Endowed Schools Act 1869

Endowed Schools Act 1869[1]
Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long titleAn Act to amend the Law relating to Endowed Schools and other Educational Endowments in England, and otherwise to provide for the Advancement of Education.
Citation32 & 33 Vict. c. 56
Territorial extent England and Wales[2]
Dates
Royal assent2 August 1869
Commencement2 August 1869[3]
Other legislation
Repealed byEducation Act 1973, ss 1(1) & (5), & Sch 2, Pt II
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted

The Endowed Schools Act 1869[4] (32 & 33 Vict. c. 56) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was one of the Endowed Schools Acts 1869 to 1948.[5] It was passed during William Ewart Gladstone’s first ministry, to restructure endowed grammar schools in England and Wales (one jurisdiction).

Firstly the Clarendon Commission investigated nine leading schools which led to the Public Schools Act 1868 which restructured the trusts of seven of them. Then the Schools Enquiry Commission (the 'Taunton Commission')[6] was appointed to examine the remaining 782 endowed grammar schools. The commission reported[7] that the distribution of schools did not match the current population, and that provision varied greatly in quality, with provision for girls being particularly limited.[8][9] The commission proposed the creation of a national system of secondary education by restructuring the endowments of these schools for modern purposes. The Endowed Schools Act created the Endowed Schools Commission, with extensive powers over endowments of individual schools. It was said that the commission "could turn a boys' school in Northumberland into a girls' school in Cornwall". Across England and Wales, schools endowed to offer free classical instruction to boys were remodelled as fee-paying schools (with a few competitive scholarships) teaching broad curricula to boys or girls.[8][9][10]

The Act also finally removed the requirement for grammar school teachers to have a license to teach issued by a Church of England Bishop or Ordinary, which had been formalised by the 77th Canon of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer 1604 edition.[11]

Example: The St Pancras land

In the late 1860s, land in St Pancras, left by Richard Platt as the endowment of Aldenham School, was compulsorily purchased as the site of the new St Pancras railway station, and the Midland Railway had to pay compensation of £91,000, equivalent to £10,617,759 in 2023. The Endowed Schools Commissioners, acting under the Act of 1869, diverted more than half of this money to other schools. In their scheme approved in 1875, £20,000 went to the North London Collegiate School and Camden School for Girls, £13,333 to Watford Grammar School for Boys, £10,000 to Russell Lane School, Southgate, and £8,000 to two elementary schools, Medburn School, Radlett, and Delrow School, Aldenham. The Aldenham headmaster of the time, Alfred Leeman, called this "a violent act of confiscation".[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ The citation of this act by this short title was authorised by section 1 of this act. Due to the repeal of that provision it is now authorised by section 19(2) of the Interpretation Act 1978.
  2. ^ Did not apply to Scotland or Ireland, The Endowed Schools Act 1869, section 2
  3. ^ Endowed Schools Act 1869, section 3 ("This Act shall come into operation on the passing thereof")
  4. ^ Education in England. "Endowed Schools Act 1869". www.educationengland.org.uk. Derek Gillard. Archived from the original on 14 November 2013.
  5. ^ The Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1948, section 14(2); The Endowed Schools (Masters) Act 1908, section 4; The Short Titles Act 1896, Second Schedule; The Short Titles Act 1892, Second Schedule; The Welsh Intermediate Education Act 1889, section 1; The Endowed Schools Act 1874, section 10; The Endowed Schools Act 1873, section 1.
  6. ^ Education in England. "Schools Inquiry Commission". www.educationengland.org.uk. Derek Gillard. Archived from the original on 25 October 2018.
  7. ^ Education in England. "Taunton Report". www.educationengland.org.uk. Derek Gillard. Archived from the original on 14 March 2019.
  8. ^ a b Walford, Geoffrey (1993). "Girls' Private Schooling: Past and Present". In Walford, Geoffrey (ed.). The Private Schooling of Girls: Past and Present. London: The Woburn Press. pp. 9–32. ISBN 978-0-7130-0186-0.
  9. ^ a b Sutherland, Gillian (1990). "Education". In Thompson, F. M. L. (ed.). Social Agencies and Institutions. The Cambridge Social History of Britain 1750–1950. Vol. 3. Cambridge University Press. pp. 119–169. ISBN 978-0-521-43814-8.
  10. ^ J. W. Adamson (1907–21). "Chapter XIV. Education". In A. W. Ward; A. R. Waller (eds.). Volume XIV. The Victorian Age, Part Two. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes.
  11. ^ Barnard, H. C. (1961). A History of English Education. London: University of London Press. ISBN 0-340-08816-8.
  12. ^ R. J. Evans; J. K. Waddell (1969). The History and Register of Aldenham School (10th ed.). Aylesbury: Hazel Watson & Viney. p. 102.


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