The School in The 17th Century
In 1680 Richard Stone became the third Headmaster of the School. He did not know anything about Classics and preferred to live "in the quiet enjoyment of the school". This allowed the students to become lazier than under Patricke, and the Trustees at the school were forced to endure a testing period. After Stone's death in 1691 Sir Ralph Radcliffe employed a new Headmaster - Thomas Cheyney - who invoked discipline and original Latin. Under Cheyney and his successor, Thomas Harris, School life was good, but a fallout between Radcliffe and his co-trustees brought the school to the brink again, and when Harris died in 1709 Radcliffe and Laurence Tristam - another School Trustee - appointed the new Headmaster - James Lawrence - without consulting the other Trustees.
However, the Trustees hatched a counter-attack to this, and summoned the Reverend Richard Finch from London to the School so that when Lawrence, Tristam and Radcliffe arrived, the School had been overthrown. The matter went to a "Chancery suit", and in the end the defense were defeated by a strong argument for putting Finch in the job, with Lawrence proved incapable of teaching. A new board of Trustees was formed, five by the prosecution and four by the defendants.
Read more about this topic: Hitchin Boys' School, History
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