SCHOOLS 



esq., Thomas Pelham of Catsfield, esq., and others in trust, a messuage or tenement, stable, garden, 

 and appurtenances situated in the parish of St. Peter and St. Mary, Westout, and formerly the 

 chantry house, ' to be inhabited and enjoyed by the school-master for the time being of the Free 

 Grammar School in Southover, juxta Lewes, for ever as a free donative.' The premises were 

 purchased in the preceding year by Mrs. Jenkins for 194. She also bequeathed to the same 

 trustees in trust for the benefit of the school several sums of money to which she was entitled by 

 purchase from the orphans' fund, amounting in the whole to 1,533 16*. id., to be employed 'in 

 making provision for the free instructing and teaching at the said Free Grammar School, such and 

 so many children or scholars as from time to time after her death may be nominated and elected, 

 as in a certain writing dated 7th October was appointed.' By the instrument last referred to she 

 gave to the trustees already named the power of providing books out of the property vested in them 

 for so many of the free scholars as they should think fit, providing that not more than 15 per 

 annum be so employed. The residue of the income was directed to be given in such proportion as 

 the trustees might agree upon, to the schoolmaster, usher, and writing master. The trustees were 

 also empowered to fix the number of scholars that were to be admitted on the foundation and 

 instructed free of expense ; and with them rested the appointment or dismissal of the master or 

 pupils. 



The school was removed from Southover about the year 1714 to the more eligible premises 

 which had been given to the institution by Mrs. Jenkins. But for many years after the removal 

 of the establishment to St. Anne's parish, it was customary for the master and pupils to make 

 a yearly visit to the deserted seat of learning in Southover, and there to go through a portion 

 of those lessons with the tumult of which the old buildings had re-echoed for upwards of two 

 centuries. 



In 1808 Colonel Newton, wishing to extend his grounds eastward of his mansion in Southover, 

 purchased the schoolhouse and garden near the mill-pond, then used by a tinker, for 300, which 

 was invested in consols. 



In 1807 the Rev. Edward Merriman was appointed head master. In his evidence 16 before the 

 commission 'to inquire concerning charities in England for the education of the poor' in 1818, he 

 stated that he received an endowment made up as follows : 



> d. 



1. From Lord Chichcster's steward. . . . . . 53 5 



2. Mr. Guy of Hammessey, tenant of Sir Charles Burrell 20 o o 



3. Mr. Verral, solicitor, of Lewes . . . . 300 



4. Interest on 497 os. iod. consols . . 14 7 4 



90 12 4 



Items 2 and 4 represented the original endowment of Agnes Morley, the consols representing 

 the proceeds of sale of the old school. Item i represented Mrs. Jenkins's endowment, 1,725 con- 

 sols ; item 3 the rent-charge on a house in Lewes given by Barber Blunt. The school consisted 

 of 25 boys, 9 free boys nominated by Lord Chichester and Lord Hampden (the full number 

 mentioned to him on appointment being 12) and 15 boarders. They were all taught classics as well 

 as reading, writing, and arithmetic, by the writing master, the ' usher ' having ceased to exist. One 

 of the free boys was head of the school, and going to the university. 



In 1864 the Schools Inquiry Commission found the school in a very bad way. The trustees, 

 nine in number, noblemen and county gentlemen, limited their functions to appointing the master 

 and nominally the 12 foundation scholars. They had held no meeting for seven years. Two of 

 them had shown ' occasional . . . interest ' in the school. The Rev. Frederick Woolley, M.A. 

 Cambridge, was head master, appointed in 1 859. He found 39 boys, and raised the number to 5 1 in 

 the summer term of 1861. Then his health failed. In 1865 there were only 23 boys, of whom 10 

 were boarders, 8 day boys paying 15 guineas a year, and the rest free scholars. A day boy, if he 

 was 'a nice lad,' was allowed to play with the boarders in the playground, which, having been the 

 garden given for the exclusive use of the master, was entirely under his control. 



In 1885 the master was the Rev. Charles Kevern Williams, M.A., late fellow of Pembroke 

 College, Oxford. 



Instead of the school being revivified, the coup de grace was finally given to this ancient founda- 

 tion by a scheme made under the Endowed Schools Act, 12 August, 1885, which converted the 

 school and the George Steere Exhibition, with Blunt's educational charity, into exhibitions of 5 

 to 20, tenable at any place of higher education approved by the governors to boys or girls, chil- 

 dren of residents in Lewes or within five miles of the county hall there. 



16 Char. Com. Rep. i, App. 396. 

 415 



