20th February 1942
One Of The Four Oldest Schools In Yorkshire
February 13th, 1942, was the 150th anniversary of the grant of a charter by George III, from which The King's School, Pontefract, derives both its name and its resuscitation. The occasion was marked at the School by a brief address surveying its history, given to the scholars by a member of the Board of Governors, the Reverend A.G. Shipley.
Mr. Shipley traced the beginnings of the School to the time of IIbert de Lacey, in the reign of William the
Conqueror. He declared that undoubted evidence was forthcoming of the existence of the School in 1267, in an inquisition made by Henry de Lacy into the customs, statutes and orders of St. Nicholas's Hospital, Pontefract; and again in another inquisition held in 1347, into the annexation of the Duchy
of Lancaster to the Crown. Further and more convincing evidence still, was furnished in 1549, in the report of the Commissioners appointed to administer the Chantry Act of that year. In 1583, Queen Elizabeth granted a Charter by which, for a time at least, the School was known as Queen Elizabeth's School; and finally, in 1792, a Royal Charter was obtained from George III under which the School was again started out on its mission, to be known henceforth as the Regia Schola, or King's School.
From that date, said Mr. Shipley, the School ran a chequered course in the building of Boniface Savage, in Northgate, until 1889 or thereabouts. The
Governer's bought the old military barracks in Back Northgate, and the School was re-opened under the Headmastership of the Reverend T .Howey Nichols. In 1932, a move was made to the present spacious, well-equipped and up-to-date buildings, with their magnificent playing-fields.
As one of the four oldest secondary schools in the county - the others are St. Peter's York, and the Beverley and Ripon Schools - the speaker congratulated the pupils on its proud record, and hoped that its present generation would add fresh laurels to the crown, already bright with the lustre of so long and inspiring a past.
1942 INDEX
