History
Peter Blundell, one of the wealthiest merchants of Elizabethan England, died in 1601 having made his fortune principally in the cloth industry. His will set aside considerable money and land to establish a school in his home town "to maintain sound learning and true religion". Blundell asked his friend Sir John Popham, the Lord Chief Justice of England, to carry out his wishes, and appointed a number of local merchants and gentry as his first trustees (known as feoffees). The position of feoffee is no longer hereditary, but a number of notable local families have held the position for a considerable period: the first ancestor of the current Chairman of the Governors to hold that position was elected more than 250 years ago, and the Heathcoat-Amory family have a long tradition of service on the Governing Body, since Sir John Heathcoat-Amory was appointed in 1865.
The Old Blundell's School was built to be much larger and grander than any other in the West Country, with room for 150 scholars and accommodation for a master and an usher. The Grade 1 listed building is now in the care of the National Trust and the forecourt is usually open to visitors. One ex-Blundell's boy was the writer R. D. Blackmore —in Lorna Doone he used the Blundell's triangular lawn as the stage for a fight between John Ridd and Robin Snell.
Peter Blundell's executors established links with Balliol College, Oxford, and with Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and large sums were settled to provide for scholarships for pupils of the school to attend those colleges. The first Sidney Sussex scholar was nominated in 1610 and the first Blundell's Balliol scholar in 1615. The links with these colleges still continue today, although without the closed scholarships.
In 1645 Fairfax used the School for his headquarters during the siege of Tiverton Castle.
William Hogarth engraved the Letterhead for the School in 1725 and the Ticket for Tiverton School Feast in 1740 (image of print courtesy of Antiqueprints.com).
Read more about this topic: Blundell's School
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