i
CENTRE
for
REFORMATION
and
RENAISSANCE
STUDIES
VICTORIA
UNIVERSITY
TORONTO
ANNALS OF
SH RE\VSBURY SCHOOI,
INTRODUCTION
ARIOUS events have happened during the last few
years which are calculated to bring Old Salopians more
frequently together, and to renew or increase their interest
in the school where they vere educated. Of these the most
important is the foundation of the Old Salopian Club, which
now numbers more than seven hundred members. Under
its auspices the Triennial Dinner has become a permanent
institution, and the "Year Book," which is sent to all its
members, supplies them vith a valuable record of any
occurrences connected with Shrewsbury School which are
likely to be of interest to its past or present scholars.
The revival of the annual Speech Day is another important
event in the recent annals of the school. Two books also
have appeared during the last eight years which could not
fail to be of deep interest to Shrewsbury men. First, Dr
Calvert's admirable edition of the Rcgestunl Scltolarium from
z56e to 635, which was published in 892; and, secondly,
The Life and Letters of D: Samuel Butler, edited by his
grandson, which appeared in 896. Another book, and one
which will perhaps excite greater interest among the younger
generations of Salopians, may, not improbably, see the light
before the present year comes to an end. It comprises,
among other matters of school interest, a list of Shrewsbury
scholars during the past century, with biographical notes, on
which the Rev. J. E. Auden has bestowed much time and
labour.
It remains for me now to speak briefly of the volume to
which these xvords are intended to form an Introduction.
When I was asked by Mr. Spencer Hill, three years ago, to
write the Annals of Shrewsbury Sc/tool, I began m)" work
viii INTRODUCTION
under favourable circumstances. Not only had I in my
possession much manuscript material, collected many years
afro, in the hope that it might some day help to illustrate the
earl), history of the school, but four long-lost volumes had
recently been discovered, in which Mr. Hotchkis, the anti-
quarian head master of the eighteenth century, transcribed
many important documents and wrote man), valuable notes
relating to school affairs. I need hardly say that I have
found these Hotchkis MSS. of great service. Much light
also has been thrown on school history from 578 to I797 by
two volumes of school accounts, of which very little seems
to have been known before 89o. I have made much use
again of the school documents preserved among the Town
Records, which the recent labours of a committee of Shrews-
bur)" antiquarians have rendered easy of access. To one of
these gentlemen, Mr. William Phillips, my best thanks are
due for kindly help given me in ways too numerous to
mention. It is a pleasant duty also to express my gratitude
to several old friends among the assistant masters for their
read)- and valuable assistance in writing some of the dosing
chapters. Without the bibliographical knowledge indeed of
Mr. T. E. Pickering it would have been impossible for me
to do any kind of justice to the interesting library which
belongs to the school. But to no one am I more indebted
than to my old friend and colleague Dr. Calvert, who has
from the first taken a deep interest in the progress of the
book, and has done his best to help to make it a truthful
history of Shrewsbury School. There are many Old
Salopians again, far too many to mention by name, who
have corresponded with me about their schooldays, whom
I desire to thank once more for the reminiscences with
which the)- have so kindly supplied me, and which the
following pages will show I have duly appreciated.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1.
Foundatmn and Endowment of Shrewsbury School by Royal Charter,
granted on February 1oth, 155 -- Early Head Masters, "Sir
Morys" and John Eyton--Thomas Ashton, M.A., Head Master
from 156z-z571 .
CHAPTER
Constitution and Customs of Shrewsbury School in the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries 3
CHAPTER llI.
Thomas Lawrence, M.A., Head Master,
CHAPTER IX'.
John Meighen, M.A., Head Master, z583-635 73
CHAPTER V.
Meighen's Differences with the Bailiffs of Shrewsbury . 97
CHAPTER VI.
Thomas Chaloner, Head Master, 1636-1645 3 z
CHAPTER VII.
Thomas Chaloner's Vfanderings, 1644-166
Richard Pigott, 1646-1662
CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER IX.
Chaloner's Return to Shrewsbury--His Death--Andrev Taylor, M.A.,
Head Master, 664-1687--Richard Lloyd, M.A., Head Master,
1687 - 7 z 3
173
187
xii CONTENTS
CHAPTER X.
Hugh Owen, B.A., t7_3-t726--Robert Phillips, D.D., t727-173 S 211
CHAPTER XI.
Leonard Hotchkis, M.A., Head Master, t735-t754 22t
CHAPTER XII.
Charles Newling, MA., Head Master, t754-t77o 237
CHAPTER XIII.
The School Library z43
CHAPTER XIV.
James Atcherley, M.A., Head Master, t77t-t798--Act of Parliament
in 17qS--Reignation of Mater,* -- Appointment of New Head
Master zSa
CHAPTER XV.
Samuel ButleG D.D., Head Master, 1798-t836 . z6z
CHAPTER XVI.
Benjamin Hall Kennedy, D.D., t836-1866 325
CHAPTER XVII.
Henry Whitehead Moss, B.A., appointed Head Master in t866--
Public Schools Act of ,868--New Governing Body elected in t87i
--Removal of the School to Kingsland in 88z--School Life on
Kingsland 369
CHAPTER XVIII.
Games and Amusements at Shrewsbury School
39 z
APPENDIX
Ahton's Letters to the Bailiffs 423
Ashton's Final Letter to the Bailiffs 427
Letter from Sir George Bromley to the Bailiffs about the School
Ordinances 4z 8
Letter from Thomas Ashton to Lord Burleigh 4z 9
Thomas Lag'rence'g Farexvell Letter to the Bailiffs 43 t
Letter from the Bailiffs of Shrewsbury to the Master and Feliox-s o!
St. John's College, Cambridge
EDWARD VI.
4 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
granted to Shrewsbury had been leased out in I548 for a
term of twenty-one years, 1 were all serious impediments to
school organization. What became of "Sir Morys" does
not appear; but it is certain that he did not retain his
position long, for in the accounts of the same year in which
his name is mentioned, there occurs a further entry of 6s. 8d.
"paid on account to John Eyton, hired to keep the free
grammar school. ''2 Perhaps the Bailiffs were unlucky in
their choice of masters, or perhaps they were difficult to
please; anyway, in October, I556, we find them anxiously
looking out for "an honest and able person to serve the
Office of Head Schoolmaster of the Free Schoole," in order
that they might "avoide John Eyton. ''a
After this no further mention of the school can be found in
local records before June 2ISt, I56I. Under this date
Hotchkis or Blakeway found the following entry in the
Exchequer Book of Shrewsbury: "Agreed that Thomas
Asheton with on other lerned scolemaster shall enter hOWe at
Mydsummer next, and for their stypend duryng the tyme
untyll the leases be expyred, to have 4or, and for an usher
8r, and when the leases be expyred of Mr. Byston and Mr.
Kelton, then ye s a Mr. Asheton, fynding one other scolemaster
and usher, to have a pattent of all these tythes belonging to
the free-scoole, for lyre. Paying 8s. yearly to ye Queene for
cheffe rent, and that he shall keepe all reparations of the
scoole-house. '' This Thomas Ashton is usually reckoned
as the first Head Master of Shrewsbury School, and he might
almost be called its Founder ; for, by his exertions, the greater
St. Mary's tithes were leased to Mr. Thomas Kelton on March 3rd, x54x ,
and St. Chad's tithes to Mr. George Byston on June 22nd, I548. (Owln and
ELAKEWAY. )
" " Regardo et sup' comput John E)'ton conduct' ad custodiend' lib'am scol
gammatical' 6s. 8d."--Blakway
v " Ult' Oct.' 3 and 4 P & M. AgTced . . . that yf Mr. Bayliefl's can he.re of
an honest able . . . person which will serve the oice of head scolemaster of the
Free scolc of the town and shall be thought mete . . . that then Mr. Baylifl's
shall avoyd John Eyton now scolemaster gyving him one half year's warnynge--
and the s d John Eyton to haue for his wages fom Michaclma last paste x4 by
year and not above."--B[aay
THOMAS ASHTON 7
remaining years of his mastership. But with an average
annual entry of more than IOO the school numbers can
hardly have fallen much below 4oo during the six years in
question.
Shrewsbury, it is evident, must have taken its place under
Ashton's rule as the great Public School for the north-west
of England. Nor can we doubt that such was the intention
of its founders. The difficulties of travel in those days made
it desirable that schools should be established at various
centres to which boys residing in the surrounding districts
might have convenient access; and Shrewsbury, as the "chief
place of an extensive and fertile district," where the Court of
the Marches of Wales was commonly held, and itself a town
of considerable commercial importance, was a most suitable
place for such a purpose, and one where a well-managed
school would be likely to prosperJ That Shrewsbury School
was regarded by people in general as intended for the benefit
of the whole surrounding district, and by no means for that
of the town of Shrewsbury exclusively, is sufficiently shown
by the petition presented to Lord Burghley a few years later
by the Dean and Chapter of Hereford, asking for the
establishment of a school in that city "to serve as commo-
diously for the training of the Youth of South Wales as
Shrewsbury doth for the Youth of North Wales. ''2 The
internal evidence of the school register of admittances is to
the same effect.
We have already seen that in the course of six years
Ashton admitted nearly twice as many aliens as odpidans,
and a careful examination of the names shows that there was
scarcely a family of note in the surrounding counties which
did not send one or more of its youthful scions to be
educated by Ashton at Shrewsbury. Egertons, Dones,
Leighs, Brokes, and Massies, from Cheshire; Sandys and
Butlers from Lancashire; Harringtons from Rutland; Foxes
from Herefordshire, and Curzons from Buckinghamshire,
are to be found in Ashton's register, side by side with
See RelOort of Public School Commission, 864.
*" See STRYPF'$ Life of 14,itgift.
u
FULKE GREVILLE, LRD F:R{3OKE
SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
case, he did not wish it, as he tells his "little Philip," to
be "empty of some aduices."
.... " Let your first action be the lifting vp of your minde to
Almighty God by hattie praier, and feelingly digest the wordes you
speak in praier with continuall meditation, and thinking of him
to whom you pray .... marke the senee and matter of that you
doo reade as well as the words ..... "Be humble and obedient to
your master, for vnlesse you frame yourself to obey others, yea, and
feel in your selfe what obedience is, you shall neuer be able to teach
others how to obey you. Be courteous of gesture, and affable vnto
all men, with diuersitie of reuerenee according to the dignitie of the
person, there is nothing that winneth so much with so little cost, vse
moderate diet .... seldome drinke wine, and yet sometimes do,
least being inforeed to drinke vpon the sudden you should find your
selfe inflamed, vse exercise of bodie, but such as is without perill of
your bones or ioints .... delite to be cleanly as well in all parts
of your body as in your garments .... giue yourselfe to be merie
.... but let your mirth be euer void of all seurrilitie and biting
words to any man, for an wounde giuen by a worde is oftentimes
harder to be cured then that which is giuen with the sword ; be you
rather a hearer and bearer away of other mens talke, than a
beginner or procurer of speeh ..... Be modest in eeh assemblie,
and rather be rebuked of light felowes for maidenlike shamefastnes,
than of your sad friends for peart boldnes : Think vpon euery worde
that you will speake before you vtter it .... aboue all things tell
no vntruth, no not in trifles ..... And let it not satisfie you that
the hearers for a time take it for truth, yet after it will be knowne as
it is to your shame, for there cannot be a greater reproch to a
Gentleman than to be accompted a lyer ..... Remember the
noble blood you are discended of by your mother's side, and thinke
that only by vertuous life and good action, you may be an ornament
to that yllustre family, and otherwise through vice and sloth you
may be accompted, Labes generis, a spot of your kin, one of the
greatest curses that can happen to man. Well my little Philip, this
is enough for me, and I feare to much for you ..... Commend
mee most heartily vnto Maister Justice Corbet, 1 old Master
Onslowe, 1 and my Coosin his sonne. Farewell, your mother and I
send you our blessings, and Almighty God graunt you his, nourish
you with his feare, gouerne you with his grace, and make you a
good seruant to your Prince and Country. Your louing Father,
HENRY SIDNEY."
See note on next page.
,+._
.'qiR PHILIP SIDNEY
I6 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
Robert Owen, 1 the Herald-at-Arms, to whom we are in-
debted for the interesting MS. The Arms of the Bailiffs, which
is preserved in the school library, is another Shrewsbury
worthy of these days whose name must not be passed over.
No details of the inner life of the school in Ashton's time
have come down to us, but there can be no doubt that the
Ordinances of I578, of which Ashton was the chief author,
present a faithful picture of the general system of school
management during his mastership. A house and land had
been bought from John Proude in I551 ; with this, and the
property acquired by the Bailiffs in 1548, together with some
adjacent buildings rented from Mr. Birrington, 8 of which the
freehold was purchased in I576, Ashton had to do the best
he could. No such establishments as masters' boarding-
houses were known at Shrewsbury in those days. Boys
coming from a distance were "tabled" by residents in the
town willing to receive them into their houses? We are
not told what were the position and duties of the seventeen
boys xvhom Ashton has entered in the school register as
"Pantlers" ; but we may fairly conclude that their status
lobert Omen was the eldest son of Richard Owen, Bailiff of Shrewsbury in
1564, I568, and I573- He entered school in I57I. In after years Robert Owen
became a Herald-at-Arms. He died in lqovember, r632, and w buried at
St. Ch's. A hiS. llection of the Arms the Bails, illuminated by him,
and ntinued by other hands, w presented to the School library in 8 by
Jeph Baes, his son-in-law, who describes Robert Owen as "authored by the
Court bIarshaii of England, a deputy Herald for Saiop and several other adjacent
a " Paid to John Prowde for a house and othe lands and tenemen for the free
school 2o."Extmct from Cooration Aounts in lakeway IS5.
" 1576. Sept 2z. Rer Birrington. gen. s.h. Tho. B. gent. late aldean
deced, gants to vid Lloyd John Shele d o others (whereof Richard Owen,
jun', mercer, one) totum illud mau' messuagin' quondam voc' Shotten phce et
unum voc' ie Grammar Schole howse in quadam venele' voc' Rotten lane prope le
Castle te."lakeway BISS.
A painful incident illustrative of the system of "tabling" ys with residents
in the town is recorded ia the Taylor 2IS. under the yr 59o. "This yeare
and the 4 t of hIay there w a young scholler beinge about XII. or thretteen
yres owld being burdid at mter hamons in Salop hangid himsellffe in the
chamber where he did lye beinge a Walshe boye whose name was Reece ap John
beinge an Idle boy and hatid the scale. '
agtler is derived from pantlerius or annetats, a low tin word which
mns properly someone in charge of reM a keeper of tke 2ant. The word
THOMAS ASHTON 7
was something akin to that of sizars at Cambridge and
servitors at Oxford, and that they were "tabled" at the
expense of the parents of some of their wealthier school-
fellows, for whom in return they performed some menial
offices. In support of this view it should be remarked that
all the Pantlers whose names occur in the register were
"aliens." No mention is made of Pantlers after Ashton's
time, and, in all probability, the institution died out with him.
Allusion has already been made to Ashton's partiality for
dramatic performances, and his skill in arranging them.
With such predilections it is not surprising that he should
have made them a prominent feature of school life at
Shrewsbury. He left it a standing regulation of the school
that, on every Thursday, the highest form should, before
going to play, "declaim and play one Act of a Comedy";
and the celebrity of the Whitsuntide Plays at Shrevsbury
in Ashton's time is strong evidence of the pains he must
have taken in training the boys for their performance.
Every visitor to Shrevsbury has seen the beautiful grounds
bordering the Severn which are known as "The Quarry."
They must have presented a very different appearance in
the fifteenth century, before the trees were planted, when they
were nothing better than waste grounds outside the town
walls. Portions of the al fresco theatre, in which the repre-
sentations were given, are still to be seen.
Churchyard, the poet, seems to imply that the ground
had been holloxved out for the purpose; but it is probable
that its architects had an old quarry to work upon.
"There is a ground new made theator wyse,
Both deepe and hye in goodlie auncient guise :
Where well may sit ten thousand men at ease,
And yet the one the other not displease.
"A grounde most apt, and they that sit above
At once in vewe all this may see for love ;
At Aston's playe, who had behelde thys then
Might well have seen there twentie thousand men."
occurs three times in Shakespeare. "A good shallow young fellow: a' would
have made a good pantler: a' would have chiped bead well."--Falstaff in
Henry IV., II. ii. iv. See also lginte?s Tale, IV. iv., and Cymbehne, II. iii.
C
ID%VARD l'Hb2 .IXIH
CONSTITUTION AND CUSTOMS 33
look to the matter better, he would use his power under
the Queen's indenture to settle the ordinances without them,
accepting temporarily certain appointments which had been
offered him, in order to defray the cost of such an under-
taking. 1
Two years later (on May Ioth, I576) Ashton wrote
in a similar strain, reiterating his former complaints, and
telling the Bailiffs plainly that, sooner than allow the
business to be any longer deferred, he would "take a
new course," and "establish the thing more surely for
learning, though less beneficial for the town hereafter."
These last remonstrances seem to have had the desired
effect, and on May 22nd, I576 , Ashton was able to change
his tone towards the town authorities, and acknowledge
their readiness "to work all to the best." A fortnight later,
on June Ioth, we find him promising to go to Shrewsbury
after he had "spoken once again to her Majesty." In a year
from this time the ordinances were completed, and on
May isth , i577, Ashton sent the final draft to the Bailiffs
for their approval, telling them in his letter that he had
been obliged to entrust their last revision to "certain worship-
ful, wise, learned, discrete personages," whose "credytt and
judgment" would "wynne to the mater more maiestie
and procure it more credit than yt ever could have had
by" his "owne private doing." Finally, the ordinances were
accepted by an" Indenture Tripartite," dated February I Ith,
57, between the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield of the
first part, the Bailiffs and burgesses of the town of the
second part, and the Master and Fellows of St. John's
College, Cambridge, Mr. Ashton, late Head Master, and
Thomas Lawrence, Head Master, of the third part. And
by these ordinances the school was governed until, more
" Before God, if you look not better to it, I will alter all anew. My credit it
not so much lost but if it be thought I have done what I can, and by law
am barred to go any further, and, by that is done, some holes be espied to creep
in at, to make a spoil, I will work upon my credit what I can to prevent it,
whatsoever it cost me. It shall hut make me take such livings which now
are offered, to bear the charges thereof, and to give them over when I have done."
(See Appendix. )
D
CONSTITUTION AND CUSTOMS 39
eyther rewarde, briberie, or other covine fraude, or deceit
whatsoever. ''1
Provision was made by the ordinances for four school-
masters, with stipends of ,4o, ,3o, ,2o, and ,Io re-
spectively. The Head Master, it was stipulated, must be
a Master of Arts of two years' standing at least, "well able
to make a Latin Verse," and "learned in the Greeke Tongue."
The second master was also to be a Master of Arts
possessing similar qualifications to those required for the
Head Master. For the third master the degree of B.A. was
required. He was also expected to be able to make a Latin
verse. No qualifications are specified for the fourth master,
who was to take charge of the "Accidence School" for
young beginners, which the ordinances directed to be kept
under or near the grammar school.
None of the masters were alloxved during their term of
office to take any cure of preaching or ministry in the
church, or practise physic or any other art or profession,
whereby their service in the school should be hindered.
No provision was made in the ordinances for the election
of a new accidence master when a vacancy should occur in
the orifice. Roger Kent, the first accidence master, died on
November I2th, I588, and his place was left unfilled till
January 23rd, 158-, on which day Mr. Ralph Jones was
"chosen and elected" to succeed him by the Bailiffs and
Head Master. a The delay was doubtless occasioned by the
absence of any direction in the ordinances as to the mode
of election. Whenever one of the other masterships fell
vacant the remaining masters were to give notice of the
Similar regulations were made for the other school livings. Natives of Chit-
bury had the first preferential claim to its vicarage.
This regulation seems to have been almost ignored in the eighteenth century.
See school register.
4 Subsequently, in March, 159x , the Bailiffs and Head Master took the
opinion of Thomas Owen, Esq., the Recorder of Shrewsbury, Thomas Egerton,
Esq., Solicitor General, and Thomas Branthwaite, Esq., Reader of Lincoln's Inn,
on this and other matters in doubt, and their decision was that the accidence
master should be elected by the Bailiffs and Head Master, and that two of
the electors, of whom the Head Master was to be one, must agree in their choice.
( Hotchkis /kISS. )
CONSTITUTION AND CUST()MS 41
The scholars were summoned by a bell which was rung
a quarter of an hour before each school, and prayers were
said at the beginning of morning lesson and at the end of
evening lesson.
Immediately after prayers the whole school was called
over, the second and third masters taking their turn to call
the roll and say prayers every other week. Every Thursday
was a play day unless a holy day occurred in the week, and
no other play day was allowed except by the consent of the
Bailiffs and at the "earnest request and great entreaty of
some man of honour, or of great worship, credit, or authority. ''2
Before going to play on Thursday the scholars of the highest
form had to declaim and play one act of a comedy. The
only games permitted at the school were "shootinge in the
longe bowe," "chesse plaie," running, wrestling, and leaping.
Although the boys were allowed to play their games for
limited stakes, Id. a game and 4d. a match, all betting,
"openlie or covertlie," was forbidden; and offenders against
this regulation were to be "severely punyshed" or else
"expulsed for ever."
The school broke up three times in the year--at Christmas,
Easter, and Whitsuntide--the duration of the holidays at
these three seasons being respectively t8 days, I2 days, and
9 days.
To each master was allowed 3o days' absence during the
year, over and above the regular vacations; but only one
could be away at a time. Masters might also absent them-
selves from school, with the approval of the Bailiffs, if called
by urgent btisiness. 3
I In the school account-book an entry occurs in x579 of the payment of os. to
William Benett, parish clerk of St. Mary's, for ringing the bell called the school
bell, which in those days was one of St. Mary's church bells.
a Among the school records in the Town Hall there is a formal permission,
signed by the Bailiffs, for the boys to play on Tuesday afternoon, May 4th, 16x3.
It was granted at the earnest request of the worshipful Mr. Francis Gibbons,
and is addressed to Mr. Gittins. The Head Master, Mr. John Meighen, was
doubtless away.
* Provision was made in the ordinances for the case of a master "infected with
any lothesome, horrible, or contagious disease," or who might, by reason of
CONSTITUTION AND CUSTOMS 43
The scale of entrance fees was as follows 1 :--
A lord's son i o o
A knight's son 6 8
The heir apparent of a gentleman 3 4
Younger sons of gentlemen 2 6
Under these degrees and born outside Shrop-
shire 2 o
Under these degrees and born in Shropshire. i o
Sons of burgesses dwelling in the town or
liberties of Shrewsbury, or in the Abbey
Foregate (if of ability) o 4
Sons of other persons there inhabiting, o 8
Householders in Shrewsbury and its suburbs were ex-
pected to "cause and see" their children who xvere at
school, and all other boys xvho might be "tabled" in
their houses, to, "resorte to theire parishe churche everie
sondaie and holy-day to heare divine service at morning
and evening praier "; and monitors xvere appointed by the
Head Master for each church to note any scholars who
misbehaved themselves or were absent from service. In
case of a sermon being preached in any church, all scholars
were to "resorte thither to the hearinge thereof."
The school books in use were--
For Latin Prose :-
Tully, the Colnmentaries of Cesar, Sallust, Livy, and
two little books of Dialogues drawn out of Tully's
Offices and Lodovicus Vires by Mr. Thomas Ashton.
For Latin Verse :-
Virgil, Ovid, Horace, and Terence.
For Greek :-
Greek Grammar of Cleonarde, Greek Testament,
Isocrates, and Xenophon's Cyropcedia.
1 Sums of 3d., 2d., and yd. seem occasionally to have been accepted,
probably on the ground of poverty, for sons of burgesses. In 158o four boys
are credited with fees of 6d. These may have been sons of oppidans (not
burgesses) who were excused a portion of the 8d. fee on the same ground.
CONSTITUTION AND CUSTOMS 45
They had also the right, subject to the advice of the Bishop
of Lichfield and Coventry, of making statutes and ordinances
for its administration. To deprive them of all voice in the
appointment of masters, and of all share in framing the new
ordinances, would probably have had the effect of making the
Corporation of Shrewsbury hostile, rather than friendly to
the school, and Ashton was too much of a statesman to run
the risk of exasperating a body, the members of which were,
after all, the only persons available to share with the Head
Master the local government of the school. So, while securing
to the college the real choice of the masters, he left to the
Bailiffs the right to "nominate and appoint them," with the
power of exercising a "veto" in any particular case for
"reasonable cause." And, although the indenture of Eliza-
beth expressly reserved to Ashton the power of making
"rules, orders, and constitutions" for the application of the
Great Tithes of Chirbury and other endowments to "the
better maintenance of the Free Grammar School founded
by the late King Edward the Sixth," and other specified
objects--and there can be no doubt that the school ordinances
of 57[- were, in the main, Ashton's work--he steadily perse-
vered to the end in his fixed resolve to obtain for them the
full assent of the Corporation of Shrewsbury before they
were promulgated. Policy, too, rather than the interests of
education must have influenced Ashton when he gave to
Shrewsbury burgesses preferential claims for their sons, not
only to livings, scholarships, and fellowships, but even to
school masterships. For we find him, on one occasion,
irritated by the apathy shown by the Corporation in the
matter of the ordinances, threatening, in case of further
delay, to take a new course, and "establish the thing nore
surelie for learning, though less beneficial for the town here-
after. ''t Surely this is a conclusive proof that Ashton did
not consider local interests altogether conducive to the interests
of learning, and that, in favouring the former, he allowed
policy sometimes to sway his judgment.
