A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



In 1826 the estates were worth 57 3^. 6d., of which 40 guineas a year 

 were paid to the schoolmaster, but in 1867 he was only receiving 30 a year. 

 The master from 18649 was l ^ e R CV - IL S. Roberts, LL.D., of Queens' 

 College, Cambridge, who had been for many years second master at Bristol 

 Grammar School. There were then 1 3 boys, all day-boys, who all learnt Latin, 

 and a few had begun Greek. Mr. Roberts left in 1869 to become head 

 master of Wigton Grammar School. 



The school was placed under a partly representative governing body by 

 a scheme made under the Endowed Schools Acts, 17 May, 1879. In 1906 

 Mr. George Nixon, LL.B., was head master. A scheme for its improvement 

 is now under consideration. 



WICKWAR ALEXANDER HOSEA'S FREE SCHOOL 



Alexander Hosea was a native of Wickwar, who, according to the 

 county historian, 1 ran away from home as a boy, and becoming rich by his 

 own industry in London, bequeathed by will, 19 March, 1683, two houses 

 in Holborn and >T6oo to the mayor, aldermen, and borough of ' Weekworth ' 

 for support of a school for such children whose parents were poor, to be 

 taught to read and write, and he especially ordained that the minister 

 should not be schoolmaster. A scheme of the Court of Chancery ordered 

 that there should be a master to teach Latin as well as one to teach reading 

 and writing. Before 1700 no less than ten orders had been made by the 

 Court of Chancery for the school. In 1835 a scheme was made which 

 ordered that the master should be able to teach Latin as well as give a 

 general English education, that the school should consist of 40 free boys of 

 the parish and 30 girls, also free, to be taught by a mistress. Very few boys 

 ever learnt Latin, and according to the Assistant-Commissioner's report in 

 1866 no boy had gone to the university or other place of education for 

 many years, and the teaching was merely that of a national school. 



The school was reconstituted by scheme under the Endowed Schools 

 Acts, 30 April, 1894, as a public elementary school : with provision for 

 exhibitions to higher schools to the extent of 30 a year. 



BERKELEY 



By will (5 October, 1696) Samuel Thurner, M.B., of Magdalen Hall, 

 Oxon, gave lands, the income of which was to be employed in keeping as 

 many poor children at school as that the schoolmaster should have IQJ. a 

 year for each child. He desired that the master should be chosen from 

 Magdalen Hall. In 1717, John Smith, A.M., of Magdalen College, Oxford, 

 gave a sum of money which, with 40 given by the countess of Berke- 

 ley, was laid out in lands for teaching 12 boys. The rents of all these 

 lands were paid to the master, and the school was limited to 38 boys. The 

 Corporation has usually appointed a graduate of the University as nominal 

 master, and he appoints a deputy. By scheme under the Endowed Schools 



1 Atkyns, Gloucestershire, 430. This tale must be received cum grant. It is one of the usual attempts to 

 represent great men as rising from the gutter, like similar tales of Whittington, Archbishop Chicheley, 

 Cardinal Wolsey, Gresham, &c. 



440 



