The history of The Manchester Grammar School goes back to the time when Henry VIII was on the throne when it was founded in 1515 by Hugh Oldham, Bishop of Exeter, to provide 'godliness and good learning' to the poor boys of medieval Manchester.
At this time it was known as The Manchester Free Grammar School. However, the embryo of the school he enriched had already been connected with the Collegiate church (now Manchester Cathedral) along with an educational endowment estimated to date as far back as the foundation of the church in 1420. Links with the cathedral are still maintained today and it is the venue for the celebration of our Founders' Day service each year.
The School was originally located in Long Millgate and the documents relating to the property bear dates from the fourteenth century.
The foundation deed of 1515 declared that schoolmasters could be either 'monks or secular clergymen and the purpose of the School was to provide a schoolmaster, 'eminent for wisdom, character and virtue,' to ensure that 'grace, virtue and wisdom should grow, flower, and take root in youths during their boyhood, especially in boys of the country of Lancaster, who for a long time through the default of teaching and instruction had lacked such grace, virtue and wisdom in their youth, both through their fathers poverty and through the absence and want of such a teacher'.
There have been 35 High Masters steering The Manchester Grammar School to-date; two of the most well known are Frederick William Walker, who took up his position in 1859 and John Lewis Alexander Paton who became High Master in 1903. The title of High Master is used in only one other school in the country, St Paul's in London. Hugh Oldham's ally, Dean John Colet, founded St Paul's in 1509. The current High Master, Christopher Ray, joined MGS in 2004 when former incumbent, Martin Stephen, left to become High Master of St Paul's.
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