important functions; and that, during their time, some able and respectable men were educated by them, who afterwards became distinguished members of the learned professions. During the whole of their Masterships, the College stood high in the public estimation, for their whole attention was dedicated, solely, to the boys on the foundation, though, after the year 1744, none of them were permitted to reside in the College. But an innovation was now to be admitted, which gave additional force to the previous abuses of the charity.

On the 11th February, 1756, Mr. Figg succeeded Mr. Jones as Master of the College, and continued in that office till his death in 1784. He, first, was allowed to take private boarders into the house, contrary to the intention of the founder; and, as his reputation increased, he took other pupils, who boarded with him, but slept in the adjacent houses, the College being too small for their accommodation. During this long interval from February, 1756, to January, 1784, the twelve foundation boys became, as it were, secondary objects in the school, and were, naturally, considered by the private scholars as of an inferior order; and, for a considerable portion of this time, were taught in a back room or parlour of the College, and were not, generally, allowed to intermix with the private boarders in the large school-room, which was built in 1761, by the Trustees, and paid for out of the College funds for the accommodation of Mr. Figg's pupils. Indeed, after the appointment of Mr. William Jolliffe, as acting trustee or treasurer, boys of poor and humble parents were admitted on the foundation, (and it has even been said that, in some instances, the children of his servants, were received) to the dissatisfaction of the inhabitants, and to the discredit of the College, though contrary to the will of the Founder and the act of Parliament.

*

During the whole of the control of Mr. William Jolliffe, the affairs of the College were ill managed and very irregularly conducted; that is, so far as related to the clothing of the foundation boys-the payments for the clothes of the apprentices and the payment of the gratuities to be given to them, when out of their apprenticeships. The truth of this observation is shown by the state of Mr. Jolliffe's accounts, and his correspondence with the Masters. But as there is

* Post, p. 80 to p. 81.

not any wish to depreciate his conduct, from any improper or malicious motive, it is not necessary to enlarge much further on this part of the history of the College-it is sufficient to refer to his accounts*, and to the manner and time of his payments, and merely to specify a few of these irregularities.

In order to a perfect understanding of the general state of the accounts and funds of the charity, after it fell exclusively into the hands of Mr. Jolliffe's family, it will now be proper to retrace its history, and to show the annual balances in their hands from the passing of the act until the present

time.

In the year 1747-8, Mr. John Jolliffe became very active in the management of the College affairs, particularly in the money matters of the establishment. At the end of every year he kept cash-balances in his hands, without giving the Charity, the benefit of them, by investing annually in the funds, or otherwise applying them to the increase of the capital of the institution. From that time to the year 1769, when he retired from the trust, on account of ill health, he was the principal acting Trustee, and during the whole of that period the average annual cash balance + left in his hands after the payment of all expences, amounted to upwards of 250l.

In 1770, his son, Mr. William Jolliffe (who had then been a Trustee for four years), was appointed by three Trustees, treasurer of the Charity (an office in no way recognized either by the will of the Founder, or by the Act of Parliament), and was by the same order directed to receive the balance due from his father, Mr. John Jolliffe, at the time, he retired from the trust.

Mr. William Jolliffe, it appears, immediately afterwards received from Mr. T. S. Jolliffe the balance due from his father; but, instead of applying it to the purposes of the Charity, by investing it in the funds, he retained it in his own hands; and, in addition, he kept, annually, a very considerable cash balance, from the dividends of the Charity. The average annual cash balance which he, thus, had the use of during thirty-three years, that he acted as treasurer to the Charity, amounted, on an averages of these years, to upwards of 870%., which ought to have been invested at the end + Ibid, p. 280. ‡ Ibid, p. 235. § Ibid, p. 283.

Post, p. 87 to p. 111.

C

of each year, so as to have given the Charity, the benefit of interest, upon such cash balances; for as the payments on account of the College were reduced by discontinuing the board and lodging of the College boys, and the dividends were receivable quarterly, there was no occasion for such large cash balances remaining in his hands uninvested at the end of each year.

*

In 1802, Mr. William Jolliffe died; and in 1803, his son, Mr. Hylton Jolliffe, who had been appointed a Trustee in 1794, was made Treasurer, and was ordered by the Trustees at a meeting at which he was† HIMSELF present to receive the balance due from his father, which at this time amounted to above 1,650l., and to be accountable for it to the Charity. The following is the resolution of the Trustees:

"We the undersigned being the major part of the Trustees of Churcher's College, in pursuance of an Act of Parliament for regulating and making more effectual certain charities given by the will of Richard Churcher, deceased, for the use and benefit of the town and borough of Petersfield, in the county of Southampton, DO NOMINATE and appoint Hylton Jolliffe, Esq., to be treasurer of the said Charity, in the room of William Jolliffe, Esq., deceased. AND we do further order and appoint the said Hylton Jolliffe to RECEIVE the balance due from the said William Jolliffe, Esq., to the said charity, and to be accountable for the same.'

