The relations between Trinity College and Westminster School have always been of an intimate character. Under the Elizabethan statutes of the two foundations a limited number of boys from the school were entitled, if duly qualified, to election to scholarships at Trinity, and later an attempt was made to extend the privilege to fellowships. The whole matter is now one of ancient history, but it may be interesting to put on record some of the facts connected with it.

The school at Westminster owes its foundation to queen Elizabeth. Of course the abbey is many centuries older, and in a sense so is the school, for a grammar-school (in addition to the choir-school) had been attached to the medieval monastery, though doubtless it existed only at the pleasure of the monks. When HenryVIII created the diocese of Westminster with the former abbey as its cathedral, he also established a school connected with it. The diocese soon disappeared, and later the church and buildings were given by queen Mary to the Benedictines. The arrangement made [49] by Mary was in turn annulled by Elizabeth, who, shortly after her succession founded the collegiate Church of StPeter, divided into two branches, one ecclesiastical and the other scholastic, the whole being placed under the rule of the dean and chapter. Thus Elizabeth is rightly designated as the founder of the present school, though a link with the past has been preserved in the fact that the sequence of headmasters dates by custom from 1540. The buildings were divided between the two sides of the College; for the scholastic side, one part of the monastic dormitory was made into a school-room, the granary was turned into a school dormitory, and the boys were allowed the use of the refectory for meals.

The queen interested herself in the school she had established; its connection with particular colleges at the universities was suggested by the precedents of Winchester and Eton, and it was natural that she should desire to associate it closely with the Houses at Cambridge and Oxford which had been founded by her father. There is some reason to think that the details of the arrangement made were due to Bill, the first dean of Westminster, who was at the same time master of Trinity and provost of Eton; a fortunate pluralist!

On 29March 1560, Elizabeth gave new statutes to Trinity College, Cambridge, and in statute 13, [50] dealing with the sixty-two scholars of the College, she directed as follows:

Sumantur autem potissimum et eligantur ex eorum numero, si modo idonei et ceteris pares reperiantur qui Schola Regia Westmonasterii educati ... sint.... Ex aliis regni partibus ac locis indifferenter ad numerum supplendum qui maxime idonei videbuntur, semper sumantur.

In June 1560, she gave statutes to the Collegiate Church at Westminster, and in statute6, dealing with the forty scholars of the school, she directed that three scholars from the school should be elected annually to the foundation of Christ Church, Oxford, and three to that of Trinity College, Cambridge. It is said that the queen did not ratify these statutes. Be this as it may, in the following year, on 11June 1561, she sent to Trinity College letters patent referring to the Westminster statutes as indicating her wishes in the matter, and expressing her desire that the Society should select as many scholars from Westminster as was possible. This then was the position in 1561, and it was recognised these letters were binding and conferred rights on duly qualified Westminster scholars.

Throughout the three centuries of the existence of these rights, candidates usually preferred the Christ Church studentships, which, being tenable under certain conditions for life, were much more valuable than Trinity scholarships, since the latter [51] ran out in less than seven years. Perhaps too the boys were attracted to Christ Church rather than to Trinity by the fact that there they formed a larger proportion of the whole Society than in Henry’s foundation by the Cam. Further a boy elected to Christ Church entered sooner into the emoluments of his studentship than a boy elected to Trinity—the latter not being admitted to his scholarship until the next annual election of scholars which took place in the following spring, usually some six months after he had commenced residence.

There were only forty scholars at Westminster and a provision for the election from them every year of six scholars to the two universities was more than ample. Thus in 1561 one scholar was elected to each university, during each of the six following years, 1562–67, two scholars were elected to each university, in 1568, six scholars were for the first time presented, and each university took three. In 1569 the school again presented three boys for election at Trinity, but the master, Whitgift, refused to elect more than two, alleging that there were not vacancies in the House for more than that number. Thereon the scholar or his friends appealed to Sir William Cecil, the chancellor of the University. Correspondence ensued, but the Society refused to give way on the particular election. On the general question the College [52] addressed a letter¹⁸, dated 3July 1569, to Cecil entreating him to interpose with the queen to lighten the burden imposed on Trinity by the royal statutes, and asserting that the Westminster scholars took up so many places as to act to the detriment of other and more worthy students. The crown assented to this proposal, and it was agreed that thenceforth three scholars should be chosen every third year, and not necessarily more than two in the other years.

