Peter Blundell, one of the wealthiest merchants…
1604 CE
Peter Blundell, one of the wealthiest merchants of Elizabethan England, had died in 1601 having made his fortune principally in the cloth industry.
His will has set aside considerable money and land to establish a school in his home town “to maintain sound learning and true religion”.
Blundell had asked his friend Sir John Popham, the Lord Chief Justice of England, to carry out his wishes, and appointed a number of local merchants and gentry as his first trustees (known as Feoffees).
The Old Blundell's School is built to be much larger and grander than any other in the West Country, with room for 150 scholars and accommodation for a master and an usher.
Peter Blundell's executors establish links with Balliol College, Oxford, and with Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and large sums are settled to provide for scholarships for pupils of the school to attend those colleges.
The Grade 1 listed building is now in the care of the National Trust and the forecourt is usually open to visitors.