APPENDIX 3
SCHOLARSHIPS FOUNDED AT CAMBRIDGE FOR THE COLCHESTER SCHOOL
There have been three Scholarships at Cambridge for Colchester scholars, of which only one, the latest, is now available. Two of them were founded in the seventeenth century, at St. John's College, while the third, the Hewitt Exhibition, was founded in 1907 and is tenable at Corpus Christi.
Robert Lewis, Fellow of St. John's College, "sometime Preacher of St. Peter's in the town," gives his name to the Lewis Foundation. His wife, Mary, by her will dated October 12th, 1620, bequeathed £100 to the use of the College, and it was agreed between the Executors and the Master and Fellows to found a perpetual Scholarship with this money. Then, in the interests of their own Free School, the Bailiffs and Commonalty of Colchester granted an annuity of £7 to the Master and Fellows, for their use and to maintain a scholar, and thus secured the Scholarship for Colcestrians. The annuity consisted of rents "issuing out of all their Messuage or Tenement, and all the houses, barns, stables, yards, orchards, lands and pastures, containing Eleven acres, one rood and half a rood, and one grove of wood containing nine acres . . . called Marks; lying and being in the Hamlett of Mile-End, within the Liberties of this town, then in the tenure and occupation of John Brinckley." These rents were to be paid twice every year, upon the Feasts of the Archangel Michael and the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. A fine of 20 shillings was to be paid by the Town to the Master and Fellows for 40 days' default of payment, and in the event of a further 20 days' delay the College could take possession of the property. The holder of the Scholarship was to be an ex-scholar of the Colchester School and the son of a free burgess ; and if no such candidate were already in residence at the College the Bailiffs, General Preacher and Schoolmaster of Colchester, or any three of them, were to nominate a suitable candidate. This was settled by an indenture (September 13th, 1622) between the Bailiffs and Commonalty and Owen Gwyn, D.D., Master of St. John's.
In the other foundation at St. John's the School had a part interest only. Ambrose Gilbert by his will of May 6th, 1642 (proven June 14th, 1649) bequeathed " Marsh House in St Osith in Essex, with all the lands and Woods belonging thereunto, to the founding of a Fellowship and a Scholarship in St John's College in Cambridge; and do appoint to be capable of these places, first the Gilberts, then the Torkingtons, then Colchester School, lastly Orset, Essex" (Morant, iii, §, 3) .
Into the circumstances in which these two Scholarships at St. John's College fell into disuse, long before the nineteenth century, there not space to enter here. (See Charity Commissioners' Report, 1838.)
For the James Hewitt Memorial Exhibition, founded in 1907, the School is indebted to two benefactors, James and William Hewitt, whose portraits hang on the south wall of Big School. After many years devoted to the profession of teaching, these brothers settled at Lower Park, Dedham, where they continued to interest themselves actively in local education, and especially in the affairs of the Colchester Royal Grammar School. After the death of James Hewitt, William determined to endow a Scholarship at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, of which both brothers had formerly been members, and to nominate the Colchester School in perpetuity as beneficiary. A sum of £2,450 was conveyed to Corpus Christi College for the establishment of an Exhibition, preference in which was always to be given to a candidate from Colchester Royal Grammar School nominated by the Headmaster and Governors, the Exhibition being tenable from the candidate's entrance to the College to the time when he stood for the degree of Bachelor. If there were no suitable candidate, the College was to settle the grant upon a student of their own choice, subject to certain restrictions, until it could be conferred once more upon a candidate " duly nominated and qualified . . . from the Royal Grammar School, Colchester."
