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COUNTY OF SUSSEX.

LEWES.

THE FREE GRAMMAR-SCHOOL.

In the year 1508, Edmund Dudley, Esq. gave to John Ashdow prior of Lewes, Agnes Morley, and others, an annuity of £20 out his manor of Hornsey, for the use of the said Agnes, who in 1512 queathed the said annuity for the endowment of a free grammar-sch at Southover, which the trustees to her will, with the consent of prior of Lewes, vested in George Hale, clerk, and his heirs, for purpose of the bequest; and in 1537 Mr Hale made over this annui to new trustees to execute the intentions of the donor. In addition this annuity Mrs Morley bequeathed a garden and house for the use a master and usher, to dwell and teach grammar there. In the ye 1545 Richard Bellingham and Thomas Colbrand, the only survivi trustees, enfeoffed John Waller, of Firle, gentleman, with the premis and the annuity, upon the condition of re-granting them to new trustee which he did; and in that manner the endowment has continued to managed by successive trustees.

1661. Rev. George Steere, of Newdigate in the county of Surrey bequeathed four houses in Lewes, the issues and profits of which wer to be appropriated to the education and maintenance of a fit person, th son of godly parents, in or near the town of Lewes, and especially th son of a godly poor minister, at either of the Universities of Oxford c Cambridge, for four years; and at the end thereof, then to another, fo the like term, and so on for ever. The nomination and choice is in th two chief officers, and four others, the most able inhabitants within th town, successively, for ever. The value of this exhibition is not fixed being dependent on the rent of houses, but varies according to the amount expended in repairs. The average yearly value may be about from £25 to £30.

BRIGHTON COLLEGE.
INSTITUTED 1847, A.D.

THIS is a Proprietary College, instituted with the design of providing a sound religious, classical, mathematical, and general education of the highest order, so modified as to meet the demands for practical knowledge in the present age.

is open

A Scholarship of £30 per annum, tenable for three years, for competition every year to candidates proceeding to Oxford or Cambridge, who have been students for three years in the college. But no he will be appointed who is not, in the judgment of the examiners, deserving of the distinction.

SHOREHAM.

ST NICOLAS' COLLEGE.

INSTITUTED 1847, A.D.

THIS College, a society of clergy and others, formed for educating all degrees of the middle classes, has in connexion with it a grammar, school at Shoreham, and another at Hurstpierpoint, at which a course of classical and mathematical instruction is pursued, the same as at the great public schools.

Exhibitions of the value of £25 a year, for a specified number of years, are granted to scholars of deserving character and competent attainments proceeding from these schools to Oxford or Cambridge.

The exhibitioners, at the discretion of the society, are elected to the fellowships at St Nicolas' College.

WARWICKSHIRE.

RUGBY SCHOOL.

FOUNDED 1567, A.D.

LAURENCE SHERIFFE, a native of Rugby, one of the gentlemen of the Princess Elizabeth, and afterwards a grocer, and member of the Grocers' Company, in a paper annexed to his will, entituled, the intent of Laurence Sheriffe, declares, that his trustees should procure #an honest, discreet, and learned man, being a Master of Arts, to take charge of the same [the school-house, &c. to be built], as a free grammar-school, and that the same should remain and be so kept chiefly for the children of Rugby and Brownsover, and next for such as be of other places next adjoining, for ever. That the same shall be called, The Free School of Laurence Sheriffe, of London, grocer, and that the master and his successors should have the mansion to reside in, without anything to be paid therefor."

The benevolent intentions of the founder do not, however, appear to have been scrupulously fulfilled by those in whom he had placed his confidence. He had devised by will his estates, in trust, to George

Harrison, of London, gentleman, and Bernard Field, of London, groc "his dear friends." Mr Harrison died soon after Mr Sheriffe, leavi Mr Field the surviving trustee, who thought proper to retain for own benefit the third part of one of the estates devised for t maintenance of the school: which so continued in a state of alit ation for many years. Several suits were ineffectually instituted different masters of the school for the recovery of it, until, in con quence of the Act of the 43rd of Queen Elizabeth to redress the m application of funds given to charitable uses, a commission was issu in 1614, and an inquisition was taken before the Bishop of Lond and others, the result of which was a Report to the Chancellor favour of the charity, and a restoration to the school of that part of t estate originally conveyed, with all arrears; and twelve trustees out the most respectable gentlemen of the county and neighbourhood we appointed for the better securing of the same and the application of to the uses intended.

