the officials in the office of the Charity Commission, who is a member of the congregation of S. Mary Abbots.  A scheme was thereupon prepared, and an order of the Charity Commissioners, dated the 21st November, 1890, was made on the application of the Vicar and Churchwardens (the trustees of the charity), reciting that the property of the charity is the sum of £343 3s. 2d. two and threequarter per cent. consols, standing in the names of the official trustees of charitable funds.  And the order provided that the income of the charity is to be applied in payments of not more than £8 a year each to the advancement of the education of children attending public elementary schools, and in payments to encourage continuance at school.  The money may be applied towards paying the tuition fees of the child, or it may be deposited in a savings bank for the benefit of the child, or otherwise applied for his or her benefit.

III.—THE NATIONAL SCHOOL.

I now come to the only remaining charity of which I propose to treat, which is that now representing the old Parish Free Schools, viz., the well known schools in Church Court, adjoining the parish church of S. Mary Abbots, now called the National and Infant Schools.

The first endowment to this charity dates from so long ago as 1645, when Roger Pimble gave by will two houses in High Street, Kensington, held under a lease from Brazenose College, Oxford, for “a salary for the maintenance of a free school in Kensington for poor men’s children in the said town to be taught.”

In 1652 the parish purchased the leases of the “Catherine Wheel” public house and a small plot of land adjoining, which were accordingly conveyed to the Churchwardens and Overseers, and other parishioners, for the use of the parish; and in 1664 the freehold of these premises was granted by the Lady of the Manor of Abbots, Kensington, to Christopher Batt and others in trust “for the perpetual habitation of a schoolmaster; for the education, teaching and instruction of poor boys and youths of the parish of Kensington in the same messuage;” and the said schoolmaster was to be chosen by the parishioners and inhabitants, or the majority of them.

Catherine Dickens by will made in 1702 gave £50 to the Vicar and Churchwardens, the income thereof to be applied for ever “for the further maintenance of a schoolmaster belonging to the said parish, for teaching such poor children to write and cast accounts, whose parents being inhabitants of this parish were not able to pay for the same.”

In 1705 Mary Carnaby, as I have already mentioned, left £40 for the use of the poor.

And in 1707 the Parish Officers, with £80 made up of Mr. Dicken’s £50 and £30 out of Mary Carnaby’s £40, purchased the freehold of the “Goat” public house in High Street, which was accordingly conveyed to trustees on trust as to fire-eighths of the rent for the further and better maintenance of the said schoolmaster, and as to three-eighths “to be distributed among the poor.”

With these endowments a school was established; there was a building in which instruction was given and a salary provided to pay a schoolmaster by whom the instruction was to be given.

The history of the charity thus just established now becomes very intricate, and it would exhaust your patience still more, without serving any countervailing useful purpose, were I to attempt to follow the whole matter in detail.  I will therefore spare you all this, and content myself, and I hope my hearers, by calling your attention to the more important events.

In 1707 a charity school was established in accordance with the notions of those days, in which 30 boys and 20 girls were instructed, and were also clothed in an uniform at the expense of the charity, but were not lodged or fed, except by a dinner on Sundays to secure their attendance at church.  This object was attained by applying for subscriptions, and it was then that the Royal bounty which the schools have up to the present received was first granted, Queen Anne granting £50 a-year, and Prince George of Denmark her husband, £30 a-year.  The next step was to amalgamate the free school with the new charity school which took place in 1709, and in 1711 the old schoolhouse on the premises formerly occupied by the “Catherine Wheel” public house was pulled down and a new one erected, and was first used in August, 1712.  The subscriptions collected for the building were more than sufficient for the purpose, as were also those for the carrying on the school, and the surplus was from time to time invested, first in East India bonds, and afterwards in South Sea annuities.

Thomas Smith, and his son in 1721, left a house adjoining the school premises in trust for the habitation of a schoolmaster.

In 1732 the Rev. Dr. Millington, the then Vicar of Kensington, devised one-third of the rent of some land at Acton to trustees for the use of the Charity School; and some other small gifts were from time to time made to the charity.

In 1769 a Mrs. Randolph bequeathed, or gave in her lifetime, a sum of £275 to the schools, which appears to have been invested in South Sea Stock.

Another benefactor to the parish was Mr. John Farmer, who died on the 9th November, 1803, bequeathing his portrait to the schoolhouse, in the modern representative of which it still hangs, and assists the school committee in their labours by beaming upon them from the wall of the school committee room, and a sum of £500, together with the proceeds of the sale of his household furniture and pictures, saving the aforesaid portrait.  The furniture produced £400, making Mr. Farmer’s, benefaction amount in money to £900, and the whole appears to have been invested in South Sea Stock.