Beatings, Bible and Latin: Life as a 17th Century grammar schoolboy

15 hours ago

Katy Prickett

News image — Thomas Beard (right) was a grammar schoolmaster in Huntingdon in the early 1600s, although he tried to give up the "painful occupation"

The Cromwell Museum A black line drawing or woodcut across two open sepia-coloured pages of a book. It shows two early 17th Century men, one on the left with Dromodotus written above his head and the other on the right, with Pendantius written to his right. Behind the right-hand man are two small children and above them is a shelf with a row of books. — Thomas Beard (right) was a grammar schoolmaster in Huntingdon in the early 1600s, although he tried to give up the "painful occupation"

Beatings, Latin translations and Bible studies - a 17th Century grammar schoolboy received a very different style of education from today's students.

An exhibition at Huntingdon's former grammar school explores how teaching and learning have changed over the centuries in the Cambridgeshire town.

Curator Stuart Orme said: "Birching (beating with birch twigs) was quite common in the 17th Century and the birch was the symbol of the schoolmaster."

The tiny medieval building is now the Cromwell Museum. Its former pupils included the statesman Oliver Cromwell, diarist Samuel Pepys and wartime evacuees.

The Cromwell Museum A close up of a black line drawing or woodcut across two open sepia-coloured pages of a book. It shows a 17th Century man, with Pendantius written to his right. He has a tall hat, is wearing a doublet and breeches under a cloak and in his right hand is a birch made up of a bundle of birch twigs. — A bundle of birch twigs, known as a birch, was used to beat boys who had not learned their lessons

Most 17th Century school teachers were priests at a time when it was seen as a part-time job, requiring only preaching on Sundays and performing wedding or funeral services, said Orme.

Cromwell (1599 to 1658) attended the school between 1610 and 1616, and the local priest Thomas Beard was the future Parliamentarian leader's teacher.

Beard found the duties too much, said Orme, and asked to be released in 1614, saying he was "tired with my painful occupation of teaching and would gladly now be set free" - but was not allowed to stand down.

The Cromwell Museum A 17th Century portrait of Oliver Cromwell, with shoulder-length curling mid-brown hair and moustache, wearing a white lace collar done up at the neck over a yellow under-jacket, above which is grey armour. He looks at the viewer with dark eyes. — Oliver Cromwell was one of his pupils, although no record remains of what sort of a student he was

The school was set up in a former monastic building in 1565 as a school for the sons of the town's freemen.

This meant they were educated for free, although they were joined by fee-paying pupils like Pepys (1633 to 1703), whose cousin Edward Montagu was the local lord of the manor.

Orme said: "No more than 30 boys, aged 10 to 16, would be taught at the same time, from 07:00 to 17:00, with a two-hour lunch break - quite often six days a week.

"They'd learn a little bit of history, Bible study, a small amount of basic mathematics - but they'd usually learn that separately by private tutors at home."

The Norris Museum A line drawing showing the interior of the Cromwell Museum in the mid-19th Century when it was a grammar school. It shows stone walls, two pillars holding up a wooden beamed roof, a fireplace, a long table with benches on either side and a man and woman at the far end under a window beside a small staircase. — A picture from the mid-19th Century gives an impression of what it might have looked like in his day

The Cromwell Museum The interior of the Cromwell Museum in Huntingdon. Its white walls have three large gilt-framed portraits of 17th Century men and beneath one is a cabinet showing a small portrait of a 17th Century woman. To the right are glass cabinets showing 17th Century dress and armour, books and documents. — Today it is packed with the best collection of items relating to Cromwell's life and times, said Stuart Orme

Latin was a hugely important subject, as the language was used in universities, the legal profession and diplomacy.

"Boys would be given, for example, a text from Julius Caesar's account of his war in Gaul and be expected to translate it into English and back again, as closely as possible to the original text," explained the curator.

Brighter boys were also taught Hebrew and Greek - and they were all boys - although girls were increasingly getting some sort of home education.

Orme said: "We can only guess at the statistics, but we think that roughly a third of the population was literate and more people could read than write, as they were taught as separate skills."

The Norris Museum A line drawing showing the exterior of the Cromwell Museum in Huntingdon in the mid-19th Century. It shows a stone medieval building on a street with people walking in front and there are shops on either side. — It was built in the 1100s as part of the Hospital of St John the Baptist, run by monks to provide food and accommodation for poor travellers

By the 1790s, 60% of Huntingdon's population was literate, which was "a significantly higher proportion than many places in the country", said Orme.

This was because the Walden School was set up in 1736 by a local man to educate more of the town's children. Eventually, the two schools were amalgamated.

The 7m x 10m (22ft x 32ft) grammar school building was used by evacuees during World War Two and as an exam classroom in the 1950s before it became the museum of Cromwell's life and times in 1962.

Cromwell's Classroom: The Early History of Huntingdon Grammar School runs until 27 September.