A HISTORY OF SURREY 



in 1886, largely by the assistance of the Surrey 

 ArchaeologicaJ Society. The incubus of the 

 restrictions of class and age being removed by 

 the scheme, the numbers and status of the 

 school rose rapidly under a new headmaster, 

 the Rev. W. E. Inchbald, of Clare College, 

 Cambridge, appointed in 1883. In 1895 

 there were 130 boys in the school. But m 

 1890 the income from endovraient was 

 trenched upon to provide handsome new 

 buildings for the Tiffin Girls' School, the cost 

 of which was charged, not on the Tiffin 

 Schools only, but on the whole endowment. 



The numbers were injuriously affected by 

 the increased competition with Tiffin's School 

 for boys, which had a larger income and 

 larger grants from the Surrey County Council, 

 and also by the fact that in 1897 King's Col- 

 lege School removed from the Strand to a 

 magnificent site on Wimbledon Common. 



At one time the extinction of the old school 

 was contemplated, but the Governors, headed 

 by the Vicar, Mr. A. S. W. Young, Dr. 

 Goodman, the present chairman, and the Rev. 

 J. B. Mayor, came to the rescue. Having 

 raised a subscription, to which they were 

 the principal contributors, they have given 

 Mr. Inchbald a solatium on his retirement 

 after twenty-one years' service and provided 

 new funds for the reinforcement of the de- 

 pleted endownnent. 



The new headmaster, Mr. E. N. Marshall, 

 was educated at Sedbergh School, and was 

 an exhibitioner of St. John's College, Cam- 

 bridge, and then a Sixth Form Master at 

 Loretto School near Edinburgh. 



The school now bids fair to re-occupy the 

 position it held in the fourteenth and six- 

 teenth centuries, as the Public School of 

 Kingston and its neighbourhood. 



GUILDFORD GRAMMAR SCHOOL 



Guildford School is fortunate in having 

 found its vates sacer as early as 20 July 1596. 

 On that day George Austen (ancestor of the 

 present Colonel Godwin-Austen of Shalford 

 House) uho had, as he tells us, for 26 years 

 ' been thoroughly acquainted with the state 

 of this Towne and Schole ' as was his father 

 before him for another 24 years,' thus 

 bringing the story back to 1546, penned a 

 preface to his history of the school. He 

 dubbed his work 'A Monument for the Schole 

 of Guldeford, beinge an Historicall discourse 

 wherem the pryvUeges, charters, donations 



• John Austen was Town Clerk in 1546 and 

 afterwards Mayor. 



and rights of the same Schole are conteyned, 

 the Fownder and b-nefactors thereof Re- 

 corded, the Litigious titles clered, doubts 

 resolved, and other matters importinge the 

 state thereof collected, by the studie, travell 

 and charge of George Austen.' 



On 20 December 1607 he solemnly gave 

 three copies of this ' discourse,' finished up 

 to date, one to the Corporation, another 

 to the School, and a third to his family. 

 The copy in the custody of the Corporation, 

 still preserved, has been the source of all 

 subsequent histories of the town and school. 



Austen begins his account by saying, 

 evidently with some surprise, that ' although 

 this towne of Guldeforde be a very auncient 

 Burrowe towne and a corporacion of very longe 

 contynuance even from the time of Henry III. 

 . . . yett doe I not finde that any Free 

 Grammer Schole was ever maynetayned in 

 the same untill in the beginnynge of the 

 Reigne of Henry VIII. Though no trace of 

 one might appear in the Town Records 

 which Austen had before him, it is impossible 

 to believe that there was not a Grammar 

 School in connection with one of the eccle- 

 siastical corporations of the town. In the 

 chantry chapel which forms the northern 

 apse at the East end of St. Mary's church 

 by the castle, in the oldest part of the town, 

 there was a chantry of St. John from the 

 twelfth century at least. It is most probable 

 that the chantry priest was also the school- 

 master of mediaeval Guildford. However 

 that may be, the present school was first 

 placed in St. Mary's parish. 



Its founder was one of the new class of 

 educational benefactors, the successful London 

 merchants, who had taken the place of 

 successful churchmen as school founders, 

 and placed the government of the schools 

 in the hands of lay instead of ecclesiastical 

 corporations. 



Robert Bekyngham, citizen and grocer of 

 London, made his will,'' 3 November 1509, 

 giving all his lands in Bromley, Kent, and 

 Newington, Surrey, to his wife Elizabeth 

 for life, and after her death he ' willed ' that 

 if the parishioners of St. Clave (Seynt Olaff), 

 Southwark, in which he had directed his 

 body to be buried, within 2 years after his 

 death, ' purchase a corporacion of Our Lady 

 Brotherhood kept within the said churche,' 

 then all the lands in Bromley and Newington 

 were to remain to the brotherhood to find a 

 perpetual priest to sing for his soul. But if 

 they did not purchase the corporation, i.e. 

 obtain a license in mortmain. 



Wills P.C.C. 21, Bennett. 



164 



