In late years boys from the school have filled posts in various parts of the world with credit. A considerable number have obtained clerkships in banks, or in the Civil Service; one boy, Richard Gordon Healey, passed 7th among more than a hundred candidates for the General Post Office service, London, and is now in the excise service. Another, Fairburn, is Assistant Inspector of Police at Singapore. Another, Isle, is a Civil Engineer, and has taken the B.Sc. degree. A summary of successes at the school, kindly supplied to the writer by Dr. Madge, shows that in the last seven years (1906) five boys have passed the London University Matriculation, 19 the Cambridge local examination, 34 the South Kensington examination, while four have qualified for the public Civil Service; a creditable result for a town of the size of Horncastle.
A recent change has been the admission of pupil teachers to classes specially adapted to their requirements, and with this accession to the numbers receiving instruction, there are now more pupils in the school, male and female together, than at any period within the last 30 years.
The latest changes, in the direction of progress, have been as follows: A new governing body has been created by the Board of Education, consisting of 13 members; the Lord of the Manor, the Honble. R. Stanhope, being ex officio one of them; eight representative Governors holding office for three years; two being appointed by the Lindsey County Council, three (one of them a female) by the Urban Council, two by the Guardians, one by the Justices of the Peace at the Lindsey Quarter Sessions. There are also four co-optative Governors (among them one female at least), appointed by the Governors for five years. It is further ordered that the Head Master need not be in Holy Orders; under which rule has been appointed the present Head Master, Mr. Arthur N. Worman, B.A., London, late Assistant Master at King Edward VII. Grammar School, King’s Lynn, who was selected by the Governors from 150 candidates for the post.
Addendum I.
It will have been observed that we have so far adopted the prevalent nomenclature, and spoken of this school as an Elizabethan institution, founded in 1571. It must now be added that, venerable as that date of origin would make it, it has a higher claim to our veneration still. Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona. There were grammar schools before that date. Edward VI. is said to have established several, in various parts of the country, and we have already named two such in our own neighbourhood, viz., those of Spilsby and Louth; but it is now known that even these were, strictly speaking, revivals of still other institutions. It is now known that not a few of the charities, or public institutions, supposed to have been founded by Queen Elizabeth, were really of older date, but revived, confirmed, or augmented, under her wise rule. In a published account of the old grammar school of Giggleswick, Yorkshire, [106a] commonly reputed to be a foundation of Edward VI., is the following statement, “a large number of schools bear the name of Ed. VI., who undoubtedly desired to strengthen the grammar school system. His good intentions were, however, frustrated by the Commissioners; and very few of the so-called Edward VI. grammar schools had their origin in his reign, being older foundations with a new name.” [106b]
It seems certain that Horncastle Grammar School is an analogous case. Documents have recently been brought to light in the archives of the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln, which prove that, acting for the Chancellor (who was ex officio “Magister Scholarum”), during a temporary vacancy of that office, they appointed Masters to the grammar schools of Boston, Partney, Horncastle, and elsewhere, in the year 1329; the Horncastle Master, so appointed, being one John of Beverley. This mode of appointment being exceptional, was only to be valid for one year; but the Chancellorship continuing vacant, the Masters were confirmed in their positions by the Dean and Chapter, in the following year 1330, and again in 1331; and so on, in successive years. [106c]
Now this mode of appointment being only in lieu of appointment by the Chancellor, while his office was in abeyance, it follows that these schools were in existence, as public institutions under the Chancellor, before the dates named. Although, therefore, we are unable to fix the exact period of the school’s existence, it may be satisfactory for Horncastrians to know that, in addition to the various interesting associations which we have already given as connected with the school, there is proof that before Shakespeare had composed one of his immortal plays, before Spenser had written a line of his Faerie Queen, before Bacon had even thought of his Advancement of Learning, there had existed a “seat of learning” in the small provincial town of Horncastle, which had then attained to the respectable age of more than two centuries.
We have been accustomed to consider the foundation of William of Wykeham, at Winchester, in 1373, as one at least of our very oldest, but Horncastle Grammar School may even be of still earlier date than that. The oldest school of all is King’s School, Canterbury, attributed to Archbishop Theodore, A.D. 670, but which may probably be traced to St. Augustine. St. Peter’s School, York, is the next oldest.