In all these cases, however, we find some provision made
This threat is to be found in Ashton's letter of May xoth, 576.
46 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
in the ordinances to prevent undue abuse of the preferential
claims. Shrewsbury boys, whatever their rights of birth
might be, were not to be elected to school scholarships
and fellowships at Cambridge, unless they were found
"meet and apt for such preferment." Candidates for the
cures of Chirbury and St. Mary might be sons of burgesses
or natives of Chirbury; but, if the electors did not consider
them to be "fit men," they were to be at liberty to
appoint "any of like sufficiency," any clergyman, in fact,
who possessed the other statutable qualifications of education
at Shrewsbury School, and a degree at one of the uni-
versities. In the case of schoolmasterships, the proviso
that privileged candidates must be "thought worthy of the
place" enabled the college to prevent any serious injury
being done to the school by these preferential claims.
James Brooke, who was elected second master in 1627,
was not even a scholar of Shrewsbury. David Evans,
who was made third master at the same time, though
educated at the school, was neither the son of a burgess
nor a native of Shropshire. .And when the college had,
for the second time, to appoint a Head Master, the eminent
man who, after prolonged litigation between the Corporation
of Shrewsbury and St. John's College, ultimately received
the appointment, was neither the son of a burgess nor a
native of Shrewsbury.
On the whole, the form of government which .Ashton
instituted for Shrewsbury School seems to have been the
best available under the circumstances. It was essential
that the Bailiffs should have a share in it, both on account
of their position under the Charter of Edward VI., and also,
as the natural guardians of the various rights and privileges
it was thought best to give to the burgesses and other in-
habitants of the town. But the Bailiffs were changed year
by year, and it was important to associate with them, in
the government of the school, someone who occupied a
more permanent position. The best man for such a purpose
would undoubtedly be the Head Master. His interest in
the prosperity of the school would naturally be great;
CONSTITUTION AND CUSTOMS 47
presumably, he would be unaffected by local intrigues;
his influence in the town, too, would be increased by the
co-ordinate authority with the Bailiffs in the government
of the school, which was given to him by the ordinances.
It seems also to have been an act of the soundest policy
in those days to confide the choice of new masters to the
governing body of a great college, fettered though the
electors might be by the preferential claims they were bound
to consider. Ashton's knowledge of the world and business
experience again had taught him the strong probability, as
the surplus revenues of the school gradually accumulated,
that zealous members of the Corporation would look with
greedy eye upon the "Stock Remanent," and desire to
appropriate it, not for their own private advantage, but in
order to redeem tolls, to pension "poor artificers," to build
almshouses, or to promote some other objects, interesting to
the burgesses, but of no advantage to the school. Some
such ideas, indeed, were afloat at Shrewsbury even before
the ordinances were framed, as is sufficiently shown by
Ashton's correspondence with the Bailiffs. So the College
of St. John was made the supreme guardian of the school
chest. It is interesting to know that Ashton, before the
grant of Elizabeth, xvhich secured for him the right to frame
ordinances, was made, had not only seen how important
it was for the future interests of the school that he should
have this power, but had written to the Bailiffs urging
them to give it him of their own accord. The letter in
question, which exists among the town records, but escaped
the notice of Hotchkis and Blakeway, will be found in the
Appendix.
5 2 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
an incidental proof, and a strong one, that Lawrence did not
succeed to the head-mastership before 57
Richard Atkys still taught in the third school. The
staff of masters as thus described continued unchanged in
Lawrence's time. The Head Master seems, though not in
Holy Orders, to have been a man of strong religious
feelings. His letters have a religious tone, and Hotchkis
quotes a petition which he and his colleague, John Baker,
presented in the year 1579-80 to the Bailiffs of Shrewsbury,
that they might be allowed the use of "the Stone House"
on Sundays and holy days, in order that the boys and
themselves might assemble there for religious purposes. The
two masters represented that, although they were laymen,
they could read prayers there, and all the masters could be
present, and that they were too many for one church.
Before Lawrence ceased to be Head Master a chapel in St.
Mary's Church was " repaired and beautified" at the school-
cost, in order that the masters and scholars might assemble
there on Sundays, holy-days, and half-holidays for divine
service and religious instruction.*
A curious incident, in which Lawrence and Atkys were
concerned, is related in Strype's Life of IVhitgift, and the
story is worth repeating. On January I Sth , I578, Thomas
Lawrence and Richard Atkys appeared before Mr. George
Bromley, Recorder of Shrewsbury, at Eyton, near Wroxeter,
and "uttered their knowledge" of certain disorders com-
mitted by Lady Throgmorton and others in the house of Mr.
John Edwards, of Thirsk, in Denbighshire. Mass had been
said there by a priest from "beyond the seas," who had also
given to those who were present "pardon beads" and images
a There is no trace of John Baker's name in Cole's List of Cambridge Graduates
in the tfarleian 211SS. A student of Christ Church, Oxford, of his names,
graduated B.A. in I57I and M.A. in i575. But he undoubtedly went to Christ
Church from Westminster. It is possible, though not probable, that the Shrews-
bury boy may have gone to Westminster some time between i562 and I568.
.o Lawrence was churchwarden of St. Mary's, Shrewsbury, in i579.
s See tfotcfikis MSS. Ashton had previously rented the Stone House for some
unknown use. A house bearing this name still exists near St. Mary's Church.
* See ttotckis 21SS. The letter from St. John's College, authorizing the
necessary expenditure, bears date September 24th, I52.
54 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
The liking Lawrence had for pageants, which seem to
have occupied as prominent a position in his time as
dramatic performances in the days of his predecessor, tends
rather to make it probable that his objections to Papists
and outlandisl priests were more political than puritanical.
The most elaborate of these displays took place in May,
158. Sir Henry Sidney had arrived in Shrewsbury the
previous month in order to celebrate the Feast of St. George
with special solemnity and splendour. The festivities com-
menced on April 22nd, St. George's Eve, and lasted about
a fortnight, during the whole of which time Sir Henry kept
open house at the Council House.
On St. George's Day the Lord President attended divine
service at St- Chad's Church, proceeding thither in state,
arrayed in his robes as a Knight of the Garter, and followed
by the Bailiffs and Aldermen in their scarlet gowns, together
with the members of the various trade companies of the
town "in their best liveries. ''1 On May Ist the school-
masters took their part in the entertainment of Sir Henry.
After supper on that day they seem to have gone in
procession to the Council House, each at the head of a
deputation of boys belonging to his school, who bare with
them "a brave and costly bancket" of forty dishes. As each
group of ten boys went forward and presented its ten dishes,
the boys were introduced by a S/zezver - in the following
lines :--
f
These are all of Imance lore
Larrance,
1.
Acompt hys hart above hys store.
f
These x are all of backer's bande
backer,
2-
"L Goode wyll not welthe now to be scande.
Thesse x axe all in Atkys chaxdge
Atkys, 3- "[ Hys gifts are small hys good wyll lardge.
f Thesse x coom last and are the least
kennt, 4- "[ Yett kennt's good wyll ys with the beast."
extracts are given by Owen and Blakeway. The whole subject, including
Browne's supposed connection with the Duke of Norfolk's affair, is discussed
in a paper in the Shropshire Arcbmological Society's Transactions for I893.
See Taylar2grs.
- The Shewer was in old days the title given to an oflSeer who set and removed
the dishes at a feast: and brought water for the hands of the guests.
PHILIP AND ROBERT SIDNE$"
6o SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
son of Mr. Roger Harries, draper, of Shrewsbury, who was
Bailiff in 15-8-79, was a lawyer of some eminence, who was
made a master in chancery in I583, and a serjeant-at-law
in 16o4- He represented Shrewsbury in the Parliament of
I 386, and was made a baronet in 1622. In 161- he acquired
the estates of Onslow and Bore.at-ton by purchase from
Edward Onslow, Esq., and in 1619 was Sheriff of Shrophire-
Some of his neighbours, Sir Francis Kinaston apparently
taking the lead, formally protested against Sir Thomas's
elevation to the baronetcy as a disgrace to them, and
prevailed on Captain Simon Leake" who had been employed
by the Harris family to prepare the necessary certificates of
descent, and had been treated by them with great liberality,
to allege in a petition to the King that the certificates
had been unduly obtained. After much delay the Earl
Marshal's "Court of Chival D-" was revived to try the case,
but ultimately the matter came before the Court of Chancery,
where it was decided in favour of Sir Thomas.
Nathaniel Tarporley, x a mathematician and astronomer of
some note, ** as a native of Shrewsbury, and entered school in
15-. After graduating at Christ Church, Oxford, in I583,
he went abroad and acted for two or three years as
amanuensis to Francis Vieta of Fontenay, the celebrated
mathematician. Tarporley took his M.A. degree in I59 I,
and went into Holy Orders. In 6o- he **-as appointed
Rector of Salwarp, Shropshire, but he seems to have resided
almost entirely at Sion College. London, for the sake of his
mathematical studies. On November z-t.h, 16o5, Tarporley
was examined before the council on a charge of casting the
King's Nativi%- for a Mrs. Heriot. Henry Percy, Earl of
Northumberland, gave him a pension "in consideration of
his singaalar knowledge." Tarporley died at Sion College in
I63 -, and was buried in St- Alphege's Church_ He left his
books and instruments to Sion College.
Another Shropshire boy, who was at Shrewsbury in
,58x, a plelx ill. of Szlop. ged x7- He was o/" Brasaose College whex, he
THOMAS LAWRENCE 65
Sir Thomas Sidney, who entered Shrewsbury School in
I582-83 while Lawrence was still Head Master, though but
a short time before his resignation, was the third son of Sir
Henry. He was born in Ireland on March 25th, I569, and
Cecil was his godfather. The Lord Deputy, writing to
Cecil on June 3oth, i569, thanks him for "helping to
make a Christian" of his son. Little is known of Thomas
Sidney in after life beyond the facts that he accompanied
Leicester to Flushing in December, 585, took part in the
fatal affray at Zutphen, and was present at his brother
Philip's death, as well as at his state funeral in London.
One incident is recorded of his Shrewsbury life. On May
25th, I584, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, accompanied
by his stepson Robert, Earl of Essex, and Lord North,
visited Shrewsbury and received something like a state
reception. Thomas Sidney was one of the schoolboy
orators on this occasion, and seems to have discharged his
duty gracefully and modestly. 1
On the whole Shrewsbury School does not show so
distinctly an aristocratic character under Lawrence as in
Ashton's time, and his scholars, as a rule, seem to have
come mainly from Shropshire and North Wales. 2 But
Lawrence was well entitled to feel proud, at the close of
his career, that in the course of twelve years, through "their
diligence in learning," and his "toil in teaching," he had been
able to send over one hundred scholars to Oxford and Cam-
bridge. And "a greate number" of these, he confidently
asserted in his farewell letter to the Bailiffs, were "as likelye
men to prove good members in the churche of God, and
worthye instruments in a Christian commonwealthe as any
whosoever or whatsoever." Many of these students can be
traced, and not a few of them fulfilled Lawrence's anticipations.
Thomas Sidney's name was entered at school some time between November
xTth, x582, and July gth, 583. The account of Lord Leicester's visit is given in
the Taylor MS. (See also BOURNg'S Life of Sir Philip Sidney, and the Sidney
State Papers.)
* Sir Richard Chitwood, of Chitwood, Bucks, and Sir Edward Francis, who
came from Derbyshire, were at Shrewsbury under Lawrence, but they are rather
exceptional cases.
F
68 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
the same time he felt himself "so wearied with the work,
so tired with the toil, and overwhelmed with the care of
the school," that he could not and would not continue
to discharge the duties of Head Master. He expressed,
however, his willingness to accept from his successor,
whoever that might be, one year's stipend, if he, "of his
own good nature," or at the Bailiffs' persuasion, should be
willing to give it to him. Lawrence's farewell letter is dated
July Igth. 1 In accordance with the ordinances the Bailiffs
proposed to promote the second master, Mr. John Baker,
of whose wisdom, learning, honesty, and experience Lawrence
had spoken in high terms. But John Baker was too modest
to accept the post of Head Master, and urged that the
college should be asked to elect "a more sufficient person"
than he held himself to be. Accordingly, on August Ist,
the Bailiffs wrote to the master and seniors of St. John's
College to signify the vacancy3 There can be no doubt
that the school enjoyed a very high reputation at the time
of Lawrence's resignation. Lawrence himself describes it as
"a nursery of learning, an ornament to the town, and a
singular benefit to the whole commonwealth"; the Bailiffs
call it "the special ornament of the town and treasure of
the country adjoining," and tell the authorities of St. John's
College that "all gentlemen in these parts are very desirous
to have their children here trained up in learning." And the
college joins in the chorus of praise?
But Camden's testimony and that of the Dean and Chapter
of Hereford, to which reference has already been made, are
of greater weight, as coming from persons unconnected with
Shrewsbury or its school. Lawrence was comparatively a
young man when he resigned, and he lived for many years
afterwards in retirement at Wem. It is to be feared that
in his old age he fell into poverty. An order appears in
the Corporation Accounts for I6o2, that "Master Thomas
Lawrence, sometime Head Schoolmaster, being grown poor,
The letter is given both by Hotchkis and Blakeway.
See History of St. Jon's College.
The college answer is dated September 2th, I585.
THOMAS LAWRENCE 7
"I believe in God, &c.
"0 blessed Father, we give Thee most humble and hearty thanks for
Thy manifold blessings both spiritual and temporal which Thou hast
plentifully bestowed upon us from the beginning of our lives to this
present day: But namely that Thou hast vouchsafed mercifully to
preserve us this night last past from all the maliciousness of our ghostly
enemy the devil. And now, blessed Father, as the night with its dark-
ness is past, and the day with its light is come, and goeth on to the joy
of all living creatures : so likewise now cause the spiritual light of the
glorious Gospel of Christ, which is the lively image of Thee our God,
to shine in our hearts, that we may behold Thee, our Heavenly Father,
in Him, and that we Thy children, through this blessed light, being
delivered from all dark ignorance and heavy sluggishness, may be made
apt vessels for Thy Holy Spirit to dwell in. So plant in us, good Father,
the fear of Thy Name and knowledge of Thy Will, that we, Thy poor
children, acknowledging ourselves to be miserable sinners, may neverthe-
less be made pure and holy by the righteousness and death of Thy only
and natural Son Jesus Christ our eldest brother. And grant that we so
proceed in good learning and manners, that, as we daily grow through
Thy goodness in years and stature of body, so we may daily increase
both in wisdom and favour before Thee our heavenly Father and before
men, through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom, with Thee and the Holy
Spirit, be all honour and glory both now and for ever. Amen.
c, Our Father, which art in heaven, &c.
"The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, &c.
"EVENING PRAYER.
" I believe in God the Father, &c.
"0 most merciful Father and gracious God, without whose help all
those studies, and all those things which we have learned this day, are
but vain; bless, we beseech Thee, the labours of our Teachers, and
the endeavours of us Thy tender children, and so plentifully water the
same with the dew of Thy heavenly Grace, that, as we daily grow
through Thy goodness in godliness, knowledge and understanding, at
the last we may become fit instruments for Thy Church and Common-
wealth. Give us Grace, 0 Heavenly Father, to use all those studies
and all those things which we have learned this day in Thy fear, to
Thy honour and glory, the comfort of our Parents and the edifying of
our Brethren. Forgive us, 0 Lord, all the faults which we have this
day committed either by negligence, slothfulness, or any other way.
And endue us daily more and more with godliness, knowledge and
understanding, and inflame our minds with earnestness and cheerfulness
JOHN MEIGHEN 95
details xvhich he gives. He says that Piers Griffith sailed
from Beaumaris on April 2oth, I588, and reached Plymouth
on May 4th. On his arrival Sir Henry Cavendish sent him
an invitation to dine on board Sir Francis Drake's ship, where
he was honourably received and highly commended for loyalty
and public spirit. There is a traditional story that Piers
Griffith accompanied Drake and Raleigh in their cruise on
the Spanish coast, and that he subsequently engaged in
buccaneering practices at a time when England and Spain
were at peace. Proceedings are said to have been taken
against him at the request of Count Gondomar, the Spanish
Ambassador, and such heavy fines inflicted upon him as to
compel the mortgage, and afterwards the sale, of his Penrhyn
estate, which was bought in I616 by Dr. John Williams, Lord
Keeper of the Great Seal. Doubts have been expressed as
to the truth of this story, owing to the absence of any re-
cords of Gondomar's complaints. Piers Griffith was buried
in Westminster Abbey on August 2Ist, I628. William
Griffith, Serjeant-at-Arms to the King, who in his will had
expressed a desire to be buried near his kinsman, Piers
Griffith, was probably his brother, who entered Shrewsbury
School on the same day as himself.
Mention has been made of the erection of the library,
gallery, chapel, and country school-house. The last grant of
which we can find any mention that refers to any of these
was made in t623.
In the course of the same year an order was issued by
the Corporation that a conference should take place with
the Head Master as to the advisability of taking down
the old school-house, which is described as built of wood,
and building it up anew, with freestone or otherwise,
as might be determined at the conference. The old building
no doubt was one of those black and white half-timbered
houses, of which many fine specimens are still to be seen in
Shrewsbury. The result of the conference was that it was
determined to use the same kind of freestone as that which
had already been employed for the chapel and library. But
the work does not seem to have been commenced till 627,
ARCHWAY AT THE OLD SCHO]L BUILDINGS
DIFFERENCES WITH BAILIFFS 99
other Bailiff refused his assent, insisting on the election being
referred to the general voices of the burgesses of the town.
In a letter, purporting to he written in behalf of the Bailiffs
and Head Master to the Lord Chancellor, dated February
-Sth, I58, it is absolutely asserted in support of this view
that David Longdon was placed in his office by the Bailiffs
and burgesses, the fact being that he was originally appointed
by Ashton, and that his place was subsequently specially
confirmed to him in the ordinances.
This letter the Lord Chancellor answered on March 7th,
58. He evidently had no doubt that the proposal to elect
the School Bailiff by the general voices of the burgesses was
contrary to the spirit of the ordinances. It was an inno-
vation, he said, which he could not like. He added that the
opinion of learned counsel had already been taken on the
matter, and that they were clear that the election should
be made by the Bailiffs and Head Master. He strongly
advised the Bailiffs to "leave off these questions tending
to sedition and contention within the town," and to admit
Coyde to the place "without putting him to further trouble
or charge."
Coyde was ultimately elected on June 7th, 587, the
delay, after the Lord Chancellor had so strongly expressed
his opinion, being probably due to a pressing letter which
arrived soon after from the Council, advocating the claims
of Thomas Browne, draper, who had lived long in Shrews-
bury, and had, "whilst God gave him the means, relieved
a great multitude of poor persons in setting them on work by
the trade he then used of clothing." 2 The advocates of the
burgesses' claims, though giving vay at the time, were not
completely satisfied, and recourse was had once more in
March, I59, to counsels' opinion, 3 which, when given, was,
as might he expected, completely in accordance with that
of Lord Chancellor Bromley. Mr. George Higgons and Mr.
This letter, which is dated March Sth, 586, and signed by Lord Burghley,
Lord Cobham, and Sir Francis Walsingham, is given in the Appendix.
s This is the same Thomas Browne of whom mention is made in previous
chapters.
See Hotckis MSS.
DIFFERENCES WITH BAILIFFS 9
his room." If it were "contentious" on Meighen's part to
resist the Bailiffs when they set the school ordinances at
defiance, then he was, in this respect, correctly described by
the Commissioners. But no one can examine the details
of his various contests with the Bailiffs without coming
to the conclusion that they all seem to have been due to
a sincere desire on his part "to defend from violation the
ordinances" and revenue of the school, and that in giving
this account of his career Mr. Edward Howes only does
him justice. Much of the remainder of the Commissioners'
Report is devoted to Ralph Gittins. The indefinite charges
of popish tendencies which had been made against him
before the Archbishop, and which had since, after careful
investigation, been pronounced by the Bishop of Lichfield
and Coventry, who vas not only his diocesan, but the Visitor
of the school, to be "either surmises or malicious aspersions
without good ground," are reproduced. Gittins is declared
to have been " accounted for many years a dangerous,
suspected papist," but the only evidence offered in support
of these charges besides suspicion is that he "did not only
harbour one Leach at such times as he preached many
points of popery within the town, who has since gone
beyond the seas, and there wrote books against the State
of this Realm, but also countenanced and received other
persons ill-affected to religion and dangerous to the estate."
Great stress is laid on the facts that the Archbishop sus-
pended Gittins from teaching, and imprisoned him in the
Gate House at Westminster until he should find sureties that
he would not, like his friend Humphrey Leach, "go beyond
the seas." But from the beginning to the end of the Report
there cannot be found the slightest allusion to the careful
investigation which Bishop Neile had subsequently made
into the whole business, or to his complete exoneration of
Ralph Gittins.
The story of the riot at the school-house, too, which we
must bear in mind had taken place five years before, is told
in the language of men so confident or so bitter that they
are careless not only of consistency, but of the smallest
DIFFERENCES WITH BAILIFFS
against Gittins to the effect that, before the death of Mr.
John Baker, he had " carried himself negligently" in "the
third room," is adopted by the Commissioners. But, in the
absence of any evidence to justify the statement, Meighen's
emphatic testimony to his "skill and diligence," given at the
time of Mr. John Baker's death, is conclusive against the
gossiping tales of hostile outsiders six years later) Finally,
the Commissioners report that they do not consider Gittins
"a fit person to teach or supply any room in the school," and
recommend that he should be removed from the second-
mastership, and that some worthy man should be elected in
his room. Of the charges against Jones and Harris, the
Bailiffs of 161o-6i, which formed the subject matter of
Meighen's Chancery suit, the Commissioners make short
work. They justify the Bailiffs in breaking open the school-
chest in order to take out CIo for the payment of Rowland
Jenks's expenses to Cambridge and back, on the ground that
Meighen had several times refused them the use of his key,
completely ignoring his plea that the message to Cambridge
about the election of a new third master need not have cost
anything. But Meighen had made the much more serious
charge that Jones and Harris had taken advantage of the
school-chest lying "open to their disposition " during the
rest of their year of office, after they had once forced his lock,
to take therefrom not only "divers deeds, evidences, and
accounts," but "divers sums of money," part of which they
had expended in prosecuting a suit against him and the
other masters. It is recorded in the school account-book by
the Bailiffs who succeeded Messrs. Jones and Harris that the
money which they had taken amounted to C3o, and that
they had rendered no account whatever of the way in which
i It is only fair to state that among the Corporation orders which have been
preserved is one belonging to the year I6o7-I6o8, which directs some unnamed
master to be admonished for absence and neglect of duty, and that this order
may have been issued during the few weeks which elapsed between the admission
of the Bailiffs to office and the death of Mr. John Baker on November 27th.
But it seems far more likely that it was issued after Mr. Gittins's promotion had
been proposed with the view of damaging his claims. There is no proof, however,
that this order applied to Gittins at all.
SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
been disappointed too in not obtaining the office of catechist
when the Rev. John Foorde died in I628. The Bishop
recommended him, and the Corporation approved; but
Meighen seems to have objected to his appointment. 1
Ralph Gittins returned to his old post under somewhat
unfavourable circumstances. Hardly had he resumed work
when an outbreak of sickness in the town compelled the
migration of the school to the new country school-house
at Grinshill. This happened apparently soon after the
summer holidays, and the masters and boys were not able
to return to Shrewsbury for many months. Of the school
doings during the stay at Grinshill we know nothing, except
that Meighen was prevented by sickness from attending the
November audit in the Exchequer, and that he was re-
presented there by Thomas Hayward, his son-in-law. 3
It is probable that when the Bailiffs pressed the college
so strongly to appoint Ralph Gittins once more to be second
master they had in view his future promotion to the higher
room. Early- in I632 Meighen permanently ceased to do
any teaching in school. 4 His work was taken at first by
temporary substitutes, and afterwards by Gittins. But
Meighen retained in his own hands the general management
and supervision of the school. But two years' experience
convinced the leading members of the Corporation that this
system of divided responsibility did not work well. They
his successor. There is no doubt that they had Gittins in their minds at the time.
They had already written to the Lord Keeper in his behalf. (Hist. of St.
John's College, vol. i. p. 500.)
See Hotchkis AI'SS.
* The plague was still raging in Shrewsbury in x632. (OwwN and B.Aw,Y.)
3 See school register. It is noted in the school account-book that Meighen
borrowed a bell from St. Chad's to take to Grinshi11.
