1700 to 1799 - The OldWinburnians

Year

Events

1700

1719

Governors order the repair of Mr Lloyd's House and School house.

1730

21 December Fill Cox BA of St John's College Oxford, elected Usher, i.e. Undermaster.

1732

Fill Cox becomes Master
This gentleman born in 1709 was the son of Joseph Cox and Eleanor Fill. The fathers of both held posts in the Minster. His own son John, b. 1734, became Usher or undermaster in the period 1758 – 1763. A collateral branch of the Cox family, Robert Cox, Poole merchant involved in the Newfoundland trade, lived at no 5 King Street, the half-timbered house at the corner of School Lane, which is still there. His two sons attended the Grammar School. It is assumed that earlier generations had also. Of the two sons, William was captain of a ship transporting convicts to Australia, and later distinguished himself by constructing the first road through the Blue Mountains in 1815. The Australian actor Jason Donovan is a descendant of his. His other son Robert became the founder of the Fusee Watch chain industry in Christchurch.

1748

Edward Butt M.A. Sizar of Emanuel College, Cambs. in 1737, MA 1741
A memorial stone to him and his family is in the Baptistry of the Minster. His descendant, John, becomes a Governor in 1804, and another Rev. Edward, becomes Governor in 1835. There are a number of Butts in the school rolls up to the Ist World War. There is a letter extant from him to a former pupil, Gen. Sir George Hewett, 1750  - 1840, who was commissioned into the 70 Regiment of Foot in 1762, was involved in the American War of Independence, and became C-in-C India 1807, C-in-C Ireland 1813, one of the school's most eminent alumni.
James Henvill, son of William Henvill of Haydon, “educated under Mr Butt, admitted sizar for Mr Baskett 22 June 1754”, at St John's College, Cambs. A sizar is a student fresh from school. There is a memorial plaque to a William Baskett in the Minster, who was a Governor.

1763

Governors minute: the mud wall against Mr Butt's garden, being much in decay, to be rebuilt in brick. Payment to be one third Hanham, one third Mr Butt, one third the Corporation.

1769

Rev. Robert Gutch B.A. becomes Master on resignation of Edward Butt, who went on to be Master of the Cathedral School in Salisbury.

1777

Rev. James Mayo elected Usher in place of Robert Baskett, deceased. He matriculated at Queen's Coll. Oxford 1774, BA 1777. Salary £25. He had been coached for University by Rev. Edward Butt in Salisbury in 1773. It is recounted that there was a protest from Dr Henry Good, presbiter of the Minster, that Mayo had punished his son too severely. However the Governors considered the protest and decided that the treatment was merited. First mention of the Good family, who were priests at the Minster for over 100 years.

1779

David Perry Okeden records that he was sent to the school in this year and “the boys used occasionally to form the schoolroom into a theatre and represent the most celebrated plays to an audience of their friends and the local Gentry”.
This person is possibly the David Parry Okeden who, in 1796, married a daughter of the Rev'd. John Harris of Sturminster Marshall, and died at Bath in 1833.  His son William, born in 1800, served in the Indian Civil Service and in 1842 married the daughter of Edward Harris Greathed of Uddens, perhaps the same one who chaired the Governors in 1865.

1784

Mary Gutch,The daughter of  Headmaster, Robert Gutch, married Thomas Druitt.
Their son Robert in the same year who married Jane Mayo the daughter of  James Mayo, presently the usher, but from 1787 the next headmaster.

1786

Sir William Thomas Hanham proposes that part of Deanes Leaze become a play place for the School Boys of the Grammer School and that a wall be built. He offers to pay two thirds of the cost, if the Corporation will pay one third. Presumably this act created the playground as we knew it. Deanes Leaze was the watermeadow,often marshy and flooded, between Deanes House, residence of the Hanham family, adjacent to the Schoolhouse, and the river Stour.

1787

Mr Giffard. The School House and the Parsonage House are each insured for £200. Rev. James Mayo, Usher since 1777, appointed Master, at a salary of £38, with use and occupation of the School House.

1794

A record that Mayo made sundry alterations and improvements to the school buildings.