This arrangement lasted but a short time, for a year or two later, perhaps in 1575, Goodman, dean of Westminster, petitioned¹⁹ the lord treasurer to confirm or re-enact the original statutes whereby three Westminster scholars were to be elected each year to each of the two universities. The petition was granted, and, I conjecture, was the occasion of the letters patent sent by the queen on 7February 1576, to Trinity College, Cambridge, and Christ Church, Oxford, wherein she repeated and explained her former injunctions. In these letters she stated that Westminster scholars were not to be allowed to remain at the school after attaining the age of eighteen, and in regard to their coming to one of the universities she directed:

Quamvis cupimus plurimos e nostris Discipulis Westmonasterii ad Academias in dicta Collegia quotannis [53] promoveri, tamen ne incertus sit omnino numerus, sex ad minimum, videlicet, tres in Ecclesiam Christi Oxonii et tres in Collegium Trinitatis, singulis annis, si aut tot loca vacua ... aut tot idonei e nostris Discipulis Westmonasterii reperti fuerint, admitti volumus; Plures autem optamus, si ita praefatis Electoribus commodum videbitur.

In fact, however, the former custom of electing three scholars every third year and two scholars in each of the other years continued until 1588 after which it became usual, though the custom was not invariable, to elect at least three scholars to each university each year. During the forty-seven years from 1561 to 1607 inclusive, one hundred and thirteen scholars in all were elected from Westminster to Trinity, of whom forty became fellows.

In 1603 JamesI came to the throne. He interested himself in the school and was prepared to intervene in its interests or what he regarded as such. The earliest case of difficulty in the new reign occurred at the election in 1604 when the king directed the master of Trinity, Nevile, to whom in fact he was under some obligations, to take a boy, by name Albert Moreton, as one of the scholars of Trinity²⁰. The boy was ignorant, and Nevile politely but definitely refused to accept him. The matter was not urged further, and though on some occasions later the Trinity electors consented under [54] pressure to alter the order in which candidates were elected, their right to reject on the ground of ignorance was not again disputed. Three years later, the College was faced by a more serious question concerning its connection with Westminster.

In 1607, JamesI addressed letters patent to Trinity College, in which after referring to the letters patent already mentioned, he ordered them to be strictly observed, and intimated that thereafter the scholars of Trinity should be taken chiefly from Westminster school if duly qualified. He then continued that he observed that the scholars who had been elected to Christ Church were notable for their learning and subsequent distinction, and regretted that this was not so in the case of the scholars elected to Trinity, a fact which he attributed to their want of succession to fellowships and to their leaving the University as soon as they had taken the degree of master. Accordingly he ordered that Westminster scholars at Trinity who had taken the bachelor’s degree should, unless deficient in learning or good conduct, be promoted to fellowships in preference to other candidates. He further ordered that any Westminster scholar in the College, who had not been admitted to a fellowship before taking a master’s degree, might remain resident an additional two years during which time he should be eligible to a fellowship, subject to lawful exceptions. [55] The letters are dated 27June 1607, but it would appear that they were not presented until September of that year.

Deep resentment was felt at this order, for Trinity attached great importance to the desirability of electing as fellows the best candidates, though it was admitted that candidates from places where the House had property had statutable claims for special consideration. The College took immediate steps to protect itself, and in support of its position addressed to the chancellor of the University, the earl of Salisbury, a petition accompanied by a reasoned memorandum. These documents are not dated, but I think may be assigned to the Michaelmas term, 1607.

The petition is briefly to beg the chancellor to assist the College in obtaining a review of the letters patent with the object of maintaining its ancient privileges and former liberties; the letters patent being said to be contrary to the intentions of its founder, and to its statutes²¹. The wording is humble and courtly.

The memorandum that accompanied the petition is more outspoken. It is long, but it is so interesting that I shall venture to quote from or describe it at [56] length. I conjecture that it was composed by Nevile. It contains fourteen assertions or arguments to the following effect:

1. It is inconvenient that so large a College as Trinity should be restrained unto a particular School, and it can be easily shown that other Schools have furnished Trinity with students of much better hope and proof than Westminster hath done or is likely to do, for the whole number of Westminster boys who are eligible to both Universities are but forty, and there are seldom more than eight or nine candidates for the six vacancies at the two Universities.