* In the case submitted by the Bailiffs in July, x635, to the Judges of Assize
and the Recorder of Shrewsbury, it is stated that Meighen had then "ceased to
exercise the functions of his office for more than three years by reason of his great
age" (Add. MSS. Brit. Mus., 2,o4), so he must probably have resumed work
again after he "sequestered himself from teaching" in t63.
3 A student named Robert 13enney, who was admitted at Gonville and Caius
College in 634, is described in the college register as educated at Shrewsbury
School under Mr. Simmons, and there are three or four students entered at St.
John's College, Cambridge, in 1635, whose education is attributed to Mr. Gittins.
THOMAS CHALONER I4!
executors of the late Robert Betton, the senior alderman
at the time of the loan, who, with Richard Berrington, the
senior member of the Town Council, also now dead, had
chae of the four keys by which the school-chest was un-
locked, for misappropriation of the school funds. On
December 24th, I646, the plaintiffs' bill, together with the
defendants' answers and the plaintiffs' exceptions to the
same, came before the Master of the Rolls, who ordered that
Mr. Edward Rich, one of the Masters of the Court, should
examine the various documents, and that, if he did not
consider the answers sufficient, the defendants should be
ordered to make more perfect answers. The next time we
hear of these legal proceedings is on July 23rd , I65o, on
which day a petition was presented by the Corporation to
the Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal, praying for
sequestration against the estate of Richard Gibbons, unless
he should duly answer the plaintiffs' bill. The Court ordered
that sequestration should issue in compliance with the peti-
tioners' request, unless Richard Gibbons or his clerk in court
should, after due notice given them, show cause to the
contrary. Thomas Chaloner had, it appears, put in a more
perfect answer to the Corporation bill of complaint, in com-
pliance with the order made by the Master of the Rolls on
December 24th, I646; but no second answer had been
furnished by Richard Gibbons.
On October 4th, I65o, Mr. Dolbye appeared as counsel for
Richard Gibbons, and showed by affidavits that he had of
late years suffered imprisonment in Shropshire, and that
"since he came forth of prison he had been constrained
to absent himself from his place of abode," and that he
was " very much impoverished " as well as "very aged and
infirm." The Court thereupon ordered that the conditional
order of sequestration should be discharged. 1 Subsequently
the High Court of Chancery appointed Commissioners 2 to
Richard Gibbons, the "old humorous fellow," who was offered knighthood
by the King before he left Shrewsbury, had been for many years a member of the
Corporation, and was Bailiff of the town in 69-2o, and again during part of the
year 628-29.
The Commissioners were Richard Smith, John Hughes (?), William Cheshire,
and Richald Taylor, gentlemen.
I66 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
or other, Chaloner got discontented with his life at Stone; 1
and soon after June, I65O, he gave up school work altogether,
and engaged himself as domestic tutor in the family of Sir
John Puleston, of Emrall, one of whose sons appears to have
been at school under him, both at Overton and Stone. Here
he continued three years, and they do not seem to have been
happy years. His pupils he describes as "boys of very small
ability." Then he did not like the subordinate position which
he held ; he had been so long a ruler that any form of servi-
tude had become utterly distasteful to him. His thoughts
naturally turned much at this time to the old, happy days at
Shrewsbury, to the friends with whom he had so long been
on intimate terms, and to the pleasant companions whom he
used to meet at "the Sextry." It was while living at Emrall
that Chaloner penned those lists of his old friends, of which
mention has been made on earlier pages. Under these cir-
cumstances it is not surprising that, when the head-master-
ship of Ruthin School was offered him in August, I653, he
gladly welcomed the prospect of a return to the more inde-
pendent position of a schoolmaster. But his mind was a little
troubled by the laughing comments of his enemies, as well as
by the friendly hints of those more favourably disposed
towards him, that these frequent changes of his betokened
a roving disposition. His friends, he tells us, were beginning
to speak of him as "lapis mobilis, cui nullus adhmreat
muscus." His customary buoyant spirits, however, had quite
returned when he entered on his new career on August 19th,
1653, at Ruthin. He makes jocular notes on the names
of the boys as he enters them on his list, bracketing together
three brothers as "a three-branched Green," occasionally
entering a boy as a "Petty," a name, by-the-by, which used
to be given, and probably is still given, to boys in the
lowest form at Charterhouse, and describing a Lloyd of
F'enecke as "one more country boor." In one place he
records with evident satisfaction that some boys had brought
him a gold Jacobus, and others a "Charles on horseback,"
His wife seems to have died about this time, and her loss had probably some-
thing to do with his change of life.
CHALONER'S WANDERINGS x69
humour, the King declared that he saw a star in the heavens,
it being broad daylight at the time.
Shortly afterwards one of his courtiers, who was standing
near, moved by the continued assertions of the King, declared
that he also saw the star. "See, there it is," he said, "how
brightly it shines!" Others then joined in, and declared
that they also could see the star. But there was one by-
stander who did not scruple to deny that the star was visible
to him. " I have," he said," no such far-seeing eyes ; I see no
star." " Sayest thou so ?" answered the King. "Thou art an
honest and a truthful man, but these others are ready to
affirm or deny anything to win favour."
Then the preacher went on to apply his story. " I do not
deny, for my part, that a new reformation star has risen in
our ecclesiastical hemisphere. But if anyone from blindness
or dimness of sight should fail to see this star, and should
ingenuously acknowledge that he could not see it, he would
be, in my opinion, a far honester man than those time-servers
who, in full sail for promotion, exclaim impudently enough,
'The star, the star!' when perhaps they can see nothing of
the kind."
A journey to London, and an interview with the Lord
Protector, led to the Ruthin question being left entirely to
the discretion of the Major-General of the district. Uncertain
as to what might ultimately be his fate, his mind swayed
alternately by hopes and fears, Chaloner set off homeward,
and had nearly reached Whitchurch, in Shropshire, when an
accident happened to him, which he describes in an amusing
way.
His mare stumbled, and having thrown him in the mud,
fell with her whole weight upon the lower part of his
body. He was able, he says, "to cry aloud and bewail
his sins," but not to free himself "from the jaws of so
imminent a death," and it would have been all over with
him had not a maidservant opportunely come to his aid.
How she helped him he does not mention, but the danger
from which he escaped was (in his own mind at least) con-
siderable ; for he notes in his diary that his "daily thanks are
CHALONER'S WANDERINGS I7I
turned to his old assistant at Overton, David Peirce, with
whom lVlrs. Chaloner had quarrelled, and to whom he had
generously advanced money for his support at Cambridge.
Peirce had subsequently obtained employment in another
school, and Chaloner hoped that he might be able to repay
a portion of the sum which he had advanced to him. But,
on inquiry, it turned out that Peirce had become subject to
attacks of "melancholia," and was likely in consequence to
lose his mastership, his sole means of subsistence. So no
help was to be looked for from that quarter. And vhen the
new school at Newport was opened prosperity did not come
to it all at once. Forty-five boys, it is true, had followed
their old master from Ruthin ; but nev pupils xvere slow to
appear, and some sixteen months seem to have elapsed
before the school could be said to have firmly established
its reputation. By that time the numbers had sufficiently
increased to justify the appointment of a second master;
and the post was offered by Mr. Adams to the Head
Master's eldest son Thomas, who had graduated at Cam-
bridge some years before, and had been for three years
Head Master of a school near Malpas, in Cheshire, probably
Nantwich. x
A Newport school list, dated June 26th, I658, and con-
taining as many as 242 names, has been preserved. It is in
the handxvriting of the younger Chaloner, who has prefixed
to it a brief account of his ovn appointment to the second-
mastership, in which account his father and chief is spoken
of in a somewhat patronizing fashion. In December of the
same year Chaloner sent tvo complimentary addresses in
Latin verse to Mr. William Dugard, Head Master of Mer-
chant Tailors' School, who had recently published a Lexicon
of the Greek Testament for the use of schoolboys. Both
addresses are given in an edition of the book printed in I66o.
Whatever may be their poetic merits in the eyes of modern
a Thomas Chaloner, jun., describes the school of which he had been master for
three years as Schola Vico-Malbanensis. This school was probably Nantwich, as
boys from Nantwich School, admitted at St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1656
and 1659, are said to have been educated under Mr. Chaloner.
t7 2 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
Salopians, they are worth preserving as illustrations of the
kindly humour of their author.
"Plostello innixus, paulatim, parvulus infans
Assuescit teneris terram contingere plantis,
Brachiaque adstantis fastidit nora puellm :
ILia videns, ridensque simul, mihi gratulor, inquit
Taedia defessis tandem excussisse lacertis,
Canitiem septena mihi jam lustra tulerunt
Dictanti pueris lingum primordia Grmc,
Ah quoties duri post tmdia longa laboris
Hora fatigatum dimisit quinta Magistrum.
Tu plaustrum, Dugarde, scholis puerile parsti,
Cui tarda innitens Tironum infantia, post hac
Figere sponte suS. gressus, et poplite moto
Alternate pedes per Grmca volumina possit
Neglectus gaudetque tuens meditamina Doctor,
Ergo tibi grates debemus, quotquot ubivis
Ingenuam facile pubem moderamur haben :
Nemo magis, quam cujus adhuc vexata procellis
Innumeris, perpessa minas cmlique marisque,
Tandem tuta, Novo consedit cymbula Por/u.
II.
" Invit quotquot lucem videre Minervi
Et piper et scombros plurima scripta timent.
At tua in mternos industria parturit usus
Quantum vis serm posteritatis opus.
Cui frustrg quisquam curas adhibere secundas
Spondeat, aut plagio, vendicet ista suo
Hinc prmceptori repetendm nausea crambes
Tollitur ;hinc stimulum Tiro laboris habet.
Auglnina quam celeri mild parvus crescat alumnus
Cui sic prmmansos indis in ora cibos."
Here, in this IVew Port of which Chaloner speaks, which
was not destined, however, to be his final haven of rest, we
must leave him for a time, while we return to Shrewsbury
School, which had remained meanwhile in the charge of Mr.
Pigott, the gentleman whom the puritan authorities had, with
a calm indifference to the school ordinances, appointed Head
Master after Chaloner's expulsion.
EDWARD THE SIXTH
CHAPTER IX.
Chaioner's Return to Shrewsbury--His Death--Andrew Taylor, t.A.,
Head Master, 664-687--Richard Lloyd, t, Head blaster, I687--1723.
FTERhMr. Pigott was released from prison it is probable
that e resumed his duties at the schools, for the names
of several new boys were entered during the month of
August, and it was not till September 8th that the second
master, Mr. Edward Cotton, "supplied the Head School-
master's place. '' While Mr. Cotton remained in charge of
the school twenty-five new boys were admitted and nineteen
more were promoted from the accidence school to the third
school. When once the Commissioners had decided against
Mr. Pigott, all parties in the town seem to have concurred
in the wish that Chaloner should return to his old duties at
Shrewsbury. But he hesitated for a long time before he con-
sented to do so, and it cannot be doubted that his hesitation
was genuine. His exile had been long, many of the old
faces which had been so familiar to him were gone, and
Newport Grammar School had flourished greatly under his
auspices. And so six months passed by before Chaloner
made up his mind to return to his old home. And even
then it was under the influence of pressure, and not very
kindly pressure, that he decided to move. There were those
at Newport whose interest it was that he should leave
the place. Writing on March 4th, I66:]-, Chaloner expressly
ascribes his determination to leave Newport to the "im-
perious and crafty" behaviour of his "under master," with
whom, he says, he could no longer bear to associate. Poor
Chaloner! His wife would quarrel with his assistant
See school register.
I94 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
He did not, hovever, remain long at Shrewsbury School,
for we find that, towards the end of I672 , the second-master-
ship became again vacant. Once more the Corporation
determined to assert its claim to appoint the Shrewsbury
masters. On receiving a notification of the vacancy the
master and seniors of St. John's College proceeded to elect
a new second master. Their choice fell on the Rev. Richard
Andrews, M.A., a member of their own college, a former
scholar of Shrewsbury School, and the son of a burgess.
But the Corporation refused to acknowledge the validity of
the appointment, and at once installed in the second master's
room the Rev. Oswald Smith, B.A., of Christ Church, Oxford,
who had only recently taken his degree. The Mayor, no
doubt, had the legal right to refuse his assent to the college
nomination for "reasonable cause." But to install another
gentleman, without asking the college for a fresh nomina-
tion, was an act of manifest illegality. Litigation naturally
ensued, and the contest was carried on for several years,
much to the detriment of the interests of the school; as,
upon these occasions, the Corporation almost invariably had
recourse to the school-chest for its law expenses. Chancery
proceedings commenced in I675, the matter having been
referred to the Lord Keeper by Order in Council dated
December I6th, I674.
Hotchkis has preserved some interesting letters written
from London by Mr. Francis Gibbons, who was acting as
solicitor for the Corporation, to Mr. Alkis, giving various
details as to the progress of the Oswald Smith case.
The first letter is dated June 29th, I675. From it we
Richard Andrews was the son of Mr. Roger Andrews, a shoemaker of
Shrewsbury. He was baptised at St. Julian's on December 2rid, 647, entered
Shrewsbury School in 656, and was admitted sizar of St. John's College, Cam-
bridge, on January 3th, 66, at the age of sixteen. He graduated B.A. in
x667 and M.A. in 67. Iiis nomination by the college to the second-master-
ship bears date December x2th, 672. His prospects in life were not much
affected by the adverse action of the Corporation, as he obtained the rectories of
Upton Magna and Withington. He died in 726.
Oswald Smirk was son of the Rev. James Smith, Rector of Withington. He
graduated B.A. in 67 and M.A. in 672. Benefactor to the school library in
69I. Died July 26th, 75.
ANDREW TAYLOR t95
learn that the Lord Keeper x had appointed that day for a
rehearing of the whole question at issue between the college
and the Corporation. Sir Thomas Jones and Sir William
Baldwin were counsel for the latter, and Sir John King was
retained for the former. The heads of the case for the town
are given, and a very poor case it was. It consisted chiefly
of an assertion and an argument. The assertion was that the
Corporation had a plain right to nominate masters, and the
argument that they were the fittest persons to do so. It
seems from Mr. Gibbons's letter that his clients were inclined
to agree to a sort of compromise, and had expressed their
willingness, so long as the right of appointment was acknow-
ledged to be theirs by the college, to nominate a second
person if the college, on examination, should judge their
first nominee to be unfit, and to allow the college to elect
masters when they had no duly qualified candidates of their
own to appoint. So preposterous did these suggestions
appear to the Corporation counsel that they refused to bring
them before the Lord Keeper; and ,Mr. Gibbons's only re-
course was to go to Sir John King and ask him to consent
to a postponement of the hearing, on the ground that the
defendants' counsel could not attend, agreeing, of course, to
pay costs. In the meantime he sought further instructions
from the Corporation.
Chancery disputes, even in
brought to an end, and the
going on in December, I677.
year Mr. Gibbons wrote to
those days, were not quickly
Oswald Smith case was still
On November Ioth of that
Mr. Adam Oatley, the Town
Clerk of Shrewsbury, at the desire of Lord Newport, who
was interesting himself in the matter, to ask for further
evidence. But the town had no evidence worthy of notice
to produce, and on November 3oth Mr. Gibbons had to
tell his clients that, after reading the letters supplied by
them, which were found to agree with those in the college
book, the general opinion was that the Corporation had no
a Sir Heneage Finch, Bart., was appointed Lord Keeper on November 9th,
I672, and Lord Chancellor on December lgth, I675. In the interval he had
been created Baron Finch of Daventry.
RICHARD LLOYD 203
petitioners that the inhabitants sent their boys to other
schools in consequence of the masters' neglect, and that, at
the time the information was filed, there were only eight
boys in the highest school.
In the decree issued by Lord Chancellor Macclesfield,
apparently in the same term, it was ordered that Mr. Lloyd
should be given six months time to make up his mind
whether he would resign the head-mastership or his vicarage.
In other respects the plaintiffs' bill was dismissed. No costs
were given to either side? Probably Mr. Lloyd decided to
give up the Vicarage of Sellack, as he did not resign the
head-mastership till June, I723. He died in I733, aged
seventy-two, and was buried in St. Mary's Church. Various
changes took place in the staff of masters during the time
Mr. Lloyd was Head Master, and the Corporation took
advantage of the very first vacancy that occurred to assert
again, in defiance of the ordinances, its right to appoint the
schoolmasters, and to pay the cost of any consequent
litigation out of the school funds. In 688, the year after
Mr. Lloyd's appointment, the third-mastership became
vacant by the resignation of Mr. John Taylor, xvho had held
it since x659. Mr. Henry Johnson, 3 a graduate of their own
college and a native of Shrewsbury, was nominated by the
master and seniors of St. John's as his successor.
Emboldened apparently by the fact that Mr. Oswald
Smith, in spite of the acknowledged illegality of his appoint-
ment, had been ultimately allowed to retain the second room
in which he had been placed by order of the Corporation,
that body, instead of admitting the college nominee,
proceeded to make an appointment of its own, selecting
a See /-]otdz/s JISS. and B/akeway lllSS. In ! 722-23 a Corporation order
was voted that one of the schoolmasters, having accepted a living, should quit the
school. This order seems to indicate that no notice had been taken of the
decree in Chancery by the Head Master, or else that he had resigned Sellack
in 17I 7 and had subsequently taken another living.
Mr. John Taylor was buried at St. Mary's August st, 688.
The newly appointed master was a son of Mr. Henry Johnson, an alderman
of Shrewsbury. He was admitted pensioner of St. John's College on May 31st,
1682, and graduated B.A. in 686.
212 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
proviso that this right should pass to the Bishop of Lichfield
and Coventry and the Dean of Lichfield for the time being,
in case Ashton should die before they were framed. In
accordance with the provisions of the Queen's indenture
ordinances were ultimately made by Ashton after con-
sultation with the Bailiffs of Shrewsbury, Sir George
Bromley, Sir Henry Townshend, and other learned and
experienced friends, and to these ordinances the Corporation
of Shrewsbury gave its full assent on February IIth, I57.
Now, by one of them, it was provided that, whenever an),
of the three masterships contemplated by the ordinances
should become vacant the master and seniors of St. John's
College, Cambridge, should "elect and send an able, meet,
and apt man" to fill the post, the right of disallowing
their choice for "reasona31e cause" being given to the Bailiffs,
and it is difficult to understand how, under these circum-
stances, the Corporation can have been so ill-advised as
again and again to ignore the legal rights of the college.
Still more preposterous was the assertion made b), the
members of that body that they were better able to make
a fit choice than the Cambridge men. It is to be hoped
that the Shrewsbury burgesses were more wrong-headed
than dishonest in the matter, and that they were influenced
by desire of power rather than by love of jobbery. But
we must remember at the same time that the Head Master
would be able to exercise little power as co-trustee with
the Bailiffs of the school property were he to become a
mere nominee of the Corporation, and that the unrestricted
right of appointing the other masters would secure for the
leading members of the Corporation opportunities of pro-
viding suitable and well-paid work for such of their friends
and relations as had received university education. Litigation
too, we must not forget, was not carried on between the
Corporation and the college upon equal terms; for while
the college authorities had to pay their own law expenses,
the costs of the Corporation were taken from the school-
chest. And this fact accounts, no doubt, for the Corporation
resuming the contest again and again in spite of repeated
HUGH OWEN 2 5
The resignation of Mr. Lloyd, the Head Master, in June,
I723, was the signal for another and, as it proved, a final
struggle on the part of the Corporation for supremacy in the
appointment of schoolmasters.. For some time past strenuous
efforts had been made to bring about the Head Master's
resignation, with the view of installing in his place Mr. Hugh
Owen, B.A., of Jesus College, Oxford, a native of Carnarvon-
shire. Mr. Owen had not been born in Shropshire nor
educated at Shrewsbury School, and he was not an M.A.
of at least two years' standing.
In order, apparently, in some way to make up for his
entire want of statutory qualifications Mr. Owen was ad-
mitted as a burgess of Shrewsbury in 172. Sometime
during the year 1721-22 an order was voted by the Corpora-
tion that "the schoolmaster having accepted a living should
quit the school," and there can be no moral doubt that this
order was passed with the view of enforcing Mr. Lloyd's
resignation. It will be remembered that, when an informa-
tion against Mr. Lloyd was filed in the Court of Chancery in
I7I 7, Lord Chancellor Macclesfield decided that it was a
breach of the school ordinances for the Head Master to hold
a parochial cure with his mastership, and gave Mr. Lloyd
six months to decide which he would resign, Shrewsbury
School or the Vicarage of Sellack. It is almost impossible to
suppose that, in spite of this decree, Mr. Lloyd had continued
to hold the living of Sellack up to I72I , and Mr. Corbet
Kynaston, I.P. for Shrewsbury, would hardly have said as he
did in I723, that the Corporation had "unjustly endeavoured
to oblige him to resign," if that body had merely called upon
Mr. Lloyd to obey the Lord Chancellor's decree in the
matter of Sellack Vicarage. It is probable that the Corpora-
tion order, to which reference has been made, was passed
with the object of representing the two Cathedral stalls,
which Mr. Lloyd still held, as within the scope of the Lord
Chancellor's decree. Two interesting letters written by Mr.
Corbet Kynaston in I723, which have recently been printed
in Shrewsbury Notes and Queries, prove conclusively that
for some time before Mr. Lloyd absolutely resigned it had
HUGH OWEN
for him to accept the proffered terms and resign in such
manner and at such time as would best suit the convenience of
the municipal authorities. Mr. Kynaston's answer is clear
and distinct. The Corporation would not think of offering
terms to the Head Master if its members believed they had
the power of removing him from his place. Any terms offered
by Mr. 13rickdale must be looked upon with suspicion, as
Shrewsbury rumours pointed to an engagement betveen
Miss Brickdale and Mr. Hugh Owen, or rather to an engage-
ment prospective on the intended bridegroom obtaining the
head-mastership. Mr. Kynaston was decidedly of opinion
that Mr. Lloyd could not in honour treat with the Corpora-
tion on any terms without the knowledge and consent of the
college, and that he xvould expose himself to very unfavour-
able comments if he did so. The second letter, which was
written four days later to the Rev. William Clark, does not
throw much further light on the subject. It appears from it
that Mr. Clark's difficulty in accepting Mr. Lloyd's pro-
posed terms of resignation was that he was asked to give up
a certainty in exchange for a disputed title, which he vould
have to defend at his own expense. The college, it must be
remembered, had only just resolved to maintain its rights in
the Law Courts. It is evident from his letters that Mr.
Kynaston was firmly convinced that the course taken by the
Corporation was calculated to injure the school and to be
detrimental to the public good.
How Mr. Lloyd's negotiations with the Corporation ended
it does not appear. But it seems probable that the suggestion
made by Mr. Kynaston that he should formally give notice to
the college of his desire to resign in favour of Mr. William
Clark was not carried out, as the Mayor and Corporation
would hardly have ventured to install Mr. Hugh Owen in the
Head iXIaster's room, as they did on July 2nd, unless Mr. Lloyd
had previously placed in their hands an unconditional resig-
nation of his office. Of Mr. Clark's intellectual capacity his
position as fellow of St. John's College and his published
works are sufficient evidence. The only witnesses to Mr.
Owen's abilities and fitness are certain anonymous "persons
LEONARD H)TCH KI
FIED .%IASTER *735--*754
LEONARD HOTCHKIS 3
right to appoint. The first official, who was not also curate
of St. Mary's, was Mr. Pigott, the puritan Head Master, who
was appointed in x65 x. Since that time the office had been
sometimes held by clergymen, and sometimes by laymen,
but never again by the curate of St. Mary's. In 77 the
members of the Corporation set up an absurd claim to
appoint the official without any reference either to the
Mayor or to the Head Master, and formally elected the
Rev. Lawrence Gardner. But they do not seem to have
continued the struggle any longer after Dr. Phillips had
been duly appointed by the legal electors, t On his death,
however, when the post again became vacant, the claims
of the Corporation were asserted in a much more objection-
able fashion. On March 3oth, I736, Mr. Brickdale 2 and
Mr. Baskerville brought to the Head Master the draft of
a lease of the official's place, which the Corporation proposed
to grant to Mr. Ryder for the term of twenty-one years
at the annual rent of 4os., and asked for his signature;
but they refused to leave it for his further consideration.
It is impossible to regard this proposed lease of the official's
place as anything but barefaced jobbery. 8 Whether Mr.
Hotchkis looked at the matter in this light or not is not
apparent. His assigned reason for refusing to join in
executing the lease was that his immediate predecessor
had been the official. He evidently was of opinion that
there was no good reason why he should not hold the
office just as it had been held before by Mr. Pigott and
a On the occasion of Dr. Phillips's election the Mayor was William Kynaston,
Esq., a graduate of St. John's College, Cambridge, and a barrister-at-law, a man
unlikely to be influenced by those motives which seem unhappily so often to have
swayed the ordinary members of the Shrewsbury Corporation. His father was
William Kynaston, Esq., of Ryton, Salop. He had been at Shrewsbury School
in Mr. Lloyd's time, and was admitted at St. John's College on June x6th, x698,
aged seventeen, graduating subsequently, B.A. in x7o 3 and M.A. in x7o7.
