A HISTORY OF SURREY 



better arranged, especially its science rooms, 

 than those of the College. 



Men's Girls' School, with the low fees of 

 £6 6s. a year, and a high education which has 

 resulted in a Science Scholarship at Girton, 

 and a Gilchrist Scholarship at London Uni- 

 versity, shows similar prosperity, overflowing 

 with 330 girls under Miss J. F. Coulter and 

 a staff of 14 form-mistresses. 



Together they have made of the hamlet of 

 Dulwdch a great town, which, like Bedford, 

 has doubled and trebled its population by 

 reason of the efficiency of its schools. But at 

 Dulwdch fortunately the unearned increment 

 goes largely towards augmenting the endow- 

 ment of the foundation instead of into private 

 pockets. 



CAMBERWELL GRAMMAR SCHOOL 



Camberwell Grammar School was founded 

 under letters patent 29 September 1615,' by 

 Edward Wilson, who was vicar of the parish, 

 having been appointed by Queen Eliza- 

 beth ' more than thirty years before, 21 

 March, 1557-8. There were a good many 

 schools founded by parish vicars, at this 

 time and in the preceding century, notable 

 among which are the Grammar School 

 founded by John Leche at Saffron Walden in 

 Essex in 1524, and the Colfe School at Lewis- 

 ham, founded in 1567. The patent for 

 Camberwell recited that Wilson * for the 

 school and for the necessary habitation of the 

 master as for providing a competent liveli- 

 hood for him ' had, in and upon certain 

 lands containing by estimation 7 acres, lately 

 built a school house and other buildings. 

 The King therefore granted that there should 

 be a ' Grammar School for the education and 

 instruction of boys and youths in grammar,' 

 and incorporated the governing body as 

 ' Govemon of the Free Grammar School ^ 

 of Edward Wilson, clerk, in Camberwell, 

 otherwise Camerwell, in the County of 

 Surrey.' The license in mortmain em- 

 powered the Governors to receive other 

 lands up to ^30 a year. In point of fact, the 

 whole endowTnent consisted only of the 



> Usually given as 1616, cf. Manning and Bray, 

 '"■445. but the letters patent are dated 27 Sep- 

 tember 13 James I, and as he began to reign 

 1603 this is 1615, not 1616. 



» The rectory of Camberwell had been appro- 

 priated to Bermondsey Priory in 1154, ibid. 422, 

 and on the dissolution came to the Crown. 



■■• Oddly enough the report of Lord Brougham's 

 Commission, C.C.R. i. 216, omits the important 

 word ' Grammar ' and prints ' Camberwell, other- 

 wise Camerwell.' 



original 7 acres. The governing body was 

 composed of strictly ex officio and hereditary 

 elements. It was to consist of the vicar 

 and churchwardens of Camberwell, the 

 rectors of St. Olave's, Southwark, Lambeth, 

 Newington, the vicar of Carshalton ; the 

 schoolmaster, the patron of the living of 

 Camberwell, all ex officio, and seven persons by 

 name, being the principal owners and inhabi- 

 tants of the parish at the time, one of whom 

 was Thomas Wilson, with the curious direc- 

 tion that their heirs were to be elected on 

 their death, on attaining twenty-one. 

 Statutes were made at the same time, and 

 were modelled on the Jacobean statutes of 

 St. Saviour's, Southwark, the work of the 

 ex-headmaster, Bilson, Bishop of Winchester. 

 The master was to be an M.A. 



to be chosen out of my kindred, being fitt 

 for the place, before any others, and in defalt 

 thereof then the choice to be of such being 

 fite for the place as have bine brought up in 

 the said schoole by the space of [blank in MS.] 

 yeres together ; and in defalt thereof then of 

 such as are borne in the said parrish de legi- 

 timo matrimonio, before a stranger. 



This odd application of the doctrine of 

 next of kin is, it is believed, without prece- 

 dent, and the precedent set has fortunately 

 never been followed. 



The rest of the statutes as to the master 

 were copied from the Bilsonian statutes of 

 Southwark, including a long discourse as to the 

 master ' being of a wise sociable and loving 

 disposition, who can discern the nature and 

 disposition of every child,' and that he is 

 not to ' frequent ill houses nor practice 

 physick without the consent of the Gover- 

 nors.' 



The master was to receive ;Clo a year 

 stipend during the founder's life. At the 

 risk of repetition, we must again remind the 

 reader that this was not absurdly low pay, 

 being the same as the stipend of the Head- 

 masters of Winchester and Eton until the 

 reign of Elizabeth, when it was increased at 

 Winchester to £12 loj. In 1630 the total 

 value of the schoolmaster's ' place ' at Win- 

 chester, including the payments by com- 

 moners, was estimated at ;C3oo a year. At 

 Camberwell the stipend was, as at Winchester, 

 expected to be largely augmented by the 

 payments of the pupils, the school being only 

 free for the free scholars. After the founder's 

 death the master was to take the rents of the 

 two houses by the school, and to enjoy for 

 his private use 'the gallerie, 12 studies, 4 

 chambers, a roome under them and a back 



210 