2. To alter or subvert the ancient liberties of one of the chiefest Colleges in Christendom and to divert from the uses intended by his Majesty’s Predecessors a foundation like Trinity in order to satisfy private humour or under the pretence of benefitting an ordinary School is a great indignity to his Majesty’s Sacred Person, Power, and Prerogative.

3. The suggestion that boys coming to Trinity do not become Fellows, Doctors, Deans, and Bishops as do boys entering Christ Church is untrue, frivolous, and unfair: it is untrue, because, in fact, of the existing sixty Fellows of the College, more than one-sixth have come from Westminster, and at Trinity the custom is to prefer the worthy: it is frivolous, for the fact of a man having once been at school at Westminster is not the cause of his advancement to the position of a Doctor, Dean, or Bishop: and it is unfair, “for although Christ Church in Oxford be a most magnificent and royal foundation, and hath bred in all ages as learned, wise, and worthy prelates as the kingdom hath, yet Trinity College in Cambridge hath had no less royal founders, and if we fail in our Westminster brood (as otherwise I hope we do not) either the defect hath been [57] in themselves or else (which rather we suppose) it may be imputed to those good means the other College hath, being also a Cathedral Church and having Cannons both richly beneficed and highly dignified which doth enable them to Doctorships, Deaneries, and Bishopricks—a great blessing of God that our poor College wanteth.”

4. “Howbeit in that kind of fruitfulness we also are not destitute of God’s gracious blessing; for ... besides Doctors in all faculties to the number at the least of sixty, Deans to the number of eleven, Publick Professors to the number of ten, the two Archbishops, Canterbury and York, the most Reverend Fathers Whitgift and Hutton, and seven other principal Prelates of this kingdom, namely, Fletcher of London, Still of Bath and Wells, Babington of Worcester, Redman of Norwich, Rud of StDavids, Bennet of Hereford, and Gouldesborough of Gloucester, all of them simul et semel Bishops of this kingdom ... are such a demonstrative instance as we think no other College in either University can afford the like—and not one of these chosen out of Westminster School.”

5. “It is to be doubted whether there can be the like success if our Elections out of a private School shall be indubitate and certain; we rather think there can be no readier means to make Droanes and Loyterers in Colleges, nor any worse prejudice or more deadly bane unto learning and vertue, then when the rewards, and means thereof are tyed to persons, times, and places, and made regular and certain.”

6. The proposal would do a grave injustice to other students who might be men of great abilities.

7. The proposal would defeat the express wishes of HenryVIII, EdwardVI, Mary, and Elizabeth, all of whom are to be reckoned as founders as well as benefactors of Trinity College.

[58]
8 and 9. The proposal would be contrary to the existing statutes of the College, and to the oaths taken by the Master and Fellows on admission.

10. Preferences of this character are injurious to the particular School, the College, and the whole University, and a constant source of discord and contention.

11. “It is also against the Policy and common-wealth of a kingdom to restrain and abridge places and preferments originally meant, founded, and hitherto with good success employed for the common benefit of that kingdom to a private School: for benefits and privileges are to be amplified and not restrained; publick rewards are not to be applied to private places, purposes, or respects.”

12. Interference with the intentions and directions, of previous benefactors is contrary to public policy, and tends to prevent future benefactions.

13. This implies that Nevile had accepted the office of master of Trinity College under promises which rendered it inequitable that the college statutes should, during his tenure of the post, be altered against his wishes, but it is stated that this argument, though noted, is not to be pressed.

14. This raises some technical points, especially as to whether statutes of a College given under the great seal can be varied by letters patent without explicit reference to the clauses altered or repealed.

The memorandum concludes with a request that the College may have liberty to ask the opinion of the Judges on the questions raised, and thus obtain the benefit of the king’s “most equal just and princely laws.”

The use of the personal pronoun in one or two cases and the reference in the thirteenth paragraph to Nevile suggest that the document was composed by him. I cannot find out anything about the result [59] of the petition, but I conjecture that nothing came of it. Nevile however was not inclined to let the matter rest, and no doubt the esteem felt for him at court and his personal popularity were of great assistance to the Society in the negotiations that followed.