2 Mr. Michael Brickdale, no doubt.
s To seek the Head Master's signature for the lease was practically to acknow-
ledge his legal rights with regard to the appointment of officials, and it is hardly
possible to suppose that the men, who were prepared to squander the school
money in hopeless efforts to maintain the untenable claims of the C,,rporation.
proposed to lease the oce for the pecuniary benefit of the school.
26 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
John's College, Cambridge; and the Rev. Edward Blake-
way, M., x fellow of bIagdalene College, Cambridge.
One other boy who was at school in Hotchkis's time may be
mentioned, though he left a doubtful reputation behind him.
This is Richard Parrott, the son of a Shrewsbury distiller,
who was entered in the third school in I738, and graduated
at Queen's College, Cambridge, in I743. He has been de-
scribed as a swindler, a strolling player, and a profligate
polygamist. But he managed to ingratiate himself with
Edward Augustus, Duke of York, and by his influence was
made a baronet on January 3rd, I767, with patent of pre-
cedency dating from July 1st, I716. *
I Edward Blakeway, eldest son of Mr. Peter Blakeway, of Shrewsbury, sur-
geon, by Dorothy, daughter of Mr. Joshua Johnson, who was fourth master at
Shrewsbury Scbool, I7o6-I7,3. Born February 5th, I73, and educated at
Shrewsbury and Magdalene College, Cambridge; B.A. (Wrangler) in I756 ;
M.A., I759 ; curate of St. Mary's, Shrewsbury, I763-I794; Rector of Long
Staunton, Cambridge, I764-I779. In 777 he was presented to the Rectory of
Fitton, Gloucestershire, by his brother-in-law, blatthew Brickdale, Esq. ; and in
I786 Lord Chancellor Thurlow gave him the Vicarage of Neen Savage, Salop.
On September 3rd, I764, he married Mary, daughter of John Brickdale, Esq., of
Knowle, Somersetshire. Died February Tth, I795- Benefactor to school library
in 76o. (h'ICHOL'S Littrary Illustrations; OwEN and BLAKEVAY.)
See lakeway 1S.
24o SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
teenth century, the Rev. Rowland Hill, known as "The
Preacher," was also at Shrewsbury in Newling's time, though
he was removed to F-ton College before entering at St. John's
College, Cambridge, in I764. Rowland Hill graduated B.A.
in I769 and M.A. in I772. While resident at Cambridge
he was in the habit of visiting the sick and prisoners. He
also took to street preaching, and was often interrupted and
molested by mobs. After taking his degree Rowland Hill
sought holy orders; but his reputation for irregular preaching
created a prejudice against him, and it was not till after
he had been rejected by six bishops that Dr. Wills, the
Bishop of Bath and Wells, ordained him in 777. A similar
difficulty met him a year or two later when he was refused
priest's orders by the Bishop of Carlisle at the instigation
of the Archbishop of York. After this second repulse
Rowland Hill became a nonconformist, and a chapel was
built for him at Wootton, Gloucestershire, where he never
failed to officiate sometime during the year for the rest
of his life. Surrey Chapel, in London, which was built
for him in 783, became from that time the chief scene
of his labours. He died on April Ith, 833. A few of
his sermons and hymns and a tract written by him on
vaccination have been published.
Thomas Johnes, F.R.S., M.P., the translator of Froissart, was
also a pupil of Newling's; but, like Rowland Hill, he re-
moved to F-ton before going to college. He was born at
Ludlow in 748, but belonged to an old Carmarthenshire
and Cardiganshire family. His father, Thomas Johnes, Esq.,
was seated at Llanvairclydogan, and was elected M.P. for
Radnorshire in 1777. His mother, Elizabeth, was daughter
of Richard Knight, Esq., of Croft Castle, Herefordshire.
Thomas Johnes, the younger, became Lord Lieutenant of
Cardiganshire, Colonel of the County Militia, and Auditor
Rowland Zill, sixth son of Sir Rowland Hill, Bart., was born at Hawkestone
Park. Salop, on August 23rd, I744- He seems to have been from his boyhood
much under the influence of his eldest brother, Richard, a somewhat prominent
politician who represented Shropshire in the House of Commons, and who was a
strenuous champion of George Whitfield and the Calvinistic Methodists.
See Diet. of Nat. Biog.
ACT OF 798 -59
Although the preferential claims to livings and exhibi-
tions which were given to the sons of burgesses, etc., by the
old ordinances were retained by the Act of I798, a new
condition was imposed that candidates must have been at
Shrewsbury School for two years at least before going to
college. Power was also given to the Corporation to give
an absolute preference, if they should think fit, over all other
candidates for school livings, to any head or second master
who should have resigned his office. It svas, moreover,
expressly ordained that candidates for exhibitions must be
duly qualified in respect of learning, good manners, and
behaviour. The selection of all masters except the second
was for the future to be left to the Head Master. Power
was given to the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry to dismiss
the head or second master for immorality, incapacity, neglect
of duty, or other reasonable cause, on the written complaint
of the majority of the Governors. Any of the assistant
masters might be dismissed by the Head Master on similar
grounds. It was expressly provided that the head and
second masters should be members of the Church of Eng-
land, and that the Head Master should fill the office of
catechist and reader. This latter proviso made it for the
first time practically obligatory on the electors to choose a
clergyman in holy orders as Head Master. The Governors
were empowered to make bye-lavs for the general govern-
ment of the school, so long as they did not affect its character
as a " Free Grammar School," and they were also directed to
apply surplus revenues to the foundation of new exhibitions at
Oxford or Cambridge. But after founding one such exhibition
they were to be at liberty, if they should think fit, to increase
the stipends of the ministers of any of the four school livings
of St. Mary's in Shrewsbury, Chirbury, Astley, or Clive.
Absolute control over the xvays and methods of teaching
in the school was assigned to the Head Master. The
exhibitions already founded at St. John's College, Cam-
bridge, were to be retained, and might be increased in value
if the Governors should think fit.
The first act of the new Governing Body was to pension
NEW HEAD MASTER 26i
shire, whose eldest son had been a school-fellow of his at
Rugby. Mr. Eyton was one of the chief promoters of the
movement for bringing about a reform of the system of
management of Shrewsbury School, and it was probably
owing to his suggestions that Mr. Butler first entertained the
notion of offering himself as a candidate for the head-master-
ship when the proposed changes should be effected. 1 A few
months after taking his degree in 1796 Mr. Butler became
engaged to be married, and thought at first of settling down
somewhere in the country with the view of taking pupils.
But he was dissuaded from this by his old master, Dr. James,
who urged him strongly to seek in preference the head-
mastership of some endowed grammar school. The fact that
Dr. James was in Shropshire at the time he wrote this advice
to his old pupil reminded Mr. Butler no doubt of his former
notions about Shrewsbury School, and made him vrite in
return that Shrewsbury was a place where he might have
influence to help him. Dr. James consequently made it his
business while in the neighbourhood to learn all he could
about the state of things at Shrewsbury, and his report to
Butler as to future prospects was favourable. Happily for
the school Mr. Butler made up his mind to follow his old
master's advice, and soon after the Act of 798 was passed
he was elected by his college Head Master of Shrewsbury.
The gentleman chosen at the same time for the second-
mastership was the Rev. William Adams, II.A., of Pembroke
College, Oxford.
Butler's Zife and Letters, vol. i. p. x 5.
.o The election seems to have taken place in July. Mr. Butler was already
Head l,1aster when Mr. Sleath, the second master of Rugby, wrote to him on
August Ist, 1798. (Add. MSS. British lIuseum, 34,583. )
DR. BUTLER
HEAD .IAqTEI 78--x836
266 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
some years' cessation, were again renewed during the last few
years in which they were colleagues, must also have been a
serious impediment to the prosperity of Shrewsbury School.
Mr. Butler, indeed, had been nearly twenty years at work
before the condition of the school could fairly be described
as prosperous. It is not surprising then to find that when
Dr. Ingles, who had succeeded Dr. James as Head Master
of Rugby, resigned his office in I8o6, Mr. Butler was
desirous of returning to his old school as its chief. Happily,
however, for Shrewsbury, his candidature was not successful.
About this time Dr. James Cornwallis, Bishop of Lichfield
and Coventry, collated Mr. Butler to a prebendal stall at
Lichfield. He was already in charge of two cures, the
chapelry of Berwick, * near Shrewsbury, which he had held
since I8oI, and the Vicarage of Kenilworth, to which he had
been presented by Lord Clarendon in I8o2. The year in
which Mr. Butler was rejected for Rugby is also note-
worthy for the commencement of that wonderful series of
university distinctions which his Shrewsbury pupils were
destined to gain. The school-room in which the ttead
Master used to teach the sixth and upper fifth forms in
those days was the room on the ground floor, which was
in later times appropriated, first to the fourth form, and then
to the shell. On the oaken panels of this room were painted
the names of all Shrewsbury boys who gained university
scholarships or prizes, or took first classes at Oxford or
Cambridge. The first name inscribed on these honour
boards was that of Thomas Smart Hughes,* who in I8o6
By this time Mr. Butler was well aware that injurious reports as to his over
severity were prevalent in Shrewsbury, and he was inclined to attribute his
rejection at Rugby to the existence of these rumours. But his friend,
William Hill, afterwards Lord Berwick, ascertained for him from one of the
Rugby trustees that his suspicion was without foundation. {Bv2ler's Life and
Letters, vol. i. p. 50.)
u Mr. Butler retained the Berwick chapelry till April 7th, 1815. He was
succeeded there by the Rev. Evan Griffith, one of the assistant masters, who had
for some years shared with him the conduct of the services.
3 The honour boards have, of course, followed the school to its new home on
Kingsland.
T. & l-]ugtzes also won the Browne medal for a Greek ode in IK) and one of
the Members' prizes in ,8o9 and 18,o. He was a son of the Rev. Hugh Hughes,
o .:
-78 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
familiar enough at the present day; but as he was the first
person to put them forward publicly, it is only fair to his
memory to repeat them, much as he stated them to Mr.
Brougham. In the first place he calls attention to Camden's
statement, made originally in I586, that Shrewsbury was the
best-filled school in all England. Secondly, he points out
that the original Charter of Edward VI. was granted at the
request, not only of the burgesses of Shrewsbury, but also
of the inhabitants of all the neighbouring country.
He also lays stress on the facts--
(3) That boys from all parts of the kingdom resorted to
Shrewsbury School at the time of its foundation, as they did
also at the time he was writing;
(4) That among its distinguished scholars Shrewsbury
could reckon Sir Philip Sidney; Sir Fulke Greville; Lord
Brooke; and Sir James Harrington, Bart., in the sixteenth
century ; and Dr. John Taylor and Professor Edward Waring
in the eighteenth century ;
(5) That boys were educated at Shrewsbury in the highest
departments of literature ;
(6) That the school possessed ample endowments ;
(7) That in public honours gained at the universities
Shrewsbury was worthy of comparison with any of the
exempted schools ;
(8) That there were at the time he was writing as many
as I6o boys on the school list, a number which might be
largely increased with better accommodation ;
(9) And that among the existing scholars there were boys
from twenty-eight different counties in England and Wales,
besides several from Scotland and Ireland.
Mr. Brougham's bills were ultimately abandoned. 1
In IS2I Dr. Butler was appointed Archdeacon of Derby
by Dr. James Cornwallis, the Bishop of Lichfield and
Coventry."
x See BAKER'S I-J'iSl. of St..ohn's College, Cambridge (Ed. Mayor).
Dr..lames Cornwallis became Earl Cornwallis in 18z 3 on the death of his
nephew, the second marquis.
290 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
to make any grant for the purpose of doing away with the
thoroughfare, but passed a resolution to reduce the salaries
of the masters by 5o per cent. Up to this time Dr. Butler
seems to have known little or nothing about the lawsuit.
But, as soon as he learned how serious the matter had
become, with his customary vigour he set to work to make
himself master of all its details. His labours resulted in an
able report, for which he received the warm thanks of the
trustees on April 9th, I824. They asked at the same time
for his assistance in drawing up a memorial to the Court of
Exchequer, praying for judgment in the case. The memorial
was presented through the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry,
the Visitor of the school, and the case came on for hearing
in June, I824. Judgment was ultimately given in favour of
the trustees on November 22nd, 825, by the Lord Chief
Baron, Sir William Alexander. The defendants appealed,
but on December ISth, 1825, the Lord Chief Baron, after a
three hours' argument, confirmed the previous decision of
the Court. The settlement of the Albrighton case and the
closing of the thoroughfare through School Lane were two
benefits to Shrewsbury School on xvhich, at the close of his
career, Dr. Butler justly prided himself.
The year I829 is notable in the history of the school as
the year of "The Beef Roxv, '' the second outbreak of in-
subordination with which Dr. Butler had to deal while he
was Head Master. From time immemorial schoolboys have
been accustomed to grumble about their food, and Shrews-
bury boys xvere no exception to the rule. On this occasion
their protests were directed against the boiled beef which,
one day in the week, was the pidce de r,;sistance at dinner.
The chief cause of offence was its redness, which was probably
due to the saltpetre with which the beef was cured. Having
tried remonstrance in vain, the boys in each of Dr. Butler's
halls, on a day fixed by concerted arrangement, quietly got
up from table and left the room as soon as the boiled beef
a See Butler's Life and Letters, vol. L pp. 45, 246, 63, 64, 29.
* See COLLIN$'S Public Schools; Butler's Life and letters, vol. i. p. 353 ; and
Add. MSS. Brit. Mus., 34,587.
SAMUEL BUTLER 299
Perhaps the most notable of all Dr. Butler's assistants was
the Rev. Frederick lliff, who went to Shrewsbury early in
18z 3, immediately after taking his degree at Trinity College,
Cambridge, and remained there till Christmas, 833, when
he migrated to the Liverpool Collegiate Institution of which
he had just been appointed Principal. He is said to have
been a sound scholar and able teacher, strong in Aristo-
phanes, Thucydides, and Tacitus, and a great believer in
Matthie's Greek Grammar) For eight out of the ten years
during which he was a Shrewsbury master Mr. Iliff had
charge of the upper fifth, except for those lessons in which
the higher division of that form shared the Head Master's
teaching of the sixth. His class-room was in Bromfield's
hall. " Although by no means Butler's equal in elegant
scholarship, he was not inclined to give way to him on
questions of grammatical criticism." Occasionally "in the
course of a lesson some point would arise, upon which he
was aware that he and his chief differed in their view, when
he would conclude his own interpretation with the signifi-
cant remark, 'You may perhaps be told differently lower
down the lane, but ' and there he would stop with con-
siderable emphasis. '' So highly did Dr. Butler value Mr.
Iliff's services that, early in 825, he agreed to let him at a
reasonable rate one of the houses he had recently purchased
in Raven Street, where he was to be at liberty to receive ten
boarders. At the same time he guaranteed him an income
of r3oo a year from stipend and pupils so long as he re-
tained his mastership. 3 But the rapid increase of numbers
1 See COLLIN$'$ guli Schools. Dr. Butler's son, while still at school, was
much impressed by lr. Iliff's knowledge of Aristophanes. [See letter from
Thomas Butler to his father, dated November 22nd, x828, in Add. MSS. Brit.
Mus., 34,587. )
- This story is given by Mr. Collins, and is believed to rest on the authority of
the Rev. James Hildyard. A somewhat similar story is told hy an Old Salopian
still living, who remembers Mr. Iliff saying during a Juvenal lesson, when one of
the boys told him that Dr. Butler's rendering of a passage was different from
his, "I have known two men in my life who could construe Juvenal ; lIadan
was one and Dr. Butler was not the other."
3 The draft agreement is dated February 13th , 18z 5. Dr. Butler, it is worth
noting, expressly states in the agreement that he would not undertake to recom-
mend parents to send their sons to Mr. Iliff's, while he had any vacancies, or Mr.
Jeudvine had less than thirty boarders. (Add. MSS. Brit. Mus., 31,593.)
SAMUEL BUTLER 307
Dr. Longley, also, who had just resigned Harrow on his
appointment to the See of Ripon, while felicitating Dr. Butler
on his approaching relief from the arduous duties of his
"long and most honourable career," describes it as "dis-
tinguished by a degree of splendour and success unrivalled
in the history of public schools. ''1
In spite, however, of the general admiration caused by the
many triumphs gained by Dr. Butler's pupils at the universi-
ties, and the readiness shown by schoolmasters of high position
to learn and adopt his methods, there were some men to be
found at both universities xvho sneered at his system or
ascribed his success to "cramming."
Dr. Wordsxvorth, the Master of Trinity College, is said to
have compared Butler's occasional visits to Cambridge to
those made by "a first-rate London milliner to Paris" in
order "to get the fashions. ''2 But some Oxford men xvent
further than this, and, to Dr. Butler's great indignation,
deliberately attributed the success of Shrewsbury boys in
university examinations to special preparation, or in other
words, to cramming. This was at a time vhen the same
school had just carried off the Ireland university scholarship
five years running, "an unfair monopoly" as it was called by
the detractors of Shrevsbury. It vas actually suggested at
Oxford that the nature of the examination for university
scholarships should be changed by the introduction of" essay
writing," and also of additional questions calculated to "elicit
the powers and acquirements of more advanced age and
progress."
Some time before this Dr. Butler had been greatly annoyed
when, in two consecutive years, three Shrevsbury boys failed
to obtain a scholarship at Corpus Christi College, Oxford,
one of whom gained a scholarship at Exeter College im-
mediately afterwards, and another was subsequently second
Classic at Cambridge. The Corpus scholarships, it must be
Butler's Zife and Zetters, vol. ii. p. I4o.
/bd., vol. i, Introd. p. 9-
Ibid., vol. ii. p. 34-
1bid., vol. ii. p. 49.
SAMUEL BUTLER 317
and has been immortalised by Dr. Butler's biographer as the
coiner of one of the longest words known in the English
language. Coming into the hall one night when the boys were
very noisy, she singled out the chief offender and told him he
was the "rampingest-scampingest-rackety-tackety-tow-row-
roaringest boy in the house." Then pausing for a moment,
she looked triumphantly round the hall and added, "Young
gentlemen, prayers are excused. ''1 A delightful letter from
Miss Butler to her brother, when he was an undergraduate
at Cambridge, says a good deal about "Brommy's" super-
stitions as to dreams, and also mentions her naive
expression of hope that a new master, who had not been at
first very successful in disciplinary matters, would "soon
be as great a beast" as herself. - In Dr. Butler's corre-
spondence with his old pupils we find occasional allusions
to "Speech Day" at Shrewsbury, and it is probable, from
the various inquiries which he made on the subject from
Dr. James in 18oo, that this institution dates from the early
days of his head-mastership. The fixed time for the annual
festival appears to have been shortly before the summer
holidays. Dr. Butler is said to have taken much trouble with
the speeches, training the selected boys for some time before
the appointed day. Dr. Samuel Parr was present on more
than one Speech Day, sitting in the place of honour next to
the Head Master, with his pipe in his mouth and his spittoon
before him, and occasionally signifying his approval by
quietly tapping two fingers of one hand on the palm of the
other, an amount of applause which Dr. Butler took care
to assure the boys meant a great deal from so great a man.
Of the proceedings on one of these Speech Days, the last
indeed at which Dr. Butler presided, a detailed account has
been preserved, which shows that the chief incidents of
Butkr's Life and Letters, vol. L p. 3oo.
See Add. MSS. Brit. Mus., 34,586- The date of the letter, which is in fact
a sort of postscript to one from her father, is March 9th, I826. It is further in-
teresting as indicating the climax of prosperity attained by Shrewsbury in Dr.
Butler's time. He had already three boarding-houses of his own, and Miss
Butler had just been to see the new boarding-house which Mr. Iliff had recently
opened.
SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
of the monitorial system, the establishment of which in
English public schools was practically his work. Schoolboys,
in his view, should be governed as much as possible by their
peers. To anyone inquiring about such matters of Old
Salopians the almost invariable answer has ever been, "We
were left pretty much to ourselves. '' But if ever cases of
bullying came formally before him Dr. Butler was severe
enough on the bullies. He was very angry, for example,
when he found that some of the bigger boys had caused
douls to excavate a hole in the hillside of the ball court,
the diameter of which increased slowly with the depth until
two or three little boys could be enclosed. The bullies
would then seal up the aperture by sitting upon it, and
so turn the excavation into a "black hole of Calcutta. ''
Boys ran away now and then, but the number of these
runaways does not seem exceptionally large. Public school
life is, generally speaking, an example in a small way of the
principle of "the survival of the fittest," and sensitive,
nervous, and timid boys often have a bad time of it. But
Shrewsbury men, trained under Dr. Butler, seem to have
possessed, as a rule, characteristics which were probably
due in great measure to the influences and traditions of
their school life, rough and Spartan-like as it may have
been--independence of thought, freedom from party feeling,
and self-reliance as distinguished from self-confidence.
An Old Salopian, still living, has cited, not unaptly,
"Jimmy Fraser, Bishop of Manchester, carrying his own
bag," and "Charles Darwin pressing his own views, but
always, to the last, with the healthy feeling that he might
It is evident that Dr. Butler did not approve of his house masters interfering
much with the boys out of school hours. The Rev. Arthur Willis, who was for
some years house master in Bromfield's hall, and who is described by Dr. Butler
as "a disciplinarian," and "undeviating" in his "attention to the boys, both
in and out of school" (Z and Letters, vol. ii. p. t37), is declared by an
Old Salopian still living, who was for some years in that hall, to have left the
boys, during the winter, from 4.3o p.m., when they were locked in, till 9 p.m.,
when they went to bed, entirely to themselves.
* See Mr. Montagu's letter before quoted.
a The number of runaways can be easily reckoned up from Dr. Butler's register
of admissions.
KENNEDY
326 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
October, 823, he went into residence at St- John's College,
Cambridge, having left school at the preceding midsummer.
By this time, independently of the work done under Dr.
Butler's superintendence, Kennedy had got through an
immense amount of "private reading," which included "all
Thucydides, all Tacitus, all Sophocles and Aschylus, much
Aristophanes, Pindar, Herodotus, Demosthenes, and Plato,
besides Cicero. '' "Private reading" was a practice which
Dr. Butler was continually recommending to the Shrewsbury
boys, and his brilliant young pupil had so thoroughly taken
this recommendation to heart that he was anxious at first to
leave school six months earlier than he did so as to have
more time to devote to it. e
Of Kennedy's remarkable successes at Cambridge mention
has already been made. But his university life, happily for
himself, was by no means that of a mere bookworm. Soon
after he went up to college he became a member of a society
known as "the Apostles." With some of this apostolic
band, and notably with John Sterling and Frederic Denison
Maurice, he formed an intimate friendship. Other friends of
Kennedy, in xvhat Lord Lytton calls "that brilliant under-
graduate world," were Bulwer Lytton, William Mackworth
Praed, Alexander Cockburn, Christopher Wordsworth, Charles
Buller, and William Selwyn. Bulwer Lytton describes him
in his undergraduate days as "an ardent, enthusiastic youth
from Shrewsbury, a young giant in learning. ''
Writing to Dr. Butler in the course of his first term,
Kennedy tells him that he has become acquainted with
Praed and Townshend and Ord, the leading spirits of the
Union Debating Society, and has been repeatedly invited to
join it, but that owing to his kind advice he has resisted the
temptation: It is probable that the writer had somewhat
misunderstood Dr. Butler's meaning, and that his sage and
kindly master lost no time in correcting the misunderstanding,
Butler's Life and Letters, vol. i. p. 253.
Add. MSS. Brit. Mus., 34,585.
Dict. of Afar. Bg., B. H. KINNIDY.
Butleds Zife and Zetters, vol. i. p. 259.
BENJAMIN HALL KENNEDY 39
836, Dr. Butler's anxiety on the subject was set at rest
by a private and unofficial intimation vhich he received
from the master of St. John's College, to the effect that the
seniors had quite made up their minds to appoint Mr.
Kennedy as soon as the vacancy should occur, and some
time in June he was formally elected Head Master of
Shrevsbury.
After the Midsummer holidays the new chief, who had
in the meantime taken his Doctor's degree, entered upon his
duties at Shrewsbury with the same staff of assistant masters
that Dr. Butler had left. It is not surprising that the
prospect of his resignation should have caused a diminution
in the school numbers during the last few years of Dr.
Butler's stay at Shrewsbury. The school had reached its
culminating point of prosperity in 1832, when the names
of 295 boy sl were on the lists. From that time the numbers
began to diminish, and when Dr. Kennedy commenced work
in I836 they had fallen to 228. - Although the main features
of Dr. Butler's system of school management--half-yearly
examinations, promotion by merit throughout the school,
merit-money, school bounds, and regular callings over at
fixed intervals--were retained unchanged by the new Head
Master, he recognized the advisability of introducing reforms
in various matters. A remarkable letter, which was written
by Bishop Butler to Edward Strutt, Esq., ILP., on November
-8th, I836 , on the subject of education, shows that the great
classical schoolmaster had now become convinced that the
time was come for English public schools "to pay attention
to modern languages and modern history," and, in general, to
"keep pace with the advancement of mankind." It was by
Dr. Butler's advice, as well as at his own desire, that Dr.
