"THE date of the foundation of the City of London School is always given as
1442, but the School was not actually opened till 1837.
The explanation of the earlier date is that the City of London School was
established as a result of prolonged inquiry into a famous bequest of John
Carpenter, a Town Clerk of London who died in 1442, and the eventual
decision of the Corporation of London to apply it to the endowment of a
school.
John Stow, in his Survey of London (1598), thus records the nature of the
actual bequest:
'He gave tenements to the Citye for the finding and bringing up of foure
pooré men's children"
The book goes on to explain that the "prolonged inquirey" produced no
results.
From p. 22:
"The publication in 1961 of the Calendar of Plea and Memoranda Rolls,
1448-1462, edited with an interesting introduction by Mr. Philip Jones,
Deputy Keeper of Records at Guildhall, has brought to light John Carpenter's
other will or, more precisely, a statement of it by one John Don, citizen
and mercer of London.
This is an important Carpenter discovery. The will had been 'lost' for more
than a hundred and forty years at least; a great search for it was made
before 1823. Actually the searchers were looking for the wrong thing. John
Carpenter made a statement of his wishes about the estate from which he
benefited the four boys, but he very likely never made a will at all in the
matter, of the sort which is legally proved."
The orginal quoatation of Mr. Gill Carpenter merely says that the founding
of the school was dated from 1442, the date of death of John Carpenter the
Younger. The quotation from the London historian Stow in 1598 recorded later
opinion as to the orginal intentions of John Carpenter. "Poore men's
children" was never part of John Carpenter's original intent. A.E.
Douglas-Smith says on p. 30 that , "John Carpenter's will does not stipulate
that the children should be poor." The will is appended at the end of the
book. A reading of the will confirms this.
A.E. Douglas-Smith's point is that John Carpenter wanted four boys for
religious observances at the Guildhall Chapel. He provided for their
education, but his main object was not to provide educations. John Carpenter
was like most other rich merchants of the 1400s in his interest in
anniversary Masses and the like. He was
especially interested in the Guildhall Library and its attached chapel.
Natually the people at the City School of London are not going to throw his
stature into the Thames. Indirectly he was the reason for their school's
incorporation, but only indirectly.
I hope this is the end of this argument. It is a bit like children being
told the Easter Bunny doesn't exist. They have to run upstairs and cry for
an hour.
BC