It was a few months later, in May 1608, at the annual election of scholars at Westminster that Nevile took the next step in defence of the college position. The following account of the election is based on a paper preserved at Westminster:

The Master of Trinity College (Nevile) refused to take the oath which was required, previously to the election, by the Law of the land as well as by the local Statutes. He also refused to elect to his College the three Scholars ordered by the Letters Patent of the Crown. The oath however was taken by the Dean of Westminster (Neile) and the Dean of Christ Church (King), as well as by their assistants, and by the Master of the School (Ireland). The Dean of Westminster then demanded, in writing, that the election should proceed; when the Master of Trinity College referred to some composition by which he stated he would be governed. To this the Dean of Westminster replied, that he knew of no such composition, and that, if it had existed, it was necessarily set aside by the Letters Patent of Queen Elizabeth and of His Majesty; whereon the Master of Trinity College observed, though with much protestation of his loyalty, that he did not allow the validity of the Letters Patent.

The other Electors, however, having agreed to proceed, the nine Scholars who had been examined were called in to hear the Statute read for the election to the two Colleges. The Master of Trinity then said that he had not places [60] enough vacant in his College. [In fact in April he and the Seniority had filled up all scholarships then vacant and pre-elected men to succeed to scholarships as vacancies occurred.] To this it was replied, that the want of vacancies had been occasioned by pre-elections of supernumerary Scholars, that the words of the Statute were disjunctive, and there was a clause commanding such Scholars to be received if they were fit. The Master of Trinity College did not deny the fitness of the candidates, but still refused to elect. In this wrangling the whole morning was wasted.

At length they went to dinner. After this, a fear having been expressed, that this “distraction” might become troublesome to their friends, “perhaps to His Majesty,” and “not without some obloquy” to themselves, the Master of Trinity College proposed a private settlement, naming October for it. The suggestion was favourably received by the Electors other than the Dean of Westminster. The latter however affirmed, that with his consent less than three Scholars should never be taken by Trinity College and three by Christ Church if the School produced so many fit Scholars: and as to that part of the Letters Patent, which related to the election of Westminster Scholars at Trinity College to Fellowships, he required that they should be taken in preference to others, if their qualifications were equal; stating at the same time, that the clause declaring them eligible to Fellowships two years after their degree of A.M. had arisen solely from the practice of pre-electing so many Fellows, that for three or four years together no election took place; and the Westminster Scholars at Trinity College were driven out to seek a better fortune elsewhere. The Master of Trinity College allowed that the practice of pre-elections was wrong; and it was at length agreed that if this were discontinued, that part of the King’s Letters concerning the eligibility of Westminster Scholars two years after their [61] degree of A.M. should not be urged against the local statute of Trinity College, De Gradibus Suscipiendis. Thereupon the Master of Trinity College took for his College as Scholars three candidates, to wit, Hacket, Shirley, and Herbert.

The three scholars so taken obtained fellowships in due course, Hacket became chaplain to JamesI, CharlesI, and later to CharlesII, suffered cruel persecution under the commonwealth, and at the restoration was made bishop of Lichfield: the Bishop’s Hostel was erected at his cost. An incident in Shirley’s career is chronicled below (see p.223). Herbert was the well-known poet and divine. If the above account is reliable, and there is no reason to doubt its accuracy, the most important question in dispute, namely the preferential right of Westminsters to election to fellowships at Trinity, was left open. Nevile however had no intention to allow the matter to drop, and having made his protest at Westminster, he now secured the good services of his friend and Cambridge contemporary, Richard Bancroft, archbishop of Canterbury, who undertook to act as mediator in drawing up a “friendly and full” settlement of the question.

An agreement, drafted I feel confident by Nevile, was submitted to the archbishop and, after he had made a few alterations, was accepted by the dean and chapter of Westminster. The seniority of Trinity College, on 5September 1608, passed a [62] minute that the matter “be referred to our Master against the 13^th of October,” and the deed is so dated, but its execution must have been delayed since there is a minute of the seniority, 8December 1608, ordering that the composition with Westminster should be engrossed and sealed at the audit so as to be delivered before 1February 1609.

The deed embodying this agreement was made between the dean and chapter of Westminster and Trinity College, and provided that the College should take yearly three scholars from Westminster School to be scholars of the College, and that there should be no pre-elections of supernumerary fellows to the prejudice of the Westminster scholars if deserving of fellowships. In consideration of these definite obligations the dean and chapter of Westminster agreed that the letters patent of 1607 should never be urged against the College by the dean and chapter or the schoolmaster or ushers or scholars of Westminster, and that the College should have such full power to elect fellows as had been previously enjoyed, excepting only the practice of pre-elections. To the deed is appended a statement that it was made with the privity and approbation of the archbishop of Canterbury, the earl of Salisbury (lord high treasurer of England and chancellor of the University of Cambridge), and of the earl of Northampton (the lord privy seal), all of whom signed [63] it. This conclusion of the affair may be regarded as a personal triumph for Nevile.

