On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
tier the provisions of the A < rt , which petition they had presented , and which prayed that the Court , by virtue of the powers with which it was invested by the Act of Parliament ,
would declare whether Jewish boys were equally entitled to be mixed indiscriminately with Christians in the enjoyment of this Charity , or that the Court should make such order as it
should see proper . Such was the application made to him , and he would now , on this highly interesting and most important question , go shortly into the facts and history of the case . This Charity was , it appeared , founded by letters patent by Edward VI ., who founded it as a Grammar School
in that town , as indeed , that young and amiable , but lamented monarch , did in many parts of the kingdom , and here the Grammar School was to be ** pro instntctione ,. institutione et discipline Juvenum , in grammaticd , literaturct et bonis moribus" ( with regard to which expression < r bonis moribiis , " there was considerable
diversity of explanation , he believed , even in classical authors , ) in addition to which certain lands were left , for the sustentation of the master . There was an Act of Parliament in 1764 ,
which recited all the letters patent , and then mentioned an agreement or indenture , entered into in the 8 th of Queen Elizabeth , between the mayor , burgesses , &c . o ' f Bedford and Sir
Win . Harper , which indenture related , that the said mayor and burgesses had erected a school to be perpetually called a Free School , i \\\ d that there should be one master and
one usher in the school for ever . Sir William Harper at the same time granted lands also for what he was pleased to call the " sustentation" of the master and usher of the school ; and also , he had provided a suitable sum for the marriage of poor maids , &c , on his doing which , the mayor , aldermen , bailiffs , &c . covenanted
that they , their heirs anu successors , should employ the funds as directed in the letters patent of the King ( Edward VI . ) and act as Parliament should farther direct them . The Act of Parliament then went on to say , that several streets had been erected in Bedford , that there had been a suit in this Court in 1725 , and that an
Untitled Article
order of the Court had been thus obtained , by which the Warden and Fellows of the New College were appointed to eleqt the master and usher , who were to teach the children gratis , and that when the salary of the
master ami usher were paid , the proceeds , if any , were to be devoted to the other parts of the Charity . The Act , after stating the limited sum to be paid to poor maidens on their marriage , next
referred to a . decree of this Court ia the year 1761 , which decree referred it to the Master to ascertain what sums wfre due to" poor maidens , to receive proposals for new leases , all to be referred to the Master to act as
he should think proper . The Act of Parliament then declared the improvements already made , and about to be made in the grounds of the Charity , winch would , in a short period , amount to £ 3000 . It further stated ,
that the mayor , clergy , &c . should have the power of acting as trustees , but those persons who acted as trustees must have previously served as churchwardens- It declared also , that
should any doubt arise as to the construction of the Act , the parties were at full liberty to apply to the Great Seal for redress , lhat is , to consider how the funds had been applied , as the orders of the Great Seal , it should
be remembered , were final , and the children in such schools were to be instructed " bonis moribus , " which plainly meant ( though classical commentators had entertained different \ iews on the subject ) that thechildren in such school or schools were to be
educated in religious and moral principles , as well as in general public duties - His Lordship detailed the other provisions of the Act , which had been repealed by an Act in 1793 , which declared tliat the former Act had been
repealed , it having been found quite inadequate to the very ' important purposes it was intended to accomplish , and containing provisions which occasioned infinite difficulty to the inhabitants , and which wight be the
source of endless litigation . However , the former Act was repealed , and the lord-lieutenant of the county , the members of parliament for the borough , &c . were made governors , with the others already mentioned iu
Untitled Article
Intelligence . — Bedford Charity . 579
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1819, page 579, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1776/page/55/
-