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An Economic, Social and Business

History of Rossall School 1844-1850

© Daniel Rossall Valentine, University of Oxford

daniel.valentine@kellogg.ox.ac.uk

Prepared for the Economic and Business History Society

39th Annual Conference, Manchester, 29-31 May 2014

Full paper available at: https://oxford.academia.edu/DRValentine

To cite this paper: Valentine, D.R. (2014) An Economic, Social and Business History of Rossall School 1844-1850, paper presented at the Economic and Business History Society 39th Annual Conference, Manchester, 29-31 May 2014

Contents1. Location

2. Background

3. Leadership

4. Finances

5. Costs

6. Marketing

7. Governance

8. The Product

9. Growth

10.Sources2

Rossall School - today

3

Rossall School - today

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Where is Rossall?

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Why is Rossall special?• Interesting history of Rossall Hall

• Represents a new type of school

• The result of a number of co-incident events

– significant social trends

• Population growth in Lancashire

• Clerical growth from a revitalised CofE

• Change in clerical roles, and backgrounds

• Growth in overseas empire postings, grows demand for boarding places

• Professions, the modern “career”, examinations and appointment on merit

• Growth of middle (professional) class

• Fear of revolution

• Growth of sea-side resorts (following medical opinion on sea-water and

pollution)

– The growth of the railways

– The collapse of Sir Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood’s business empire

– The meeting of two entrepreneurs: Beechey & Vantini6

Saxton (1579)

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Sir Peter

Hesketh-Fleetwood

Bt. (1801–1866)

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New Town - Fleetwood• 1834 (13th of October) - Sir Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood holds a

meeting at the Bull Inn, in Preston, on the to propose a plan for

a railway from Preston to a new town to be called Fleetwood.

Following the meeting he issues a prospectus for the formation

of a joint-stock company, with a capital of £130,000, in shares

of £50

• 1835 (3rd July) – Company incorporated by Parliamentary Act

• 1836 – Building of Fleetwood commences

• 1840 the Preston and Wyre Railway opens

• 1841 - Zenon Vantini’s “North Euston Hotel” opens

• 1841 - St. Peter’s Church opens with Revd St. Vincent Beechey

as incumbent

• By 1838, Sir Peter was selling property to pay his debts

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Growth of Fleetwood Stalls

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Zenon Vantini

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Zenon Vantini owned two large London hotels which faced each

other in Euston Square, the Victoria and the Euston.

Vantini’s Tontine Scheme• He was a Roman Catholic from Corsica, who was formerly a courtier to

Napoleon, who came to London after his master’s defeat and exile

• Vantini recognised that middle class parents couldn’t pay school fees out of

their immediate income and so would need to save for many years before

enrolment.

• He devised a scheme in which parents would start paying a modest annual

subscription for school places as soon as their children were born. The

school would then commit to enrolling the child if it survived to school age.

To a mathematical mind, the scheme probably appeared ingenious, but as it

was based on rather Malthusian forecast of the child death rate it was a hard

scheme to promote. Vantini arranged a meeting at his hotel for local

businesses and clergy for 1st July 1842.

• The Fleetwood Colleges Association - Two colleges of 500 each, Ages 7

to 18, Each college arranged in 4 departments by age, Founded on principle

of life insurance

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The Founder & First Headmaster

Canon St Vincent Beechey

Dr John Woolley

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Positioning

• Beechey named the School “The Northern Church of England School, for

the Sons of Clergy and other Gentlemen”.

• The school had the stated object of “giving an education to the sons of

clergymen and others, similar to that of the great public schools, but without the

great cost of Eton or Harrow, and embracing also a more general course of

instruction in Modern Literature and Science”

• According to early promotional literature the school was marked as a

place of: “the highest scholastic instruction”, teaching “the soundest religious

principles” inculcating “the habits of a gentleman” and with the mission of

despatching: “a succession of distinguished and well-informed scholars, and

sober-minded Christian gentlemen”.

• The constitution of the school stated that the Headmaster must be an

Anglican minister with the MA degree from Oxford or Cambridge,

and the number of pupils was to be limited to 350, aged from 9 to 14. 14

What might this

original advert for

the school tell us?

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• Fees in 1844 were £30-£50.

