EARLY HISTORY

In the minutes of a Vestry meeting, held in October, 1658, we read that “a proposition was made by Deputy Alexander Jones touching the erecting and maintaining a Free School in the Parish of Lambeth”, which was thankfully accepted by the parishioners.

The exact terms of this proposition are not stated, but farther on, in the minutes of the same meeting, it is stated that "the election and dismission of the schoolmaster of the above mentioned Free School shall, from time to time, be in the major part of the benefactors that shall subscribe towards the maintenance of the schoolmaster."

The Boys' School, Lambeth, 1808

This plan was not carried out during the lifetime of Mr. Jones. By his will, dated 5th May, 1660, he left the sum of £24 yearly, "to be paid for and towards the maintenance of a Free School”, in which twenty-four poor children were "to be taught to read, write, and cypher, to be instructed in the Latine and Greeke tongues, and in the principles of the Church of England."

It would seem that the property bequeathed to provide the above income consisted of a house in Blowbladder St., London, and certain lands in Camberwell. These had been purchased by Mr. Jones from the Trustees for the sale of Bishops' Lands, which the Long Parliament had sequestered in 1646, under an "Ordinance for the sequestration of the Lands of all Bishops, Deans, and Chapters”. These were vested in the hands of Trustees "for the payment of the just and necessary debts of the kingdom”.

On the accession of Charles II, in 1660, the Acts of Sequestration were repealed, and a Commission was appointed to enquire into the pretended sales and purchases of Crown and Church Lands.

It is probable, as the wishes of Mr. Alexander Jones were not carried into effect that his title to the lands devised for founding the School was set aside by the Commission.

Although this attempt to found a school in Lambeth was unsuccessful, yet it was not altogether futile. Among the trustees appointed by Mr. Jones to carry out his plan was "Richard Lawrence”, and in the year 1661 the said Richard Lawrence bequeathed the property known as "Dog House Fields" (afterwards Lambeth Green), for the purpose of establishing a Free School for twenty poor children of Lambeth Marsh.

"Allen”, in his "History of Lambeth" (1826), speaks of the School being founded and endowed in 1661, but it does not appear to have been established till much later, for Richard Lawrence, in his will, states that 'those houses called The Dog Houses, or Dog House Fields, purchased of the Earl of Bedford, should, after the decease of his wife, Joan, go to his sister, Courtney, during her natural life, provided she kept them in good repair; and after her decease to Thomas Allison”, and after his death to maintain the School.

Richard Lawrence was buried in the Leigh Chapel of the Parish Church, which has been lately furnished and restored in memory of Francis Pelham, fifth Earl of Chichester and formerly Rector of Lambeth. On the south side of a white marble raised tomb, long since decayed and gone, was the following epitaph:-

In the vault underneath lyeth
Interred the body of Richard
Lawrence, of this parish, Mart.
And one of the members of the
Levant Company, who married
Johanna Stephyns, the relief of
Mr. Henry Stephyns, by whom
He had issue three children,
Viz. two sons and one daughter.
He departed this life the 8th
Day of October ano D]9i 1661,
Aged 53 years.

Absalom had no sons, and he built him a pillar.

The School and Savings Bank

Major Lawrence's sons died before him. His tomb has entirely disappeared, but his great monument, the School, is flourishing.

In the interesting account of the "History and Antiquities of the Parish of Lambeth”, published by Nichols in 1786, chiefly from the researches of Dr. Ducarel, we find that about the year 1661 Francis Moore, the original author of Old Moore's Almanack, kept a school at the north comer of Calcot's Alley, in the Back Lane (now High Street), where he followed the joint occupation of astrologer and schoolmaster, and perhaps of a doctor, as in his almanack he is called physician.

Another old Lambethan who endeavoured to do something for the education of Lambeth children was Thomas Rich, who was baptised in the Parish Church, 8th May, 1603. He was a citizen and mercer of London, and also a schoolmaster and penman in the Parish of Westham, Essex. He bequeathed a moiety of the rent of an estate at Westham for teaching poor men's children born in his native place.

Thomas Rich died in 1672, but nothing was known of this legacy for many years. In 1751 application was made to the Mercer's Company, and ever since a yearly sum, varying from £20 to £25, has been paid to the Master of the School. The estate referred to has long disappeared, having been acquired for railway purposes. The sum realised was invested in Consols, and the, “moiety” now amounts to about £21 yearly. Rich's Grammar School never existed, but eight poor boys, known as Rich's Scholars, were educated with the money received from the legacy. 

