The “causey” at the south end was erected to form an entrance to the school.
By Royal Letters Patent, dated June 20th, 19 Jac. I. (1622), a Charter of Incorporation was granted, by the style and title of “The Master of Etwall Hospital, the School Master of Repton, Ushers, Poor Men, and Poor Scholars.” The charter is quoted at length in the Report, and consists of twenty-four ordinances, which refer to the appointment, duties, salaries, and stipends of the said masters, ushers, poor men, and poor scholars.
The Thackers and the school seem to have lived amicably together for many years; but as the school increased in numbers, that state of affairs was not likely to last. When Gilbert Thacker sold the remains of the Priory to the executors of Sir John Porte, he little thought what a rookery he was making for his descendants! The boys in their “recreation” extended the bounds, and ventured too near the inner courtyard in front of Thacker’s house, much to the annoyance and inconvenience of the dwellers there, as we can easily imagine. At last, in the year 1652, a case known as “The Master, &c., v. Gilbert Thacker and others,” was commenced. It was settled out of court by the appointment of two arbitrators, Sir Francis Burdett, Bart., and Sir Samuel Sleigh, Knight, with Gervase Bennett as referee. They pronounced “theire award by word of mouth about the year 1653.” Thacker was to build a wall across the courtyard, beyond which the boys were not allowed to pass. This he refused to do, so the alleged trespass and annoyances went on for another twelve years, when, owing to the conduct of Thacker, the school brought an action against him. The High Court of Chancery appointed four gentlemen as commissioners to try the case: William Bullock, Daniel Watson, Esquires; Thomas Charnells, and Robert Bennett, gentlemen. They met “at the house of Alderman Hugh Newton, at Derby, there being at the signe of the George.”
In the year 1896 I found an account of this case in the school muniment chest. It consists of two rolled-up folios, lawyers’ briefs, with interrogations, depositions, etc., which were taken on April 15th, 1663, and fill sixty pages of folio. The interrogations for the school administered to the witnesses—of whom there were fifty, twenty-five on each side—referred to their knowledge of the school buildings, schoolmasters and boys, Thacker’s ancestors, rights of way, the award of Sir Francis Burdett and Sir Samuel Sleigh, the Thackers’ conduct, the value of the land, former suits at law, and the use of the yard for recreation by the boys, etc. For Thacker the questions referred to the knowledge of prohibitions by his ancestors and himself, and complaints made to the schoolmasters, etc. The depositions are most interesting, as the knowledge of some of the witnesses extended back to within forty years of the founding of the school. I wish I could quote them at length. Again “the differences between the parties” were settled out of court; “they were referred to the Right Honorable Philipp, Earl of Chesterfield, to be finally determined if he could,” which proved a difficult task, for Thacker would not come to terms; so another writ was issued on January 11th, in the eighteenth year of the reign of Charles the Second, calling upon Thacker, “his Counsel, Attorneys, &c., &c., to fulfil each and every thing contained and specified in the aforesaid order, and in no wise neglect this at your imminent peril.” Thacker pleaded ignorance of the order, “as it was written in short Lattin, some of the words written very short, he did not well understand it, nor could say if it was a true coppy.” His plea was allowed, and a settlement was arrived at; a wall was built, part of it still in situ, “by both parties, from the Chancel N.E. corner to the north side of the door of the Nether School House,” below which the boys were not allowed to pass. A receipt for £14 19s. for half the cost of the building of the wall, signed by Wm. Jordan, proves that it was built before or during the year 1670.
For over two hundred years the school consisted of the Priory, and a room called the “writing school,” now destroyed, which stood on the east side of the “causey,” a paved passage between the walls, with steps leading into the old “big school,” now the school library. The “schoolmaster’s lodgings” were at the north end; the usher’s at its south. The other “ushers” had their “lodgings” in a building, also destroyed, in what is now known as the “Trent gardens.”
During the headmastership of Dr. Prior (1767–79) the number of boys attending the school had greatly increased; those who came from a distance used “to table,” that is, lodge, in the village. “For the better acomodation of boarders,” the governors of the school rented the Hall from Sir Robert Burdett, Bart., of Foremark, who had succeeded to it on the death of Mary Thacker, who died on January 8th, 1728. An order was issued by the governors, the Earls of Huntingdon and Chesterfield and W. Cotton, on the 31st day of August, 1768, that the Hall “should be considered in all points as the master’s house, the rent and all other expenses attending it being defrayed by the Corporation”; from that date the Hall has been the residence of the headmasters of Repton School. Originally it consisted of an isolated brick tower, two storeys high, with hexagonal turrets in the upper storey, and was built by Prior Overton in the reign of Henry VI. (1422–61). When the Thackers obtained possession of it, they added to it at various dates. The lower storey of the tower, now used as the kitchen, has a fine oak ceiling, divided into nine square compartments by oak beams; at the intersections there are four carved bosses, bearing (1) a name device or rebus of Prior Overton, a tun or cask encircled by the letter O, formed by a vine branch with leaves and grapes; (2) a capital T ornamented with leaves; (3) an S similarly ornamented; (4) a sheep encircled like No. 1. The oaken staircase is lit by a stained-glass window, with the armorial bearings of the founder and three hereditary governors, the Earls of Huntingdon and Chesterfield, and Sir John Gerard.
With varied fortune the school continued till Dr. Pears was appointed headmaster in the year 1854, when there were only forty-eight boys in the school! The numbers rose rapidly, and other houses had to be built. The tercentenary of the school, held in 1857, proved to be a fresh starting point in its history. On August 11th of that year, the late Honourable George Denman presided over a meeting of Old Reptonians and others. Speeches were delivered, and a sermon was preached by the late Dr. Vaughan, headmaster of Harrow School. As a lasting memorial of the day, it was proposed that a school chapel should be erected; hitherto the school had worshipped in the parish church. A liberal response was made to the appeal, and in the year 1858 Earl Howe laid the foundation stone. Since that time it has been enlarged no less than four times to accommodate the number of boys, which now exceeds three hundred. From 1860 to 1885 seven school houses have been built, additional form rooms and playing fields have been added, and crowning them all is the Pears Hall, which bears the following inscription:—
IN HONOREM PRÆCEPTORIS OPTIMI
STEUART ADOLPHI PEARS S.T.P.
SCHOLÆ REPANDUNENSI PROPE VIGINTI ANNOS PRÆPOSITI