90 Annual Address'. [Feb. 



lain in 1784, and to his efforts is due the huilding by public subscription 

 of the present St. John's which was consecrated in 1787. On his retiring 

 from India in 1788, Thomas Blan shard became Senior and John Owen, 

 Junior Presidency Chaplain. Of the latter a large private corres- 

 pondence has been discovered, dated mostly from Calcutta and is not 

 a little curious. In 1788 the presidency chaplains in conjunction 

 with David Brown, the Garrison Chaplain, and Robartes Carr, the 

 Chaplain to the Fourth Brigade, made an admirable effort to secure 

 Government English Schools for the native population. Their memorial 

 to Government on the subject is printed by Mr. Hyde in one of his 

 memoirs. Nothing came of it, and indeed it appears to have been quite 

 overlooked even by writers on Education in British India. In this same 

 year the Ecclesiastical Establishment which then comprised nine 

 Chaplains was put on a new footing. Brigade Chaplaincies were 

 abolished and Barrackpur, Dinapur, Chunar, Berhampur, Fathga^-h, and 

 Cawnpur became quasi-parishes, with resident incumbents. Mr. Hyde 

 has traced out the succession of Chaplains in each appointment until the 

 close of the century, and collected a great number of personal notitias 

 respecting each of them, especially regarding David Brown, who even- 

 tually became Senior Presidency Chaplain. He has similarly compiled 

 in much detail the history of the Charity and Free Schools down to the 

 close of the century. 



Writers differ much in accounting for the origin of the Charity 

 School : none seem to fix the date of its beginning early enough. 

 Mr. Hyde points out that its establishment was a cherished project 

 of Chaplain Briercliffe and the Society for Promoting Christian 

 knowledge in 1713, and that in 1720 the scheme after many checks 

 was actually afoot aic^d Chaplain Thomlinson bequeathed Rs. 80 to- 

 wards it. Mr. Hyde thinks that the school had been in existence some 

 time before 1732 : perhaps 1729 is as near a conjecture as can be made 

 as to the date of its beginning work. It was first supported out of 

 the income of the "Charity Stock" of the Church. The origin of this 

 property must be sought very early in the history of the Chaplaincy, 

 There existed in Hugli, before the factory removed to Calcutta, an 

 institution of " guardians of the poor," the funds of which arose from 

 fines levied upon English officials of the factory who remained out 

 late at night, who swore profanely, or who neglected attendance at 

 divine worship. This institution seems to have disappeared in the 

 dissolution of manners in the early yeai's of the Calcutta factory, and 

 local paupers had stipends from the Company's Cash. With the 

 improvement of parochial oro^anization on the consecration of the 

 Church in 1709, such administration of charity passed, it is to bo 



