St Paul's School

St Paul's School was founded in 1509-12 by John Colet (q.v.), dean of St Paul's, for 153 children 'of every nation, country, and class.' He endowed it with lands, whose yearly value has risen from £122, 4s. 7½d. to £10,000; and he dedicated it to the Child Jesus, but 'the saint,' in Strype's words, 'has robbed his Master of the title.' The original schoolhouse in St Paul's Churchyard was burned in the Great Fire of 1666; the second by Wren (1674) gave place in 1824 to a third; and a fourth, on a site of sixteen acres at West Kensington, near Addison Road station, was opened by Lord Selborne on 23d April 1884. This removal was effected under a scheme of the Charity Commissioners (1879), which provided for a classical school for 500 boys, a modern school for a like number, and a high school for 400 girls. The boys either are day-scholars or live in one of eight boarding-houses. The governing board consists of thirteen members chosen by the Mercers' Company (to whose oversight Colet committed his foundation) and nine nominated by the universities. There are seven Oxford and Cambridge exhibitions of from £80 to £40 tenable for four years, and a Woolwich one of £50 for two years, besides six other exhibitions and thirteen prizes. The first high-master, from 1512 to 1523, was William Lily; and among his successors have been Richard Mulcaster (1596-1608), Alexander Gill (1608-35), his son and namesake (1635-40), Thomas Gale (1672-97), and Herbert Kynaston (1838-76). Famous Paulines have been Major André, the Hon. C. Boyle, Camden, Roger Cotes, Sir P. Francis, Halley, Leland, the Duke of Marlborough, Milton, Robert Nelson, Pepys, and Strype; and one has been infamous—Judge Jeffreys. See R. B. Gardiner's Admission Registers of St Paul's School (1884).