Kennedy at once made French a regular part of the school
a It is so stated by Dr. Kennedy. But it appears from Blr. John Bather's
evidence before the Public School Commissioners that the maximum numbers
attained by the school in Dr. Butler's time were somewhat greater than this.
lVlr. Bather said that there were at one time, between 1829 and x837 , as many
as 3oi boys at Shrewsbury.
2 See Dr. Kennedy's evidence before the Public School Commission.
BENJAMIN HALL KENNEDY 33t
done so since they had been at school. The customary
long-lie on Sunday was also abolished, and henceforth
there was always a first lesson on that day, comprising some
form of religious instruction. Some Old Salopians, at any
rate, still speak with gratitude of the Greek Testament
lessons which were now for the first time given in the
higher forms.
Another important institution which is due to Dr. Kennedy
is known to Shrewsbury boys as Top Schools?" Long before
his time his predecessor had been recommended by Dr. James
to send the boys into school to prepare their lessons under
the charge of one of the masters--at any rate, until studies
had been provided, s But Dr. Butler does not appear to
have followed this advice. An Old Salopian, who boarded
in Bromfield's hall, speaks feelingly at the present day of
the inconvenience arising from the fact that during the
winter months the boys were locked up in their respective
houses from 4.3o p.m. till bedtime without any precaution
being taken by the house master to pay occasional visits to
the hall to see that those boys who wished to work should
be allowed to do so. "Willis, ''4 he writes, "hardly ever came
among us during locking-up time." Nor did Dr. Kennedy
make any change in this respect until he had been Head
Master for some years, and the new arrangement was for a
time partial in its application.
Preparation of lessons in the presence of a master appears
to have been carried on at first in Jee's hall, and only the
junior forms were required to attend. But from I848 or
thereabouts all boarders below the sixth form had to go to
"preparation" in the big school-room every evening, for two
hours in the winter and for a shorter time in the summer,
to prepare their lessons and write their exercises for the
i See Dr. Kennedy's evidence as above. Early in September, 837, Bishop
Butler held a confirmation in the school chapel, at which sixty-eight boys were
confirmed. {Add. MSS. Brit. Mus., 34,59I-)
This institution, though always popularly described by the boys as Top
Schools, seems to have been officially known as lrearation or leading-room.
s Butks Zife and Zetters, vol. i. pp. 25-39.
a The Rev. Arthur Willis was house master in Bromfield's hall.
332 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
folloxving day, one or other of the masters being always
present to preserve order. 1
The compulsory use of the college cap by all boys below
the upper sixth is a change introduced by Dr. Kennedy
which seems to require some explanation. The truth is
that when he became Head Master in x836 he found drink-
ing to be a vice prevalent to a somewhat serious extent in
the middle forms. Writing to Dr. Butler a few months
after his arrival in Shrewsbury, in reference to a particular
case of drunkenness in which he had been obliged to inflict
a severe punishment, Dr. Kennedy expressed a fervent desire
that Parliament would make it a penal offence for tradesmen
to encourage such evil habits among the young. * In default
of some legislation of that kind it occurred to him after a
time that the boys would find it more difficult to obtain
admission to hotels and public-houses if they were at once
recognisable by their dress as schoolboys. He hoped also
that the knowledge that their caps marked them out so un-
mistakably as belonging to the school would tend to make
self-respect some check upon the evil tendencies of the boys
themselves. This was the origin of the use of the college
cap at Shrewsbury, and in after years Dr. Kennedy always
attributed excellent results to this little reform? It was
inevitable that some of the changes made by the new Head
Master should be regarded among the boys generally as
innovations. But Dr. Kennedy has left it on record that
he found his sixth form ready from the first to co-operate
with him in carrying them out. 4 One happy change there
Dr. Kennedy always considered that the responsibility for the discharge of
this duty rested with himself and the second master as holders of the only
boarding-houses, and one of the assistant masters received a special stipend for
taking the Head Master's share of Top Schools. After a time, however, this
master was relieved of a somewhat burdensome duty three or four nights in the
week by the volunteered assistance of his colleagues.
2 Add. MSS. Brit. Mus., 34,59 o.
See Dr. Kennedy's evidence in Report of Public School Commission. The
square caps or "mortar boards" appear to have been first adopted in i838. The
boys did not at all relish the change. One of them, after all these years, writes
indignantly, "Oh why, oh why did he introduce the college cap? It was a
lowering of the school. Oh, the rage of the boys, and the smash-up they made
of them when they were brought into the hall !" /bid.
BENJAMIN HALL KENNEDY 349
reasonably be expected from an anonymous assailant, and
it is evident that the writer of the letter was very imperfectly
acquainted with theological questions. The sermon to which
he referred had been preached by the Rev. William Linwood,
the distinguished scholar, who was then an assistant curate
of St. Chad's, and appears to have been an able exposition of
the teaching of some of the most honoured theological
writers whom the Church of England has known since the
Reformation.
The incident is chiefly noteworthy as affording an illus-
tration of the loyal support which Dr. Kennedy invariably
extended to his colleagues, as well as of the intense
dislike which, like his predecessor, he felt for meanness,
intolerance, and narrow-mindedness. Much of the corres-
pondence which took place on the subject is printed in
Dr. Kennedy's letter to the Bishop of Lichfield, to xvhich
reference has already been made.
Mr. Linwood, whose undergraduate career at Oxford was
one of almost unparalleled brilliancy, had been for about two
years an assistant master at Shrewsbury School, and to him
Dr. Kennedy had given up much of the teaching of the
sixth form, while he himself exercised a general supervision
over the instruction of the rest of the school with the view
of raising the standard of teaching in the lower forms. Of
this master Dr. Kennedy said that he was "one of the best
scholars, and most upright and single-hearted men," it had
ever been his lot to know. 1 But Mr. Linwood was not the
only master whom Dr. Kennedy associated with himself in
the teaching of the sixth form. Mr. T. F. Henney and
Mr. W. J. Kennedy had both been in the habit of taking
the sixth forprivate lesson on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Mr.
Gifford did the same when he became second master in 1843.
Mr. T. S. Evans is also said, during some years of his stay
at Shrewsbury, to have added to the regular teaching of the
See letter to the Bishop of Lichfield, by B. H. Kennedy, D.D., I84Z.
blr. Henney left Shrewsbury in 838 , and was succeeded by the Rev. W.
J. Kennedy, the youngest brother of the Head Master, who only remained about
two years.
BENJAMIN HALL KENNEDY 353
But the trustees appealed to Lord Chancellor Cottenham,
who heard the case on November xoth, 849, and on
November zth delivered judgment, reversing the decision
of the Vice-Chancellor, and directing that the scheme should
be referred to one of the Masters in Chancery for his report.
The Master to whom this work was entrusted was Mr. John
Elijah Blunt, and somewhat prolonged negotiations took
place between the various parties interested in the school
before the Master's report was made and the order of the
Court was issued promulgating the new scheme. The main
objects which the trustees seem to have had in view were to
get some ambiguities in the Act of 798 explained, and to
obtain from the Court greater powers in dealing with surplus
revenues. By the Act of Parliament in question it was
ordained that the surplus revenues of the school should be
applied as a rule to the endowment of new exhibitions at
Oxford or Cambridge. But this ordinance was subject to
a somewhat ambiguous proviso that, after one such exhibi-
tion should be founded, the trustees might, if they should
think fit, with the consent of the Bishop of Lichfield, in-
crease the value of the existing exhibitions, or augment
the stipends of the Vicar of Chirbury and the curates of
St. Mary's, Shrewsbury, of Astley, and of Clive. For the
exhibitions, so to be founded, no scholars of Shrewsbury
were to be eligible who did not possess preferential claims,
() As legitimate sons of burgesses, born in the town or
its suburbs ;
(2) As natives of Chirbury ;
(3) As natives of Shropshire.
No one could be elected to an exhibition, moreover, who
had not been at the school for at least two years immediately
preceding the time at which he would have to go to college,
were he appointed exhibitioner, or who should not be found
on examination to be duly qualified in respect of learning,
good morals, and behaviour. Should no election be made
to a vacant exhibition, it was further provided that the
unapplied income for the year should go to the fund for
endowing new exhibitions.
356 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
(8) sExhibitions.
(a) All exhibitions to be of the annual value of ,5 o, and to be
tenable for four years.
(b) All exhibitions, except the six founded before 798, which were
reserved to St. John's College, to be open to any college at Oxford
or Cambridge.
(c) In default of preferential candidates found eligible on examina-
tion, the trustees allowed to elect other boys educated at the school
to vacant exhibitions.
(9) Scale of Annual zWayments to be made to tAe Incumbents
of School Livings.
(a) St. Mary's, Shrewsbury ,3oo.
(b) Chirbury ,2oo, and 8o for a curate.
(c) Clive . ,9o.
(d) Astley 7o.
Permission, however, was given to the trustees, with the consent
of the Bishop of Lichfield, to increase or diminish from time to
time these stipends. They were also allowed to expend annually in
support of the parochial schools-
(e) In each of the parishes of St. Mary, St. Chad, and Chirbury,
a sum not exceeding ,'5.
(f) In each of the parishes of Clive and Astley, a sum not
exceeding ,5-
( o) zWlayground.
The trustees were, in addition, empowered to pay such rent
as they might find necessary in order to procure a suitable play-
ground for the boys.
On July x8th, I86L a royal commission was issued to
inquire "into the nature and application of the endowments,
funds, and revenues of certain specified colleges, schools, and
foundations," the systems under which they were managed,
and "the course of studies respectively pursued therein."
The institutions specified in her Majesty's commission were
Eton College, Winchester College, the College of St. Peter,
Westminster, the Charterhouse School, St. Paul's School,
Merchant Taylors' School, Harrow, Rugby, and Shrewsbury,
and the Commissioners appointed were the Earl of Clarendon,
BENJAMIN HALL KENNEDY 357
Lord Lyttelton, the Hon. E. T. 13. Twisleton, Sir Stafford
Henry Northcote, Bart., the Rev. William Hepworth
Thompson, l.a., and Henry Halford Vaughan, Esq., M.A.;
Montague Bernard, Esq., B.C.L., being nominated as secretary.
On the zznd and 23rd of May, 1862, the Commissioners
inspected the school buildings at Shrewsbury, and examined
orally Dr. Kennedy and some of the other masters, the
trustees and the Bailiff of the school, the trustees of
Millington's Charity, and a deputation of the Corporation of
Shrewsbury.
Two years later the report of the Commissioners, commonly
called the Public School Commissioners, was published as
a parliamentary blue-book. Much of this report dealt, as
was natural, with matters of common interest to all the
schools included in the inquiry, such as the relations of the
Head Master to the Governing Body, the constitution of that
body, the subjects of instruction in the various schools and
the stimulants to industry of which they made use, the
monitorial system, the encouragement given to games, the
fagging question, the want of good preparatory schools, and
the inconvenience arising from the varying dates of the
holidays, and many recommendations vere made of general
application. But in addition to their general report the
Commissioners made a separate report on each of the nine
schools, and many of their specific recommendations, though
based on the same general principles, vary in accordance
with the varying circumstances, history, and traditions of the
different schools. It will be convenient to note briefly the
most important of the recommendations which were made
in the case of Shrewsbury School.
These were :--
x. That the annual tuition fee should be raised from fifteen to
twenty guineas.
2. That all local preferential claims to exhibitions and scholar-
ships should be abolished.
3. That the right of gratis education, which had been enjoyed
since i798 by the sons of burgesses, should be at once limited to
forty boys, and, after twenty-five years, should be entirely abolished.
BENJAMIN HALL KENNEDY 359
boys and carefully trained by an efficient organist, and
the Sunday services from that time became, as a rule, more
or less choral. Hitherto there had been no music at all
in chapel. Once before Dr. Kennedy had tried the experi-
ment of providing instruction in choral music on the Hullah
system, and this was taken up zealously by the boys for
a time. But their zeal soon died out, and the choral music
was given up after a year. Now, however, the establishment
of the chapel choir was lasting in its good effects. Not only
were the services made more interesting and attractive to the
boys, but the choir did much to cultivate a taste for music
throughout the school. Both in the Doctor's hall and in
Jee's hall the boys began to get up occasional concerts and
readings, to which, after a time, the masters and their
families were invited. And so matters progressed till, on
May Ist in the following year, a most successful concert was
given in the Music Hall before a crowded audience. From
that time to the present the school concert has been an
annual and most popular institution.
In I868 an Act of Parliament was passed, commonly
known as the Public Schools Act, which embodied most
of the recommendations of the Commissioners, and among
other enactments constituted new governing bodies of a
representative character, to which extensive powers of
framing new statutes for the management and government
of their respective schools were given. But before the
passing of this Act Dr. Kennedy had ceased to be Head
Master of Shrewsbury. Towards the end of I865 he signified
his intention of resigning at the following Midsummer. Old
Salopian committees were immediately formed, both at
Shrewsbury and at Cambridge, to consider the steps which
should be taken to commemorate worthily Dr. Kennedy's
long and most remarkable career at Shrewsbury. Un-
fortunately, as it seemed at the time, much difference of
opinion manifested itself among his old pupils as to the
form the memorial should take, some advocating the founda-
tion of a professorship at Cambridge which should bear
Dr. Kennedy's name, and others holding strongly that the
364 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
Munro's testimony is the strongest. He speaks of the
change effected by the new Head Master in I836 in a few
months' time as marvellous. All of the boys under his
immediate instruction who were "able and willing to learn"
soon felt that he had given them "such an insight into the
Greek language, and such a hold of its true principles and
idiom, as to render further progress easy and agreeable."
And this great and immediate success the Professor ascribes
partly to "knowledge" and partly to "method united with
kindness and enthusiasm."
But it was not only in his Greek lessons that Kennedy's
teaching was so effective. To everything he taught he
managed to give "life and meaning and interest. "1 His
"strues," as Shrewsbury boys call them, were always fasci-
nating, partly from the wealth of illustration which he drew
from local occurrences and passing events, or from the
profound historical knowledge with which his mind was
stored, 2 and partly from the effect due to dramatic instincts
which seemed absolutely to carry him away, when he was
translating, to the theatre, the law courts, or the battlefield.
One of his pupils, in recalling memories of the pleasure
sixth form boys used to take in Kennedy's translations,
writes that it is difficult to say which gave them the greatest
delight as the words poured forth from his lips, the Homeric
roll, the pathos of /Eschylus, the music of the Odes of
Horace, or the fun of Aristophanes.
was that a boy who knows Thucydides and Sophocles may say he knows Greek.
Aristotle was never done in form, but the Head Master occasionally read it with
some of the abler boys as "extra work."
See the Dedication in Munro's edition of Lzgmtius.
: Professor T. S. Evans, who was much Dr. Kennedy's junior as a Shrewsbury
boy, but was for six years an assistant master under him, sys that he never knew
anyone who surpassed him in "width of knowledge and variety of information, or
in power of speech, or in tenacity and exactitude of memory." {See ,Itmoir of
T. S. Evam, Z).Z)., by JoslzPH WAITS.)
- It was Dr. Kennedy's custom at the end of each translation lesson to construe
through the whole himself, giving "an extempore version of it, not elaborately
finished, but pointed and vigorous and sonorous." One of the most distinguished
among the pupils of his last five years at Shrewsbury has called it "an education
in itself to watch this version coming to the birth and gradually developing
itself." (See Journal ofEducalian for May, 1889. )
366 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
a phenomenal state of things must be sought in that
magnetic influence which, as Mr. W. G. Clark and others
have said, Kennedy appears to have exercised over the
minds of the eider boys in intellectual matters. One of
his old pupils calls him "a splendid master whom the sixth
form adored"; and certainly much of the maffnetic influence
in question was due to the affection which so many of his
pupils felt for him. And so it came about that the im-
pression Kennedy's manner often produced on the boys,
that it positively gave him physical pain when they wrote
bad or careless exercises, and his manifest pleasure in good
work, a pleasure which he often evidenced by striding up
and down the room, exercise in hand, exclaiming "Wonder-
ful, wonderful!" had really much effect in stimulating his
pupils to greater efforts to please him. But their efforts,
we must not forget, could never have led to such results
had it not been for the exquisite models of verse compo-
sition which were always accessible to them in the Sabrinw
Corolla, many of the most striking of which, as Dr. Kennedy
would have been the first to remind us, came from the pens
of Butler's pupils, Marmaduke Lawson, James Hildyard,
Robert Scott, Richard Shilleto, Thomas Saunders Evans,
and B. H. Kennedy himself. So Butler's good work has
been always producing its effect at Shrewsbury, not only
through the system he established, but through the brilliant
compositions which were the result of his scholarly training.
Nor would it be fair to omit all mention in this connection
of the succession of able men by whom Dr. Kennedy was
assisted in carrying on the work of the school--T. F. Henney,
J. I. WeIldon, William Linwood, T. S. Evans, E. H. Gifford,
and others. Of Dr. Gifford one distinguished Old Salopian
has said, "My first love of classics was started in the fifth
form when Gifford came to be master. He first showed me
the beauty of classics when he translated Thucydides to the
form .... The classical lessons of Kennedy and Evans and
Gifford are things to be remembered with delight." The
same authority, it should be added, attributes much im-
i The Rev. Robert Burn.
BENJAMIN HALL KENNEDY 367
portance to the Latin essay which was frequently required
from the sixth form and the daily repetition lessons from
the best Greek and Latin writers, both in verse and prose.
Dr. Kennedy had a singularly powerful voice, and was
often an object of terror to small boys until they discovered
what a tender-hearted man he really was. Old Salopians
who were in the lower forms in 84o-842, at the time when
the Head Master surrendered the teaching of the sixth form
to his brilliant assistant, Mr. Linwood, and took sometimes
one and sometimes another of the remaining forms, still
remember the fear and trembling which seized them when
their form was summoned into Top Schools that the Head
Master might hear them their lesson. But, though im-
petuous in manner and impulsive in act, Kennedy had, as
we have said, a most tender heart, and little children found
him out at once. Sometimes, and perhaps it might be said
frequently, his impulsive temperament led him to inflict
punishments which, if not altogether undeserved, were out
of proportion to the offence. But such punishments were
practically never carried out.
The Head Master was the most generous of men, and
never allowed false pride to prevent him from ackno'ledging
himself to be in the wrong and apologising for his error.
In his manner he was uniformly courteous. He had a way
too, in his social intercourse with the elder boys, of treating
them as equals and asking their opinion or advice, which
not unnaturally exercised a great charm over them. As
one of them once said to the writer, "This probably went
to our hearts more than anything else." Certainly our
public schools have known few Head Masters who have
cast such a spell over their pupils as Kennedy. Everyone
has a score of amusing stories to tell about him, but all
speak of him in tones of the warmest affection. It is
impossible for anyone who has known him intimately ever to
forget him, he was so absolutely unlike anyone else. The
very uniqueness of his character was no doubt in some
measure the cause of his attractive influence. One of his
most distinguished colleagues and pupils has said of Kennedy,
368 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
"It is no easy task to describe the union of enthusiasm and
generosity, almost sublime, with a childlike simplicity, at
which it was impossible sometimes not to smile. ''a
But it is this childlike simplicity of mind which was in
reality the keynote of his life, explaining, as it undoubtedly
does, much that would be otherwise inexplicable in a man of
such generous disposition and such marvellous intellectual
power. His inability to keep a secret, and the difficulty he
sometimes seemed to find in seeing that there may be two
sides to a question and that a man may be partly right and
partly wrong, his impulsive acts, his impetuosity, and his
impatience in literary controversy were all the direct outcome
of the childlike simple-mindedness that remained with him
to the end of his life. For household management Dr.
Kennedy had no taste. But, like Dr. Butler, he was happy in
having a wife who, throughout his long head-mastership,
admirably discharged the domestic duties connected with the
care of two large boarding-houses, and enabled him to show
to friends and colleagues and boys that genial hospitality
which it always delighted him to exercise. Mrs. Kennedy is
no longer with us, but there are many Old Salopians who
gratefully remember her "calm and gentle spirit" and the
"kind and affectionate sympathy" with which she was "ever
ready to soothe the troubles and share the joys of boyhood. ''2
The warm interest too which Mrs. Kennedy, and indeed
every member of the Head Master's family, took in all the
school games and amusements did much to increase the
enjoyment they gave to the boys at the time, and to add
to the store of happy recollections which so many Salopians
of Kennedy's days are wont to associate with their school life
at Shrewsbury.
The Rev. E. H. Gifford, D.D.
2 See speeches of Mr. W. G. Clark and Dr. E. H. Gifford at the Tercentenary
Festival in
kHV. H. W. IOSS
CHAPTER XVII.
Henry Whitehead Moss, B.A., appointed Head Master in s866--Public
Schools Act of t868--New Governing Body elected in t87t--Removal
of the School to Kingsland in t88z--School Life on Kingsland.
HEN Dr. Kennedy resigned in I866 the master and
fellows of St. John's College, Cambridge, were again
able to find a Shrewsbury scholar of great distinction to
appoint to the head-mastership without going outside the
walls of their own college, although he did not bring to his
work at Shrewsbury the scholastic experience which his
predecessor had gained both at Shrewsbury and Harrow
before he succeeded Dr. Butler. Mr. Henry Whitehead
Moss, the new Head Master, had been educated during the
early years of his boyhood at Lincoln Grammar School, but
he subsequently migrated to Shrewsbury, where he had for
three years the benefit of Dr. Kennedy's brilliant and effective
teaching. In October, I86O, he proceeded in due course to
St. John's College. His university career fulfilled the promise
of his school-days. While an undergraduate he was awarded
the Porson Prize for Greek verse on three separate occasions.
He also carried off a Browne Medal in 863 for Greek
elegiacs. In I862 Mr. Moss was elected Craven university
scholar, and in I864 he graduated as Senior Classic. In the
course of the same year he became a felloxv and lecturer of
his college.
Little need be said of the fifteen years which elapsed
between the appointment of the new Head Master and the
removal of the school to its present home on Kingsland.
Almost every year that passed brought with it in the form
of classical distinctions gained by Shrewsbury men at Oxford
2 B 369
370 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
and Cambridge additional evidence that the high standard of
classical scholarship which the school had attained under
Butler and Kennedy was not likely to deteriorate under their
successor. Of the Shrewsbury men who went up to Cam-
bridge between x867 and I882 twenty-two gained a first class
in the Classical Tripos, two of whom were Senior Classics,
and three were Chancellor's Medallists. During these same
fifteen years Shrewsbury carried off ten of the principal
university scholarships, one Bell scholarship, three Powis
Medals, eighteen Browne Medals, and nine Porson Prizes.
In addition to these classical distinctions Shrewsbury men
obtained two first classes in the Law Tripos, one in the
Theological Tripos, and one in the Natural Sciences Tripos,
while two of their number were awarded the Chancellor's
Medal for an English poem, and another won the Maitland
Prize for an English essay. Although Shrewsbury successes
have always been less marked at Oxford than at Cambridge,
they included at the former university during the fifteen years
in question three university scholarships, twelve first classes
in Classical Moderations, and four in the final Classical School,
one first class in modern history, and the Chancellor's Prize
for Latin verse. Three years elapsed after the passing of the
Public School Act of I868 before the members of the new
Governing Body of Shrewsbury School, for the constitution
of which provision was made in the Act, were duly elected
by the persons or the corporate bodies to whom this duty
was entrusted.
The following tables give the names of the Governors
originally elected in 87 I, as well as of those who were in
office in January, I898 :-
GOVERNING BODY OF SHREWSBURY SCHOOL,
z871 . NOMINATORS.
Rev. W. H. Bateson, I.I.,
Master of St. John's
College, Cambridge .
JohnLoxdale, Esq. . } The Mayor and Corpora- {
Henry Keate, Esq. tion of Shrewsbury
John Bather, Esq.
i898.
Rev.Charles Taylor,D.D.
Master of St. John's
College, Cambridge.
George Butler Lloyd,
Esq.
E. Cresswell Peele, Esq.
The Lord Lieutenant of Stan|ey Leighton. Esq.,
Shropshire. . . t .I. P.
373 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
Governing Body the great expense which would have neces-
sarily attended the purchase of sufficient land for their
purpose in the neighbourhood of the old school-buildings,
the impossibility of providing suitable playgrounds within
reasonable distance, and the manifest objections which could
not but be felt by all who knew anything of school life
to the retention of the boarding-houses within the town
at all, if Shrewsbury were again to hold its own numerically
among the great schools of England, seemed decisive argu-
ments in favour of removal. The site originally selected for
the erection of the new school-buildings was at Coton Hill,
and there is no doubt that this choice offered many advan-
tages. The daily life of the boys would still be passed amid
scenes which had been familiar to Shrewsbury scholars from
the time of the foundation of the school--the boarding-
houses would be quite outside the town and only accessible
from it by one road, and yet the journey which day boys
would have to make to school for each lesson would hardly
be lenhened by ten minutes. But as soon as the intentions
of the Governing Body became publicly known an energetic
opposition was set on foot, which was carried on mainly
through the instrumentality of public meetings, pamphlets,
and newspaper articles. A memorial on the subject was also
signed by no less than 60o Old Salopians, and was presented
to the Governing Body in December, 873, by the Rt. Hon.
