Part 13 (1/2)
The seals attached to this are those of Frances Conington, James Conington and Benjamin Handley. There is a note in the margin that ”James Conington came before me this day, and acknowledged this to be his deed, and prayed the same might be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery. Robert Chapman, Master in Chancery.” Dated 6th March, 1786.
The actual terms of Richard Watson's will are these: ”I am very desirous of establis.h.i.+ng a small school within the town of Horncastle, wherein the children of such poor persons, as the Governors of the Grammar School shall think objects of charity, may be taught to read, knit, spin, and plain needlework, or sewing. I do therefore hereby earnestly request, will, and direct, my nephew and executor, after my decease, by deed, conveyance (&c.), to convey, and a.s.sure, to the said Governors, and their successors, for ever, all the lands situate in Croft, and all those messuages, cottages, or tenements, within the yards and pingle adjoining, situate in Far Street (now called West Street), Horncastle; and also that part of now inclosed arable, meadow, and pasture ground, lying in Wigtoft, containing 6 acres, 28 perches, now in the occupation of my cousin, William Watson, with appurtenances, upon the Trusts following, viz.: (1) to keep the house (school) in good repair, and the residence (2) for the maintenance of a proper master or mistress, to be from time to time nominated by them, to teach such poor children, &c.”
It is then added that ”the said Richard Watson dying on Sept. 30 (1784), the said Frances and James Conington, desirous to fulfil his bequest, agree to convey to the use of the said Governors, the said messuages, &c.” An Indenture is added, witnessing ”that on payment by Benjamin Handley of ten s.h.i.+llings to Frances and James Conington, they have granted, sold, and released” the aforesaid property, and ”appointed by these presents from the day next before the date of the Indenture, all the said messuages, &c., called by the name of the 'ffoal thing,' {110a} and that plot commonly called 'Backside,' the closes in Croft ab.u.t.ting on the highway, and lands near the old sea bank; and land called the 'bridge plot' in Wigtoft (6 acres), a.s.signed to Richard Watson, by the award of the Commissioners appointed by Parliament, in the 12th year of His Majesty, for enclosing common and open fields (No. 40 in award map), with houses, barns, curtilages, and woods, to be held by the Governors of the Grammar School, the reversions, rents, &c., to the use of John Thorold (and the Governors), {110b} on trust, that the said Governors collect the rents, &c., and apply them as shall be required, from time to time, for poor children; and shall have power to erect a new school house, or alter, enlarge, &c., and to mortgage, &c., in order to provide suitable (premises), spinning wheels, &c., and to make rules for management, as shall to their judgment seem needed, agreeing with the said Benjamin Handley, and his heirs, &c., subject in all things to the Court of Chancery at Westminster.”
The present status of the school is as follows: The original premises are still in use, standing in a retired position, in ”Watson's Yard,” about 50 yards from West Street; they consist of school buildings, play yard, and teacher's residence. In 1835 the school was enlarged and repaired.
In 1895 it was further improved by the removal of bedrooms above, when it was opened up to the roof; at the same time a commodious cla.s.sroom was added at the east end. Accommodation was thus provided for 120 children.
The increase in scholars necessitated an increase in the teaching staff, and the Head Teacher, Mrs. Robert Marshall, who was appointed in 1885, has, since these alterations, been a.s.sisted by an Under Mistress and two Monitors.
The scholars are of both s.e.xes, and between the ages of three years and seven. The school is conducted on Church of England principles, and examined by both Diocesan and Government Inspectors; a Government Grant being earned to supplement the funds of the Watson bequest. The scholars are taught reading, writing and arithmetic, with the various kindergarten subjects. The Secretary to the Charity, H. Tweed, Esq., Solicitor, of Horncastle, pays half the rents to the Lincoln County Council, for teachers' salaries, and retains the other half for repairs and incidental expenses. All the other tenements in Watson's Yard are the property of the Charity.
THE LANCASTERIAN & THE BELL SCHOOLS.
Beside the endowed schools, already described, the Grammar School for the middle and upper cla.s.s, and Watson's School for the children of the poorer cla.s.ses; there were two other schools before the present National Schools came into existence, the history of which is of some interest.
Weir, in his _History of Horncastle_, says ”a school, on the Lancasterian, or British system, was established at a public meeting, held in October, 1813; and, a few days later, a meeting was held at the church, when it was resolved to establish a school on the plan of Dr.
Bell. Both buildings were erected in 1814, supported by voluntary contributions, each for about 200 children.” {111}
This needs some explanation. Dr. Andrew Bell was an East Indian Company's Chaplain, stationed at Fort St. George, Madras, in 1789. He noticed, in the course of his duties, that in the native schools, beside the regular paid teachers, the more advanced pupils were also employed to instruct younger scholars; each pupil thus having a tutor, and each tutor a pupil; a system by which both were enabled to learn faster, and led to take more interest in their work, than would otherwise have been generally possible. Being an enthusiast in educational matters, he resigned his chaplaincy, with its good stipend, to inaugurate, and himself carry on, a school for the children of Europeans in the Presidency, on the same principles. The result was so satisfactory that on his return to England, in 1797, he published an account of what he called the ”Madras, or Monitorial System,” and endeavoured to introduce it in this country. Little progress, however, was made for some time, beyond the establishment of a charity school, on these lines, at St.
Botolph's, Aldgate, London, and a school at Kendal, Co. c.u.mberland.
About the same date Joseph Lancaster, a young Quaker, set up a school for poor children, before he was 19 years of age, in a room lent to him by his father, in the Borough Road, Southwark, and in a very short time he had nearly 100 under his charge. He also adopted the monitorial method, but, as a Quaker, omitting the Church teaching of the Bell schools.
