“The Foundation of Repton School dates from the middle of that century which is truly described as the age of the revival of learning. It may be that other times have witnessed great changes and progress,—that our own day bears signs of even more wonderful intellectual activity than any that has gone before. But our successes are only the natural results of the achievements of our Fathers,—the gathering in of the Autumn fruits sown in that Spring. The mental revolution of the sixteenth century broke suddenly on the dull cold sleep of past ages, with the mysterious impulse and pregnant energy with which a Scandinavian Spring bursts forth from the bosom of Winter.

“The wisest of our countrymen in those days, men who could at once see before them, and gather wisdom from the past, seem to have discerned the movement when as yet the mass was hardly stirred, and it was their care to provide means to foster and direct it. Kings and Cardinals and Prelates led the way; Knights and Gentlemen and Yeomen followed. By the munificence of Wolsey and King Henry, the noblest Colleges of Oxford and Cambridge were established:—Edward VI. placed Grammar Schools in all his principal towns; as Shrewsbury, and Birmingham, and Bath:—and with the same object John Lyon, (yeoman of Harrow), Lawrence Sheriffe, (grocer of London), Sir John Porte, (Knight of the Bath), founded their schools,”[1] at Harrow, Rugby and Repton.

The founder of Repton School was descended from a long line of merchants who lived at Chester, then called West Chester, to distinguish it from Manchester.

His father was a student in the Middle Temple, and, after being called to the Bar, filled many offices at it. In the year 1525 he was raised to a Judgeship of the King’s Bench, and was knighted. He married twice, (1) Margery, daughter of Sir Edward Trafford, and (2) Joan, daughter of John Fitzherbert, of Etwall, by whom he had a son, John. After the dissolution of the Monasteries, King Henry VIII. granted to him the Manor, together with the impropriate Rectory and advowson of the Vicarage of Etwall. He is said to have taken some part in the foundation of Brasenose College, Oxford, and, with John Williamson, provided “stipends for two sufficient and able persons to read and teach openly in the hall, the one philosophy, the other humanity.”

Of the early days of his son John, nothing is known. He was educated at Brasenose College, where he was the first lecturer or scholar on his father’s foundation. At the coronation of King Edward VI. he was made a Knight of the Bath. Like his father, he married twice. His first wife was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Giffard, by whom he had two sons, who predeceased him, and three daughters—Elizabeth, who married Sir Thomas Gerard, Knt., of Bryn; Dorothy, who married George Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon; and Margaret, who married Sir Thomas Stanhope, Knt., of Shelford. From whom the present hereditary Governors of Repton School, Lord Gerard, Earl Loudoun, and Earl Carnarvon, trace their descent. His second wife was Dorothy, daughter of Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, of Norbury, by whom he had no children. In the year 1553 he was one of the “Knights of the Shire” for the county of Derby, and served the office of High Sheriff for the same county in 1554. In August, 1556, he “sat with the Bishop of the diocese (Ralph Baine) and the rest of the Commissioners, at Uttoxeter, in Staffordshire, to search out heresies and punish them.” (Strype, Memorials, vol. III., part 2, p. 15.) Joan Waste, a blind woman, was tried and found guilty of heresy, and was burnt at the stake in Derby. By will, dated the 6th of June, 1557, among many other bequests, he gave and devised to his executors, Sir Thomas Giffard, Richard Harpur, Thomas Brewster, John Barker, and Simon Starkey, all his lands, tenements and hereditaments, in Mosley, Abraham, and Brockhurst, in the county of Lancaster, to find a Priest, well learned and graduate, and of honest and virtuous conversation, freely to keep a Grammar School in Etwall, or Repton, also an Usher associate to and with the said master, to keep the School. The School Master to have yearly twenty pounds, and the Usher ten pounds. Also that his executors should hold, for the term of seven years after his decease, his farm called Musden Grange, and with the profits should find a priest to say Mass, &c., for seven years, and with the residue of the profits of the stock and farm should build a substantial school-house with convenient chambers and lodgings for the schoolmaster and usher in the precinct on the north side of the churchyard of Etwall, or at Repton, and this being done, without delay, to establish, by the King and Queen’s license, and other assurances to the School for ever.

He also willed that Sir William Perryn, Bachelor of Divinity, his late Chaplain, should be (if living and willing) the first Schoolmaster.

As the Report, made to the Charity Commissioners by F. O. Martin, Esq., in 1867, says, “Sir John had no property in Repton. His executors were probably induced to establish the school there, rather than at Etwall, by finding the remains of the dissolved priory well adapted to the purpose.”

By a deed, dated June 12th, 1557, “Gilbert Thacker of Repton, in consideration of the sum of £35. 10s., bargained and sold to Richard Harpur, serjeant-at-law, John Harker, and Simon Starkey, three of Sir John Porte’s executors, one large great and high house, near the kitchen of Gilbert Thacker, commonly called the Fermery (Infirmary) (now the Hall), also one large void room or parcel of ground upon the east part called the Cloyster, and one other room called the Fratry, (now destroyed), upon which the Schoolmaster’s lodgings were erected and builded, with all the rooms, both above and beneath, and inclosed with a new wall, to the intent that the same should be a schoolhouse and so used from time to time thereafter.”

Thus was Repton School founded by Sir John Porte. The management seems to have been in the hands of the Harpurs till the year 1621, when an agreement was made by Sir John Harpur on the one part, and Henry, Earl of Huntingdon, Philip, Lord Stanhope, and Sir Thomas Gerard, Bart., on the other, by which, after the death of Sir John Harpur, the management was restored to the rightful descendants of the founder.

In 1622, on the petition of the above-mentioned co-heirs of Sir John, by Royal Letters Patent, bearing date 20th June, 19th Jac., I., a Charter of Incorporation by the style and title of “The Master of Etwall Hospital, the School Master of Repton, Ushers, Poor Men, and Poor Scholars,” was granted. “That, owing to the increased value of the lands and tenements, it should consist of one Master of the Hospital, one School Master, two Ushers, twelve Poor Men, and four Poor Scholars, and that Sir John Harpur should be the first and present Governor and Superintendent of the School and Hospital, and that after his death the co-heirs should manage them.” The co-heirs “of their friendliness and goodwill to Sir John Harpur” petitioned that his heirs should have the election and appointment of three of the twelve poor men, and one of the poor scholars, which was also granted, and they continue to do so to this day.”