H. C. Raikes. A similar address, in opposition to the pro-
posed removal, emanating from a meeting of townsmen, held
in the previous October under the presidency of the Mayor,
was also presented at the same time by the Earl of Powis.
One plausible objection to the Coton Hill site was urged
by the townsmen of Shrewsbury. They represented that in
time of floods Coton Hill would practically be isolated, so
far as day boys were concerned. Now such a state of
things, though by no means common, did in former days
sometimes exist in Shrewsbury, and happily the Governing
Body was ultimately able to procure a site against which this
objection could not be urged, and so excellent in every respect
that much of the town opposition gradually subsided.
KINGSLAND 373
On the Hereford side of the Severn, immediatety opposite
to the beautiful grounds known as "the Quarry," where
Shrewsbury boys used to act their annual Whitsuntide Play
in Ashton's days, there is a considerable expanse of table-
land known as Kingsland, some of which formerly belonged
to private owners, though the greater part was the property
either of the Corporation or of the united parishes of Shrews-
bury. Twenty-seven acres of this land were purchased by
the Governing Body in the summer of 875, and upon this
singularly beautiful site the present school-buildings were
ultimately erected. But before the arrangements for the
purchase of Kingsland could be carried out it was necessary
to obtain the abolition of the ancient show, 1 which had been
held there every year for more than three centuries. In-
teresting as this curious old pageant was to antiquarians as
an illustration of the influence and importance of the old
trading companies of Shrewsbury, it had been for many
years an excuse for dissipation and a fertile source of trouble
The Shrewsbury Show undoubtedly took its origin from the religious observ-
ance of the Feast of Corpus Christi by the Trade Companies of Shrewsbury. It
was for many years the custom on that day for all the incorporated companies,
bearing their various colours and devices, to accompany the Bailiffs, Aldermen,
and Council, in solemn procession, to Weeping Cross, a place about two miles
distant from the town. After duly bewailing their sins at Weeping Cross the
members of the companies reformed their procession, and the whole party
returned to St. Chad's Church, where High lIass was celebrated. Three days
in the following week were always dedicated by the companies to recreation.
After the Reformation, when the festival of Corpus Christi ceased to be observed,
the old procession was kept up at the same season of the year, although it no
longer possessed any religious signification. About I591 it became the custom
for the procession to go to Kingsland, where a small plot of land was allotted to
each company. These plots were enclosed by a hedge and were called arbours,
and most of them were provided with a covered buildingof wood. In the course
of the seventeenth century buildings of a more substantial character were erected
by some of the companies. The Shoemakers' Arbour, which was the largest,
was put up in I679. In modern days the procession consisted in part of men and
women on cars, or on horseback, dressed up to represent Henry "VIII., Queen
Elizabeth, Bishop Blasius, St. Catharine, St. Crispin, St. Crispianus, Rubens the
painter, Vulcan, and various other characters, historical or mythical, who, for one
reason or another, were regarded as figurative of the various trades. It used to
be a great ddight to the boys to seat themselves on the wall of School Gardens as
the procession was passing down Castle Gates and fire at the stately personages as
they went by with pea-shooters, an amusement that generally earned for them a
liberal allowance of detentions.
374 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
and mischief, and most of the respectable inhabitants of the
town gladly welcomed the day when an order in Council
was issued which put a final end to the show.
Some years elapsed after the purchase of the property
before suitable boarding-houses and class-rooms could be
provided and other necessary arrangements made for the
accommodation of the masters and boys on Kingsland,
and it was not till July 28th, I882, that the new school-
buildings were formally opened. Old Salopians mustered
in great numbers for the opening ceremonies.
The proceedings commenced with the celebration of Holy
Communion in St. Mary's Church at 8 a.m., followed by
morning service at 1.3o, with a sermon from the Bishop
of Manchester. The offertory at this service, which was
devoted to the fund for building a school chapel on Kings-
land, amounted to c246. Shortly afterwards there was a
general move to the Corn Exchange, where guests, masters,
and boys were entertained at luncheon by the Governing
Body to the number of 500. The opening ceremony took
place in a large tent which had been put up on Kingsland
for the purpose, and which had a raised platform at one
end for the accommodation of the Governing Body and the
principal guests. The chair was taken by the Head Master,
and the school-buildings were formally declared open by
Lord Cranbrook in a most interesting speech, which con-
sisted chiefly of reminiscences of his school life. After this
the prizes were given away, and other speeches followed.
Among the speakers were the Bishops of Lichfield, Hereford,
Manchester, and Bedford, Lord Chief Justice May, Sir James
Paget, Lord Powis, Professor E. C. Clark, the High Sheriff of
Shropshire, and the Deputy-Mayor of Shrewsbury. In the
evening the day's festivities were brought to a close by the
annual school concert, which took place as usual in the
Music Hall. Two years later the school chapel was com-
pleted and ready for use.
It has been already mentioned that in December, I865, a
Committee was appointed with the view of erecting a new
chapel as a memorial of Dr. Kennedy's head-mastership. A
T. A. BENILEY
376 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
beneath record their names and the dates of their birth and
death. There is also a memorial window to a boy who died
at school on the north side of the chancel. The east window
and the other windows in the chancel, as well as those on
the south side of the nave, are by Mr. Kempe. The re-
mainder of the stained glass is the work of Burlison and
Grills. The walls beneath the windows on both sides of
the nave have been recently covered with oak panelling of
singularly beautiful design, for which the school is also in-
debted to Mr. Kempe's artistic skill. One effect of this
recent improvement has been to bring into somewhat dis-
agreeable contrast the boys' seats in the nave, which are of
pitchpine ; but this incongruity will, it is to be hoped, speedily
be remedied.
Until the new chapel was completed the boarders con-
tinued to attend service on Sundays at St. Mary's Church.
On January 27th, 884, they assembled there for the last
time, when a farewell sermon was preached by the Vicar,
the Rev. T. B. Lloyd, from the text, " For my brethren and
companions' sake I will now say 'peace be within thee.'"
The first sermon in the new chapel was preached by Bishop
Walsham How.
At the time the Kingsland property was acquired by the
Governing Body there stood on the brow of the hill, facing
the quarry, a large building, originally erected in I765, at a
cost of more than ci2,ooo, as a "Foundling Hospital" in
connection with the well-known institution in London. The
hospital was closed in I774 for want of sufficient funds for
its support, and the building was used for a time during the
American War for the confinement of Dutch prisoners. In
784 it was purchased by the united parishes of Shrewsbury
for the shelter of the poor, and for this purpose it was used
under the name of "the house of industry" until the work-
house was built at Cross Houses. After much consideration,
and a favourable report from Mr. A. W. Blomfield as to the
stability of the building and the excellence of the materials
of which it was constructed, it was determined to remodel
the interior, so as to make it available for general school
"/'HE NEW SCHOOL CH-PEL
SCHOOL BUILDINGS 377
purposes. The chief room in the building, as it is now
arranged, is about I2O feet long. It is divided into three
parts by movable partitions, the largest of which is known
popularly in the school as "Top Schools," and is used for
the same purposes of "preparation" as "Top Schools ''* vas
in former times in the old school-buildings. Besides an
ample supply of class-rooms, in which are included four
rooms set apart for the study of natural science and a school
for drawing, the central school- building contains a gym-
nasium, a common-room for day boys, four sets of rooms for
assistant masters, and two libraries, one of which is devoted
to the valuable books which used to be kept in the old
school library. The portraits of Edvard VI., Sir Philip
Sidney, Leonard Hotchkis, and others, which formerly hung
on the library walls, have been placed in the Head Master's
house.
The chief entrance of the school-building opens into a
fairly spacious hall, on the walls of which, as well as on
those of the broad stone staircase which leads upwards from
the hall to the class-rooms, the old honour-boards have been
fixed. There are staircases also at both ends of the building ;
by that at the west end access is obtained to the masters' apart-
ments. All the class-rooms are warmed by hot water. As
at present arranged the roof consists of a lead flat, which is
railed in and surmounted in the centre by a large zinc-covered
cupola. Fine views can be obtained from here of the triple
summit of the Breidden, of the Stiperstones, Caer Caradoc,
the Long Mynd, the lion-like form of Pontesbury Hill,
Grinshill, Hawkestone, Haughmond Hill, and the Wrekin
on the one side, and of the Severn, the Quarry, and the
greater part of the town of Shrewsbury on the other. The
old red brickwork of the "Foundling Hospital" has been
cleaned and repointed, and string courses and window
dressings have been introduced, and the general appearance
of what is now the chief school-building is fairly imposing.
1 Two other rooms are also used for "preparation" in the evening. The
institution itself, though popularly known as "Top Schools," has always had
besides the more dignified appellation of " Reading-room."
378 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
Mr. Blomfield was also the architect of the Head Master's
house, which was the only boarding-house built at the cost
of the Governing Body. It has accommodation for about
sixty-six boys, and harmonises fairly well, architecturally
speaking, with the central school-building. Other boarding-
houses were, however, built at the same time on ground
included within the school property by two of the assistant
masters, the Rev. G. T. Hall and the Rev. C. J. S. Churchill,
of both of which Mr. William White, '.s..., was the architect.
According to existing regulations the number of boarders
which an assistant master is allowed to take is limited to
forty-two, and two of tb.at number, it is provided, must
always be the holders of house scholarships worth 3o a
year. No limitation is put by statute or regulation on the
number of the Head Master's boarders. Since 1882 several
other houses have been built or rented by assistant masters
outside the school gates in which boarders are now received.
The largest of these, which belongs to Mr. E. B. Moser, is
built, like Mr. Hall's and Mr. Churchill's houses, from the
designs of Mr. William White. All three houses are admir-
ably adapted for their purpose as regards their interior arrange-
ments. Externally, also, they present features of considerable
architectural merit. Mr. A. F. Chance, Mr. F. E. Bennett,
Mr. W. D. Haydon, and Mr. C. J. Baker are the other masters
who take boarders. It is provided by the regulations of
tb.e Governing Body that no boy shall attend the school
as a boarder unless he board with one of the schoolmasters ;
or, as a day boy, unless he reside with his parents or
guardians, or with someone who has received a licence from
the Governing Body to take boys to lodge and board in
his house. An ample supply of water for general school
purposes is procured from a reservoir in the school-buildings,
into which the water is forced by means of a small engine.
The source of this supply is a well near the Head Master's
house. The Kingsland property has also been connected
by pipes with the old conduit spring, and the excellent water
which comes from this source is available for all residents.
A school shop was started soon after the removal to the
NEW STATUTES & REGULATIONS 379
present site, and has, up to this time, been a great financial
success. It is managed by a committee of boys, on which
every boarding-house is represented, with a master for
chairman. The cricket pavilion adjoins the shop. It has
been recently enlarged, and boards have been placed on
the walls of the principal room recording the names of the
boys in the school cricket and football elevens for each year
from x88_9. An excellent swimming-bath has been presented
to the school by the Head Master. It is seventy feet long
by twenty-five in breadth, and varies in depth from three
feet and a half to six feet and a half. Almost adjoining
the bath a carpenter's shop has been erected, vhich is
supplied with two lathes and all the necessary apparatus
for instruction in the work of the carpenter, the joiner, and
the turner. The Sanatorium is situated about a quarter of
a mile from the boarding-houses. Allusion has already been
made to some of the ordinances framed by the Governing
Body for the regulation of school affairs, by which previous
ordinances have been in some degree modified; but it will
be well to state briefly some of the chief changes that have
been made. The new ordinances consist partly of statutes
and partly of regulations. By one of the new statutes all
masters are now appointed by, and hold their offices at
the pleasure of, the Head Master. He is bound, however,
whenever he may dismiss a master, to notify the fact and the
reason for it to the Governing Body.
The Act of I798, while placing the appointment of all
other masters in the hands of the Head Master, and giving
him power to displace, remove, or discharge any of them for
immorality, neglect of duty, incapacity, or other reasonable
cause, had left his former independent position to the second
master, although expressly reserving to the Head Master the
general arrangements for the teaching and discipline of the
school. Other important changes have also been made dealing
with the rights which burgesses of Shrewsbury formerly pos-
sessed of free education for their children, and the restrictions
which had been been placed by the school ordinances or
by founders' wills on the appointment to exhibitions or
380 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
scholarships of boys educated at Shrewsbury School. In the
first case, subject to the rights of persons who were bur-
gesses at the time of the passing of the Public School Act
of 868 to send their boys to school without the payment of
any tuition fee, the burgess claim to gratis education given
by the Act of 798 has been entirely abolished. As re-
gards school scholarships and
to particular colleges at Oxford
removed, and all limitations as
the parentage or lineage of the
exhibitions all restrictions
and Cambridge have been
to the place of birth and
candidates have been done
away with, except in the cases of the exhibitions founded
by Dr. John Millington, and the tnvo exhibitions founded by
the Rev. R. B. Podmore and lIrs. Noneley respectively.
The preference to which the sons of Mrs. Laura Seraphina
Beddoes were entitled in respect of the exhibitions founded
by Dr. John Millington, their ancestor, is expressly reserved
to them. The Podmore exhibition is still confined to
Shropshire boys, and can only be held at Trinity College,
Cambridge. The Noneley exhibition can only be held at
some college in the university of Oxford. The preferential
claims which certain persons and classes of persons had to
the Vicarage of Chirbury and the curacies of St. Nary,
Shrewsbury, Astley, and Clive have also been abolished.
No provision was made under Ashton's ordinances that the
Head Naster should be in holy orders. We know, indeed,
that two Head Masters appointed in the sixteenth century,
Thomas Lawrence and John Meighen, were laymen. But the
Act of 798, in requiring that the Head ?,Iaster should hold
the office of catechist and reader, practically made holy
orders a necessary qualification. No such limitation exists
in the present statutes. The only requirement for candidates
for the post is that they should be lIasters of Arts, or of
some equal or superior degree in one or other of the
universities of Oxford and Cambridge. None of the school-
masters were allowed under Ashton's ordinances to "take
the charge or cure of preaching or ministry in the Church,"
or to "practise physic or any other art or profession, whereby
their sen'ice in the school should be hindered." But no
'i
"I'HE NEW SCHOOL 5HAPEL IN]ERIOR
SCHOOL LIFE 38
similar regulation is to be found in the Act of I798 by which
Ashton's ordinances were repealed, and, as a matter of fact,
Dr. Butler held ecclesiastical preferment nearly the whole
time he was Head Master. The old restrictions have, how-
ever, now been practically restored so far as the Head
Master is concerned, for one of the new statutes provides
that he shall not hold any ecclesiastical or other office to
which any emolument is attached without the consent of the
Governing Body. Provision is made in the regulations that
divine service shall be celebrated in the school chapel by
the Head Master, or by some person appointed by him, at
which all boys shall be required to attend subject to the
operation of a "conscience clause" which applies not only to
religious worship, but to all religious instruction. General
power is given by the regulations to the Head Master
to dismiss from the school any boy vho has been guilty
of gross misconduct and to forbid the return of any boy who
has been persistently idle ; but he is required to report to the
Governing Body every term the number of cases in which he
may have exercised this power. All boys on the foundation
have a statutable right of appeal to the Governing Body
against any such sentence of dismissal by the Head Master.
Subject to such modifications as the changed conditions in
its new home and the educational requirements of the present
age have rendered necessary, the school may be said to
remain much the same as regards hours and methods of dis-
cipline as it was in Dr. Butler's and Dr. Kennedy's days.
The praepostorial system, for the introduction of which
at Shrewsbury Dr. Butler was responsible, and which was
described by Dr. Kennedy as "the very bone and sinew of
public school education," remains practically unchanged.
Theoretically the authority exercised by Shrewsbury pra:-
postors over the other boys has always been of a strictly
limited character, and the only punishment which, up to the
end of Dr. Kennedy's time, they were recognized as having
the right to inflict, was that of setting small impositions.
But of this right very little use has ever been made, though
doubtless the prapostors have found other means from time
382 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
to time of enforcing their authority besides those of moral
suasion. The privileges of prmpostors, as they were
described by Dr. Kennedy in I862, were to wear a hat
instead of the regulation college cap, which was worn by
all the other boys until some years after the removal of the
school to Kingsland ; to carry a stick when out walking ;* to
be independent of the ordinary rules as to bounds, and to doul
the younger boys for the service of Head-room. For this
latter purpose four boys were put on the roll each week as
general fags for Head-room, the duties which they had
to discharge being chiefly those of fetching and carrying at
meal times. Dr. Kennedy, whose rooted objection to in-
dividual fagging as practised at most of our old public
schools has been already mentioned, seems to have seen
some distinction between the two customs. There is still
no recognized system of fagging, although there undoubtedly
exists at the present time, as there always has existed, a
certain amount of irregular fagging. The number of pra-
postors in 82 was only eight. But this number was
increased a few years afterwards to twelve, and twelve
remained the normal number until the recent removal of the
school to Kingsland.
New boys are never made prapostors. But when a boy
gets promoted after examination into the upper sixth he
becomes a prapostor at once, however young he may be.
It sometimes happens that a prmpostor is beaten in examina-
tion by a boy in the lower sixth. In such a case, though
losing position in the form, he retains his rank and privileges
as prapostor. Boys who occupy a distinguished position on
the modern side, or in science, or in the army class, are
generally made prmpostors. The Public School Com-
missioners regarded the recognition by the Head Master of
the prmpostors as a sort of senate representing the school
and entitled to negotiate with him on matters of common
school interest, and to give pledges and enter into conditions
See evidence in Report of Public School Commission.
* The tall hat is no longer worn except on Sundays, but the pr:epostors
continue to cart-), sticks as a mark of distinction.
386 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
which contains but four houses, each house plays three
matches. The house winning most matches in its own
division is said to be head of that division, and plays the
headof the other division in theflna/. Should there be any
ties in either division they are of course previously played
off to decide which house is head of its division. The winning
house holds a challenge bat, and each member of the winning
eleven a silver bat, for the year. The second elevens also
play in heats for a similar trophy.
.At football the first and second elevens of the different
houses compete with one another on the league system, and
the trophies are silver bowls. Ordinary games at football are
classified, as in cricket, as Senior, Middle, Junior, and Junior
House Games. Various arrangements have at different times
been made to prevent the "juniors" being sxvamped by
older and bigger boys, who, not being very good, prefer
these games to the other school games. The latest plan
has been to make out a list of those qualified to play in
"Junior House Games," and to forbid other boys to take
part in them.
Boating goes on more or less the whole year, and there are
races of one sort or another in each term, the most important
of which, the bumping races for first and second house
fours, are rowed in the summer term. These races are con-
ducted on precisely the same lines as those at Oxford and
Cambridge. Great pains are taken by some of the masters
interested in rowing in coaching the house fours, and a
supply of oarsmen is thus provided from which the trial
eights and ultimately the school eight are selected. The
thoroughness with which the system of instruction is carried
out, combined with the proximity of the river and the pros-
perity of the Boat Club, have made Shrewsbury of late
years a good nursery for rowing, and large numbers of
Old Salopians are to be found year by year pulling in their
college crews at Oxford and Cambridge.
There are also annual house competitions in athletics
The silver bats were presented to the school by the Naab Vikar al Ulma of
1 lyderabad.
388 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
1872, have both done good work at Cambridge as tutors
and lecturers of their respective colleges. The latter has
examined for the Classical Tripos no less than twelve times.
John Henry Onions, 2 i.A., of Christ Church, Oxford, after
gaining the Ireland and Craven scholarships, and a st class
in Classical Moderations, became Senior Student in 876 and
tutor of Christ Church in 878, but his useful educational
work at Oxford was brought to a premature end by his death
in 1889.
The Rev. R. F. Horton, D.D., minister of Lyndhurst Road
Chapel, Hampstead, late fellow of New College, Oxford, who
gained a st class in Classical Moderations as well as in the
Final Classical School, acted as lecturer in history for his
college from 879 to I883 .
William Joseph Myles Starkie, who was head boy at
Shrewsbury 879-8o, had a distinguished career both at
Trinity College, Cambridge, and also at Trinity College,
Dublin. Of the latter college he was elected a fellow in
I89O, and seven years later he was appointed a member of
the Academic Council of Dublin University. Mr. Starkie
was made a Commissioner of Education for Ireland in 189o.
He is now President of Queen's College, Galway. 4
Among the modern Salopians who, after distinguished
careers at Oxford or Cambridge, are now doing valuable
a In accordance with Dr. Kennedy's method of classification bit. Heitland
and Mr. Archer Hind are included among Mr. Mom's pupils as having been
under his tuition for at least one year before going to college. But it is right to
mention that both of them were for three years in the sixth form under Dr.
Kennedy.
21lr.J. l-I. Onions took a tst class in Classical Moderations in 873 ; Ireland
scholar, 875 ; Craven scholar, 876. He was at Shrewsbury School, 1867-187.
B.A., 876 ; M.A.,
3 Mr. 17. F. l-lotion was born in 855, and was at Shrewsbury School
to 879 ; B.A., t878 ; M.A., 88t ; fellow of New College, 879 ; Chairman of
the London Congregational Union, 898. Dr. Horton has published several
books, chiefly theological.
4 [r. IV../r. [. Starkie was born at Sligo in 186o. First c/ass in the Classical
Tripos at Cambridge in I883. At Dublin he gained the Berkeley Gold Medal for
Greek and many other prizes and distinctions. While still an undergraduate at
Trinity College, Dublin, from I853 to 886, Mr. Starkie was acting as Professor
of Classical Literature in the Roman Catholic University of Ireland.
DISTINGUISHED PUPILS 39
Two other Shrewsbury men have distinguished themselves
of late years as adventurous travellers and daring sportsmen
--Charles St. George Littledale, to whom the Royal Geo-
graphical Society has recently awarded its gold medal; and
E J. Jackson, now Acting-Commissioner and British Vice-
Consul in the Protectorate of Uganda, who led the first
caravan of the British East Africa Company. Mr. Jackson
vrote the account of " Big Game Shooting in Africa" in
the Badminton Library, and was the donor of a valu-
able collection of African birds to the South Kensington
Museum.
394 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
the delights of the runs were intensified by the fact that they
were carried on in complete contempt of all school regula-
tions as to bounds ; and their popularity was further increased
by the perpetual feuds which they caused with the neigh-
bouring farmers. 1 Except for a gap between I846 and I849
the history of the R.S.S.H. has been regularly recorded in
the run books from the year 842, but the institution itself
is of much earlier origin. Old Salopians are still living who
remember the runs in Dr. Butler's days, and relate with
pride their attainment of the honour of being pronounced
killing hound or killing gentleman. These honours were
gained, then as now, by the hound or gentleman who
" killed"; that is to say, who came in first in a race at the
finish the greatest number of times during the season. At
one time there used to be two separate packs of hounds--
one in Jee's hall and the other in Iliff's-O--and these were
hunted at different hours on the same day. Dr. Butler does
not appear to have interfered with the runs, or to have made
any attempt to put them down; and it is confidently stated
by an old Shrewsbury boy, who was at school from 834 to
I84O, and had a long experience as hound, gentleman, whip,
and huntsman, that they met with no hindrance in the early
years of Dr. Kennedy's head-mastership. For a long time
indeed Dr. Kennedy does not appear to have been aware
of the extent to which the runs were carried on "out of
bounds," and before 85o no record exists of any members of
the hunt being punished on that account. His eyes, how-
ever, were opened to some evils connected with the runs in
I843 or 844 by the disappearance of a large number of
copies of the new Latin Grammar, s which had taken the form
of scent, and a temporary check on the operations of the
hounds ensued. Between x85o and x856 some spasmodic
efforts were made from time to time to stop the practice
a On one occasion a complaint as to the hounds "trespassing" led, first, to a
general punishment, then to broken windows, and lastly to the whole school
being sent home a week before the holidays.
s Accounts of the runs made by Mr. Iliff's hounds in 83I are still in existence.
The first edition of Dr. Kennedy's Elementary La2in Gravtmar was published
in t843.
396 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
Schoolboys are very conservative about old customs, even
when they are tainted with abuses, the existence of which they
themselves are ready to acknowledge, and several days passed
before the prepostors consented to agree to Dr. Kennedy's
very reasonable propositions. But they did agree at last,
although it is to be feared that in subsequent years the
conditions were not religiously observed by the boys. 1 There
are, or used to be, two dangers connected with the runs
at Shrewsbury, which no faithful historian should omit to
mention. In the first place, one of the runs certainly, "the
Long Run," and perhaps also "the Albrighton," was a severe
trial of the physical strength and endurance of growing boys.
Secondly, it used to be the custom for some of the gentlemen,
at any rate, to carry with them stimulants, and their use
occasionally produced results almost as deleterious as those
due to over-exertion. In November, I866, a very serious
case of exhaustion occurred, one of the hounds remaining
in a state of unconsciousness for twelve hours after the
conclusion of the run, in spite of the unceasing efforts of the
medical men in attendance to rouse him from his stupor.
Happily the boy ultimately recovered, and he has since
attained celebrity both as a traveller and as a sportsman.
