SCHOOLS.
The Public Schools in the town provided for the poor are numerous, and generally well conducted. The principal are Wilde’s, Annot’s, and the British School.
John Wilde left several estates, together with the rents and profits thereof, to be applied for a virtuous and learned schoolmaster, who shall teach forty boys to write and read and cast accounts, and shall also teach them the Latin tongue.
Thomas Annot, merchant of this town, also left money for founding a grammar school at Lowestoft; and by a decree, given in Gillingwater, it is ordered “that the same school shall consist of a schoolmaster, learned in the art and knowledge of grammar, and able to instruct and teach the rules and principles thereof, and the Latin tongue, and other things incident, necessary, and belonging to the said art, to be master, tutor, and teacher of the scholars in the said school, consisting of forty scholars and not above, to be taught and instructed within the said school.”
Henry Wilde, known by the name of the Arabian Tailor, was master of this school. He was a great proficient in the oriental languages, and was sent by Dean Prideaux to Oxford, where he gained a poor living by teaching languages; he afterwards removed to London, where he died. Mr. Rogers is the present master.
The British School is a neat building, on the south turnpike, which was opened in 1844, on the liberal principle of educating the children of all, without distinction of sect or party. It is principally supported by the Independents and Wesleyans, assisted by the munificence of S. M. Peto, Esq. M.P. Mr. M. Hinde is the efficient master.
Sabbath Schools are connected with most of the places of worship in the town.