| Description | Declaration; Thomas Sansum of East Smithfield, scourer [OED: 'one who cleanses by rubbing, especially as the designation of certain servants in the Royal Household'] and treasurer of the charity school belonging to St.Botolph, Aldgate, acknowledges receipt of £300 bequeathed to the school under the terms of the will (made 25 Jul. 1774, proved P.C.C. 25 Mar.1775) of James Limborough of St.John, Hackney, gent.
Limborough left £2000 in 3&per cent; annuities to support his wife Mary (who died 10 Jan.1783), and after her death to be divided as follows:
£300 to the London Hospital, Whitechapel Road
£300 to the charity schools of Christ Church, Spitalfields
£300 to the charity school of St.Matthew, Bethnal Green
£300 each to the charity schools of St.Botolph, Aldgate, and St.Botolph, Bishopsgate
£500 to the Boys Free School 'usually kept in the Liberty of Norton Folgate and [whose boys] attend on Sundays the chapel commonly called Sir George Wheeler's Chapel'.
Payment was made to Sansum by Peter Turquand, merchant, and William Bowman senior, banker, the two surviving executors of Limborough's will (Lewis Chauvet and Dr.Thomas Dawson, physician, having died).
Witnessed by David Pike Watts (trustee of Aldgate Charity School) and Samuel Troughton. |
| AdminHistory | The school was founded in 1673 for the parish of St. Botolph's, as the first Protestant charity school in London. It was also the first to adopt the national system of education. The freehold was purchased in 1792. The school was built for the education of 60 boys and 40 girls (1). The buildings were occupied until 1901, when pupils were moved to the Sir John Cass Institute as the site was required for the building of the Tower Bridge Northern Approach (2).
Sir John paid for land on Aldgate High Street next to St. Botolph's Church, on which the school was built. The building has shops on the ground floor; the school room on the first floor and burial vaults underneath. In principle the income from the shops and burial ground financed the costs of running the school (3). A charity school had been established at Tower Hill twenty years earlier. St. Botolph's was the only one to survive until the present day. The school ran until 1732. After opening and closing several times, it finally reopened in 1748, in the same buildings (4). Extra space was hired in the Aldgate, as a dining room for the children.
The school(s) conducted an annual examination of children who were clothed and educated by them, when various officials 'interested in the education of the poor' would attend (5). The emphasis was firmly scriptural, as children were examined 'upon some of the most important facts of the history of England, particularly the events before and after the Reformation; the doctrines of the Church of England and mental arithmetic and writing' (6). One attendee observed that throughout, the children 'displayed a most satisfactory amount of intelligence and quickness' (7). The school had 'great claims upon the Benevolent public for its support' (8).
St. Botolph's Parish School(s) were firmly linked to the Anglican tradition. Sermons would be preached, in one case, 'for the benefit of 100 poor children belonging to the first Protestant British school' (9). The current St. Botolph's Primary School continues some of these earlier traditions.
Sources of information:
1.'St. Botolph Aldgate Charity School': in Dictionary of London (london.en-academic.com)
2.'Botolph (St) Aldgate Charity School': in british-history.ac.uk
3/4.'The School Buildings' in sirjohncasshistory.co.uk
5/6/7/8.'St. Botolph's (Aldgate) Charity School': p.6 in London City Press, Saturday 1st October, 1859
9.p.1 in Morning Advertiser, Saturday 7th May,1825
(References 5-9 : British Newspaper Archive) |
| CustodialHistory | Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Mr. J.L.M. Gulley, August, 1985
Accessioned 8 August 1988.
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