A HISTORY OF SURREY 



bringing upp of his schollers.' On 21 April 

 1623, the first elecrion of a ' Bingham 

 scholar,' John Parvish, ' bom in the parish ' 

 and ' a freschole scholler,' took place. The 

 exhibition was £6 a year. On 14 November 

 the same year John Lawrence was given 

 Randell Carter's gift of £7 a year tenable at 

 Magdalen Hall, Oxford. 



The status of the school is shown by 

 the contest which took place on 23 Jan- 

 uary 1624, when Davidge, the usher, 

 told the Govemon he had been beneficed 

 in Somersetshire ' and soe with weepe- 

 ing teares took his leave and had the 

 Governors' good words, and soe parted.' 

 Mr. Chamberlyn, a minister and preacher, 

 and Master of Arts of Exeter CoUege, 

 Oxford, * a curate, and had but 35^. a quarter,' 

 was the first applicant, and wrote epistles 

 in Latin, Greek and Hebrew to the Bishop. 

 He was put out because he wanted to ' exe- 

 quute ministerial! functions preaching once 

 a month as well, and also had taken his 

 father an old man and sexton of SS. Ann and 

 Agnes, Aldersgate, where he was curate, 

 by the beard, and told him he was a better 

 man.' So Mr. Dyb, M.A. of Trinity College, 

 Cambridge, * a batchelor and a mere layeman,' 

 was elected. In August 1637, for the first 

 time, one who had been brought up in the 

 school as a boy was elected master, in the 

 person of Thomas Audley. He was probably 

 disapproved by the bishop, as his successor, 

 Carroll, who had also been brought up in the 

 school, certainly was. At all events Audley, 

 elected in August, had vacated by December. 



During the Civil War and the Common- 

 wealth, London being the stronghold of the 

 Parliament men, the school went quietly on, 

 John Phillipps, elected in June 1638, being 

 succeeded by Hezekiah Woodward in 1644, 

 and he in 1648 by Nicholas Anger who was 

 ' very well approved for his way of teaching 

 and dilligence therein.' Several ' Bingham 

 scholars ' of the period, brought up in the 

 school, were elected ushers. There is a 

 curious list of boob left in the school on 

 4 January 1643, on the incoming of Hezekiah 

 Woodward. There were five dictionaries 

 and lexicons, including Scapula's. 



On 8 November 1681 Mrs. Dorothe Appel- 

 ton added to the Foundation an English School 

 by a gift of a rentcharge of £20 a year for 

 teaching 30 poor boys. 



In January 1691 Mr. William Symes, 

 or Symms, of Balliol College, Oxford, 

 inaugurated his mastership with a large 

 register. The keeping of a register was 

 required by the statutes, but all other 

 specimens, if there were any others, have 



disappeared. This register was admirably 

 kept up for about three years, and then, as 

 such things do, tailed off into intermittent 

 entries, which were made till 1768 : after 

 that they wholly ceased till 1814. This 

 register shows 51 boys admitted in 1691, 

 and 24 n 1692, so that the school must 

 have been full. At the end of the book is a 

 note, dated 20 April 1 731, of some of the 

 scholars who went to the University in 

 Symes' time. They were 13 in number, 

 and included fellows of Balliol and Corpus at 

 Oxford, and of St. John's at Cambridge. 



On Symes' death in 1734, the usher, Samuel 

 WiUan, was promoted to the mastership with 

 disastrous results. On 26 November 1746 

 it was found by the Governors that he had 



often absented himself for many days to- 

 gether, and very frequently came into the 

 Schoole disordered with Liquor and ... by 

 means of such ill-conduct . . . altho' in for- 

 mer times . . . there has been near 100 

 scholars there are now not above ten 

 . . . and only one of them is in any sort under 

 his care, the others being under . . . the 

 Reverend Mr. Thomas who has assisted 

 ... in the stead of an Under Master. 



So he was deprived. In 1753 Mr. Davis, 

 the Headmaster, was given a gratuity of £So 

 ' for an encouragement,' and this became a 

 permanent addition to the Headmaster's 

 salary, the total income of the school being 

 then about ^£250. 



A note at the end of the 1691 Register 

 gives sixteen boys sent to the Universities 

 while the school was under the Rev. W. L. 

 Fancourt from 1794 to 1814. When he 

 came he found 23 free boys. In 1819 ^ there 

 were 68 foundationers, but only two others. 

 The Headmaster received ;f 100 a year and 

 a house, the usher £jo and a house, and the 

 writing master £^0, the endowment being 

 about ;f38o. At this time the entrance fee 

 had been raised to £1, and the quarterage, 

 for brooms, etc., to 5^. 



In 1843 the site of the school was taken 

 for the Borough Market, and new buildings 

 erected in Sumner Street, by what is now 

 St. Peter's church. They consisted only of 

 one large hall and a class room with a Master's 

 Boarding house. 



A scheme made by the Court of Chancery 

 in 1850 consolidated the writing school with 

 the Grammar School and introduced modern 

 subjects into the curriculum ; allowed eight 

 boarders to the master and to the usher ; and 

 imposed fees on all boys. The result was that 



180 



* Char. Com. Rep., i. 212. 