In a Court of Chancery Report, dated 24th February, 1838, "Mr. Edward Everill, in an affidavit, stated that, from an inscription on the old building, he believed the Lawrence Charity School to have been founded in 1661."

It would thus appear, from the foregoing account, that from 1661, when Moore flourished, a school existed in Lambeth, but it seems clear that it is to the Church that Lambeth owes its first public school, which was one of the earliest "subscription" schools founded in the Metropolis.

At a Vestry meeting, held in November, 1708, Dr. Edmund Gibson being Rector, it was resolved that "a house in Bear-and-Ragged-Staff Yard, be made a Charity School for the poor boys of this Parish of Lambeth."

This is certainly the date of the Foundation of "The Boys' School”, and in 1908 we shall celebrate our "Bi-centenary."

The "Lawrence Charity School" was founded about the same time, perhaps in 1706.

In 1731 the then Rector, Dr. Denne, and several Overseers of the Workhouse, also Trustees of the School, arranged plans for converting the School into a "Working" School. They had observed "how much the children of the workhouse, under harder circumstances, are improved and put into a way of getting their bread”, and having regard to the fact that several of the benefactors of the school are lately dead or removed, resolved to try whether the children could not be enabled in some measure to clothe themselves. Accordingly, this year, they built an apartment over the school and furnished it with a dozen spinning wheels for mop yam. The boys learnt to read and write in the mornings, and worked in the afternoon, and we are told, that the work is so much like play that the children return with eagerness to their school in the afternoon and vie with one another who shall spin most."

All this time Major Lawrence's School was being carried on at Lambeth Green, and in 1753 this building was in such a dangerous state that the Trustees found themselves compelled to erect a new building. It was then considered desirable to connect the two schools, and the following arrangements were concluded.

The Managers of the Subscription School, having advanced on loan £350 towards the new building, took a lease of the premises for a period of years (which was renewed for 90 years in 1814, at £35 per annum), and the Lawrence Trustees paid a yearly sum towards the salary of the Master for the education of their twenty boys. The accompanying illustration was taken from an old print.

The two schools still continue under the same agreement, but there is a change in the tenure of the land.

The London and South Western Railway Company, in 1848, purchased the freehold of the property, and ran their railway through the property. They built a new School and Master's House in Hercules Road. This was finished in 1851, and accommodated about 300 boys. A large upper room was added in 1885.

Again the railway company found it necessary to widen the line, and in 1904 the Trustees and Managers had provided splendid new buildings at a cost of nearly £18,000, from the plans of Mr. Arthur Reeve. (See article on "Architectural Features of New School," later)

A century and a half have passed since the schools were united, and many changes have taken place.

It will be interesting to recall some facts connected with the figure of the Charity Boy which now stands in a niche in front of the New School. The great sculptor and designer, John Flaxman (or more probably, John Bacon) may have modelled it. Mrs. Coade, whose manufactory of artificial stone stood at what is now the comer of Belvedere Road, thus writes to the Treasurer of the School:-

Mrs. Coade's compliments to Mr. Field, informed Mr. Buckmaster when he first applied for the figure of the Charity Boy, that the expense of it would be nine guineas, which she now confirms; and that of the Charity Girl is seven guineas, making together sixteen guineas, the price mentioned in the catalogue of the manufactory. As the two figures she now has are exceeding fine ones, shall be happy to see them fixed in some conspicuous part other parish.
… Lambeth, 25th June, I 785.

The figure was placed at the south end of the school, and it appears over the porch of the building erected in 1808. The Committee resolved that it should not be replaced outside the school built in 1851, and Mr. Cave-Browne regrets “that its future destination is not likely to be so honourable as that of its sister statue”. The Boy, however, was soon restored to a post of honour in front of the building, and now occupies a similar position on the School recently completed. The sister statue now stands in one of the halls of the Female Orphan Asylum at Beddington, Surrey. It would be interesting to learn how it got there.

At one time as many as 50 boys were clothed, and in 1825 there were 380 free boys, some were partially clothed. Formerly, the endowments of the School were considerable, but about this time several schools were established in the daughter parishes, and from time to time the property or stock was sold and the money given to assist these new schools. Many of the subscribers transferred their subscriptions, and in 1836 it was necessary to require "every boy to pay the sum of one penny weekly”, a plan which was maintained till the London County Council abolished all fees in March, 1905. 

Archbishop Temple's Boys' School, 1904

The fees varied at different periods, from 1d. to 1s. or more weekly, but more than 100 free places were always provided.