Mr. Moss, who had only recently become Head Master,
was, not unnaturally, seriously alarmed by the occurrence,
and at once issued an edict to the following effect :q
t. That " the Long Run" should be altogether given up.
2. That "the Albrighton Run" should not take place in the
current season.
3. That the Head Master should in future be furnished by the
huntsman with a written statement of the length and direction of
any proposed run on the day before it was to take place.
I In his evidence before the Public School Commissioners, given in I$62, Dr.
Kennedy stated that this arrangement about the hounds' slay was the last formal
agreement into which the pr,'epostors had entered with him on behalf of the
school. No mention is made in the run book of the hounds' slay as the subject of
one of the conditions of the agreement made in I$56. But there is little or
no doubt that Dr. Kennedy was referring in his evidence to the arrangement
of x856. In acknowledgment of the stand made at this time by the praepostors
in defence of the runs, it was resolved that prmpostors should henceforth be made
"gendemen" ex offcio. This institution of "gentlemen postors" lasted until a
few )'ears ago.
.-
!
GAMES AND AMUSEMENTS 397
In 186o the R.S.S.H. was presented xvith a horn and
whip, bearing suitable inscriptions, by the members of a
Shrewsbury velocipede club at Cambridge, who, true to
Shrewsbury traditions, called themselves tl, e Taclyflods. The
subscriptions of the members of the club xvere mainly
devoted to the formation of an insurance fund intended to
protect them from the dangers of proctorial fines on their
return from long country excursions, and when the club,
after a short-lived but active existence, came to an untimely
end, they shoxved their affection for the R.S.S.H. by em-
ploying the balance of their insurance fund for its benefit.
The runs of the present day no longer possess the
umvholesome attractions of illegality vhich formerly dis-
tinguished them, but they are carried on with plenty of
zeal notwithstanding. Another noticeable difference lies in
the disuse of paper scent, which, from the precision with
which the line of country to be taken in each particular
run is now arranged, is no longer necessary.
Boating comes next to the R.S.S.H. as an old and
honoured institution at Shrewsbury School. The story that
has been told in a former chapter of the verses which
Richard Shilleto laid upon Dr. Butler's desk one day when
the Head Master was denouncing boating in vigorous terms,
is a sufficient proof that up to Shilleto's time, I825 to I828,
the boys used to hire their boats from Harwood, whose ferry
and boat-house were on the Hereford side of the river, about
three or four hund'ed yards from the site of the boat-house
now standing immediately below the school-house on Kings-
land. But soon after 183o they became possessed, somehow
or other, of two six-oars and one four-oar of their own, which
were kept at Harwood's. Although Dr. Butler still retained
his dislike of the boating, it had become by this time an
understood thing that he would not strenuously oppose it.
Certainly he must have given up his old practice of flogging
the younger boys who were caught in the act, for in 83o ,
The old ' Long Run" was subsequently revived, and is still continued, on
condition that the boys taking part in it are conveyed from Kingsland to the
'* throw off" and from "the finish" back again to Kingsland, in a brake.
GAMES AND AMUSEMENTS 399
first named is the best known to fame as an oar. He went
up to college in October, I839, and his rowing powers quickly
gained him the sobriquet of t/e Stea Engine at Cambridge.
He pulled in the University race in I84 and I842, and
would also have been in the Cambridge crew of 84o had
he not been prevented by a family affliction.
From the time of the first regatta in 1839 boating became
a recognized institution at Shrewsbury with a regularly
elected captain, who was responsible to the Head Master for
the fulfilment of certain engagements. All boys above the
fourth form who had learned to swim were allowed to boat,
but boating was limited to that portion of the river which
lay between the English bridge on the one side and the
Welsh bridge on the other, except on the day of the Shelton
regatta.
In spite of this regulation, which remained in force for
several years, adventurous spirits used occasionally to row
as far as Haughmond Abbey on the one side and Berwick
Wheel on the other.
Once a year luncheon was provided by Mr. Powys for all
boys who had made their way to Berwick by the river, when,
it may be presumed, special permission was given for the
excursion. But after a time boating in the Shelton direction
was legalised, though there seems great doubt in the minds
of Old Salopians whether the practice of going down to the
Quarry (which was out of bounds for all boys except
prepostors), after first or second lesson, in order to pull
the boats up to the Flash, was ever distinctly recognized
as legitimate.
In the latter days of Dr. Kennedy's head-mastership
modern outriggers began to take the place of the old
tub-like craft, and it became the custom for old boys or
boating masters to give some aid to boating boys in the
form of instruction in the principles of rowing.
In 1864 a boat race was arranged with Cheltenham College
which took place in the Quarry, and resulted in a defeat for
1 Most of these details as to Shrewsbury boating are given on the authority of
either the Hon. and Rev. L. W, Denman, or the Rev. Edgar Montagu.
400 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
Shrewsbury by three or four seconds. Shrewsbury, however,
had its revenge in the two following years, winning a well-
contested race at Tewkesbury in 1865 by two or three feet, and
gaining a comparatively easy victory in 1866 at Worcester.
Since that time Shrewsbury has rowed many races with
Cheltenham, and latterly with unvarying success. So one-
sided, indeed, has been the contest of late years that
Cheltenham has given up the struggle, and an annual race
is now rowed with Bedford Grammar School instead. The
results of all these races will be given most conveniently
in a tabular form.
But some mention must be made of the foundation of the
School Boat Club, an event of moment in the history of
rowing at Shrewsbury. Up to 866 the whole management
of boating had been vested in the "captain," an officer whose
main business it was to hire a boat for the use of any five
boys who agreed to make up a crew for the season. By this
time the old limitation of boating to the part of the river
between the two bridges had been modified, and the crews
rowed up to Shelton and back every other day. The racing
programme at the regatta consisted of a sculling race and
a competition between house fours, which were practically
scratch fours, for the "Captain's Cups."
But in I866 the enthusiasm created by the victories over
Cheltenham in that and the preceding year gave rise to a
desire to make the boating more systematic, the outcome of
which was the formation of the School Boat Club.
This club was founded on the lines of a college club, with
a captain, secretary, and treasurer elected by the members.
Boats of their own were gradually acquired by the members
of the club, and funds were collected for the erection of a
boat-house, which, after a delay of many years, due to the
impending removal of the school, was ultimately built in
88I on the site of Evans's boat-house. A second boat-
house and a supplementary shed have since been added
to meet the requirements of the club. The boys now own
three "eights," some twenty-five "fours," and a large number
of "pairs," "whiffs," and "canoes."
406 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
of bounds" were once more resumed by the R.S.S.H. It is
not surprising, therefore, to learn that for some years after
the old difficulties in the way of football had been removed
the game was neither flourishing nor popular. But about
I846 or I847, for some unexplained reasons, it began once
more to excite a keen interest among Shrewsbury boys, an
interest which they retained subsequently at Oxford and
Cambridge. Between I854 and ,86o there were few better
players at Cambridge than Shrewsbury men. Some of them
shared with Etonians and Carthusians the credit due to
expert dribbling, and many of them were vigorous forward
players. No eleven would have been considered represent-
ative of Cambridge football in those days without a
sprinkling of Shrewsbury men. And since that time the
game has never been allowed to languish at Shrewsbur):
In the course of the year x86! some old Cambridge
friends, resident in Shropshire, who had learned their foot-
ball at Charterhouse or Harrow, and had kept it up with
vigour and success on Parker's Piece afterwards, were
venturous enough to get up an eleven to play the school
at football. The experiment thus made was often repeated
in subsequent years, and these matches did much to foster
and improve football at Shrewsbury.
Many Old Salopians will remember what a number of
brilliant football players the school produced between 86o
and 87o. But it was not till the season of 876-77 that
Shrewsbury played its first football match with another
school eleven. Since that time many other matches have
been played, some with Rossall, some with Repton, and
some with Malvern. In these matches the results have
been on the whole decidedly favourable to Shrewsbury. The
most distinctive features of the game, as formerly played at
Shrewsbury, were these :--
(I) There was no crossbar between the goal posts, and
a ball kicked between the posts counted as a goal, however
high it went.
(2) The offside rule was strict, and no loitering was allowed
between the ball and the opponents' goal.
408 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
Newport, and Wenlock. Home and home matches with
two different clubs were permitted during the cricket season,
one of the conditions of the out matches being that a master
should accompany the eleven. But his presence did not
alvays prevent the occurrence of evils similar to those
against which Dr. Kennedy had to contend in the cases of
"hounds' slays," "leaving breakfasts," and other school insti-
tutions. And when it was proposed, about 1864, that the
out matches should be altogether given up, and that no
limitation should in the future be put on the number of
home matches to be played during the season, provided
they were played on half-holidays, and did not begin till
after second lesson, Dr. Kennedy gladly agreed to the
change, which was all the more velcome from the fact that
the proposal emanated from the captain of the Cricket Club.
About the same time, or perhaps a year or two later, arrange-
ments were made for the boys to play their matches on the
ground belonging to the Shropshire Cricket Club, which,
besides being nearer to the school, was, of course, kept
in much better order than was possible with the Coton
Hill playground.
But although Shrewsbury did turn out some good
cricketers in Dr. Kennedy's time, among whom " Teddy
Dowson" occupied the most prominent place, only three
of them ever found their way into a university eleven, S. N.
Micklethwait, William Inge, and E. L. Horne. At the
present time Shrewsbury can boast a cricket ground which
is probably truer, as well as more extensive, than that
possessed by any other public school. The first occasion
on which Shrewsbury ever played cricket against another
school was in I854, when a match between the Shrewsbury
and Birmingham elevens resulted in a "draw." No other
school match was played before 187i , except one in 866
with Bradfield, of which the details are not forthcoming,
when Shrewsbury was easily beaten.
Since 87o a match has been played nearly every year
either with Malvern or with Rossall. On one occasion also,
when the Uppingham boys had migrated temporarily to
|
GAMES AND AMUSEMENTS 409
Borth, there was a match between their eleven and Shrews-
bury. The results of all these school matches, which have
been for the most part unfavourable to Shrewsbury, are as
follows
I84
866
1871
Result.
Drawn match. Birmingham lost no wicket
in the second inning
Bradfield beat Shrewsbury easily
Malvern won by five wickets .
18741 Malvern won by ten wickets .
1875 blalvern won in one inning, with 1Ol runs f Shrewsbury
to spare ( Malvern
1876 Uppingham won in one inning, with forty- (Shrewsbury
six runs to spare Uppingham
1876 Malvern won by one wicket
1877 Malvern won by 179 runs
1878 Malvern won in one inning, with II7 runs fShrewsbury
to spare [ Malvern
1879 t Malvern wou in one inning
Scor
(Shrewsbury {I3I
Birmingham { 16
|t'Shrewsbury ) 1o8
I 90
r[alvern I I2875
c I 54
Shrewsbury
!
t 58
110
e46
83
(Shrewsbu { 8 9
6
"t Malvem {112
fShrewsbu { 55
3 z
( Malvern {i48
7
66
fShrewsbury { 8832
( Malvern I21
1882 Drawn match. Shrewsbury lost eight (Shrewsbury { 8998
wickets in the second inning ( Rossall 205
I37
J I46
I 39
1884
Shrewsbury
Rossall won by ten wickets
( Rossall
a No school match was played in I87:, 1873, 188o, or 18St.
SCHOOL CH_:LLENGE cUP
GAMES AND AMUSEMENTS 415
amusement at Shrewsbury School. For several years alter
Dr. Kennedy became Head Master the boys had been allowed
as a general rule to have a fancy dress ball at some time
shortly before the Christmas or Midsummer holidays. 1 It
took the place of the annual play at Christmas, which had
been the great school festival in Dr. Butler's time and a very
popular entertainment. Some carping critics, however, had
spoken of Shrewsbury boys as no better than strolling players,
and the new Head Master was unfortunately somewhat over-
sensitive of criticism. So the annual play was given up and
the fancy dress ball was started instead.
For some time before the day fixed for the ball it was the
custom for Mr. Bourlay, the dancing master, to go to the
different halls two or three times a week to give the boys
lessons in his art. On the day of the ball the assistance of
the town hairdresser and some of the maids in the different
houses was procured, and those boys who seemed best
adapted to play the rdle were dressed up as girls. Old
Salopians who remember these balls describe them as
"amusing and pleasant." But the fancy dress ball expired
as a school institution in 1846, though temporarily revived
in I851 in honour of the Tercentenary.
In the following year, I847, the boys had for their annual
entertainment a performance by a company of Ethiopian
serenaders, whose songs were then quite a novelty, and this
was probably much more to the taste of the majority among
them than the fancy dress ball would have been. On one
subsequent occasion, December 6th, t848, the Play, which had
been so long a feature of Shrewsbury school life, was revived
in the modified form of acted charades. The same year, I846,
in which the fancy dress balls came to an end saw also the
death of another school institution, which dated back to
Butler's earliest years, the annual speeck day. But happily
the speech day has risen again from its ashes during the last
few years, and brings every summer to the beautiful school
An Old Salopian who was at school 1839-4z does not emembe any fancy
dress ball being given in his time. But there is no doubt that the ball took place
in 843 and in subsequent years up to 1847.
46 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
grounds on Kingsland a goodly assemblage of Old Salopians
and other distinguished persons. Perhaps on these occasions
it would be an advantage if there were more speeches from
the boys and fewer from the visitors. Schoolboys are rarely
quite contented with their lot, and latter-day Salopians have
sometimes been heard to whisper sotto voce that they have
almost heard enough about Sir Philip Sidney. But speech
day is an excellent institution, even though Old Salopians
who revisit Shrewsbury on these occasions may sometimes
be tempted when they look around them to ask, "Why did
not these changes come in our days ?"
Pleasant it is too to all who cherish affectionate recollec-
tions of their old school home on Castle Hill, in spite of its
many inconveniences and drawbacks, to recognize the praise-
worthy efforts that have been made to keep up old school
traditions under such altered circumstances. Many of the
stones of the walls which bounded School Gardens, engraved
with the names of generations of former scholars, have been
carefully removed to Kingsland, and now help to form a con-
necting link between the past and the present. Old Salopians
cannot remember much that was beautiful or interesting in
John Meighen's school chapel, but the little that deserves to
be called either the one or the other has been preserved. The
oaken pulpit still serves its old purpose at Kingsland, and the
fine carved woodwork that once formed a screen at the
entrance of the old chapel is now to be seen at the western
end of the new. But some institutions have vanished. Batflves
is a game unknown to the present generation of Shrewsbury
boys, and yet it was an excellent game, and had probably
been played at Shrewsbury for at least a hundred years.
Seven courts for Imndflz,es, built on the well-known Eton
model, two of which are covered in with glass and are con-
sequently available in wet weather, have, it is true, been
provided at Kingsland ; and on one of these courts a match
was played for the first time in x897 between Shrewsbury
and Uppingham. 1 Still, old Salopians may reasonably ask,
"But why not a court for batflves as well ?"
The Uppingham boys were the victors, as they were also in a second match
played at Uppingham in x898.
GAMES AND AMUSEMENTS
meetings at Shrewsbury that it became an established
custom in the school in Dr. Butler's days to commemorate
the two great horse-races of the year, the Derby and the
St. Leger, by a general sweepstakes. The amount of each
boy's stake was not large, nor was the practice one of which
Dr. Butler would be likely to take a very severe view. At
any rate there is no record of his having ever interfered with
it. The St. Leger sweepstake was probably soon dropped;
but the " Derby lottery," as the boys called it, seems to have
been kept up during the whole of Dr. Kennedy's head-
mastership, and for some years afterwards, without any
interference by the authorities.
Another old school institution, "boxing and singing," to
which the short amount of time that was available on Friday
evenings between tea and top schools in Jee's hall, and
between top schools and bedtime in Doctor's hall, was for-
merly devoted, has been for some years a thing of the past.
The proceedings in both halls were under the direction of
"the hall constable," and were intended mainly to promote
the discomfort of new boys, though now and then two
older boys would condescend to put on the gloves.
The new boys' races, which used to take place on the first
Monday after the holidays in School Gardens, are still carried
on, though under more favourable circumstances and in a
less confined space, at Kingsland.
424 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
yearly an account to be made to the Bailiffs, Aldermen and Common
Council of the said town for the time being at their yearly audit.
This is my request; consider of it as ye shall think good.
"Your servant and suppliant in this behalf,
"Thomas Asheton."
" Oct. 271h, t573, from Chartlty." Hotchkis gives an abstract of
this letter. Ashton writes :--
"My Lord's affairs and my Lady's case is such as I cannot satisfy
your request with my presence," and adds that he is "entangled and
tyed now by the Prince more streightly." The chief purport of the
letter was to threaten the Bailiffs that he would discharge himself of
all further care about the school, and refer it to Mr. Lawrence, then
Head Master.--Ashton complains that he had been reflected on for
charging .6 for his expenses in London and Cambridge in con-
sultation about the Indenture and Ordinances.--He tells the Bailiffs
that with the first money that should come in they must buy an iron
chest, and that they must call on his servant David Longdon to give
security.
The next letter to which Hotchkis refers is dated Nov. 7th, I573.
Ashton tells the Bailiffs that if they would agree at a Common
Hall to alter the ordinances, and that what was to go to poor
artificers or poor scholars in the university should be converted
to the finding of a Third Master, and frame orders accordingly,
he would be willing to agree to whatsoever they should think good.
... Else, he would frame ordinances himself and appoint a
third schoolmaster ....
".Feb. 2o/k, I57 .
"Whereas your Worships have requested me to alter the Orders
for the Assistant and to place a second Schoolmaster who may have
yearly for these Six Years Sixteen Pounds, without respect of a
dead Stock for the School, the use whereof the poor Artificers
of the Town should have had, I have agreed to your request, and
as time will serve have satisfied the same. If you like of it you
may ingrosse it and annex it to the former Schedules. If you
mislike it, correct it as you think good. I will set my Hand unto
it as most of you shall agree thereupon. My Life is short and
therefore I would it were done out of Hand. Yet as my Duty
requireth I will Eve you some Reason of my doing. Seeing your
APPENDIX 425
minds be to have the School's Money to serve only the School's
use (Howsoever pity moved me to apply it otherwise) I have now
done the same, yet reserving a Surplusage still, first, to the use
of the School to be first served; after, as it will appear by the
Orders, I reserve the Surplusage to this end, to have provision
made in either University for such your Children as come out of
the same School thither: for you see how the poor are forced to
give over their Learning and Study, for that they can have no place
in neither University, in any Colledge, in default neither the Shire
nor the School aforetime hath made provision therefore. Seeing
then you will have all applied to the School use, I agree thereto,
and have made Surplusage first, to serve that use, neither have
disannulled the Orders in the Schedules before (that only excepted
of the Assistant) but reserved them to the time when the School-
masters are all first discharged. My reason I make or would make
so large a Surplusage is this. I think all that may arise of the
School's Rent is too much to go to the Salaries of the three School-
masters, and the Reparations of the School, for if one Schoolmaster
have in the end .4o, another ;2o, the third .io, I think no
School in England hath a Salary exceeding this. And seeing we
exceed others, Let us know when we be well. The principal care
then is to make provision for those which shall go out from this
School, for their further Learning and Study, and if the Town be
benefited by the School, should not the Children rejoice to help
their Fathers ? And now for the dead Stock of the School of .2oo,
this is my reason. You know that the School is old and inclining
to Ruin, also casualty of Fire may happen. The Stock is ever
ready without hindering the Town to build a new School Yet
this was not only my reason, which now I will declare unto you.
I have considered many dines with myself in what an Evil Place
the School doth stand in, both for place of Easement whereby the
Fields is abused to the annoyance of them that pass by there, as
also for that they cannot have access thither, but that it must be
by the Prisoners, whereby great Inconvenience cometh. My
meaning therefore was in time to have bought that plot of ground
S r Andrew Corbett hath on the other side of the Street, and to have
builded a fair School there with the dead Stock of the School, and
to have had a door through the Town Walls, and Stairs or Steps
with great Stones down to Severn, where a fair House of Office
might have been made, &c. Thomas Asheton."
APPENDIX 4"7
JWay 22nd, x576. To Mr. Lloyd ] Bailiffs.
Mr. Okell J"
Ashton reminds them that he had before complained of their
delays, two years and more, and then continues... "Now,
receiving your letter whereby I find you so ready to work all to
the best, I am glad of it, and after I can come to the sight of
the Tripartite Indenture (which I will send for or fetch from
Cambridge) and have taken further counsel with the learned of
the Law, you shall shortly after understand what I will say to
these Orders and platform of the school sent to me by you, for
seeing you will have the other taken from the Indenture, as reason
is, the perusing, correcting and altering of these now, and adding as
shall be thought good, requires time to consider thereof, which
God advise .... "
jrune ioth, x576. To David Lloyd Bailiffs.
John Okell
It appears from this letter that the Bailiffs had written to
press Ashton to come to Shrewsbury for the full establishment
of things pertaining to the school, and he now replies that he could
not come till he had spoken once again with her Majesty.
ASHTON'S FINAL LETTER TO THE BAILIFFS.
"2lay lsth , 577-
"Right Worshipfull,
"Vhen that chardge ofyo r schole yo u trusted me wi th all,
I upon just consideracon, forced wi th sykenes, remitted the same
againe, to be perfected, to worshipful wise learned discrete person-
ages, whose credytt and Judgment might both wynne to the mater
more maiestie and p'cure yt more credit than yt ever could have had
by myne owne private doing: and perusing ther travailes therein
fynd yt so substanciallie gone throughe w th all, that I have iust
cause geavan me to lyke and allowe of the same, I do both signifie
unto yo u my good lyking of ther labours and also most earnestlie do
wische yo u to consent to the same, that the thing w th all speede may
have his perfection. And thinke and persuade y'selffe this that yt
was the good providence of God w h made yo u committ the credit of
such a mater to a weake person at the first whos purposed power
.Blake'way .IIS. The original is among the town records.
428 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
shuld geave streingth to the same at the last. And so lastlie I leave
yo u ever to be gyded w th God's most holie spirit in all yo r affaires,
that all faction sett apart, yo loke w th a sy--le eye to yo r gou'ment,
that God's wrathe pacified, yo u may enioye the fruites of blessed
concorde w th great contentacioun of mynd in this world, and the
participacon of immortalitie promised in another world for which I
continue dailie praing w t all fervencye of spirit vnto death that God
may geave yo u the spirit of wisdom in all knowledge of himselffe,
and lighten the eyes of yo mynd to see the hope yo u are called
vnto and to see the excedyng riches of the inheritance provided for
the sancts, flare you well fro keiston the XV May, i577.
"Yo'* as ever, Thomas Asheton.
"To the right woshipfull Mr. John Dawes and Mr. Richard Owen
Bailiffs of Shrewsbury, to the Aldermen and common Counsell of
the same."
LETTER FROM SIR GEORGE BROMLEY TO THE
BAILIFFS ABOUT THE SCHOOL ORDINANCES.
"Jan. 9th, t577.
"My most hearty commendations unto you remembered. I
understand by my friend Mr. Asheton that you make some question
whether any sums of money which should rise upon the revenues
of the lands granted for the maintenance of the School might be
employed for the purchasing of lands for Scholarships and Fellow-
ships in the University in such sort as is set down by the Ordinances
of the School which I lately penned. These are to let you under-
stand that at the time I penned those Ordinances I had the sight,
as well of the two Patents granted by King Edward VI., as of those
granted by the Queen's Majesty that now is, and then it seemed to
me that those Ordinances (whereof buying of Scholarships and
Fellowships in the University for the maintenance of such as should
come from that School is one) might be well enough performed and
done without any danger of forfeiture or prejudice to the said two
Patents, whereof I have thought good to advertise you. And thus,
wishing you most heartily wall to fare, I commit you to God.--From
my house at Hallon, the 9th of January, i577.
"Your assured loving friend, "George Bromley."
Keiston was a manor house in Huntingdonshire belonging to the Earl of
Essex, whither Ashton had gone from Cambridge to recruit his health.
o_ This letter is among the town records.
APPENDIX 435
whereuppon she hath made humble suite unto us, that forasmuch as
it is not nowe in our power to renew hit estate in the sayd tithes
according as we used to extend like favors to our tenantes upon
surrenders, the same being passed from us to you, and that it hath
bene left to hit by her late husband for a stay and relief both to hir
during hir life and afterwards to hir children, to whom their father
deceased hath left but small living besides, so as if this were taken
from them they were like to fall in distress.--We have in considera-
tion thereof been moved to recommend her suite unto you, that
is, that upon surrender of her present estate you will make unto her
a new lease of the said tythes for the term of 3o yeares at the rent
accustomed, and without fine, as at our request which we think we
may the rather require at your hands, for that both the said parcel
of tithes and many other things were in our late grant freely and
without charge by us given to you. And, therefore, we do look that
this so reasonable a request being for the relief of a widow and
fatherless children shall not be denied, but rather granted, with
such favour and expedition as we may have cause to think our late
benefit to you bestowed on thankful persons."
DECREE OF LORD CHANCELLOR ELLESMERE IN THE
SUIT JOHN MEIGHEN VERSUS THOMAS JONES
AND HUGH HARRIS.
