THE OLDER CHARITIES OF PLYMOUTH. 
43 
change for notice is the removal from the old premises, which had 
become very inadequate for the purpose. A payment was then 
made in lieu of the school-house to the master ; and this has been 
continued, the Corporation now paying £20 as salary, and £50 for 
the school-house. The fee farm rent of £8 granted to the town 
by Elizabeth, and once paid to the Prior, is now paid to the 
Corporation by the Rev. Dr. Wilkinson j so that the expenditure 
on the salary is only £12 on the part of the town. 
It is hardly necessary to point out that the Grammar School is 
not fulfilling its original intention of providing free education for 
the sons of the inhabitants, or any fair proportion of them, and 
that the payments made by the Corporation are alike unworthy of 
the object in view and of such an important body. I shall be 
asked, Where is the money to come from 1 There need have been 
little difficulty on that head if the interests of the school had been 
properly regarded. Unquestionably when the school was founded 
at least a third of the revenues of the vicarage was set aside for 
its maintenance ; and the £20 stipend was specified, not as a bare 
maximum, but as indicative of the substantial support that was to 
be given to the cause of education. Morally, at least a third of 
the tithe rent-charge of Plymouth belongs to the Grammar School 
now; and as that rent-charge approaches £1100, the Grammar 
School, if its rights had been strictly conserved, would have £400. 
Legally, it seems to me also open to question how far the Corpora- 
tion, when they sold the advowsons of the vicarages under the 
Municipal Reform Act (after making a very handsome revenue of 
next presentations), were entitled to pocket the whole of the 
money as they did. That the Municipality should in this way 
pocket thousands of pounds, and give in return but one yearly 
twelve, was never what was intended between the first parties to the 
bargain ; and if the advowsons themselves could not be charged 
with the liability (and it should be remembered that their pur- 
chasers paid for them upon the full current value), the Corporation 
should have made an equitable arrangement of their trust, and 
not have appropriated the " unearned increment " in so masterly a 
way. 
Hele's Charity begins with a feoffment by Elize Hele, January 
9th, 1632, of all his estates to his own use during life, and after 
his death to his wife Alice Hele, John Maynard, John Hele, and 
