The Stanhope School
The School's second founder Dean George Stanhope (1660–1728) the vicar of St Nicholas, Deptford and St Mary’s, Lewisham and who later rose to be Dean of Canterbury, and friend of Jonathan Swift, founded the Stanhope School in 1715. Dr Stanhope had previously given £150 for the establishment of a girls school in Lewisham in 1699. Originally the school educated fifty deprived children of Deptford, twenty five girls and twenty five boys, in purely practical skills such as needlework and carpentry. According to the National Archives, the school was enlarged in 1812, and in 1874, with the charity changing its name to the Stanhope Foundation. Two statues of a girl and a boy pupil once adorned the front of the Stanhope School, the statue of the girl now resides in the entrance to the main Addey and Stanhope school building. The Stanhope School was financed partly out of the sale of sermons, donations and public subscriptions. Each subscriber was entitled to put one child into the school. Additionally, several benefactions were left in the wills of a number of Deptford residents who made provision for the local poor. The School, as it was a charity school was often known as the Bluecoat School, Daniel Lysons (1796) explains Dr Stanhope's biography:
| “ | The learned and pious Dr. Stanhope, who was presented to this vicarage by Lord Dartmouth in 1689, was a native of Hertishorn in Derbyshire. He received his education at Eton and at King's College in Cambridge. In 1697 he commenced D. D. and in 1703 was promoted to the deanery of Canterbury. His writings are held in great esteem, particularly his Comments upon the Epistles and Gospels. His printed sermons are very numerous; they were much admired when delivered by himself from the pulpit, the purity of their diction being graced with the most happy elocution. Dr. Stanhope died in 1728, and was buried at Lewisham. His monument, the inscription on which has been already given, deserved a better fate than to be thrown aside in the vault, where it now lies, when the church was rebuilt. A place should have been found within the new walls for the memorial of a man who was for thirty-eight years so distinguished an ornament of the parish. | ” |
The Stanhope School also published rules for both parents and pupils to follow while attending the School: January 1, 1814
| “ | Rules for the Guidance of Parents, Relations, & Friends
They are to send their children regularly to School, clean, washed and combed, a quarter before nine in the morning, and a quarter before two in the afternoon, precisely. On Sundays, they are to send them before they proceed to Church, a quarter before ten in the morning, and a quarter before two in the afternoon, precisely. They are not to detain them from School, or Church, except from sickness, or with leave. – In case of sickness, immediate information must be given. They are not to take their children from the School without one month’s previous notice. The cloaths, &c. are to be immediately returned on the removal or dismissal of any child: security to that effect must be given by parents, relations, or friends. They are not to interfere with the discipline of the school. Parents, relations, and friends, are expected to instill into their children the principles of gratitude, obedience, and submission. N.B. No child having an unseemly appearance, a cutaneous eruption, or infectious disorder, will be admitted into the School. Rules to be observed by the Children They must go directly to and from the School in an orderly manner. They must take the greatest care of their cloaths, caps, books, &c. and never appear in the Streets dirty or ragged. They must pay every proper and due respect to their Benefactors, Elders, and Superiors, whether passing them, or meeting them in the Streets. They are never allowed to appear in the Streets but in the uniform dress allowed them by the Trustees. The Boys are to be on the Muster Ground, precisely at the times appointed, otherwise they will lose their call. Children are not to take God’s Name in Vain; to swear, to lie, to steal, to cheat, to play truant, or to throw stones. For misbehaviour at Church, they will invariably be punished. |
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Read more about this topic: Addey And Stanhope School, History
Famous quotes containing the word school:
“I never went near the Wellesley College chapel in my four years there, but I am still amazed at the amount of Christian charity that school stuck us all with, a kind of glazed politeness in the face of boredom and stupidity. Tolerance, in the worst sense of the word.... How marvelous it would have been to go to a women’s college that encouraged impoliteness, that rewarded aggression, that encouraged argument.”
—Nora Ephron (b. 1941)