Thomas James, Headmaster of the Rugby School (1795)

Details

Description

Portrait of Thomas James.
Engraver: Matthaeus Haughton.
Artist: after George Engleheart (1750–1829).
Production date: 1795.
Image size: 25,5x17,5 cms.
Inscription … Read more Portrait of Thomas James.
Engraver: Matthaeus Haughton.
Artist: after George Engleheart (1750–1829).
Production date: 1795.
Image size: 25,5x17,5 cms.
Inscription content: Scholae Rugbeensis muper Alumnus (Rugbean School Alumnus).
Condition: margins trimmed to plate mark.

Thomas James was Headmaster of the Rugby School 1778—1794 before it was moved to Warwick. Rugby was founded in 1567 by Lawrence Sheriff, purveyor of spices to Queen Elizabeth I, as a Free Grammar School for the boys of Rugby and Brownsover. In the following century the School’s fate remained uncertain and in 1651 it all but collapsed, but by 1667 Rugby was acquiring a name for scholarship and it developed rapidly under a series of outstanding masters, including Henry Holyoake (1688–1731), who drew boys from as far afield as Cheshire, Kent and Somerset. Under him assistant masters first appeared – men who were curates of neighbouring villages. Numbers reached a new high of 245 boys under Thomas James (1778–94), who administered a new constitution secured by Act of Parliament in 1777. The School moved from the middle of town to occupy a manor house on the present site of School House in 1750. See less