".July 19th, 613 .t
"Whereas, in the Term of the Holy Trinity, in the o th year
of the reign of our Sovereign Lord James the King's Majesty that
now is, John Meighen, Chief Schoolmaster of the Free Grammar
School of Shrewsbury in the county of Salop, exhibited his Bill of
Complaint into this most honourable Court of Chancery against
The original document is not to be found among the town records. But
Hotchkis made a transcript of it which is here reproduced with some alterations
of the spelling. Mr. Blakeway gives an abstract of Hotchkis's transcript in his
MSS. in the Bodleian. The decree recites the substance of Meighen's bill of
complaint and of the report or certificate of the Commissioners. The only
document bearing on the subject, which has been found among the town records,
is what appears to be a faithful copy of the decree, leaving out those parts of it
which recite the contents of bleighen's bill and of the Commissioners' report.
It is endorsed " Mr. Ottley," and is evidently part of the Corporation case in
the litigation with St. John's College about the right of appointment to the
second-mastership which commenced in 167 z.
436 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
Thomas Jones and Hugh Harris, then I Bailiffs of the said town,
defendants showing thereby that the late King Edward the Sixth
founded the said school, and, for the maintenance thereof, gave
divers tithes to the Bailiffs and Burgesses of the said town of
Shrewsbury, and that the late Queen Elizabeth of famous memory,
for the better maintenance thereof, gave unto them among other
things the Rectory of Chirbury, and that the Corporation did
covenant with the said Queen to employ the revenues thereof
according to such constitutions as Thomas Ashton, then Head
Schoolmaster of the said school, should make, who accordingly
made divers ordinances, i 't for the valuation and employing of the
revenues of the said school: 2 navy that there should be 3 school-
masters in the said school ; the Head Schoolmaster who should
have yearly 4o, the second :3 o, the third eo, yearly; 3 foxy
that there should be a Bailiff for the collection of the rents, who
should have yearly 4, and enter into a bond of 3oo or more
for the answering of his charge; 4 thly that the Bailiff should yearly
give an account of all things within his charge before the Bailiffs
of the town and Head Schoolmaster; 5th that the surplusage
remaining upon the foot of the accounts should be called the Stock
Remanent, and be put into a strong chest under 4 locks in the
Exchequer of the said town ; that the Bailiffs should have the
keeping of one key and the most ancient alderman, the second
key; the Head Schoolmaster, the third key; and the most ancient
of the 24 Councillors of the said town, the 4 th key; 6 thly that the
Eailiffs of the said town should yearly take their oaths for the true
accomplishment of so many of the ordinances as concerned the
demising of the revenues of the said school, and the employing
thereof according to the ordinances, at which time the Chief
Schoolmaster should be present. And the complainant also showed
that one George Phillips was lawfully elected School Bailiff, and
that there was an iron chest in the Exchequer with 4 locks, and the
keys disposed as aforesaid, and that the business of the school had
been managed by the Bailiffs and Head Schoolmaster jointly and
only ; likewise that there was of the Stock Remanent in the school
chest 4o4 17s. 7d., which was to be employed for the buying of
land for the making of the schoolhouse and lodgings for the school-
masters in the country, in the time of common plague or other
x It was of course a mistake to speak of the defendants as then Bailiffs. They
were Bailiffs in 61o-I I.
438 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
same ordinances, it was thought meet by this Court, and, on the
4 tb day of February in the o th year of his Majesty's Reign, ordered,
that a Commission should be awarded unto Sir Edward Bromley,
Knight, one of the Barons of his Majesty's Exchequer, Sir Richard
Lewkener, Knight, Chief Justice of Chester, and Richard Barker,
Esq., Recorder of the said town of Shrewsbury, giving them, or any
two of them, whereof the said Recorder to be one, authority to call
the said parties before named before them, and to examine witnesses
in the same Cause, and thereupon to consider and understand of
the matters contained in the said Bill and Answer, and of the said
ordinances for the good of the said school aforesaid, and to see
and take order that nothing should be done in breach of the
said ordinances, but that all things might be done according
to the intent and true meaning thereof, and so end and determine
the said Cause, if they could ;--if not, that then they certify unto
this Court their proceedings in the said Cause ; and, for the better
effecting thereof, the Lord Chancellor would be pleased to write his
honourable letters to the Commissioners before named for the
purpose aforesaid. According to which commission and letters
to them directed as aforesaid the said Commissioners made
certificate unto the Right Honourable the Lord Chancellor and
to this honourable Court on the io th day of April, Anno Domini
I63, now last past, that on Thursday in Easter Week, being the
8 b day of April, Anno Domini 63, they repaired to the Town
Hall of the said town of Shrewsbury, and, having called the said
parties, Plaintiff and Defendants, before them there, they bestowed
two several days in the full hearing of the said Cause and of all the
said parties and of their learned counsel, and having viewed the Bill
and Answer of the parties aforesaid, and examined such witnesses
as were produced in the said Cause, and considered of their proofs
and allegations, and also of the ordinances of the said school,
and of some disorders contrary to the same ordinances, they did
endeavour themselves finally to end and determine the said Cause
with the liking of the said parties ; which because they could not
perform accordingly, they thought it fit in duty to signify unto this
Court their proceedings concerning the same, as by the said com-
mission, order, and honourable letters, they were required ; Videlicet ;
--that they found the estate of the said school was much decayed
by the froward and ill carriage of the said Meighen, being a very
contentious person, and of a turbulent and mutinous spirit and
APPENDIX 439
disposition ; and that whereas, by the true meaning of the ordinances
of the said school, no persons were to have or receive any stipend
or wages for teaching in the said school, but only such as should be
elected or placed schoolmasters thereof according to the said
ordinances; and that, so often as any of the two upper rooms or
places of schoolmasters of the said school should happen to be
void, the room so vacant to be supplied by preferring of the next
inferior schoolmaster of the said school thereunto, if he were
qualified for the same as by the ordinances in that behalf is
prescribed; or otherwise, by election by the Master and Fellows
of the College of S t John the Evangelist in the University of
Cambridge, to whom the Bailiffs of Shrewsbury. for the time being,
within o days next after notice unto them given by the schoolmaster
or schoolmasters then remaining of such vacancy or avoidance, were
to send for one to supply the said room or place ; and that the
second room or place of the Second Schoolmaster of the said
school became void in November, Anno Domini 6o7, by the death
of John Baker, the then Second Schoolmaster thereof; and that
thereupon the said ieighen and the other schoolmasters then
remaining gave notice to the then Bailiffs of the said vacancy ;
and that then the said Bailiffs, upon good advice, for just causes
then proved before them, and manifested unto the said Meighen,
being present, did deny to give their consent for the preferring of
Ralph Gittins, then Third Schoolmaster of the said school, to the
room or place of the said schoolmaster there, (without whose consent
the said Gittins by the ordinances of the said school could not
have the Second Place); and that aftervards, within 3o days
next after notice given by the remaining schoolmasters as afore-
said of the vacancy of the Second Room, the then Bailiffs of
the said town sent to the said Master and Fellows of the said
College for the supplying thereof according to the said
ordinances ; and that, although the late archbishop had in the
presence of the said Meighen, censured the said Gittins to
be unworthy of the Second Place in respect of his wavering
Meighen has left it on record in the school register that iS, lr. Andrew Lewis
did give his consent, though "' doubtfully." It was Mr. William Jones only who
"flatly" refused to agree.
There is no record in the College archives of any such application, and
Meighen distinctly states that, up to January 22nd, 6o, no course had been
taken up by the Bailiffs for supplying of the school. It was on December 9th
that Meighen formally proposed the promotion of Ralph Gittins.
APPENDIX 445
the then Bailiff's of the said town, and of the Master and Seniors
of St. John's College in Cambridge, and of Thomas Lawrence,
the Chief Schoolmaster of the said school, one Chapel, part of
the Parish Church of St. Maw in the said town of Shrewsbury
(within which parish the said school and schoolmaster's lodgings
be), the said Church being the King's Free Chapel and the Lord
Chancellor Visitor thereof, was repaired and beautified upon the
school charges, to the intent that, upon all the Sabbath Days,
Holy Days and half holidays, the schoolmasters and scholars of
the said school should resort thither to hear Divine Service and
to sit upon seats in the Chancel of the said Church to hear public
sermons ; unto which Chapel and Chancel both the schoolmasters
and scholars of the said school, from the repairing thereof as
aforesaid until about 7 or 8 years last past, did so come accordingly,
to the great good of the said scholars and comfort and contentment
of the inhabitants of the said town and of all other persons which
resorted thither, and that, according to an interpretation and
exposition of some of the ordinances of the said school made
by the Lord Chancellor and others in the 34th year of the late
Queen, out of the Stock Remanent of the said school there might, by
the true intent and meaning of the ordinances, be defrayed
and bestowed money and charges upon the reparation of a Chapel
for the schoolmasters and scholars of the said school and main-
tenance for one to read Divine Service and catechise there, the
said Commissioners do think it fit that the schoolmasters and
scholars of the said school, as heretofore in the time of the said
Lawrence, being Head Schoolmaster of the said school, and for
many years after in the time of the said Meighen they did so;
hereafter they should, upon every Sunday, Holy Day and half
holiday, resort unto the said Chapel to hear Divine Sen-ice and
the said scholars to be instructed in the principles and grounds
of true religion; and that, at such times as there shall be any
sermon in the said Church upon any Sunday or Holy Day, that
both the said schoolmasters and scholars go likewise unto the same ;
and for want of a sermon in that Church, then unto such Church
in the said town where there shall be a sermon, as heretofore they
have used and accustomed ; and that the said Chapel and seats
there be from time to time repaired at the charges of the school
revenues for the uses aforesaid ; and that such reasonable allowance
or maintenance out of the school revenues be given to the Curate
APPENDIX 447
pay or disburse any of the rents or revenues of any of the heredita-
ments given for the maintenance of the said school, or otherwise
whatsoever concerning the said school, without the consent of the
Bailiffs of the said town for the time being and the Schoolmaster.
And whereas, the Bailiffs and Burgesses of the said town stand
bound unto the King's Majesty by force of a covenant made with
the late Queen, her heirs, and successors, to employ and bestow
the rest and residue of the revenues and profits belonging to the
said school, not specially, by the Letters Patent of the said late
Queen, limited to be otherwise paid and bestowed, according to
such orders and constitutions as should be taken in that behalf
by Thomas Ashton, alias Aston, then schoolmaster there, and that
thereupon, in the 2oth year of the Reign of the said late Queen;
the said Thomas Ashton, alias Aston, then made ordinances for
and concerning the employing and disposing of the revenues of the
said school, and the Bailiffs and Burgesses of Shrewsbury, with the
advice and consent of the then Rev. Father in God, the then Bishop
of Coventry and Lichfield, and of the said Mr. Ashton, alias Aston,
at the same time made other ordinances concerning the election,
placing, direction, rule, ordering and government of the school-
masters and scholars of the said school, the said ordinances being
all the ordinances of or concerning the said school and contained in
the three several schedules tripartite, bearing date the th day of
February in the 2oth year of the Reign of the said late Queen
Elizabeth, made between the then Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield
on the first part, and the Bailiffs and Burgesses of Shrewsbury on the
second part, and the Master, Fellows and Scholars of St. John's
College in Cambridge, and the said Thomas Ashton, alias Aston,
then late Head Schoolmaster of the said school, and Thomas
Lawrence, then Head Schoolmaster of the said school, on the third
part, by which tripartite indenture all the parties thereunto, saving
the said Aston and Lawrence who covenanted only for themselves,
and their several successors respectively, did covenant, each with the
other, truly to perform and observe all the said ordinances which
they and every of them were respectively to observe and perform ;
and that, by one of the ordinances of the said school, the Bailiffs of
the said town were yearly, at the time of the taking of their oaths for
and touching the execution of their office of Bailiwick, to take their
corporal oaths for the true accomplishment and execution of such
and so many of the said ordinances as concerned the demising,
450 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
for the time being (and the Recorder of said town for the
time being) should be only interpreters and expounders of all and
singular the aforesaid ordinances; and that such interpretations,
expositions and directions as they from time to time should set
down in writing, under their hands and seals, of or concerning any
of the ordinances touching the said school or the reforming of any
ordinance concerning the said school, upon the petition of the
Bailiffs of the said town and Head Schoolmaster of the said school
for the time being, or any two of them, should stand and be ob-
served. And lastly, forasmuch as the said defendants had been at
great charges, as well in this suit prosecuted against them without
any just cause, for anything appearing unto the said Commis-
sioners to the contrary, as also in the discovering and manifesting
of many disorders and abuses contrary to the said ordinances--as well
in the misemploying of the said revenues of the said school and
in the teachers of the said school, as also in the rule and govern-
ment thereof and otherwise, the Commissioners thought it fit (under
the favour of this Court) that their reasonable expenses should be
allowed them out of the revenues of the said school in respect of
their good service in that behalf, as by the said certificate of the
said Commissioners more at large it doth and may appear.--Now,
forasmuch as the matter coming, by the appointment of the Right
Honourable the Lord Chancellor, to be heard before his lordship,
and upon the opening thereof by the counsel learned on both
sides, and reading of the certificate aforesaid, it is, this present
day, being Monday, the 28 of June, in the t t th year of the
Reign of our Sovereign Lord, James, by the grace of God, King of
England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc. ;
that is to say, of England, France and Ireland, and of Scotland, in
the 46 th, by the Right Honourable Thomas, Lord Ellesmere, Lord
Chancellor of England, and the High Court of Chancery, ordered,
adjudged and decreed that the said certificate and all the matters
therein contained (except the cause and matter between Nicholas
Gibson and Thomas Hill, therein specified, which his lordship hath
reserved for further hearing in open Court) be performed by the said
parties to all intents and purposes according to the tenor and true
meaning thereof, with such further reservations and exceptions as are
hereafter expressed in these points following wherein his lordship
is pleased of his honourable providence for the good of the said
school more at large to explain himself. First, for that it is
454 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
person to perform her duty as she desireth : she is also at this time,
by occasion of the schools being here, a most necessary victualler
for the use of... us, the members thereof, so as we cannot be
without the opportunity of her service, as the case standeth for us,
she being thereby occasioned, for supplying our necessities, to strain
herself to do more in her trade of life than otherwise she would do
or heretofore hath done, neither yet doth she keep any house of
evil rule by entertaining of company resorting unto it or otherwise
by any disorder used in it.
"And therefore also our special desire is, both on her behalf,
being a poor aged woman without other means to maintain her,
and likewise on our own (she being so necessary a help to us, as
hath been said) that at the least during the time of the schools'
continuance here, you will be pleased to tolerate with her: and, if
you think good, as at our requests to vouchsafe her such further
favour as she hath been wont to obtain at the request of others
formerly to other bailiffs, your worships' predecessors, and we shall
rest At your vorships' command,
Jo: Meighen.
Ra: Gittins.
Da: Evans.
Hughe Spurstowe."
LETTER FROM DR. WILLIAM BEALE, MASTER OF
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, TO THE BAILIFFS OF SHREWSBURY.
"From St. John's College,
" x7 .Feb., 163,.
"Gentlemen,
"Accordinge to this yr 2nd intimation by letters dated
x8 Jan. x636 , with request to choose and send you a fitt man and
able to teach in the room of 1W Meighen. In our election we
have endeavoured to dischardge the chardge and truste lyeinge
upon us by virtue of the Royal Ordinances ratified under the seales
of both our bodyes. Wee neyther had before nor have 'ee yet
any endes of our owne in eyther the former or this followinge
Election but God's glorye, the good of yrselves, yr countye, this
Church and Realme, which wee doubte not but this our electe and
presented M r Challoner in tyme will make good. To whose further
qualification as shall appear in his instrumente we referre you
hopinge that neyther amonge you nor us any will be found desirous
to stirr up smoake, duste and collusions betwixte us. It is justice
456 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
LETTER FROM MR. CORBET KYNASTON, M.P. FOR
SHREWSBURY, TO MR. JOHN LLOYD, OF
SHREWSBURY, BARRISTER-AT-LAW.
"Sir,--I was favoured with yours of the Igth, and never till then
heard upon what terms it was Mr. Lloyd agreed to resign the
Schooles to Mr. Clarke, or how they came to break off, for I under-
stood it was upon the College not coming to a resolution to defend
their right ; and should he have resigned his fellowship and accepted
of the schools upon terms with your father, upon a contested
nomination, to be contested at his own expense, I should have
thought him much to blame.
"But as the College is now come to a resolution to defend their
right, I hope you will pardon me if I shall think Mr. Lloyd can't in
honour treat with the Corporation (who unjustly endeavoured to
oblige him to resign) on any terms but what are by the privity and
consent of St. John's College.
"And much less if they are only terms offered by Brickdale,
who on a promise Owen has made him to marry his daughter if he
will make him head Schoolmaster, is now making interest with the
Corporation, if he gains his point with Mr. Lloyd, to admit Owen
in his place, in defiance of the College's right of nomination,
thinking the violence of the times a favourable opportunity to
contest the matter with the College should they dispute the power
of the Corporation.
"This was the talk when I was in the country, and, if I am not
misinformed, some friends of Mr. Lloyd made him very generous
offers if he would tamely resign to his enemies : but whether that is
a fact or not the most favourable construction his friends can put
upon his resigning on terms from Brickdale or the Corporation,
without the consent of the College, will be that he is justified to sell
his place for a small consideration to his enemies, to give them a
favourable opportunity of taking the advantage of his resignation
against the College that nominated him.
"For it is certain, if the Corporation thought they could possibly
remove him and place whom they please in his stead, without his
resigning to them, they would never offer him terms ; that made me
give those hints in my letter to Mr. Peugh, and your letter still
further confirms me in the same opinion that I was then, for I find
APPENDIX 457
by the ordinances there is no form of a resignation prescribed.
That being the case it is reasonable to think, as the College, by the
ordinances, has the nomination, that it was understood that the
schoolmasters would have so much regard for the College and the
good of the Schools, as not to make a vacancy by surrendering, till
they have given the College notice to nominate in their roome,
which, I believe was the manner of Mr. Taylor's resigning, and in
my poor opinion, the only justifiable manner of resigning.
"When I wrote to Mr. Peugh I thought the head schoolmaster
was to be admitted by the College, therefore an actual vacancy
before they could do anything ; but since they only nominate, the
only proper method is for them to do it upon their receiving notice
from the schoolmaster that he desires to resign to any person they
shall nominate to be appointed, and admitted by the Corporation,
pursuant to the ordinances, which notice is proper to be expressed
in the body of the nomination from the College, as the cause of
their nomination.
"And should the Corporation upon offering them to resign to a
person so nominated, being duly qualified, refuse to accept of his
resignation, and to admit the person so nominated without showing
any general cause, the College or person so refused may un-
doubtedly bring a mandamus against the Corporation: and I do
verily believe it will be impossible to remove Mr. Lloyd till the
Corporation are forced to admit the persons nominated by the
College.
"And though I never spoke to Mr. Clarke on the terms he
agreed with your father I doubt not but he will readily comply with
them j yet in case he has quiet possession, which is all that I think
can be expected from him, and will I verily believe be as much to
Mr. Lloyd's advantage as of any terms he can make with 13rickdale ;
and certainly it will be much more to his satisfaction than securing
a small sum at the expense of his character and reputation in the
world.
"I beg pardon for thus freely telling you my thoughts, but do
assure you it proceeds from the very great regard and respect I have
both for your father and yourself, and I shall be extremely glad to
hear of this matter being settled to both your satisfaction and
advantage ; being most sincerely
"Your faithful humble Servant,
"C. Kynaston."
460 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
had elected a person to that office ; Ordered, that the Town Clerk
write to the Master and Fellows of the said College to enquire
whether they had made such Election or not ; and if such Election
was made, to signify to the College that they have been wanting
in proper respects to the Mayor in not apprizing and giving him
notice of such Election.
LETTER FROM THE MASTER AND SENIORS OF
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE.
" Cambridge, z4 Nov., 783.
"Sir,--The Master of St. John's College has received the Paper
signed by you, complaining of a Want of Respect to the Mayor
and Corporation of Salop, in not giving them notice of the Election
of a Third Master of Shrewsbury School ; and I am directed by
the Society to inform you, that they are much surprised both at the
Ignorance on which the Censure is founded, and at the Insolence
of the manner in which it is conveyed.
"All proper regard was immediately paid to the Mayor's Letter
of Notification, which was laid before the Society very soon after
it came to hand. Understanding from Mr. Atcherley's Letter that
Mr. Matthews would be agreeable to the Mayor and Corporation,
as well as to himself, and having good reason for believing that he
was in all respects a proper person,, they determined to elect him.
"The Certificate to the Bishop of Lichfield, and the Instrument
of Appointment were accordingly drawn up, and sealed pursuant
to the forms prescribed, and sent to Mr. Matthews, imagining that
the Mayor would like as well to receive them from him, as by the
post. He will find that the Instrument itself is the proper answer
of the Society to his Letter of Notification, and that they have
done everything that was incumbent on them to do ; and have not
been wanting in any respect due from them to him, or the Coorpora-
tion of Salop.
"I am, Sir,
"Your most obedient Servant,
"Thos. Lambe."
APPENDIX 46t
NOTE BY THE REV. B. H. KENNEDY, D.D., ON THE
MEANING OF LIBERA SCHOLA.
"I say that the person or persons who wrote Edward's charters
could not possibly intend to use the word libera in the sense of
'gratuitous' (x) for the simple and cogent reason, that the adjective
liber never had, at any time, borne, or been used in, such a sense.
All that is said in the charter is, that the school shall have for its
title' Libera Schola Grammaticalis Regis Edwardi Sexti.' There
is no explanation of any word. Therefore the words must have
been well known and commonly used. 'Grammaticalis' was a
word well known: it could only imply a School for the teaching
of 'Grammatica,' the science of language, one of the 'trivial'
sciences. The meaning of the word libera must have been
at the time equally known and used. What that meaning was
will be the second head of my inquiry. At present I affirm that
it was not 'gratuitous.' This meaning has, I repeat, never belonged
to the word liber: (a) not in classical Latin ; (3) not in post-
classical Latin; (c) not in mediaeval Latin. For (a) as respects
classical Latin, any competent person may satisfy himself by refer-
ence to the best dictionaries, as those of Facciolati and Scheller.
By reading through the examples of lier and its adverb liere,
and especially by comparing with them the examples of 'gratuitus'
and its adverb 'gratis' he will find that the two former words are
never used in the sense of the two latter. Zi3er means 'unre-
strained,' ' uncontrolled,' or 'exempt,' and of course we may add
a word signifying 'expense' or 'payment,' and say that a person
or thing is 'exempt' from this ; but never will the word liber
be found to describe 'a thing not to be paid for.' Again, (3)
post-classically, we have ample proof in the Latin Vulgate translation
of the Bible (about ,.D. 4oo) that lier does not mean gratuitous.
Let us look at the passages which stand in the English Bible as
follows : Matthew x. 8, ' Freely ye have received ; freely give.'
Romans iii. 34, 'Justified freely.' Rev. xxi. 6, 'I will give of the
water of life freely'; xxii. 7, 'Let him take freely.' Does the
Vulgate give li3ere in any one of these passages? In none.
What it gives is 'gratis.' And in a concordance of the Vulgate
I find forty-six references to the word libere, in all of which it
means' unenslaved,' and in none' gratuitous.' Again, (c) mediavally,
we have for reference the valuable glossary of Ducange and
464 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
APPENDIX
465
466 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
APPENDIX 467
468 SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
APPENDIX
469
47o SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
APPENDIX 495
SUCCESSFUL C,NDIDATES AT THE OPEN COMPETITION
1856
186o
186o
186o
1863
1868
1869
x87o
1871
871
1873
1876
1879
188o
1893
1895
1898
1898
FOR THE CIVIL SERVICE OF INDIA.
R. Taylor
F. W. J. Rees .
E. S. Moseley .
F. H. McLaughlin
Arthur Yardley
C. D. Maclean .
S. II. James
E. B. Steedman
C. E. Marindin
W. R. Barry
G. A. Grierson
B. G. Geidt
S. W. Edgerley
E. T. Lloyd
1 I. !'. Todd Naylor
C. R. Roper
E. E. P. Rose .
C. A. H. Townshend
C. L. Alexander
1873 (Ist).
873 (12th).
875 (Sth).
1879 (Sth).
1881 (znd).
188z
1894
1896
SUCCESSFUL CANDIDATES FOR ADMISSION TO THE
ROYAL MILITARY ACADEMY, WOOLWICH.
1876
188z
1883
1888
189o
1891
1894
!I. D. Laffan.t [ 1895
J. de C. Laffan. [ 1895
E. A. Edgell.t 1897
J. F.W. Johnson.'t 1898
tl. E, C. Cowie. 898
J. Grose. 1 1898
D. Champion Jones. I 1898
j. P. v. Hawksley.
R. G. I'onsonby.
A. W. Stokes.
G. P. MacClellan.
A, M. Twlss,
J. M. R. Itarrison.
13. S. Browne.
Gained the Pollock Medal while at XVoolwich.
Took the first place in the Woolwich examination for commi.bions in the Royal Engineer,.
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