Westminster School.

The beginnings of Westminster School can be traced to 1386-7, when Queen Eleanor's accounts show a payment to one master of grammar and 22 boys. It was properly established under the Tudors, and Queen Elizabeth I has been credited with founding the Westminster School in 1560. The Queen provided funds to house and educate 40 boys in Latin, Greek, and Scripture. The brightest of these, “Queen's Scholars”, would be funded by the Queen to continue their studies at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1575, the age limit was set to over eight and under eighteen.
The school was highly respected in the early 17th century, not least for its learned Masters and Deans, such as William Camden, Lancelot Andrewes and Lord Chancellor Williams. Westminster School can lay claim to the childhood education of notables like Ben Jonson, Abraham Cowley, George Herbert, and possibly Robert Herrick.

Westminster in the Seventeenth Century
From a print by Hollar, 1647

Other Local Resources:

Location Map of Elizabethan London

Books for Further Study:

Barker, G. F. Russell. The Record of Old Westminsters: A Biographical List of All Those Who Are
          Known to Have Been Educated at Westminster School from the Earliest Times to 1927.
          London: Chiswick Press, 1928.
Carleton, John Dudley. Westminster School: A History.
          London: R. Hart-Davis, 1965.
Field, John. The King's Nurseries : The Story of Westminster School.
          London: James & James, 1987.
Sargeaunt. John. Annals of Westminster School.
          London: Methuen, 1898.
Tanner, Lawrence E. Westminster School: A History.
          London: Country Life, Ltd., 1934, 1951.

Web Sites of Interest:

The Westminster School Website - Westminster School

Willen Education - Willen Homepage

English Grammar Schools. Westminster. - Cambridge History of English and American Literature

Article Citation:

Jokinen, Anniina. “Westminster School.” Luminarium.
30 Jan 2003. [Date when you accessed the page].
<http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/westminsterschool.htm>

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