A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



and asks the warden to recommend one. The mayor, Thomas Battison, wrote a letter of 

 complaint about the lack of an usher, to which Priaulx replies 



What Cicero says of tradesmen in his day will for ever hold true, parum proficient nisi admodum 

 mentiuntur . . . Every word of that is a lie . . . From the time I received the school the Corpora- 

 tion made it a request to me to teach without an usher ... of which this prevaricatory mayor was 

 then a member . . . The charity ... is made subservient to a . . . few dirty politicians and as I 

 have in some measure opposed this ' Hinc dolor, hinc lachrymae.' 



He then points out that the usher's pay is only ;^20, that it would cost the usher £14. to board, 

 ' I paid this Mayor's father ^^20 ' and the ^6 remainder ' will not furnish a man with clothes and 

 cleanliness, provided he would divest himself of all appetites and be an utter stranger to society.' 

 He says there were only eight or nine boys on the foundation, ' the rest are all foreigners from 

 London and elsewhere,' and he threatened that 'should an usher be topt upon me by the 

 Corporation I would seperate (sic) the school, he should not teach a single foreigner, nor from me 

 have a single suskin ' (a slang word for sixpence). The mayor again writing, the warden promised 

 the appointment of an ' acting usher . . . one at least equal to the pay.' Next year we find this 

 amazing Mr. Priaulx signing the Council Minutes as town clerk. So peace reigned until on 

 23 December, 1739, this strange combination of proctor, town clerk and schoolmaster departed this 

 life. The last we hear of him is Mrs. Priaulx refusing to give up the town books until she has 

 received her husband's salary ' as well the Town Clerk as Schoolmaster up to St. Thomas day, 

 notwithstanding his death the day before ; ' a demand which was quite justified. 



On 28 January, 1739 Warden Coxed and the college appointed George Bridle and William 

 Bowles, both fellows of the college, master and usher. Bridle, of Leigh, Dorset, was founder's kin 

 at Winchester, admitted scholar 1732 and went to New College 14 January, 1735. He was only 

 twenty-three on becoming head master. William Bowles was of Salisbury, admitted to Winchester 

 in 1734. He was only twenty-one years old. 



The early years of Bridle's rule are a blank, so that it may be presumed that the school 

 flourished and things went smoothly. In December, 1742, however. Bridle complained that his 

 salary was in arrear, and in reply the mayor complained that there was no usher, ' the master accepts 

 quarterly allowances, whereas children of inhabitants should be taught gratis.' A new usher came 

 '" ^75S> when on 5 December 'the room over the Freeschooi ' was put in repair 'for the 

 Rev. Mr. Towersey, usher' — the first use of the term ' Reverend ' for the masters, though they were 

 probably all, except Mr. Matthew Priaulx, in orders. Towersey was a fellow of Corpus Christi 

 College, Oxford, and B.D. 



The falling in of the lease of the Holborn property in 1760 produced a suit in Chancery,' 

 Attorney General at the relation of Thomas Woodward and others v. Mayor, etc. of Bedford. The court I 

 appointed five trustees to administer the estate, a Private Act, 4 Geo. Ill, 1 763," embodying a scheme 

 for the charity, then worth ;^3,ooo a year. A governing body was created consisting of the mayor, 

 recorder (who was then the Duke of Bedford), the aldermen, thirteen common councilmen, two 

 chamberlains and the ministers of the five parishes of Bedford and twelve inhabitants, elected by the 

 vestries of the several parishes. The trustees outside the corporation received the significant title 

 of ' check ' trustees ; though it is to be feared that the check they imposed on the wastino- of the 

 charity was more nominal than real. Of the income of ;f 3,000, less than a third was assigned to 

 the school, the primary object of the foundation, the salary of the head master being fixed at /150 

 and the usher at ;^ 100 with allowances for coals and candles. The trustees were empowered 

 however to build a new school and 



lam 



to erect in the chancel of St. Paul's church in the town of Bedford where the said Sir WilL„„. 

 Harpur and Dame Alice his wife lie interred a monument of marble, lilcewise a statue in front of the 

 said Grammar School with proper inscriptions thereon, in testimony of that town's gratitude and 

 reverence to the memory of those munificent founders of that great charity. 



lins 



As we have seen Dame Alice did not lie interred there. The new school, not at all a bad buildi..- 

 for its time, built on the old site, was finished by 1767. A statue of Harpur put up in front of k 

 not in his habit as he lived, but in the shoe buckles and long coat and cocked hat of the early 

 Georgian period, still stands to give the rising generation erroneous notions of the founder. 



No less than ^^900 a year was assigned for marriage portions of ^^40 each for the "daughters 

 of freemen ; a Hospital School for twenty-six poor boys was established, and the rest of the money '• 

 was spent in apprenticeships and doles. ^ ' 



" The Statement by the Trustees, printed by the Schools Inquiry Commissioners in their Report i868 

 (Sci. Inf. Rep. 111, 327), is a remarkable proof of the carelessness of that body. It actually confuses the Act of 

 1763 with that of 1793. 



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