Annual minute and account book of Mrs. Barkham's School, Wells, Somersetshire [manuscript].

Wells, 1660-1735.

157 leaves ; 32 x 21 x 8 cm

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Great Britain -- England.

FAST ACC 272514

Ordered from Dean Cooke Manuscripts & Rare Books, D9535, 2021-10-06, Cat. "First words: catalogue of manuscripts & rare books to be exhibited by Dean Cooke Rare Books Ltd on stand A7 at the firsts fair Saatchi Gallery London 21 - 24 October 2021", item #31. From dealer's description: "31. EXPANDING HER PUPILS [BARKHAM, Margaret (d. 1654)] A 17th- and 18th-century manuscript minute and account book recording the foundation of a Somerset school still in existence [Wells. 1660-1735]. Folio (320 mm x 205 mm x 75 mm). Approximately 370 leaves including numerous blanks (see below for foliation details). Bound in contemporary reverse calf, with brass clasps, and gilt stamped to the reverse “MRS MAGARETT BARKHA[M]” (the final letter has been lost when the clasps were repaired). The lettering to the reverse board seems strange, but it is undoubtedly how the book was used because the spine has gradually recessed through repeated usage. The unusual arrangement of this artefact presents, at first glance, something of a conundrum: why do sections written in 1679 precede those written in 1660? However, if we take the sequence of events as our guide, we find that they make sense when considered in the order in which the texts were entered. They also help us understand how this early free school itself developed into a more organised and stable institution. At the centre of that development is one William Westley, who joins the school’s board of feoffees (trustees who hold and administer an estate for charitable purposes) and, apparently almost single-handedly, brings order and structure to the struggling school – a transformation aptly reflected in this book’s evolution from incongruity to coherence. The contents are as follows: Front endpaper with initials “DT” to upper margin. [1]. [Circa 1679]. ff. 1-9 (17 pages) “A Copie of M:rs Barkhams Feoffment relating to her Schoole in Wells”. [*]. ff. 10-30, blank leaves. [2]. [Circa 1679]. ff. 31-52. Copy of a document summarising Margaret Barkham’s will, appointing feoffees, recording their actions in the first days of the school’s foundation. Also details of the first intake of “Schollers”, the “Lawes and Ordinances” of the school and records of the year 1659. [*]. ff. 53-55, blank leaves. [3]. [Circa 1660-1735]. ff. 56-157. Accounts, actions, and other notes. [*]. ff. 158-370, blank leaves. Section [1] copies a document from1654 but appears to have been entirely written by William Westley in 1679 when he adds a dated note and his signature (illustrated overleaf). Section [2] is written in a scribal hand. This section documents events from 1656 to 1660 but was probably copied into the volume in 1679 at the instruction of William Westley. Section [3] commences in 1660 and continues through to1735. It is written in a variety of hands. Although the accounts [3] begin on f. 56, they are evidently the earliest section of the manuscript. From dealer's description (cont.): "So why do the earlier pages of section [3] predate sections [1] and [2], and why are they separated by a large blank section? It seems clear that the explanation is as follows. The original feoffees read Margaret Barkham’s will and worked directly from their knowledge of it. Although aware that it was expected, none of them wanted the chore of copying into the volume these extensive legal documents whose contents were already so familiar to them, so they left a number of blank pages for someone else to fulfil this onerous task. The workings of time and mortality caused some of the founding feoffees to be replaced. One new arrival was William Westley, whose diligence did much to bring order to the accounts. We learn from these meticulous records that Westley was appointed a feoffee in 1679. Westley is first recorded as keeping an "accompt to our Lady day last) the summe of 11li : 6 : 11” and, further down the page, as one of three signers on the “2d / day of Aprill 1679:", and he continued in this role for many years. He evidently took his responsibilities very seriously, and knowing that copies should be kept in this book and to save future feoffees the trouble of referring back to the original documents, he did what should have been done at the outset: he copied in the originals and signed them off. Accordingly, Westley has annotated the first document [1] at the end: “A true copie Exd- with the Originall Deed /of ffeoffmt the 15o Sept 1679 / By me Wm: Westley”. We assume that Westley himself copied this, as it is consistent with his other entries later in the volume. The second document [2] is written in a neat – probably professional – scribal hand. This section is not dated, but does refer to the preceding document: “which deede is entred and recorded in this present Booke” (f. 31r). It includes details of the events from the execution of Margaret Barkham’s will until the first accounts. It seems likely that Westley, having laboured to copy in the first document, employed a professional scribe to bring the volume fully up to date. Westley’s actions should not be underestimated: in bringing stability to a still uncertain institution he contributed, in his small part, to the development of a more cohesive administrative basis for the embryonic English education system. His work as an individual foreshadows the wider institutional efforts needed for the education of the poor to become more than an ad hoc, well-intentioned but scattershot business. [...]"

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