Glorious Revolution', 1688
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(._ EDUCATION IN THE PETERBOROUGH DIOCESE IN THE CENTURY FOLLOWING THE 'GLORIOUS REVOLUTION', 1688. by D. K. SHEARING. Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of London, Institute of Education, History and Humanities Department. 1. LON©f • ot`J ABSTRACT. There is a consensus of academic opinion that for approximately 100 years stretching from 1688, the date of the 'Glorious Revolution', to the onset of industrialisation England enjoyed relative stability, the condition being attributed to political pragmatism. The purpose of this thesis is twofold; to document the educational developments that characterized the period and to examine their effect, nature and scope, about which historians sharply disagree. The principle that in any age education is a social tool whose practical possibilities rest on people's assumptions determined the strategy of pursuing four main lines of enquiry. These form thematic chapters, the contents of which are briefly summarized as follows: 1. Provision; the Church of England's supervisory role; incidental management of schools. 2. The curriculum and teaching methodology employed in the various scholastic institutions. 3. A survey of scholars in attendance at elementary schools, grammar schools and academies. 4. A consideration of the teaching force with sections on religious attitudes, financial standing and professionalism. Although the study has a national dimension its distinct regional focus is intentional because the bulk of surviving records relate to a locality, enabling its educational system to be largely reconstructed. The Peterborough diocese proved to be an eminently suitable choice being both the setting for educational diversity and extremely rich in source material. The evidence which accrued was not used merely to illustrate what is already known; rather, it made possible more realistic interpretations of the macro situation than hitherto. 2. It is argued in the conclusion that education neither stagnated nor regressed. The principal finding is that the classical tradition of the grammar schools and the universities gradually lost ground to Dissent with its insistence on science and 'the relief of man's estate'. Consequently, new ideas were enterprisingly translated into commendable practice. 3. CONTENTS. Page. Illustrations. Acknowledgements. 7 Abbreviations. 8 Introduction. 9 Chapter 1. Educational Provision and Administration. 25 Chapter 2. Curriculum Content and Teaching Methodology. 78 Chapter 3. The Scholars and their Social Background. 138 Chapter 4. The Teaching Force. 194 Conclusion. 242 Appendix 1. Alphabetical List of School Locations in Northamptonshire and Rutland between 1688 and 1800 Showing the Teachers Ranked Chronologically. 263 Appendix 2. Alphabetical List of Men and Women Teachers Active in Northamptonshire and Rutland between 1688 and 1800. 299 Manuscript Sources and Bibliography. 339 4. ILLUSTRATIONS. Page. 1. The subscriptions in Latin of John Walton and Edward Caldwell, 1705. 47 2. The subscripticns in English of James Booth and Nathaniel Smith, 1730. 48 3. The Peterborough Diocesan Archives; the nature and extent of Church of England documentation of schoolmasters. 55 4. Trustees of Harrowden Parva Free School, 1685-1797. 61 5. Wellingborough Grammar School; appointment of Benjamin Chesterton as usher, 1710. 66 6. Sample page, writing book of John Capell of Fiore, 1764. 93 7. Catalogue of the books owned by the master of Daventry Grammar School, Harold Milner, who died in 1711. 110 8. List of subjects offered by private schools and academies, 1721-1805. 124 9. 'List of boys in the Free School in Kingsthorpe in May 1783'. 146 10. Possible fathers, with occupations, of children at Kingsthorpe Charity School in May 1783 drawn from the Kingsthorpe Militia Lists. 148 11. Boys in attendance at the King's School, Peterborough, in 1726 and 1733. 156 12. Scholars from the Peterborough diocese (surnames beginning with the letters A, B and C only) entering Cambridge Colleges between 1660 and 1751, by decades. 159 13. Fathers' occupations given in respect of 139 scholars in the foregoing cohort of 243. 162 14. Places in Northamptonshire and Rutland from which scholars proceeded, between 1700 and 1796, to either Cambridge or Oxford Universities and subsequently took Holy Orders. 164 5. Page. 15. Local schools which sent scholars (who subsequently took Holy Orders) to either Cambridge or Oxford during the eighteenth century. 166 16. University attended with month of entry; 477 local scholars who took Holy Orders in the eighteenth century. 168 17. Fathers' occupations (where revealed) of the foregoing cohort of 477. 169 18. The names of 116 students taught by Philip Doddridge at the Northampton Dissenting Academy, 1729-1751, revealed in correspondence, with brief biographical details. 