THE SCHOOL ENDOWMENT MOVEMENT, 1660-1730. 189 endowed grammar school'; moreover no dissenter could, nor can, teach in any endowed school not founded for the use and benefit of Protestant dissenters. We must, therefore, in considering the materials available for a national system, regard all endowed schools, with certain specific exceptions, as Church schools. It will be remembered that the Act of Uniformity of 1662 had placed great restrictions on public and private education by the extraordinarily strict tests applied to all schoolmasters and tutors. This educational provision was in vain resisted by the House of Lords, and its result was injurious in the extreme to education. From 1662 we may date that decay in, as opposed to the earlier wholesale destruction of, endowed education from which we have not yet recovered. In one sense we must go much farther back for the causes that prevented the true development of the magnificent endowed system created in the Middle Ages; but the Restoration is the date from which we must measure the peculiar evils that have afflicted endowed education in England during more than two centuries. During that period of time the combined influence of State and Church and pedantic legal decisions numbed the usefulness of innumerable endowments. The antiUniformity Schools. 46. Long before the close of the seventeenth century, in the face of the stern and impolitic position adopted by the politicians of the Church and by the Legislature alike, an extraordinary movement began. The immense number of endowments that were created between 1660 and 1730 requires some explanation. The Digest of 1842 gives a list of 2194 endowed non-classical schools as existing at that date. Since this Digest is admittedly imperfect and inaccurate as regards early schools, it is certain that this is an incomplete list. The Digest may, however, be regarded as quite trustworthy with respect to schools founded after 1660. The results of Lord Brougham's 1 See Cox's Case, pp. 171-2, supra. 2 See p. 177, supra. 190 THE REACTION FROM THE ACT OF UNIFORMITY. Commission were used, and the work was done by most competent persons. This Digest shows that no less than 905 non-classical endowed schools were founded between 1660 and 1730. Thus more than one-third of the endowed nonclassical schools existing in England in 1842 were founded in these seventy years. Moreover, out of the total of 2895 endowed schools mentioned in the Digest, as many as 1077 were altogether founded in this period'. It may be suggested that it was a vast spontaneous movement intended to facilitate the progress of education in spite of the Act of Uniformity and the political application of Church control over education. In Bates's Case, decided in 1670, the Courts held that a schoolmaster presented by a founder, or lay patron, of an educational charity could not be ejected from his office by reason of his not holding the bishop's licence, and this decision afforded a loophole for those who desired to found schools that could escape the control of authorities who preferred conforming illiteracy to uncontrolled education. The loophole created by the decision appears to explain satisfactorily, to some considerable extent, the vast number of educational foundations that came into existence between 1660 and 1730. The explanation is not complete, but it at any rate offers a partial solution of what seems an extremely complex historical problem. The general outburst of philanthropy in the reign of Queen Anne is itself so difficult of explanation that it does. not explain the desire of so many to give education to the poor. The means of education were given to the poor abundantly in the shape of these foundations, coupled with the large number of charity schools that were founded in the same period. The remarkable fact is that these schools pro 1 In making this calculation no account is taken of the large number of schools that gained augmented endowments between the years 1660 and 1730. See Appendix II infra for fuller figures on the whole question. The creation of endowments was, to some extent, fostered by the Legislature by the statute 7 & 8 Will. III, c. 37. 2 See p. 170, supra. RATES AND EDUCATION IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 191 duced so slight an effect on the ignorance of the people that the opening of the nineteenth century presented to the eyes of the world a nation that was suffering from intellectual starvation amidst an abundance of schools of every class. Early Rate-aided education. 