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 A HISTORY OF RUTLAND in succession to Parsons, according to The Book of Oakham School}^ The latter was sixth wrangler in 1771, and subsequently a fellow of St. John's. Another distinguished scholar under Markham was James Oldershaw of Emmanuel College, B.A. 1770, M.A. 1773, M.D. 1780, sixth wrangler and junior Smith's prizeman in 1770, and a" fellow of his college. In Markham's time the school received another legacy for the benefit of the usher. Timothy Helmsley," by his will of 24 April 1764, gave a sum of ;{^300 to be invested in government or real securities, the interest on which was to be paid to the usher on condition of his teaching, free from all demands, four poor children of the parish appointed by the governors. The money was invested in ^^349 I gj. 8^/. three per cent, consols, and the divi- dends were regularly paid to the usher until i 8 1 6, when the usher's salary was raised to /lOO. From that time the dividends were paid into the general fund. Markham was followed by Baptist Noel Turner, already referred to, his appointment being made on I July 1769.^^ He is better known as a litterateur than as a schoolmaster. A somewhat lengthy account is given of him, together with a portrait, by Nichols.'* He com- bined, probably with the usual amount of success, clerical work with scholastic duty. On 19 De- cember 1769 he was instituted rector of Denton, Lincolnshire, and on 17 June 1771 of Wing, receiving a special dispensation from the Arch- bishop of Canterbury to hold the two livings together. Schoolmastering, according to Nichols, was ' not congenial to his habits and disposition,' and nine years of it were enough for him. He retired on his livings in 1 778. He held the rectory of Denton until 1816, and of Wing until his death in 1826. He was also chaplain to Henry Lord Ravensworth." Henry Freeman of Clare College, probably a pupil of his at Oak- ham, was loth wrangler in 1776. Turner was succeeded by his usher, Thomas Orme, in June 1778. An old Reptonian, son of a farmer (agricola), as he is described in the St. John's Registers on admission,'^ senior op- time in 1767 and M.A. in 1770, he had come to Oakham when Fancourt was promoted to Uppingham. Both these ushers seem to have given great satisfaction to the governing body, who, probably rather in acknowledgement than as an act of justice, in 1771 granted to the usher a yearly allowance of j^ i O in consideration of his right under the statutes to be provided " p. 21. It is difficult to reconcile this date with the details of his Oxford career as given by Foster, Alumni Oxon. " Ckar. Com. Rep. " Jdmlssions to St. John's, part iii, 652. '^ lllus. of Lit. Hist, of the xz'iiith cent, vi, 140-94. " Admissions to St. Join's, loc. cit. "Ibid. 165. with accommodation in the hospital." While still usher Orme had been presented by the trus- tees to their living of Barholm-cum-Stowe, which he held until his death 20 October 1 814. Before leaving Oakham in 1793 lie took his D.D. degree. His reign lasted until July 1796, when he withdrew to take up the mastership of Louth Grammar School. Here in sixteen years he was unfortunate enough to reduce the num- bers from 70 to something infinitesimal. His best claim to remembrance is that he was master of John Franklin, the arctic explorer.*" From 1802 he was Prebendary of Louth in Lincoln Cathedral. The first usher under him at Oak- ham was Mr. Tremenheere, probably the Wil- liam Tremenheere who took his B.A. degree from Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1779. George Osborne, who succeeded him in 1785, had gone with a school exhibition to Merton College, Oxford, where he matriculated on 13 July 1782, and took his B.A. degree in 1786. On his departure in 1 791 another old boy, Edward Twentyman, fellow of Clare, junior optime in 1790, came in. The most famous head master of Oakham, Dr. Doncaster, was a pupil of Orme, as well as his brother William, who matriculated at University College, Oxford, 21 October 1794, and was subsequently a fellow of Magdalen, B.D. in 1807, vicar of Normanton 1804, and rector of Winterbourne 1818-47." Two other head masters also received their early training under him— Paul Belcher, of St. John's College, B.A. 1793, M.A. 1796, who ruled Ashbourne from 1796 to 1836;*^ and Thomas Stevenson of Christ's, B.A. 1797, M.A. i8o6, who was ap- pointed to Loughborough in 18 1 3. The last head master appointed in the 1 8th century, who brought up the total for the last half of it to 5, was John Bradford, who matricu- lated at Christ Church, Oxford, as ' plebeian ' on 27 January 1784, and took his B.A. degree in 1787 and his M.A. in 1790." His mastership lasted until 1808. In 1802 Twentyman, his usher, resigned, and was succeeded by another old boy, the third in succession to hold the office, Richard Williams, who had just graduated B.A. at St. John's College, Cambridge, wliither he had gone with a school exhibition. He took iiis M.A. degree in 1806, while still at Oakham. Brad- ford's regime does not seem to have been pros- perous, though judging by the programme for speech day in 1 803, printed in The Book of Oak- ham School^^ there was life still in the school. Selections were rendered from Greek (Tyrtaeus, Te^a/icvai yap koXov eVi Trpoftd^oiai neaovra), Latm (Virgil, Aeneid iv — Dido irata, and Quintus Cur- " Char. Com. Ref). The usher at Uppingham benefited at the same time. «» At Louth, F.C.H. Lines, ii, 467. '' Foster, Alumni Oxon. " F.C.H. Derb. il, 264. ' " Foster, op. cit. " p. 1 2. .76