VII. DOVER SCHOOLS.
There were, no doubt, Schools in Dover before the Sixteenth Century ; but the first record of one is in the minutes of the Common Council, where, under date 20th March, 1616, it is mentioned that " The Mayor and Jurats held fit that ;^8 per annum should be paid to a school master, and that in respect thereof he should, gratis, teach six poor children of the Town." The school master's name was Robert Udney, and he was permitted by the Corporation to keep School in the old Court Hall, and he had a con venient chamber there in which to lodge. Udney was the assistant to the Rev. John Graye, Minister of St. Mary's Church. When Mr. Graye resigned, Mr. Udney obtained the curacy of Hawkinge, and he sub-let the School to somebody else, which displeased the Corporation, as appears from a minute of the Common Council, in 1620, thus: — " This assembly was informed that whereas Mr. Robert Udney, school master, having heretofore had leave at an assembly here holden, to keep School in the old Court Hall and had a chamber there to lodge, and that of late he hath taken upon himself to let the same to whom he thinketh meet, which this assembly taketh in evil part ; and there fore doth order that the Chamberlains do forthwith give him warning to remove from thence at the Feast of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary next coming, and, at the now request of Mr. John Reading, Minister and Preacher of St. Mary's, of the said Town, that if he can procure a meet and sufficient school master to teach in this Town, and one that may be helping to him in his ministry, that such school master shall have the use of the said old Court Hall, there to teach in such sort as the said Mr. Udney had the same, without any rent thereof to be paid."
The School was carried on during the next eight years under the auspices of the Corporation; and in 1628 it was sold to a Mr. John Thompson. Whether the School was kept open continuously after the last-mentioned date is not definitely known, but there is a tradition that a similar school was kept in one of the old ecclesiastical buildings between the Market Place and Queen Street until tl>e Dover Charity School was founded in that part of Queen Street in 1789. In the interval there were other Schools. In the Autumn of 172 1, Mr. Henry Furness, when he became Member of Parliament for Dover, purchased two houses and founded a Free School for Dover boys. Fifteen years later Mr. John Trevanion, M.P., opened a School for fifty Dover boys. That was in the Pier District, and probably that locality was selected because the old School started by Robert Udney still existed in Queen Street. Mr. John Jackson, who succeeded Mr. Trevanion as M.P., in 1806, carried on the School in the Pier until 181 8. Meanwhile, the old Udney School, which became the Dover Charity School in 1789, and had been carried on near the bottom of Queen Street — probably still in the old Court Hall — was, in 1820, removed higher up the street into a new building on the other side. At that time an effort was made to accommodate more children, to make up for the closing of the Pier School, so as to make it a School for the whole Town, and annual sermons were preached in St. Mary's and St. James's Churches, when large collections were made for its support. In the new Queen Street School there was accommodation for 200 boys and 200 girls, but even then infants were excluded ; therefore, it became necessary at that time to start Infant Schools, both in the Town and in the Pier. (^ueen Street School continued to be supported as a Town Charity School until the day of Government grants, which did not fully dawn until 1862. In that year the Privy Council made arrangements for local examinations, and made payments by results. Since then the establishment in Queen Street has been a public Elementary School 3 and, in 1870, it was united, by deed, with the National Education Society, and classed as a National School. Meanwhile, Infants' Schools had been opened by the help of St. Mary's Parish in the Mission Hall; by Messrs. Finnis and Sons at East Cliff ; and by the liberality of the Minets in the Pier. In 1835. the British School was opened in the Pier to accommodate 500 children, and it was continued until 1885. In 1848 St. James's School was opened, at a cost of ^1,310, and has since been twice enlarged. In 1847, Holy Trinity School was built, and Christ Church School in the same year. At Charlton a small School for eighty children had been built in the Churchyard in 1S41, and that had to serve the parish until Granville Street School was built in 1875. The first Day School in Buckland was opened by the \\ esleyan Methodists in their present Schoolroom in 1839, but it was discontinued as a Day School in 1842, when a Buckland Parish School, a small wooden building, was opened on land, now used as a cemetery, beyond the Church. A more substantial School was built on the river side a little below the bridge, which was used until i860, when the Buckland Schools in London Road were built, at a cost of ^1,320, supplied by a Govern ment grant. The Roman CathoUc School, in the Maison Dieu Road, was built in 187 1; and most of the Schools were enlarged, and new ones built in Tower Hamlets after the passing of the Education Act of 1870, to avoid the establishment of a School Board for Dover. The School building effort was made by an organisation called the Dover School Managers' Association. That organisation succeeded in its aim until the Education Act of 1902 was passed, when the voluntary principle was strained to breaking point, but the Church of England Schools Company raised funds by which Schools were built in Elms Vale and Barton Road ; and when soon afterwards the Municipal Education Com mittee took over the responsibility for Elementary Education, under the Act of 1902, the efforts of those who had provided the existing Schools were recognised by allowing them still to take part in the management if they continued to meet the expense of keeping-up the fabrics. After about ten years' working under the Education Act of 1902, there were 6,444 scholars in the Elementary Schools of the Borough, of which 4,272 attended the pre-existing Denominational Schools, and 2,172 attended Schools provided by the Town Council.
There are also in Dover two Secondary Schools, [iro vided by the Kent County Council ; about twenty private adventure Schools ; as well as Dover College, one of the Public Schools of the Kingdom, which has a large estab lishment on the site of the ancient Dover Priory, where it has been successfully carried on for about fifty years.