The Brighton Auxiliary Town Missionary and Scripture Readers’ Society meet weekly at 25, Middle Street, with the view to extend the knowledge of the Gospel amongst the poor of the town, without regard to denominational distinctions.
The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge is a district Committee for the Deanery of Lewes, and was established in 1815, under the sanction of the Bishop of the Diocese, to promote the diffusion of the Scriptures and Religious Tracts amongst the lower orders of society. The parent Society, in London, was formed by members of the Church of England, in 1669.
The Provident and District Society, established in 1824, under most admirable arrangements, gives direct charitable assistance; encourages the poor to make deposits, which are returned to them in winter in useful articles, with the amount increased by a premium; and prevents mendicity by having an office, 108, Church street, where beggars may be referred and have their cases examined into. The Society has the town divided into districts, for the purpose of visiting and inquiring into cases of distress. The Benevolent Loan Fund, at the same office, grants pecuniary assistance to those who, by misfortune, require temporary aid; re-payments being arranged by easy instalments, and not subjecting the borrowers to the usury of trading money-lenders.
The Brighton and Sussex Mutual Provident Society, Prince Albert Street, commenced its operations in January, 1847. Its rules and tables provide weekly allowances and medical aid in sickness; sums at death; endowments; and immediate and deferred annuities; it is the only local institution of the kind.
Bowen, in his “Complete System of Geography,” [353] says, “There are two considerable charity schools here, one for 50 boys, who are taught arithmetic and navigation, and 20 girls, who are put out to apprenticeship or services.” These were termed Free Schools, and that for boys was founded within the precincts of the Bartholomews, in 1725, by the Rev. Anthony Springett, who, in addition to an annual subscription of 8s., in the year 1740 gave the further sum of £25 per annum, for the education of twenty poor boys belonging to the parish. In 1735, Mr. George Beach left the interest of £59 1s. 6d., and in 1781, the Right Honourable the Countess of Gower gave the interest of £234 12s. to the same charity. The money, however, having been laid out in the short annuities, the funds were not available to the intentions of the founder, the school-house, therefore, and a small parcel of land adjoining, were sold for £400, and in February, 1818, another school, established upon its foundation, in the Lanes immediately north of Black Lion Street, was opened, under the denomination “National School for Boys,” the premises being sufficiently commodious to contain 300 youths, for education in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and in the principles of the Established Church.
Another Free School was founded by Mr. William Grimmett, for twenty boys, the children of parishioners, to be clothed, and instructed in reading, writing, arithmetic, merchants’ accounts, navigation, and the principles of the Established Church of England. Mr. Grimmett had been instructed in the Free School founded by Mr. Springett; and having afterwards been bred to the sea, he realized by his industry above £10,000, nearly £2,000 of which—now accumulated to £2,330 11s. 6d., producing an income of £69 18s. 4d.,—he bequeathed for the endowment of his School. Some informality in his Will gave his heirs-at-law an opportunity of contesting the legality of the bequest; but his widow generously maintained against them a suit in Chancery, and the validity of the Will was confirmed. But from the nature of the bequest, and the disagreement that afterwards arose amongst the appointed Trustees, the school was not established before 1769. It is now managed according to the directions of the devisor, by sixteen Trustees, namely, the Vicar and three Churchwardens of the Parish, and twelve other inhabitants of the town, chosen at a Vestry meeting, among whom every vacancy by death, resignation, or removal from the town, is in like manner to be always supplied by public election of the majority of the parishioners, convened at a Vestry meeting the 1st day of May annually; and every vacancy in the School is supplied by the election of the Trustees, or the greater part of them, by ballot, at a public Vestry, of which notice shall be given on a Sunday at the Parish Church, ten days at least before such meeting; no boy to be received into the school under the age of eight, nor permitted to remain there after the age of fifteen years. Forty boys are now educated on this foundation, at the National School, in which it is merged.
The most remarkable man in connexion with the Free School, as founded by Mr. Springett, was Mr. John Grover, under whose care for instruction the inhabitants obtained signal benefit. He was born of poor parents in Brighton, about the year 1648, and passed his infancy and early youth in the lowest drudgeries of a country life, and it was while tending a flock on the hills adjoining the town that his youthful mind was often employed in exploring the power and relations of numbers; and when he was of sufficient strength for the more laborious employments of agriculture, the moments of his leisure were still dedicated to study. On his spade and shovel, with a lump of chalk, he worked his problems, and calculated the motions of the tides and stars. The early acquirements of this self-taught philosopher soon attracted public wonder and investigation; indeed, his intellectual powers and industry could not pass without some notice and patronage; and there is no doubt he was chiefly assisted by the Scrase family, upon whose farm he was employed, and the Rev. Mr. Falkner, the Vicar. Books, paper, and time, were the only things his indefatigable genius seemed to require; and with such aid he soon became one of the best penmen and mathematicians of his time. Not long after he had thus established his fame for useful and abstruse science, he was appointed master of the school, and his unambitious breast aspired to no higher distinction, as he was enabled to apply the enthusiasm of his genius to the cultivation of his favourite studies. This mode of instruction, being that suggested by reason, not the initiative pedantry of schools, facilitated the attainment of the several branches he taught. Navigation being the most necessary and profitable science to the inhabitants of Brighthelmston, he taught it with singular conciseness and precision. Mr. Grimmett was amongst the last of his pupils, as he died, universally respected, soon after the commencement of the present century.
