SCHOOLS 



The two schools' endowments together in 1800 supported one master, Joseph Hannay, the 

 Parker lands being underlet by the corporation at 49 i6s., the Saunders lands, consisting of 

 75 acres at Wittersham and half a farm of 21 acres called Starvenden in the isle of Oxney, being 

 also underlet at 75 icu. He was bound at first to take 40 boys and girls only, who received a 

 purely elementary education, while the master had to pay for the hire of a room in which they were 

 taught. The rents were raised in 1806 and the number of children increased to 55. But 

 as the result of a Chancery suit begun by a would-be tenant in 1809, the lands being let by auction, 

 the rents were more than doubled, Parker's lands producing 210 a year and Saunders' 259 a 

 year. In 1813 the two schools were separated by a Chancery scheme and placed under different 

 masters, Hannay continuing till 1817 at Parker's School, when as sole jurat of St. Clement's parish 

 he appointed his successor, James Thorpe, and W. H. Prior being appointed in 1 8 1 2 to Saunders' 

 School. The Chancery regulations provided for navigation being taught in Parker's School. But as 

 a matter of fact both were purely elementary, the one with 100 and the other with 70 boys, while 

 the two dames taught 30 boys and girls each. 



In 1867, so widely did the arrangements differ from the founder's desire, that the master, John 

 Banks, of Parker's School, a surveyor by profession, pursued his calling between the school hours, and 

 also gave private lessons in the town. The average attendance was 70 boys, and the three 

 best boys helped in teaching the younger ones. The master had been educated at the school, was 

 appointed to this school in 1 848, and was afterwards master at Saunders' School. Mr. John Banks 

 had, however, built a schoolhouse at his own expense in Castle Place.* The instruction was purely 

 elementary, and so it was at Saunders' School, which had 70 boys. 



At length by a scheme under the Endowed Schools Acts, 25 March, 1878, the two schools 

 were again amalgamated with ^6,OOO from the Magdalen charity, founded in 22 Edw. I 

 by Petronilla de Cham, widow, and granted to the corporation 14 February, 1589, under the name 

 of the Hastings Grammar School. A governing body was constituted of thirteen persons, the 

 mayor and three new representatives of the corporation, and one each of the trustees of All Saints' 

 and St. Clement's, the rest being co-optative. Under the scheme new buildings were erected at a 

 cost of 10,000, and the school reopened in 1888. 



The school now consists of 135 boys, at tuition fees of 9 a year, under a staff of seven 

 masters. The head master is Mr. W. H. La Touche, educated at Bishop's Stortford High School 

 and scholar of St. Catharine's College, Cambridge; junior optime in 1873. He was appointed 

 head master in 1888. 



LEWES GRAMMAR SCHOOL 

 The historian of Lewes 1 says : 



The history of the school from its foundation [in 1512] to the beginning of the eighteenth century is 

 involved in almost impenetrable darkness. What mode of tuition was pursued cannot be ascertained ; 

 the number of scholars in any one year is unknown, and even the names of the masters with one or 

 two exceptions are lost in the obscurity of time. 



Writing eighty years later, the present historian is not able to do much to clear up the 

 obscurity, though he is able to do something. First and foremost it can be shown that there was a 

 grammar school here in the reign of Henry III, three centuries before Agnes Morley gave it an 

 endowment temp. Henry VIII. 



The earliest mention yet forthcoming of Lewes Grammar School is in 1248. Guigardus, 

 prior of Lewes 8 Lewes being a Cluniac priory was an alien priory, and until 1298 had an alien as 

 prior and the convent of Lewes contested the claim of the mother abbey to its tithes. The case 

 was referred by the pope to the cardinal-priest of St. Laurence in Lucina to hear. For the purpose 

 of the trial, on Whit Monday, 1248, the monks appointed their 'beloved clerk, Lucas, schoolmaster 

 of Lewes (magistrum scolarum de Lewes), proctor, steward (yconocum) or syndic.' On 8 Ides of July, 

 1248, he duly appeared at Rome before the papal auditor, but after various appearances and 

 adjournments, at length, on 13 October, gave up the case, admitting the right of the abbot of Cluny. 



That the schoolmaster of Lewes should be appointed the priory's counsel in a case of this 

 importance involving 800 marks, with costs estimated at 100 marks more, shows what an important 

 person the schoolmaster was. It was nothing exceptional for a schoolmaster to be also an 

 ecclesiastical lawyer. Indeed, as we saw under Chichester School, the chancellor, who was 

 originally the schoolmaster of that school, was the legal adviser of the chapter, and prepared its 

 deeds just as the chancellor of England did those of the king. 



8 Hastings Past and Present (1855), p. 77. ' Rev. T. W. Horsfield, Hist, of Lewes (1835), 308. 



1 Sir George Duckett, Charters and Records of Cluni (1888), i, 107. I am indebted for this and the next 

 three references to Mr. L. F. Salzmann. 



411 