175 19. Possible ex-students of Ryland's Academy who settled in Northampton, and occupations followed, as revealed in the Poll Books. 181 20. Possible ex-students of Ryland's Academy, with occupation and place of residence in Northamptonshire as revealed in the 1777 Militia Lists, exclusive of men stated to be labourers or servants. 183 21. Will of cleric/master John Morgan, 1779. 214 22. Inventory of Thomas Yeomans, cleric and master of Brackley, 1715. 216 23. Handwriting of Henry Woolley, clerk to the River Nene Commissioners, 1758. 225 6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. I wish to thank my tutor, Professor Peter Gordon, who gave unsparingly of his time and interest, offered encouragement and made many constructive suggestions regarding the format of the thesis. During the early investigative stages emeritus Professor Brian Simon gave valued advice on several important matters. Over a long period Victor Hatley was helpful in many ways but especially by being always ready to draw on his unrivalled fund of local knowledge. I was treated with unfailing courtesy at the Northampton Public Library, at the Northamptonshire Record Office, Delapre Abbey, at the Stamford offices of the Lincoln, Rutland and Stamford Mercury and at those repositories of archive material visited less frequently. Connie Reid prepared the typescript conscientiously and with great cheerfulness. 7. ABBREVIATIONS. CCB Consistory Court Book. CPB Court Proceedings Book. DNB Dictionary of National Biography. HIL H.I.Longden (ed.), Northamptonshire and Rutland Clergy, 1500-1900 (16 vols., Northampton, 1939-1952). LAO Lincolnshire Archives Office. LRSM Lincoln, Rutland and Stamford Mercury. NH Northampton Herald. NM Northampton Mercury. NNQ Northamptonshire Notes and Queries. NNP Northamptonshire Past and Present. NRO Northamptonshire Record Office. NRS Northamptonshire Record Society. PDA Peterborough Diocesan Archives. SB Subscription Book. VCH Victoria County History. VB Visitation Book. 8. INTRODUCTION. 9. There is a consensus of academic opinion that for approximately one hundred years following the 'Glorious Revolution' of 1688 England enjoyed relative stability. This calm period contrasts markedly with both the disturbed part of the seventeenth century which preceded it and, at the other extreme, with the tense aftermath of the French and Industrial Revolutions. Foreigners, in observing that the English were seemingly contented, free and prosperous, envied a Government which though acknowledging royal patronage relied ultimately on the support of independently-minded members of the House of Commons, and a Constitution which preserved democratic rights, in theory at least. Within an ordered framework then, bearing the stamp of the dominant group, the landed gentry, the people conducted their multifarious activities. Mingay states that the legend of a golden placid time of plenty and social harmony 'gained vastly from the distant perspective; the reality, of course, was much less elysian; but for all the distortion and omission, there yet 1 remained in it some basis of truth'. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the nature and scope of contemporary education, about which historians sharply disagree. Montmorency's long-delivered verdict of 'a century of educational sleep' has been echoed more recently. According to Cressy, the liberal aspects of Puritan educational policy had given way by 1700 to retrenchment and 2 'a closing of doors (which had never been very wide open.)' Stone postulates that education, at the Restoration, was regarded with considerable suspicion, being charged with raising the expectations of many men who proved surplus to economic requirements; their thwarted ambitions had plunged the country into civil war. Educational reform and educational expansion thus became the victims of reaction, only 3 re-surfacing as powerful forces some two hundred years later. Other historians write of educational recession4 and educational decay.5 10. Hans was the first to reject interpretations depicting an oligarchical society offering few opportunities for individual advancement. He argues that what he describes as 'one-sided and sometimes entirely wrong' assessments spring from an imperfect knowledge of the facts. The truth, he believes, is that many of the ideas of the nineteenth and even twentieth centuries, which at the time were declared to be radical innovations, were enunciated and practised in the eighteenth.6 Holmes has similarly attempted to redress the balance of opinion. He claims that with the dawning of the Augustan age, a combination of propitious factors transformed employment prospects for the better, citing the astonishing improvement in the country's fiscal resources,