Page:Account of the Boys' Charity School founded, in 1733, by Mrs. Katherine Bayley, in the city of Coventry.pdf/2

 £08,, 10,, 00," from which it appears that the clothing was supplied by a person bearing the same name as the worthy tradeeman who has for many years past fitted the boys with such satisfaction to the trustees. In the year following is an entry of £01,, 01,, 00, paid to the schoolmaster for "extraordinary trouble." Shortly after the establishment of the school we find three other trustees associated with the original executors in the management of it. The school appears to have been opened in a tenement behind the old Drapers’-hall in Bayley-lane, for which the trustees paid an annual rent of £4, the trustees holding their meetings in the hall. The first master was a Mr. Joseph Plant. He held the situation for 42 years, and was buried in St. Michael's Church, his stone being near the south porch, in the cross aisle. He was a licensed master, and the old books of the charity contain a considerable quantity of his writing in the plain and formal characters of the period. His salary was but moderate, being only £10 a year, with certain allowances for coals, & c., and a house rent free. The old rules are drawn up in quaint and precise phraseology, but are still observed as the basis of the present regulations of the foundation, due respect being had to modern requirements; one peculiar stipulation being that parents should give security of one guinea, before their children were clothed, that they should adhere to the rules. The master was also required to enter into a bond of £20 that he would faithfully fulfil his engagement. In 1742 the first collection in aid of the charity was made in St. Michael's Church, and the practice has been continued annually ever since. Edward Barratt succeeded Mr. Plant on his death in 1774, and in two years Richard Ireland was appointed master. Edward Reynolds in 1781, and Thomas Hall in 1800, successively held the office, and on the removal of the latter in 1806, Mr. Francis Marsson (father of the present clerk to the county magistrates) was elected to the post, which he filled with credit for thirty-six years. During his mastership the number of boys was in creased to 35, and the school was removed to the premises, still belonging to the trustees, in Little Park-street, which then comprised the old house (formerly inhabited by Mrs. Katherine Bayley, and in which it is most probable that she died) now numbered 89, and some tenements and gardens behind it. The room on the ground floor of this house, fronting the street, was fitted up for the school, and the boys first assembled there in 1822, the rest of the building being appropriated as a residence for the master, one of the gardens behind being also allowed him, and his salary raised from £40 to £50 per annum, with the privilege of taking day scholars. At this period the dress of the scholars presented a peculiarly grotesque appearance,