Elizabeth Fuller
Encyclopedia
Elizabeth Fuller founded a Free School for boys and girls in Watford
Watford
Watford is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, situated northwest of central London and within the bounds of the M25 motorway. The borough is separated from Greater London to the south by the urbanised parish of Watford Rural in the Three Rivers District.Watford was created as an urban...

, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. She is often called Dame Elizabeth Fuller, as a title of respect. In the Victoria County History
Victoria County History
The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History or the VCH, is an English history project which began in 1899 and was dedicated to Queen Victoria with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of...

 of Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

 she is referred to as "Mrs Elizabeth Fuller".

Watford schools

At the end of the 17th century there was already an existing Free School at Watford, which Mrs Elizabeth Fuller of Watford Place found too small. In 1704 she built a new Free School for forty boys and twenty girls on her land next to the churchyard, with rooms for the Master and Mistress, and in 1708 she endowed it with £52 a year.

The Free School for boys and girls later developed into the separate Watford Grammar School for Boys and Watford Grammar School for Girls
Watford Grammar School for Girls
Watford Grammar School for Girls is an academy for girls in Watford in Hertfordshire, UK.Despite its name, the school accepts girls of all abilities, although a proportion are selected for academic or musical aptitude....

. Elizabeth Fuller is remembered every year in the present schools' Founder's Day services. Watford Grammar School for Boys and Watford Grammar School for Girls
Watford Grammar School for Girls
Watford Grammar School for Girls is an academy for girls in Watford in Hertfordshire, UK.Despite its name, the school accepts girls of all abilities, although a proportion are selected for academic or musical aptitude....

Website states:


"In 1704 Elizabeth Fuller of Watford founded a charity school on land adjoining the parish churchyard. The original building, which was known as The Free School, may still be seen. The forty boys and twenty girls were taught to read, write and 'cast accounts'. Every year we hold a Founder's Day service to commemorate the charitable foundation of Watford Grammar School for Boys. With the help of endowments and occasional gifts, Elizabeth Fuller's original charity school survived until the 1880s."

Elizabeth Fuller's charity for sermon and bread

This charity was founded by Mrs Fuller in 1708. It was originally funded from her Free School endowment, but by an Order made in 1905 under the Board of Education Act 1899, £196 in Midland Railway debenture stock was transferred from the funds of the school to new Trustees to provide £3 18s. a year for distribution in bread to the poor of Watford and £1 a year to the Vicar of Watford for a sermon.

Furthur Reading

  • Watford: Churches and charities in A History of the County of Hertford, volume 2 (1908), pages 464-69
  • Mrs Fuller's Free School - Three Hundred Years of the Watford Grammar Schools - ISBN 0-9545267-4-0
  • The Book of Watford, Second Edition - ISBN 978-0953691814
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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