For very many years "Charity" sermons were preached in the Parish Church, and "collections " were placed to the credit of the School as early as 1717. On the 20th April, 1806, Archbishop Charles Manners Sutton succeeded in drawing £62 l6s. 9d. from the pockets of the congregation. From this date the Archbishops of Canterbury have been patrons of the School.

A fourth part of the money thus collected was to be applied to the "putting out of boys educated in this school as apprentices. "

In this riverside parish many boys found employment with watermen, but at one time the Committee agreed that "no gratuity or apprentice-fee should be paid with a boy who should become bound apprentice to a waterman.”

But in 1807, at the meeting held in October it was resolved that "it would answer a great national purpose to encourage such children as are willing to adopt a seafaring life, by giving them an appropriate dress, with an honourable medal to be always worn therewith, having the words, "Lambeth". For the Navy, 'as a legend or inscription. "

In the early days of the Volunteer movement this patriotic spirit showed itself in the formation of the once well-known corps of "Lambeth Volunteers”.

At the present time it would not be at all a bad idea to form a company composed of "Old Lambethans”, which could be attached to the East Surrey Regiment.

TREASURERS

A passing glance must be given to these gentlemen, because in the list we find many well-known Lambeth names. 

In 1714 Mr. JOHN SKINNER took care of the purse, and until the past twenty-five years a new one was chosen annually. The Rev. Dr. DENNE, author of "Historical Particulars of Lambeth Parish and Lambeth Palace" (1795), was Treasurer in 1734, and others were JONATHAN TYERS (of Vauxhall Gardens fame), Sir JOSEPH MAWBEY, Bart., SAMUEL WARING, Sir ROBERT BURNETT, JOHN FIELD, the Rev. Dr. D'OYLEY (founder of King's College), and lastly, Mr. W. WILKIE JONES.

SCHOOLMASTERS

Originally the Schoolmaster held his office "during good behaviour”.

In 1805 it was resolved that the Master should be elected or re-elected yearly at the General meeting of the subscribers, "during pleasure”. We find the names of the earliest Schoolmasters in an old account book which commences in the year 1714. There appears to have been an earlier book, but no trace of it can be found.

ANDREW CUTLER (1714?-1725) was then Master. He was also appointed Parish Clerk in 1718, and held both offices till his death in 1725.

ANDREW CUTLER (1725-1729), son of the former, succeeded him as Schoolmaster and as Parish Clerk in 1733, but he resigned his scholastic duties in 1729.

JOHN SUMMERSELL (1729-1733), who had been Vestiy Clerk since 1713, was next appointed, and held several other offices till his death in 1733.

RICHARD SUMMERSELL (1733-1746), his son, succeeded as Master, and also as Vestry Clerk. He was likewise Bailiff of the Manors of Lambeth, Vauxhall, Walworth, &e. He resigned the Mastership in 1746, and became famous as a Surveyor. He died in 1772.

RICHARD PLATT (1746-1751) was then elected. He appears to have been little known outside his school, and was dismissed for negligence.

ROGER HARRISON (1751-1770). Under him the two schools were united in 1753. In 1751 "Rich's Scholars " were appointed.

THOMAS WHITE (l770- 1805) held office for 35 years, and acted as Collector to the Trustees.

GEORGE REYNOLDS (1805-1817) was then elected. During his tenure new Schools were erected (1808), and about the same time Dr. Bell's Madras or Monitorial system was introduced. Reynolds resigned in 1817, when he was appointed one of the Writing Masters of Christ's Hospital because of the excellence of his calligraphy. (The daughter of George Reynolds became the wife of Tom Hood, author of "The Song of the Shirt.")

EDWARD EVERILL (1817-1848) was selected on the recommendation of Dr. Bell. He was also appointed Secretary of the Lambeth Savings Bank (which was founded in 1818), and held that office after he had retired from the position of Schoolmaster.

GEORGE JOHN STEVENSON (1848-1855) next took charge. He had been educated at the Battersea Training Institution, and had conducted the school belonging to the Philanthropic Society in St. George's Fields, until its removal to Red Hill, Surrey. In 1844 Mr. W. J. PIKE was appointed the Assistant Master.

WILLIAM BAILY (1855-1861) was the first fully certificated Master. H.M.I. Rev. W. Brookfield, reported that "This school is conducted in an excellent spirit and with very satisfactory success”. He resigned on account of ill health. In 1861 the numbers on the roll were 490, average attendance, 386.

THOMAS EDMUND HELLER (1862-1873) - See special article, later.

JOHN HERNAMAN (l873- 1899) - See special article, later.

JOHN EDWARD WOOD (1899) - See special article, later.