A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



STEYNING GRAMMAR SCHOOL 



William Holland, an alderman of Chichester, by deed dated 16 June, 1614, directed that a 

 free grammar school should be kept and maintained in Steyning, and that a sufficient, learned school- . 

 master should be elected, chosen, appointed, and maintained for the advancement of learning and the ; 

 instruction of youth in the town of Steyning. For this purpose he gave to ten trustees a house 

 called Brotherhood Hall, to be used as a schoolhouse, in which the master should live, with a gar- 

 den, and also some 25 acres of land, from the profits of which the trustees were to keep the house 

 in repair, and with the residue pay the schoolmaster 20 a year. 1 The feoffees, with the consent 

 of the founder during his life and of his heirs after his decease, were to appoint the schoolmaster, 

 and if the heirs would not join with the feoffees in the election, the consent of the bishop of 

 Chichester was to be obtained. 



The founder himself made statutes for the school dated the same day as the foundation deed. 

 He directed that the whole number of scholars should not be above 50, lest the schoolmaster ' be 

 oppressed with multitude and thereby not able to set forward and further the charge to his credit, 

 and profit of his scholars, provided no child or youth living within the liberty and duly qualified be 

 refused.' The master was allowed to take not more than 6 boarders. None were to be admitted 

 who could not read English distinctly. 



Every scholar on his first admittance was to pay is. to the schoolmaster, or if a 'foreigner,' 2s. 

 Holland also ordained 



That every Scholar shall pay 8</. yearly : viz., quarterly id. towards the provision of Brooms and Rods, 

 to be used in the said School, and also \d. at the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel yearly wherewith 

 shall be bought clean Wax Candles, to keep light in the said School for the Schoolmaster and Scholar* 

 to study by, morning and evening in the winter time. 



He ordered that they should only play once in the week, on Tuesday or Thursday, and never 

 in any forenoon, ' but from One of the clock in the afternoon till Five of the clock,' when all the 

 scholars should return to the school for prayers. The i6th ordinance required ' that the Scholars 

 of the four chief forms shall in all their speeches within this School use the Latin tongue, and none 

 other except the Schoolmaster shall license or appoint them to speak English.' On Saturdays, after 

 dinner, they were to resort to the schoolmaster to the school, and be taught by him principles of 

 religion, 



and the more learned scholars shall learn, by heart, some Catechism in Latin, and the meaner sort shall 

 learn, by heart, some Catechism in English, and shall continue that exercise until three of the clock in 

 the afternoon, and from that time learn and practise writing, for the mending of their hands, until the 

 hour of four, and then shall depart the School upon these days, and upon every half holiday, or Saints 

 Eve, they shall come likewise at one of the clock after dinner, and then some of them shall decline 

 briefly in grammatical or rhetorical questions, repeat Latin phrases, or do such other scholastical exercises 

 as shall be thought meet by the Schoolmaster then being, for the furthering of the Latin and Greek 

 tongue, and shall continue the said exercises until four of the clock, and then may depart for those days. 



So it seems that on the rare occasions when the scholars did get a half holiday, it only consisted of 

 the one hour from 4 to 5. 



William Holland had been maintaining the school before his endowment of it, as appears from 

 the following entry in the Steyning registers 2 : 'Mr. John Jeffry, clearke, the first School maister 

 of the Free Schoole in Stening and Dorothy Carter were married Feb. 12th, 1613-14.' One 

 of the early scholars was John Pell, who was born in 1610 at Southwick. He entered Trinity 

 College, Cambridge, at the age of 1 3, ' being then as good a scholar as some masters of arts,' 3 and 

 took his B.A. degree in 1628. In that year he drew up papers on logarithms, the use of the 

 quadrant and sundial, and later published several works on astronomical science. Though his work 

 at Cambridge was mainly mathematical, his Latin training at Steyning stood him in such good stead 

 that when sent by Cromwell as agent to Switzerland in 1654, he was able to introduce himself to 

 the deputies at Zurich in a Latin speech, and to repeat the performance on taking leave four years 

 later. 4 



The school seems to have ceased to exist for a time in the beginning of the nineteenth century, 

 as in The Gentleman's Magazine? 1804, there is a picture of 'an Old House at Steyning, formerly 

 used as a Free School,' and a correspondent states : ' The old house in Steyning formerly used as a 

 Free School is now occupied by the Rev. Dr. Morgan, who enjoys the stipend and other emolu- 



1 The school endowment was increased with 7 acres of land subsequently, but at an unknown date, by 

 Bernard Chatfield. Sct>. lay. Rep. xi, 266. 



1 Suss. Arch. Coll. xliii, 64. Wood, Fasti Oxon. i, 461. 



4 Lower, Worthies of Suss. (1865), 177. Gent. Mag. (Sept. 1804), Ixxiv, 806. 



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