Foundation Documents
Translated
The Headmaster, Mark Ronan, hosted a celebration
dinner at the School on Friday 7 February 2014 to
mark the translation and publication of the School’s
foundation documents, consisting of the Letters
Patent of King Henry VIII dated 24th May 1514
giving John Dowman licence to found a guild and
grammar school, the Writ of The Privy Seal dated
two days earlier for the sealing of the Letters Patent
with the Great Seal, a near contemporary copy of
the Foundation Charter of John Dowman dated 3
February 1517, the deed dated 1 December 1525 by
John Dowman endowing five scholarships at St John’s
College, Cambridge, and the Letters Patent of King
Edward VI dated 6 July 1552 setting forth the words
of the Act of Parliament by which the School was refounded in that year.
These documents are our only source of information
about the foundation and re-foundation of the School
and give an insight into the extraordinary drive and
generosity of both the founder, John Do