• Equivalent to £22,000 to

£37,000 per annum using the

inflation rate for average

earnings 1844-2011.

• Compare these fees with the

£28,000 per annum fees for full

boarding in 2014.

• By July 1844, more than £5000

had been subscribed

School Philosophy

Preston Chronicle - Saturday 17 February 1844 16

Rossall as a business• No endowment, so precarious and short of cash

• Using a converted private house, so required money for extensions

• Not a corporation until 1890

• Strategy

– A large and wealthy council

– Encourage “nominations” (fees in advance)

– Price discrimination

– Relatively low price (c 25% cost of Harrow)

– Rapid growth

– Tight control of costs17

Financing

• A donation of £25 allowed for one “nomination”

• A donation of £50 allowed for perpetual nominations

• Shares also issued at £25 each (interest not to exceed 5%)

• In February, the provisional committee announced that they

would commence operations as soon as £5000 (about £3m

today) was promised in subscriptions, donations or

nominations

• by June 1844 the £5,000 figure had been reached

• Payment on the principle of life insurance at a fee of £25

for 8 years was also available for clergy children

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Governance

• Until incorporation in 1890, the council members were personally

liable for the debts of the school, and so a large and wealthy council

was a necessity, in order to get credit.

• Beechey handpicked a large school council of twenty-four well-known

men, fourteen prominent clergy and ten wealthy laymen.

• The 13th Earl of Derby (who was Lord-Lieutenant of Lancashire)

was Patron, the 6th Duke of Devonshire and Lord Skelmersdale

(Edward Bootle-Wilbraham) were Vice Presidents, Rev George Hull

Bowers (Rector of St Paul's, Covent Garden) was Chairman, and

Canon John Parr (Vicar of Preston) was Vice-Chairman. Clement

Royds (senior partner in the bank Clement Royds & Co) accepted the

post of Treasurer and Beechey took the position as Secretary to the

School.

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The Product

• The 53 lessons divided into the following subject classes: Ancient languages (Latin and Greek) = 31, Maths = 9, Religion = 4, French = 4, History = 4, Science = 1. 20

Pricing - 1844 vs 2014

• 1844 - Annual fee for clergy (un-nominated) is £40

• 1844 - Typical clerical income is £150

• 2014 – Annual fee £28,000

• 2014 - Typical clerical income is £24,000

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Salaries

• Rossall opened in 1844 with 69 pupils

• Dr Woolley = £1,600 (about £180k)

• Two senior masters (Classics / Maths) = £250 (about £29k)

• Other masters (Drawing / Languages) = £100 (about £23k)

• Matron = £60

• Butler = £40

• Servants = £10

• NB-The masters held personal appointments from the

Headmaster, thus when the Headmaster left all his masters

were also terminated. A new Head tended to bring many

masters with him, and often senior boys also.22

Growth – First Ten Years

Year Boys

1844 (aug) 59

1845 (mar) 120

1846 (aug) 170

1847 c190

1848 (oct) 149

1849 138

1850 (june) 140

1851 177

1852 235

1853 259

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School HistoriesN.B. Some are “primary”, others are “secondary”

• 1894 - Canon St Vincent Beechey (1894) Rossall School, Its Rise and

Progress, Skeffington & Son

• 1895 - John Frederick Rowbotham (1895) History of Rossall School,

John Heywood

• 1923 - L.R Furneaux (1923) The Rossall School Register, 1844-1923

• 1944 - William Furness (1944) The Centenary History of Rossall

School, Gale and Polden

• 1992 - Peter Bennett (1992) A Very Desolate Position: The Story of

the Birth and Establishment of a Mid-Victorian Public School, 2nd

Edition, Rossall Archives

• 1992 - Peter Bennett (1992) Rossall Will be What You Make it,

Rossall Archives

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Primary Sources

The Archive

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Key Documents

• Headmaster’s reports to Council

• School Council minutes

• Board of Management minutes

• Financial Statements

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Acknowledgements

• I would like to express

gratitude to the following

people and institutions that

have helped with the research:

– Dr Stephen Palmer, Bursar, Rossall School

– Bryan Clark, Secretary of The Corporation of Rossall School

– Sharon Potts, Alumni Relations Officer, Rossall School

– Jacqui Whittle, Fleetwood Library

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