47. It was not, however, chiefly from endowments that the new life of education sprang. Ancient endowments were perhaps food for the new life while the modern endowments were in part a reaction from the State-Church policy. But we have as well, at any rate, to look in other directions for the origin of our national system. It will be useful to consider the early action of local authorities in relation to education. A systematic search of vestry records and the accounts of churchwardens and overseers would most probably show some very remarkable facts in relation to education. It will be useful to indicate the nature of some of these facts. In the Catalogue of Westminster Records we find under the date 1561, as we have already seen, in the overseers' accounts of the City of Westminster, the item "To Bull for teachinge a childe... viii d."; and again, in 1586, "Paied to John Creverne als ffoote toards his maintenaunce of his Learninge at the universitie at Oxenford and allowed him by the parish xvi pence the weeke and paied to him for ii weekes ... ii s. viii d." Again, in 1628, the vestry gave George Edgelie £5 "towards his charge to proceed master of arts," and £4 to Richard Goodwin "towards proceeding bachelor of arts," and £5 to Richard Busby "towards enabling him to proceed bachelor of arts." In 1671 Mrs Hooper was paid 2s. 6d. a week for three weeks "for teaching the parish children." The payment was made by Dr Busby. In 1672 Dr Busby paid £5 for teaching the parish children. The following entry in the vestry minutes is of particular importance: "Sunday, the 18th of Decr., 1681-The Peticon of Thomas Jordan praying that he may be settled and continued in the Imployment of instructing the parish Poore 192 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY VESTRIES AND EDUCATION. Children being this day read was laid aside (It being the opinion of this Vestry that he is not capable of performing that undertaking as it ought to be done). And upon his further Application complayning of his poverty having ffour Small Children and an Impotent sister lying on his Hands. The Vestry have thought fitt & do Accordingly Order that the said Thomas Jordan shall be relieved and have halfe a Chaldren of Coles of the stock for this yeare (he having already had one Half Chaldren of the said stock) and 2s. per weeke towards the support of his said Family Provided his said Sister doe not become chargeable to the Parish. And at the same time Judith Smith wife of Thomas Smith was presented as a fitt person to undertake the Teaching of the said Poore Children which was accordingly conferred upon her. And she to receive for her Care and Paines therein half a Chaldren of Coles (being the remainder of the stock for this yeare) and all the moneys of Dr Busbys yearely gift of Six Pounds that shall remaine when the Coles are paid for." This Mr Busby whom the vestry helped at Oxford was the famous Head Master of Westminster. He appears to have been desirous of repaying the vestry for their help in his time of educational need. Another very early instance of vestry-promoted education is to be found in the case of the select vestry of Hackney. In 1613, the year of the establishment of the vestry, it is recorded in the minutes that the vestry appointed a schoolmaster, who was to take no more than fourpence a week from parishioners' children learning grammar, writing, or accounts, nor more than twopence a week for children learning English only1. It is not easy to state the legal grounds upon which funds were granted by vestries for educational purposes, nor is it necessary to do so here. The fact that the rates were applied to this purpose is the important matter, and the evidence amply proves this fact. 1 See Lyson's Environs of London, vol. 1. pp. 333, 334 (footnote). THE BISHOPSGATE STREET WORKHOUSE SCHOOL, 1698. 193 Education by seventeenth century. 48. An Act of 1662', entitled "An Act for the better Releife of the Poore of this Kingdom," gave power for the erection of workhouses in London, statute in the Westminster, and the boroughs, towns, and places of the county of Middlesex or Surrey situated within the parishes mentioned in the Weekly Bills of Mortality. Section 7 gave the Common Council of the City of London power to levy a rate to supply "present stocke for the foundation of the Worke." By virtue of this Act a workhouse was built in Bishopsgate Street. At a meeting of the Common Council on April 4th, 1698, it was decided to educate five classes of poor children, who "being taken into the said Workhouse are there taught to Read and Write, and kept to Work until they are qualified to be put out to be Apprentices, and for the Sea Services, or otherwise disposed 2." In 1704 there were "seldom less than 400 Children at Work." "The Habit of the Children," we are told, "is all the same, being made of Russit Cloth, and a round Badge worn upon their Breast, representing a poor Boy, and a Sheep; the Motto, Gods Providence is our Inheritance." One of the children, aged eleven, John Trusty by name, made a speech to Queen Anne upon her coming to the City to dine at the Guildhall on Thursday, October 29th, 1702 (O.S.), being the Lord Mayor's Day. "All the Support we have," said he, "is from the unexhausted Charities of your Loyal Citizens of London, and other your good Subjects, and the pious Care of our Governors, who are now teaching our little Hands to Work, and our Fingers to Spin. . . . One gracious Smile from 66 1 14 Car. II. c. 12. Workhouses have an earlier origin than this Act. By an Act of 1597 (39 Eliz. c. 5) provision was made to enable Hospitalls or abiding and working Howses for the Poore" to be erected by the charitable. By virtue of this Act the Plymouth Orphan's Aid Hospital for the maintenance and education of boys was founded in 1617. The Act was only to continue for twenty years but it was made perpetual by an Act of 1623 (21 Jac, I, c. 1) and is still in force. 2 Strype's Stow, Bk. 1, pp. 199, 201-202. |