info that I got from the LFHS.
Christ’s Hospital School, Lincoln
Many of us, seeing evidence that ancestors before 1870 had at least some education, wonder how we can find out how it was received. For instance, Robert Drury was the son of an agricultural labourer who went to live in Welton by Lincoln with a settlement certificate in 1791, a few years before Robert was born. My grandfather said his great uncle Robert was a master at Lincoln Grammar School, which was proved true. How did he achieve this? He had the good fortune to live in Welton, and be one of the poor boys to be admitted free into Christ’s Hospital School in Lincoln.
The Christ’s Hospital School in Lincoln (also known as the Bluecoat School) was founded by Richard Smith MD, who was born at Welton by Lincoln. After a career which took him to Oxford and London, he returned, and was buried at Welton in 1602. A large Cross in front of Welton parish church is a memorial to him. In his will he left his Estate at Potterhanworth to endow a school for 12 poor boys. The value of the Estate increased with fen drainage, and other endowments were made, so that the school expanded. Minute books (which include admissions) survive from 1653 to 1883, when the school closed and the endowments were used to found The Christ’s Hospital Girls’ High School in 1892. Admission was limited to poor boys from Welton, Potterhanworth and Lincoln City and when a boy left he was replaced by another boy from the same parish.1
There is only one specific admissions book, from 1832 to 1879, which has been transcribed and published by the Lincolnshire Family History Society this year.
Entries comprise the date of admission (usually, but not always, at the age of 8 years), date of baptism, date of apprenticeship where appropriate, or of leaving, and in a few cases a date when they died, were expelled or they left to emigrate with their parents. Apprenticeships to trades were bought for most boys usually at the age of 16, and the name, trade and address of masters is shown. Many boys were apprenticed out of the county, several in North Yorkshire, and many to Lincolnshire villages. It is interesting to see such masters’ names as RUSTON, ROBEY, CLAYTON and SHUTTLEWORTH as the great engineering firms began to forge their way into the history of Lincoln.
During this period the school was situated on Christ’s Hospital Terrace, near the church of St Michael on the Mount, Lincoln. The premises, which still stand, were built by the ‘Hospital’ in the 1780s. Reminiscences of W H GOY, who was a pupil there in the 1870s were published in the 1930s2. He states that they were well fed and clothed and very healthy and happy. The education was quite sufficient to enable a boy to take up almost any situation in life. The daily routine was – ‘rise at 6.30 a.m. in summer, 7 a.m. in winter; breakfast at 8 a.m.; school 9 to 12; then dinner; school 2 o’clock to 4.30; tea 5 p.m. and the remainder of the day, games in the playground’. Bedtime was 8 p.m., sleeping in dormitories. Each week boys were allocated duties, such as helping to make the bread (a master baker coming in each day), running errands, serving at meals, etc. A barber called regularly and a tailoress repaired their clothes.
The minute books prior to 1832 are not included in the published booklet. They cover various items of business, and below are some examples.
The name, place of origin (and often father’s name) of boy admitted, the name of the master to whom he was apprenticed and the amount paid for the apprenticeship. Often also the cost of kitting him out: ‘(1681) Paid to Francis BARNABY, Baker, with John BEMROSE £4; for cloth for John BEMROSE new coat & britches, to Mr KENT 7s 6d; for trimming for the coate and britches 2s 6¼d; for stuff for wastcoate for BEMROSE & trimming for it 4s 2½d; for altering the blew coat into a dublett & breeches 1s, to the taylor for making of 2 coates and 2 payres of britches 5s; for new hat 2s 3d, for a bible 4s.’
Transport was arranged when necessary. In 1678 when Eliazar GLENN was apprenticed to Mr John BROWNE Merchant of Boston, £1 2s was paid for his ‘carrying to Boston’.
The school obviously went through some difficult periods. In 1671 John CUSSIN absconded and his mother, Elizabeth, ‘did furriously strike the messenger that was sente to bring her sonne back to the Hospital’. CUSSIN was expelled!
Some deaths are recorded; in 1697, ‘Charges for MAPLETOFT’S funeral 12s 2d.’
The boys were educated for a trade, and Latin was not taught, but apt pupils were able to go to the Grammar School. ‘Edward WILLSON... being one of the BURROWES [sic]3 Chanters in the Minster...’ was permitted to go daily to the Grammar School as the other Chanters did (1681).
Administration expenses appear throughout. The clerk had a new penknife regularly, no doubt to cut and trim his quill.
Also included is the management of the Potterhanworth Estate, tenancy changes, rents received and payments for repairs etc., and, later, of Frampton when it was added to the Endowment.
1. For a history of the Foundation see Richard SMITH M D , The Founder of Christ’s Hospital, Lincoln by Kate NAYLOR (1951)
2. Lincolnshire Magazine Vol. 3. (which also has another article about the school)
3. Actually BURGHERSH Chanters, the title given to all but the four senior boys in Lincoln Cathedral Choir
Penny - more info to follow
