Jeffery Whitaker's School, Bratton
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The first school in Bratton was started by the elder Jeffery Whitaker (1664-1737) at the Whitaker family home named 'Yew Trees'. It has been family tradition, according to Marjorie Reeves in her book Sheep Bell and Ploughshare, that the schoolroom was on the first floor at the back of the house and had an outside stair leading up to it for the use of the boys, although there is another view that the western part of the house was built as an extension to accommodate the school. Jeffery Whitaker's son, also Jeffery, started teaching at the age of 15. The school clearly took boarders from its earliest days: The elder Jeffery's will left to his son 14 beds 'now in the second and third storeys of his dwelling house'. As Baptists, in order to conduct the school the Whitakers would have been required to swear under terms of the Toleration Act of 1689 an oath of allegiance and a declaration against popery.
When the younger Jeffery died he left his diaries behind him and these indicate the curriculum and activities of the school: An advertisement dated 30 July 1750 reads,
'At Bratton in the County of Wilts are taught Writing in all hands Practical and Ornamental. Arithmetick Vulgar and Decimal. Geometry Superficial and Solid. Trigonometry Plain and Spherical. With the Application thereof to Surveying of Land, Gauging, Navigation etc.' This was clearly not a classical education.
When the younger Jeffery died he left his diaries behind him and these indicate the curriculum and activities of the school: An advertisement dated 30 July 1750 reads,
'At Bratton in the County of Wilts are taught Writing in all hands Practical and Ornamental. Arithmetick Vulgar and Decimal. Geometry Superficial and Solid. Trigonometry Plain and Spherical. With the Application thereof to Surveying of Land, Gauging, Navigation etc.' This was clearly not a classical education.
Pupils in the school appear to have come from a wide catchment area; this is indicated by the itinerary of Jeffery and his sister on a tour to collect fees in June 1739. They travelled to Durrington, Amesbury, Salisbury, Fordingbridge, Norington, Tisbury and Crockerton. The school also took boys from Warminster, Nunney, Corsley, Beckington, Trowbridge, Worton, Devizes and West Lavington, as well as locally from Bratton and Westbury.
Jeffery had an assistant named Ben Bourne from Westbury, who appears to have undertaken a large part of the teaching. It is estimated that he was probably aged 21 at the start of Jeffery's diaries. However, the diaries indicate a certain lack of assiduity on his part when he either arrived late or on occasion not at all. An entry of 10 November 1740 reads,
'Ben did not come till after Dinner. He is carless [sic] of coming at all; don't like confinement.'
It appears to have been Ben's job to make exercise books and to write out mathematical texts for the boys: For example, on 27 July 1739 the diaries record that 'Ben wrote out operations in the Double Rule of three'; on 4 April 1740, 'Ben writing Spherical Geometry' and on 10 April 1740 'Ben wrote Q and Rules in the use of Square Root'.
Jeffery had an assistant named Ben Bourne from Westbury, who appears to have undertaken a large part of the teaching. It is estimated that he was probably aged 21 at the start of Jeffery's diaries. However, the diaries indicate a certain lack of assiduity on his part when he either arrived late or on occasion not at all. An entry of 10 November 1740 reads,
'Ben did not come till after Dinner. He is carless [sic] of coming at all; don't like confinement.'
It appears to have been Ben's job to make exercise books and to write out mathematical texts for the boys: For example, on 27 July 1739 the diaries record that 'Ben wrote out operations in the Double Rule of three'; on 4 April 1740, 'Ben writing Spherical Geometry' and on 10 April 1740 'Ben wrote Q and Rules in the use of Square Root'.
Outside the classroom, the boys were engaged in non-academic activities: They went nutting, picked apples and were also said to have been taken once a year to scour the White Horse under Bratton Camp in commemoration of the victory of King Alfred over the Danes.
Jeffery died at the age of 72 in 1775. His assistant at that time, Thomas Morgan continued the school. The school was later carried on by the Baptist minister in Bratton, the Rev. John Cooper, and Mr. Thomas Williams of Trowbridge. Advertisements for the school have been traced until 1820. There are few details of its later operation although an advertisement of 1787 when it was under the stewardship of the Rev. Cooper and Mr. Williams indicates that its curriculum had shifted its focus,
'At this School Young Gentlemen are genteely boarded and carefully instructed in the learned Languages and in every other branch of Literature necessary to form the scholar and man of business'.
The date of the school's final closure is unknown.
Jeffery died at the age of 72 in 1775. His assistant at that time, Thomas Morgan continued the school. The school was later carried on by the Baptist minister in Bratton, the Rev. John Cooper, and Mr. Thomas Williams of Trowbridge. Advertisements for the school have been traced until 1820. There are few details of its later operation although an advertisement of 1787 when it was under the stewardship of the Rev. Cooper and Mr. Williams indicates that its curriculum had shifted its focus,
'At this School Young Gentlemen are genteely boarded and carefully instructed in the learned Languages and in every other branch of Literature necessary to form the scholar and man of business'.
The date of the school's final closure is unknown.