A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



providing a public school education for the classes between the rich and the poor. His plan was to 

 found a society of men who should combine, like fellows of a college, to build, endow, and govern 

 schools for the benefit of the middle class. With the consent of the bishop of Chichester, 

 Mr. Woodard set to work to constitute this society under the name of ' the provost and fellows of 

 St. Nicholas College,' he himself taking the office of provost. The society was not incorporated 

 under royal charter, nor by Act of Parliament, but the trust deed was enrolled in Chancery. It 

 states that the society was formed 2 



for the purpose of promoting and extending education among the middle classes in her Majesty's 

 dominions, and especially among the poorer members of those classes in the doctrines and principles of 

 the Church now established as set forth in the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the 

 Sacraments, and other rites and ceremonies of the said Church ; and it is intended that the operations 

 of the said society shall be carried on by means of colleges and schools established, and to be established, 

 in various places : no such college or school to be founded or opened without the permission of the 

 Bishop of the diocese within which the same may be situate ; the education in such colleges and schools 

 to be conducted by clergymen and laymen in communion with the said church. And ... it has 

 been determined that such colleges or schools shall be of three distinct grades or classes the first for 

 the sons of clergymen and other gentlemen ; the second for the sons of substantial tradesmen, farmers, 

 clerks and others of similar station ; and the third for the sons of petty shopkeepers, skilled mechanics 

 and other persons of very small means, who have at present no opportunity of procuring better instruc- 

 tion than is given in parochial and other primary schools, and that the charges in all the schools shall 

 be on as moderate a scale as the means of the society will allow. 



St. Nicholas College was at first confined to Sussex, but in 1866 an invitation from the diocese 

 of Lichfield led to a plan of general organization for the whole country. There were to be five 

 centres, for the east, west, north, south, and midland counties. Each centre was to have a provost 

 and 12 fellows, sufficiently endowed to enable them to devote their whole time to the work of 

 education in their district, and they were to be helped by 12 non-resident fellows, elected from 

 gentlemen in the district. Besides the provost and these 24 fellows there were to be (i) 24 actual 

 fellows ; (2) 24 probationary fellows, all engaged in the work of education and sharing the net profits 

 of the school ; and (3) a body of associates. This organization was only carried out in Sussex, 

 where the three schools for the three grades were started, and in Staffordshire, where only one school, 

 St. Chad's, Denstone, has come into being. The Sussex schools consisted of a grammar school at 

 Lancing, a middle school at Hurstpierpoint, and a lower middle school at Ardingly. 



LANCING COLLEGE 



The school began in 1847 in Mr. Woodard's own house in Shoreham, and other houses were 

 taken as the number of boys increased. The building of the college, on a site of 230 acres, began 

 ini854,when there were 60 boys ; and in 1857 was sufficiently advanced for the school to be removed 

 to Lancing. The buildings are on a magnificent scale. It was not till 1899, when the college 

 celebrated its jubilee, that the chapel could be used, though then not nearly finished. There is a 

 large schoolroom ; twelve classrooms with 30 boys' studies, which were the gift of Mr. Henry Martin 

 Gibbs, who had been in the school from 1866 to 1870 ; two dining-halls, library, museum, science 

 laboratories and all the necessary modern additions, carpenter's shop, gymnasium, fives court, 

 armoury, &c. The head and second masters have separate boarding houses. 



The first head masters were shortlived in their office : the Rev. Henry Jacobs, D.D., fellow of 

 Queen's College, Oxford, only staying a few months ; and the Rev. Charles Edward Moberly, 

 scholar of Balliol, afterwards assistant master at Rugby, for two years, 1849-51. One of the 

 earliest scholars was Henry Nettleship, who entered 1849 an( l left 1852. He was Corpus Professor 

 of Latin at Oxford, 1848, editor of Virgil and Persius, and author of many works on scholar- 

 ship. Lancing can only claim a third part of his distinction, as he was afterwards at school at Dur- 

 ham and Charterhouse before getting a scholarship at Corpus, Oxford, in 1856. The head master 

 at the time of the removal was the Rev. John Branthwaite, fellow of Queen's College, Oxford, but 

 he was obliged by ill-health to resign very shortly after, and was succeeded by the Rev. Henry 

 Walford, who only stayed two years ; his successor, the Rev. Robert Edward Sanderson, D.D., 

 of Lincoln College, Oxford, reigned for thirty years, from 1859 to l88 9> when he became canon of 

 Chichester. He had previously been head master at Bradfield College for eight years. One of his 

 earliest pupils, Henry George Woods, gained a scholarship at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in 

 1 86 1, and after being fellow and tutor of Trinity College, was elected president in 1887. In the 

 same year the senior wrangler at Cambridge was John Cyril lies, who had been in the school 

 1877-84. On Canon Sanderson's resignation the Rev. Harry Ward McKenzie, of Keble College, 



' Trust Deed of St. Nicholas College, enrolled in Chancery. 

 432 



