The Free School, Headington Quarry
A wooden plaque (above) is fixed to the south wall of the Baptistry of St Andrew’s Church, Headington. It reads:
BENEFACTIONS. Mrs Catherine Mather who died the 12th of March 1807, by her last Will and Testament bequeathed to the Vicar and Church-Wardens of this Parish the Sum of Four Hundred Pounds, the interest of which is to be applied for ever to provide Instruction in reading and writing, and to purchase Books, for Six poor Boys and Six poor Girls, residing in this Parish; and also the sum of Twenty Pounds to be distributed among the Poor immediately after her decease.
Catherine Mather, who died in Headington on 12 March 1807, was the daughter of the Revd Dr John Mather, President of Corpus Christi College from 1714/15 to 1748, whose family lived in Headington. She left £400 to St Andrew’s Church with instructions that the interest on the money should fund the education of twelve children in the parish (which until 1849 included Quarry village). (She also left £400 to provide necessaries for the prisoners in the county and city gaols.)
St Andrew’s Church also contributed money towards the school: in a letter dated 29 April 1808 the Vicar of Headington wrote to the Bishop of Oxford saying that the Free School "consists of 30 Scholars, 12 of whom are supported by a legacy of the late Mrs Mather amounting to £20 per annum, the remainder I pay for myself."
The Free School was run in the hut beside the Chequers Inn at Quarry shown in the above drawing. When Headington National School opened on the London Road in 1847, the church transferred its financial support there, and the Free School continued to educate just the twelve Mather scholars.
The Master of the Free School from 1828 until he died in 1874 at the age of 88 was James Waring, a man of humble origins: he had been a milkman in 1825 and a labourer in 1826. (As well as being schoolmaster, from the1840s until his death he was also Headington’s postmaster.) The school closed immediately when he died, and an impressive gravestone was placed in St Andrew’s churchyard by "some of the inhabitants of Headington" as a sign of their esteem and gratitude to him.
Despite Mrs Mather’s desire that the money should educate Headington’s children "for ever", the money, which had been invested in canal shares, dwindled away. It was used to fund prizes at Headington National School from 1874 to 1902, and then vanishes.