A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



seems to have been unsuccessful, as on the death of the Rev. Mr. Collett in 1790 it was 

 decided to amalgamate the school with Saunders' charity, and the Rev. William Jackson was 

 appointed to the joint mastership of both. 



James Saunders, of Winchelsea, yeoman, by will 7 January, 1708, bequeathed to his executors 

 all his personal estate and the rent of all his lands in trust to accumulate the interest and rents for 

 ten years, and then to buy land in Kent and Sussex to be settled upon the mayor, jurats, and town 

 council of Rye, that they should provide a good convenient school in the town and appoint a good 

 schoolmaster, who should teach the poor children of the town to read in English, and write and 

 cast up accounts, and should teach them the art of navigation gratis. They were not to exceed 70 

 in number at one time, and were to be nominated by the mayor and jurats. 



Saunders died in 1709, and, following his directions, his executors waited till 1719, when they 

 bought an estate at Udimore for 720 and conveyed it to the mayor and jurats. In March of the 

 following year the mayor and jurats drew up orders for the school, that the trustees should provide 

 a convenient schoolroom and appoint a master from Lady Day for three years, to be continued, if 

 satisfactory, at 20 a year, and at the end of three years to be paid as much as the estate would 

 allow. The second article declared 



That the founder of the said school being a dissenter, and no person or persons, either of the 

 Church of England or of the Protestant dissenters, being excluded by the founder's will from the same 

 privilege with those of his own persuasion, no schooler or schoolers shall be required by the master 

 to goe to any place of worship or to learn any catechism without the consent and approbation of his 

 or their parents or guardians, soe as they goe to some place of worship on every Lord's Day. 



Having settled the regulations for the school, the trustees chose a master, William Hawney. 

 One of the articles was that no freeman of the borough should be schoolmaster, but when in 1760 

 the master was made a freeman the rule was repealed on the ground that it might ' tend to 

 discourage persons of ability from offering themselves as candidates for the mastership upon any 

 future vacancy." 



The amalgamation of the two schools seems to have been a failure, as in 1803 there were only 

 1 6 boys in the school. This state of things continuing, an application was made to the Court of 

 Chancery in 1812. The result of it was a judgement by the Master of the Rolls in 1820, which 

 ordered that the schools should be separated and a master appointed to each. The master of Peacock's 

 School was to educate 50, and the master of Saunders' 70 boys. The orders were not to be carried 

 into effect till after the payment of the costs, which were 900, ordered to be liquidated at the rate 

 of 30 a year. 



On the death of Mr. Jackson in 1828, however, the trustees separated the schools and 

 appointed the Rev. Robert Rowe Knott, of St. John's College, Cambridge, master of Peacock's, and 

 Mr. William Stone Stocks, master of Saunders' School. 5 Horsfield, whose history was published 

 in 1835, says that under Mr. Knott the grammar school was much improved. 6 He left in 1835, 

 and Mr. George Easton was appointed. He was required to teach 40 boys, ' to whom he does 

 ample justice, instructing those in Latin whose parents require it and each scholar in all useful 

 branches of learning.' 



If one man could ever have performed this task, he had failed to do so by the time of the assistant 

 commissioner's visit in 1867. He reported that the instruction was of a purely elementary kind. 

 ' The master,' still Mr. G. Easton, ' told me he had not time to teach any grammar, and declined 

 to have the boys examined in it .... Neither navigation, which is required by Saunders' statutes, 

 nor Latin, which is required by Peacock's, is taught in the school.' 7 By this time the schools were 

 once more combined by a later order of the Court of Chancery, and the unfortunate master had to 

 teach 70 boys unaided. 



At length a scheme was made under the Endowed Schools Acts, approved by Queen Victoria 

 in Council, 9 September, 1884, which again amalgamated the two schools under the name of Rye 

 Grammar Schools. A governing body of 1 2 governors was created, headed by the mayor, and 

 comprising, now that school boards are amalgamated in the town councils, 6 representatives of 

 the council with 5 co-optatives. The school was to be a ' third grade,' the boys paying fees of 2 

 to 6 a year and leaving at the age of 16. A new site and buildings have been provided. 



Now under Mr. John Molyneux Jenkins and three assistant masters there is a grammar 

 school of 53 boys, of whom 10 are boarders, at tuition fees of 5 12*. 6d. 



1 Holloway, Hist, of Rye (1847). In a list of masters of Saunders' School he gives the Rev. John 

 Simpson Myers in 1828, and Mr. Stocks in 1832. 



6 Horsfield, Hist, of Suss. i. 



1 Sch. Inj. Rep. xi, 258. Mr. Giffard had not studied the history of the school, as he says the 

 schools were combined by an order of the Court of Chancery in 1820, which was not carried into effect 

 till 1856. 



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