purchase of lands settled to the use of the free school. Yet William 

 Ferrers, citizen and mercer of London, has been popularly considered the 

 founder of the school. By his will, 17 September, 1625, he devised to the 

 mayor and burgesses of Tewkesbury two annuities out of his manor of 

 Skellingthorpe, Lincolnshire, towards 'the maintenance of a schoolmaster who 

 should freely teach poor men's children within the free school of Tewkesbury, 

 and four poor men's children from the parish of Ashchurch.' 



Charters were granted to the town by both James I and James II, in 

 which provision was made for a ' Free Grammar School, which should 

 consist of one master and one usher and scholars' ; and in 1698 William III 

 granted a charter for ' the better instruction of youths and boys in the 

 borough of Tewkesbury,' and incorporated certain officials of the borough by 

 the name of ' the governors of the goods, possessions, and revenues of the 

 Free Grammar School of William Ferrers in Tewkesbury for ever, who were 

 to nominate one honest man ' learning and fearing God ' to be master, and 

 one discreet and fit person to be usher, both of whom were to hold their 

 office during the good pleasure of the governors.* William Alye gave 70 

 by will made in 1625, with which chief-rents were bought, for the education 

 of 6 poor children in the grammar school, and in 1722 Mrs. Elizabeth 

 Dowdeswell gave 40 to the school. 1 



A new scheme was made for the school by the Court of Chancery in 

 1851, by which the property was vested in 8 trustees annually elected by the 

 corporation out of their own body. They were invested with all the powers 

 of the old governors. The boys on the foundation were limited to 1 2 from 

 Tewkesbury, to be elected by the governors, and 4 from Ashchurch, to be 

 elected by the vicar and churchwardens of the parish. They might stay 

 from 8 to 15, and were to learn Latin, Greek, and English, with reading, 

 writing, geography, and arithmetic. If there were more than the 16 free 



1 Valor Eccl. \\, 483. ' A. F. Leach, fug/. Sch. at the Reformation, 85. 



' Rudder's Ghucettcrshirt. 



4 &. Inj . Rep. IT, 1 07. ' Rudder'* Glouceiterihirt. 



435 



