SCHOOLS 



It is to be feared that he did not make the 

 school a success, as, although he was also 

 rector of a city church, St. Martin's, Out- 

 wich,* he seems to have actually done what 

 his predecessors are wrongly accused of doing, 

 and to have falsified the hospital accounts for 

 his own benefit. This he did partly by pay- 

 ing himself twrice over, once as schoolmaster, 

 and again, as Hugh Rose a poor brother ; and 

 partly by taking an undue proportion of the 

 fines paid on renewal of leases. A bill in 

 Chancery was filed against him, and he was 

 called on to repay £$2^ 2s. yd. to the hospital. 

 He had to resign. 



He was succeeded in 1 812 by J. C. Bisset. 

 Bisset informed Lord Brougham's Commis- 

 sion ' in 1832 that he had at first some fifteen 

 or sixteen private pupils in the school, but 

 had never had any free scholars, as those who 

 wanted the free education did not want the 

 classics, so he arranged with the National 

 schoolmaster to teach them. The National 

 School was actually held in the Grammar 

 School, which thus ceased to be used at all. 



That the Archbishops of Canterbury, visi- 

 tors and patrons of the hospital, and with far 

 more power over it than the ordinary visitor 

 enjoyed, should thus have acquiesced in this 

 abuse of the most important part of the foun- 

 dation, and flagrant breach of trust, is a strik- 

 ing illustration of the impotence of visitors, 

 and the little store then set on secondary 

 education by the clergy. For half a century, 

 from 1820 to 1870, the school ceased to exist 

 at all, and the schoolmastership was a sine- 

 cure. Meanwhile the brethren were getting 

 incomes of over £60 a year. At length in 

 1856, after an inquiry by the Charity Com- 

 missioners, a scheme was made by the Court 

 of Chancery, i August 1856. It was a half- 

 hearted sort of reform. It created a govern- 

 ing body, but left the sole appointment of the 

 governors to the archbishop ; it curtailed the 

 stipends of the alms folk, and it provided for 

 the revival of education. But unfortunately 

 it purported to establish two schools both 

 widely different from the school contemplated 

 by the Founder : i . ' A Commercial, or Middle 

 school . . . for the respectable tradesmen, 

 professional men and gentlemen of humble 

 means. 



2. A poor school of the National Society 

 class . . . suited to the sons of the humble or 

 working classes.' 



The salary of the Middle schoolmaster was 

 fixed at the magnificent sum of ;C200, and 



> The anonymous History transmutes this into 

 St. Mary's Outwitch ! 

 a C.C.R. xiii. 371. 



that of the undermaster, at ;£ioo a year ; other 

 masters, 'not exceeding £yo.' The Chan- 

 cery estimate of the proper sum to pay a 

 master did not, however, much matter, as 

 until the Endowed Schools Act was passed, 

 and the Endowed Schools Commission estab- 

 lished, there was no such school. The Poor 

 School was established, chiefly because it al- 

 ready existed, the only change being that it 

 was given new buildings. But the Endowed 

 Schools Inquiry Commission, in 1866, found' 

 ' the old schoolroom stands vacant, and is let 

 to a private schoolmaster, who taught in it for 

 a short time, but has now removed to better 

 premises, and sublets the building to any 

 person who has a temporary job of carpenter- 

 ing or an entertainment to give.' Yet at this 

 time the income of the hospital was no less 

 than £3,067 a year. 



The advent of the Endowed Schools Com- 

 mission, created in 1869, quickened the dry 

 bones. On 4 May 1871, the so-called Com- 

 mercial or Middle School, was opened in new 

 buildings, which cost ;f 15,000, on a site which, 

 with some subsequent extensions, now occu- 

 pies 7^ acres. 



The headmaster was Robert Brodie, Senior 

 Student and Tutor of Christ Church, Oxford, 

 an old Carthusian of the days when Charter- 

 house was a London School, a scholar of 

 Trinity, Oxford, and a first-class man in 

 Moderations and Literae Humaniores. It is 

 highly to the honour of the then archbishop, 

 A. C. Tait, that he obtained from the Charity 

 Commission an amendment of the scheme, 

 which restricted the headmastership to clergy- 

 men, in order that he might appoint Mr. Bro- 

 die, who was a layman. The tuition fees and 

 salaries of the teaching staff were fixed on a 

 scale which fortunately whoUy disregarded 

 the Chancery scheme, which was supposed to 

 govern it. In three years there were 263 

 boys. After a long struggle, on 15 July 1881 

 a new scheme was made under the Endowed 

 Schools Acts, which, while it still left the 

 appointment of half the governing body 

 to the archbishop, brought in four inde- 

 pendent members, two appointed by the 

 Local Board, now the Town Council, and two 

 by the School Board (now under the Educa- 

 tion Act, 1902, also merged in the Town 

 Council), while two were appointed by the 

 justices of the borough, and in 1894, two were 

 added from the Surrey County Council. 

 The scheme re-christened the school ' Whitgift 

 Grammar School,' restored Greek to its place 

 in the curriculum, recognised a scale of tui- 

 tion fees from ;£io to £20 a year, established 



3 Schools Inquiry Re-p., vii. 486. 



195 