Persevering in the work, he was received in audience by the King, George III., who gave him encouragement. He then travelled over the kingdom, giving lectures on the new mode of instruction; which in consequence spread with rapidity. In 1798 he taught about 1,000 boys, between the ages of 5 and 12 years, his sisters teaching some 200 girls.
Objections were made to the indefinite character of the religious teaching of a Quaker, by Professor Marsh, and others, and the Bell schools, with their Church instruction, had by the year 1818 become numerous. The services of Dr. Bell himself, in the cause of education had been recognised, and rewarded by a Canonry of Westminster. By the year 1828 upwards of 200,000 children were being taught on his system, and at his death, a few years later, he bequeathed 120,000 to carry on the work which he had so much at heart. {112a}
These two systems, the Lancasterian or unsectarian schools, and the Bell or church schools, continued to increase in number; there having been established in 1805 ”The Royal Lancasterian Inst.i.tution,” otherwise called ”The British and Foreign School Society,” while the Bell system was represented by ”The Church of England National School Society.”
The first Lancasterian or British School founded in Horncastle, in 1814, was located in premises adjoining the Wong, on the site afterwards occupied by the first Volunteer Drill Hall. It was afterwards transferred to what is now called Dog-Kennel Yard, occupying a building which had previously been a theatre, and which was partly fitted up with sittings removed from St. Mary's Church, giving accommodation for 200 children. Neither in its internal structure, however, nor in its situation in an out-of-the-way back yard, was the former theatre well adapted for school purposes; and although the late Mr. Samuel Goe had in 1869 bequeathed a legacy to the school, which rendered it almost independent of annual subscriptions, the establishment of a much more commodious school by the Wesleyans, in Foundry Street in 1860, affected it unfavourably, the number of scholars gradually decreased, and it was finally closed in 1876. {112b}
The Bell, or Church School, also built in 1814, and accommodating about 200 scholars of both s.e.xes, formed the nucleus of the present Church National Schools. These two schools, the Lancasterian or British, and the Bell or Church School, are the only public elementary schools, named in the _Gazetteers_ for many years, except the Watson Charity School, already described.
Of the present Church National Schools, that for infants was erected in 1860, that for boys in 1872, at a cost of about 1,000, the original building being now the girls' school; the whole affording accommodation for 300 children. These were, a few years ago, taken over by the Lindsey County Council (in 1893), and are now under both Diocesan and Government Inspection. {112c}
THE SCIENCE & ART SCHOOL.
With the establishment of Technical Schools this country may be said to have entered on a new era, in national education, which, in its development, may lead to results, the importance of which can hardly yet be realized. The possibilities are almost unlimited. A wide-spread network has been created, which may bring even the humblest members of our artisan families within its deneficial meshes, while also working at intervals, as opportunities offer, in our remotest villages.
This great movement, curiously, originated from dissension in Parliament, a remarkable ill.u.s.tration of the old adage, ”'Tis an ill wind that blows no one any good.” In the year 1890 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in Lord Salisbury's ministry, {113a} introduced what was called ”The Local Taxation (customs and excise) Bill,” {113b} intended to empower County Councils to buy up the licences of superfluous public houses, and to compensate the publicans by grants of money. The funds for this purpose were not to be a charge upon the local rates, but to be provided by an increase of the duty on spirituous liquors. Strange to say, this measure was so persistently opposed by the temperance party, aided by others, who for the moment acted with them, that the proposed use of the money, thus raised, was at length abandoned, a considerable surplus, however, being thus at the Chancellor's disposal, after the reduction of several other taxes, the remainder was handed over to the County Councils, to be employed in the furtherance of technical education. The money thus set apart was called ”the ear-marked money,” and the measure enacting it was, somewhat unworthily, termed ”The Whiskey Bill.” Horncastle benefitted by a sum being placed to the credit of the local authorities for the establishment of a school of science and art; all such inst.i.tutions in the county being under the general direction of the organizing secretary, Mr. S. Maudson Grant, residing in Lincoln.
[Picture: St. Mary's Square]
At first cla.s.ses were held in the Masonic Hall, Bank Street; and in 1891 an efficient teacher, Mr. Mallet, was engaged to give commercial instruction in arithmetic, shorthand, &c., {114a} and he was very successful in getting pupils. In 1892 larger accommodation was required, and two rooms were rented, over what is now the Bicycle Depot of Mr.
Sorfleet, at 14, East Street; and Mr. Switzer was engaged as teacher of science and art, at a salary of 100 a year, being allowed further to augment his income by taking private pupils in certain other subjects.
About the same time 100 was spent on models, and other requisites; and by the close of 1892, Tetford, Wragby, and Woodhall Spa having been included in a general scheme for the district, it was found that the pupils attending the cla.s.ses already numbered 219; of whom 76 were under Mr. Mallet's instruction, 101 under Mr. Switzer, including 39 school teachers in the neighbourhood, attending on Sat.u.r.days; while 42 received special instruction from a qualified teacher in dressmaking. Operations were also, in the same year, extended to rural parishes, a meeting being held at Woodhall Spa, on Feb. 10, presided over by the Rev. T. Livesey, County Councillor, when a district embracing 20 parishes was formed; Mr.
Livesey being _ex officio_ Chairman of Committees, Canon J. Clare Hudson, Vicar of Thornton, appointed as acting Chairman, and the Rev. J. Conway Walter, Rector of Langton, Hon. Secretary.
This was followed by other meetings at Horncastle, at which, in due course, plans were matured for both town and country cla.s.ses in various subjects. On the death of Mr. T. Livesey, in 1894, Mr. Robert Searby, of Edlington, succeeded him as County Councillor, and took a great interest in the school; the late Mr. W. Brown, of the Capital and Counties Bank, was elected Chairman, and for several years he rendered most valuable service to the schools, being followed, on his decease in 1901, by Mr. R.