Launceston.
Zachary Pearce not a Pupil of Busby.
—The birth[1] of Zachary (afterwards Bishop) Pearce was prior to the death[2] of the famous Master of Westminster, which took place at the short interval of five years: consequently, it was impossible that the relation of teacher and pupil should exist between them.
[1] 1690.
[2] 1695.
In the Memoir of this prelate, which goes before his Commentary on the Gospels, it is expressly stated that he was removed to Westminster School in Feb. 1704. At the same time, his biographer speaks of his being elected to Trinity College, Cambridge, after he had spent six years at Westminster, and "endured the constraint of a grammar school to the twentieth year of his age." Then follows the sentence, "Why his removal was so long delayed, no other reason can be given, than that Dr. Busby used to detain those boys longest under his discipline of whose future eminence he had most expectation; considering the fundamental knowledge which grammar schools inculcate, as that which is least likely to be supplied by future diligence, if the student be sent deficient to the university."
Bishop Pearce's biographer was the Rev. John Derby, his chaplain, who could not well be mistaken as to a plain and palpable matter of fact. It is perfectly conceivable, however, that the future prelate was long detained at Westminster School in consequence of a regulation first laid down by Busby, and regularly acted upon by that eminent man. This circumstance will sufficiently explain the apparent incongruity.
If I am right in this conjecture, Bishop Pearce must have entered under Knipe.[3]
[3] Noble's Continuation of Granger, Vol. iii. p. 119, &c.
N.