On International Women’s Day we celebrate the only surviving charter in Faversham from a queen.

 

Queen Elizabeth I granted the charter in 1576, but what is the story behind it?

From the late 12th century there was almost certainly a school for the boys in Faversham in the parish church, within the grounds of the Abbey. One of the last boys who probably received his early education in the parish grammar school was John Cole. He went up to Oxford in 1486 and subsequently became a chaplain to both Henry VII and Henry VIII and eventually Warden of all Souls College Oxford. On the death of his step father in 1510 he inherited the estate of Ewell Farm, Faversham and in 1521 obtained a licence from the king to dedicate some of his lands to provide for the endowment of a grammar school in Faversham. The constitution of this school was in the form of an indenture between John Cole, John Caslock, the Abbot of Faversham Abbey and the Warden and Fellows of All Souls and was sealed in 1526. Detailed arrangements were made for the provision of endowment lands, the relationship between the schoolmaster and the Abbey and the rules to be followed by the boys.

The property was confiscated by King Henry VIII when he dissolved the Abbey in 1538 and the School had to close. In 1562 there was no Faversham Grammar School listed in Archbishop Parker’s ‘Declaration of schools within the diocese of Canterbury’. This situation was obviously considered unsatisfactory by leading townsmen for in 1573 the Mayor and Corporation petitioned Queen Elizabeth I to re-establish the grammar school and to return its endowments. They were successful in their request for in 1576 was opened “the free grammar school of Elizabeth, Queen of England, in Faversham in the county of Kent for the education, bringing up, and instruction of boys and youths in grammar, to remain in all future ages.”

The grounds for the foundation of the school by Elizabeth were that ‘diverse parcels of lands and tenements given and granted to the Abbey were now in her hands, and it followed that she should take the opportunity to put right what her father had done wrong.’

The original charter is not included in the Faversham town items. The original, photographed here, is owned by Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, Faversham.

Royal letters patent, Westminster, 14 July 1576 Fa/1/1. Tann, Royal Charters of Faversham, pp. 174-178.

Text from: www.queenelizabeths.kent.sch.uk/about-us/history/