In 1788, in an apartment of the old Town Hall, a School of Industry for Girls was established, under the patronage of Mrs. Nathaniel Kemp and other ladies. It consisted of 150 girls, 70 of whom were clothed in green, educated, and carefully initiated in the sentiments and practice of religion and industry. This School is that known as the National School, the central or head building of which Institution, erected in 1829 by Messrs. Stroud and Mew, and subsequently enlarged by Messrs. Cheesman, is in Church Street. The Gothic style of architecture is preserved throughout. There is a shield with a scroll over the arched doorway of the principal entrance containing the Arms of the Town and the inscription “National Schools.” Entering by the grand door of the vestibule, three tiers of balconies present themselves, having staircases leading to them and conducting to the several suites of rooms. The hall, 50ft. high, is terminated by a groined roof. The Boys’ School is approached by an elegant flight of stone steps, the room is 75ft long, 35ft wide, and 20ft high, well lighted from the west, and has also an entrance in Regent Street. The Girls’ School-room, which is of similar dimensions to the Boys’, and immediately above it, is approached by two additional flights of stone stairs. It has a branch in Warwick Street, built by Mr. Ackerson. The Infant Schools, in connection with the National Schools, are in Upper Gardner Street, Kent’s Court, and Warwick Street.
Swan Downer’s School was founded in 1819, under the will of Mr. Swan Downer, who in 1811 left the sum of £10,106 15s. 3d., for paying the expenses of providing a proper School-house for the instruction of 20 poor girls of the parish in needle-work, reading, and writing, and completely clothing them twice in every year, each of such girls to have two suits of clothes at or on their election or entrance. On the foundation of the said school he also provided that out of the interest and produce of the trust funds—£303 4s—a salary of £40 per annum should be paid to a competent schoolmistress, and the surplus applied to the education and clothing of fifty girls, which has, since 1859, been carried on in a large room temporarily rented by the Trustees in Windsor Street. The first school was in Gardner Street, taken by the then Trustees at an annual rent of £30, and at a loss of something like £400 in appropriating the premises. A site for the erection of a New School-house has been approved by the Trustees. It is situated in North Street, adjoining Messrs. Smithers and Son’s Brewery, and has a frontage to the street of 33ft., and a depth of more than 60ft. The situation thus selected combines two essentials, proximity to the Parish Church, with which the founder connected the charity, and a central position, so important to a day-school for the children of the poor. The Union Schools, in Middle Street, were founded by Mr. Edward Goff, of Scotland Yard, London; that for girls by a donation of £400, in 1807, and that for boys by a legacy of £200 the following year. These schools, which are supported by voluntary contributions, were re-erected in 1837. The other National Charity Schools, independent of Sunday Schools, are: British Schools (Boys’ and Girls’), North Lane; Ragged School, Dorset Street; Ragged Schools, Spa Street and Essex Street; St. John’s Schools, Carlton Hill; St. Nicholas’ Church Memorial School, Frederick Street; St. Stephen’s School; Bethel Arch, on the Beach, for Fishermen’s children; Wesleyan Schools, Nelson Row; St. Mark’s Church of England Schools, Rock Street; St. Paul’s, West Street.
There are several public educational establishments in the town; the principal of which is the College. It was established January, 1847, at the top of Portland Place, on the premises now occupied by J. Jardine, Esq., LL.D., and known as Portland House Boarding School. The foundation stone of the present building, in Eastern Road, was laid on the 27th of June, 1848, by the Right Rev. Ashurst Turner Gilbert, D.D., Lord Bishop of Chichester, assisted by the architect, Mr. G. G. Scott, of London, and the builders, Messrs. Wisden and Anscombe. A bottle was deposited under the stone containing various papers connected with the College, and a copy of the Times of that day. An elegant trowel, having a richly carved ivory handle, and enclosed in a handsome mahogany case, was presented to and used by the Lord Bishop on the occasion. At first the principal front, which afforded accommodation for 300 pupils, only was erected, since which has been built the Chapel and other additions. The College is divided into two departments—the senior and the junior. The pupils in the senior department wear an academical dress. Students are admitted into the two departments after nine and fifteen years of age respectively. The education is of the very highest order, and will bear a favourable comparison with that of any other Institution in England. Patron, the Bishop of Chichester: Principal, the Rev. John Griffith.