Another estate, which Mr Sheriffe had left to his sister and he husband, at a certain rent during their lives, but which was include in his trust for the school, having been claimed by the holders of it their own, subject to the payment of the original rental assigned by Mr Sheriffe, for the lives of his sister and her husband; by an inqui sition taken at Rugby in 1653, before John St Nicholas and others, the possession of the property was declared to have been an usurpation, and all the trustees appointed under the first inquisition being dead, except one, it was ordered that the property should remain vested in twelve new trustees and their heirs, to the uses appointed by the founder. It was further ordered that the payment of arrears and of sums which had been withholden to the amount of £742. 8s. 4d should be made to the trustees, to be applied, first to the indemnifica tion of those who had been injured by the usurpation in question, and then to the repairs of the school-house, &c.

In 1777, Sir John Eardly Wilmot, late lord chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas, became a trustee of the school, and under his direction another act of parliament was obtained for the better manage. ment of the school. Under this act the trustees were authorized to grant eight Exhibitions of £40 a year, for seven years, to any college or hall of Oxford or Cambridge, to students from Rugby School. In 1779, the trustees ordered that the boys belonging to the foundation should have the preference in elections to exhibitions, and in default of such foundationers, those boys shall be chosen who shall appear to

best qualified at the time of examination. In 1808, the number of hibitions was increased from eight to fourteen, and the value of ch augmented to £50 a year for seven years.

In 1814 a fresh act of parliament was obtained, giving additional overs to the trustees, and confirming the particulars in former acts, hich may be regarded as the charter of the trust. Under this act, e trustees were empowered, "as soon as the revenues arising out the said charity estates and funds will admit," to augment the isting exhibitions, and to add to that number not more than seven, ch to be £60 a year.

The exhibitions till 1854 were twenty-one in number, and each of è value of £60 a year, and tenable for seven years. But it having en considered that seven years is a needlessly long tenure of an exhijon, the trustees, acting under the sanction of the Charity Commisners, determined, at a meeting held on the 26th October, 1854, to it the tenure of exhibitions to the term of four years, and thus graally to increase their number. It is expected that the annual number exhibitions given, when the new arrangement is in full operation, Il be five, independently of broken ones.

The exhibitions are vacated if the holders fail to keep the annual sidence required of members of the foundations of the colleges or halls which they belong, commencing with the term immediately followg their election.

Elections to exhibitions are made, in June, of the boys found most oficient in Divinity, Classics, Mathematics, and History, by two aminers appointed by the vice-chancellors of the Universities.

No scholar can become a foundationer until his parents or guardns have resided two years within five miles of Rugby; nor become a adidate for an exhibition before he has been a resident member of e school for three years.

In June, 1851, it was ordered by the trustees, that no scholar may main at the school after the completion of his nineteenth year, dating om the day of his birth.

BIRMINGHAM.

THE FREE GRAMMAR-SCHOOL.

FOUNDED 1552, a.d.

KING EDWARD VI. in the fifth year of his reign, by letters atent, granted and ordained, that "from thenceforth there should be free grammar-school in Brymyncham, to be called The Free Grammar

school of King Edward the Sixth, for the education, institution, instruction of boys and youths in grammar, for ever, under a h master and usher."

And that his Majesty's intention might take the better effect assigned the possessions of the Guild of the Holy Cross, which been dissolved by Henry VIII. in 1546, for the support and mai nance of the school, and appointed governors, who were incorpor by the name of " the Governors of the possessions, revenues, and ge of the Free Grammar-school of King Edward the Sixth in Brym cham,” with perpetual succession, and with power to elect others the place of those who should die, or remove from that place.

The governors were empowered to appoint the master and usi and, with the consent of the bishop of the diocese, to make fiti wholesome statutes and ordinances, for the order and government the master, usher, and scholars, and all things concerning the scho and the revenues of the same. In pursuance of the charter, statutes a orders were made by the governors, and confirmed by the Bishop Lichfield and Coventry, on the 21st October, 1676. Towards close of the reign of Charles II. some of the governors, in opposition their brethren, surrendered the charter of the school into the hands the king. A new charter was soon after granted by James II. h successor, in 1685. The ejected governors, however, immediately con menced a suit in chancery for the recovery of their original charter, an six years afterwards obtained a decree instituting them in their function annulling the charter of James II. and restoring and confirming the of Edward VI. The concerns of the school now reverting to thei legitimate management, the governors were enabled to make laws an ordinances for the better government of the school; yet by the letter patent no express visitor was appointed. In 1723 a commission was issued under the great seal to inspect the conduct of the governors, and all the exceptions made by them being heard and over-ruled, the matter came on to be heard in Hilary Term, 1725, when they objected to the commission, on the ground that the King having appointed governors, had by implication made them visitors likewise; the consequence of which would be, that the crown could not issue out a commission to visit or inspect the conduct of such governors (according to the express words of Lord Coke in the case of Sutton's Hospital or the Charter-House). Upon this question the Court now delivered their opinion seriatim, and resolved that the commission under the great seal was well issued in this case.

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