From 1802 to 1806, Mr. Hylton Jolliffe received the dividends on the stock of the charity, and had in his hands, at the close of the latter year, after payment of all the College expences, a cash balance of 570l. 6s. 10d.; and from 1806, to the end of 1818, soon after which, he, and the other Trustees, put in their answers to the original information filed against them, it seems that he had on an average of these twelve years, cash balances in his hands, at the end of each year, of 2821. 4s. 5d.; and, he likewise suffered, a very large annual cash balance, to remain in the Accountant-General's hands unproductive‡, for a great number of years. It also

appears, by the Accountant-General's Accounts *, that since 1818, and up to the present time, Mr. Hylton Jolliffe has, even pending the present suit in Chancery, nearly drawn out halfyearly the full dividends of the whole stock, standing in the name of the Accountant-General, although the College expenditure continues the same, the boys being still excluded from the house, and deprived of their board and lodging. It is presumed, that this conduct cannot be justified, but that the balances, after paying the current expences, should have remained with the Accountant-General for the purpose of being funded, or for safe custody.

The Charity, which had, even during the time, that Mr. John Jolliffe, acted as principal Trustee, been in some respects neglected, fell into complete disrepute under the management of Mr. William Jolliffe. The Master, Mr. Figg, as before observed, was permitted to take boarders and private pupils, under the pretence, that his salary was too small; and a large schoolroom was built out of the College funds, solely, for the accommodation of the Master's private scholars, who were lodged in the College, to the entire exclusion of the Foundation boys, who alone were entitled to occupy it. These were altogether neglected-were driven to live with their parents, and their education and treatment attended to, as if such an establishment as Churcher's College had never been in existence; indeed, after the passing of the act, another class of boys were admitted into the school, inconsistent and contrary to the will of Mr. Churcher, who directed, that none should be admitted until they were nine years of age, and had received some previous education, to qualify them to enter on the course of study pointed out by the Founder. The institution was converted into a mere private school, in which the Master, besides the profits arising from his boarders, had the additional advantages of a good house, with domestic offices and a garden, and a salary of 40l. a year. And in many instances, as if the advantages, already mentioned, were not enough, the Master, after Mr. Figg's death, was allowed to let rooms in the College to lodgers; and, at different times part of the College was actually turned into a girl's boarding school; the Trustees, during the whole period from the death of Mr. Figg to the present time, paying all the govern

ment and parochial taxes and assessments, notwithstanding the order* of the Trustees of the 12th December, 1755, that the same should be borne and paid by the Master for the time being. The amount of the taxes thus paid by the Trustees, in contravention of the original order, between January, 1784 and 1818, was 758l. 13s. 9d.

It also appears, from the schedules to the answers of the Trustees, that, by the admission of thirty-four boys on the foundation of the College, who were not the sons of inhabitants of Petersfield, an expense of about 14967. has been incurred; to the serious injury of the town, and to the detriment of the endowment. It is, equally, evident, that, to answer certain local views, at different periods, a greater number of boys have been admitted into the school, than the number limited by the Founder. By these schedules, it is, likewise, shown not only that the Foundation boys were sometimes obliged to go two or three years without the articles of clothing directed to be furnished to them annually; but also, that the apprentices remained two, three, and four years, without the allowance of three pounds per annum for clothing, which is directed to be paid by the will and the statute. And it further appears, from these accounts of the Trustees, that the allowances of 201. ordered to be paid to each of the apprentices after the expiration of their servitude, had been withheld, from about thirty two of them entirely, and from several others, from three to thirty years, after they became due and payable to them, though intended to enable them to establish themselves in business immediately after the termination of their apprenticeship!

In Mr. William Jolliffe's time, and since his death, the meetings and the appointments of the Trustees, likewise, became extremely irregular, as will hereafter be shewn; and nearly all of them were conducted in direct violation both of the Founder's will, and of the act of Parliament; and in several years, there were not any meetings whatever held by

Post, p. 226. The reader is particularly requested to compare this order, which was made before Mr. Figg was chosen Master, and an entry on this subject in the College book of the 31st December, 1800, Post., p. 244. and also a letter of the 11th April, 1801, from the late Mr. W. Jolliffe to Mr. Trimming.-Post, p. xliv. xlvi.

† Post, p. 285

Post, p. 302.

fPost, p. 300. &c.