The arrangement was submitted to the king who in a letter directed to the College approved it, but required that the Westminster scholars each year should be granted seniority over other scholars of Trinity of their year and not be hindered by pre-elections: he did not however withdraw or rescind the previous letters patent. I have never seen the text of this letter but its contents are indisputable, and there are various subsequent references to it. The obligation to allow this seniority to the Westminster scholars was henceforth recognized by the College as binding on it.

The advisers of Trinity seem to have been doubtful whether it would be admitted that this second letter implied the rescission of the letters of 1607, and since there was every reason to avoid raising the question whether royal letters or mandates could be set aside or modified by private arrangements, it was wise to let matters run on as long as the agreement of 1608 was carried out by the school authorities. There is however a memorandum, ascribed to January 1610 in the State Papers, showing that “the recent grant by the King for the students of Trinity College, Cambridge, to be chosen from the Westminster scholars is prejudicial to the interests of Trinity,” which seems to imply that further negotiations took [64] place. I have not seen the memorandum and know nothing more about this than here appears.

During the sixteen years following this settlement, that is, from 1608 to 1623 inclusive, fifty-eight scholars were elected from Westminster to Trinity, of whom sixteen became fellows.

In 1623–24 a fresh dispute occurred. It would appear that while Trinity carried out its undertaking relating to the election of scholars from Westminster, it again began to pre-elect fellows with the object, it was said, of preventing any claim being made on behalf of the Westminster scholars in residence. Whether this was done in self-protection against unjustifiable claims or was a deliberate breach of the agreement of 1608 we do not know. An appeal to the crown on behalf of the school ensued, and on 7September 1623, the king sent letters patent to the College as follows:

Trusty and well beloved we greet you well. Being much interested in the prosperity and well-fare of that our College which is both our immediate Foundation and the fairest in all our kingdoms, and furnished, for the most part with the extracions of our own free-school at Westminster, we cannot but be very sensible of any alteration in the government of the same.

Whereas therefore we are given to understand that younger students of that College have of late years been totally disheartened in their studies by a new and unwarrantable device of pre-electing more Fellows than there are places vacant at the time of that Election and the [65] Scholars of our own School (in whose loyalty and affection we are so much interested from their cradles) strangely discouraged and disgraced by being cast in their seniority behind all the Scholars and Fellows in their several Elections though never so exceeding in learning and education, we straightly will and require you that from this time forward ye do forbear all manner of pre-elections whatsoever as the pest and bane of all learning and succession; and that also you bear that regard and respect to the Scholars of that our own Royal School in giving them in all such elections respect and precedency which we are informed they fully deserve before all other of what country soever. Lastly, whereas we are given to understand that heretofore a corrupt custom hath crept into that our College of turning elections into particular nominations of the Master and the several Seniors which smells altogether of partialitie and corruption we do straightly will and require you the said Master of our College of whom we conceive a very good opinion, to see that hereafter all elections as well of Scholars as of Fellows be done according to the local statutes of your College and carried about with that pluralitie of voices therein required.

What reply (if any) the College made or could make I do not know, but presumably the answer was not satisfactory as these letters were followed by the appointment of royal commissioners to enquire into the Westminster elections. There is extant a letter from the master of Trinity (Richardson) dated 9June 1624, to one of the commissioners, asking to be excused from attending the usual election of Westminster scholars, on account of [66] poor health. Probably this was regarded as an impertinence, and he must have been reprimanded since we have a letter dated 26June signed by the master and six of the senior fellows, deprecating the royal displeasure, offering the most humble submission, promising to obey in anything that his majesty might command, but begging that present compliance might not be drawn into an example against the College. Richardson and JamesI died in March 1625, and the enquiry seems to have been then dropped.

The election in 1636 was interesting. It is said that among the candidates was Cowley who had already written various poems and a comedy showing distinct ability. The story runs that the boy failed badly in grammar, and the Trinity electors, insisting that this was conclusive, rejected him as a Westminster scholar, but offered him an ordinary scholarship at Trinity, which he accepted. Against this are the fact that he had been entered at Trinity as a pensioner in April, a few weeks before the election at Westminster, and the improbability that the electors would have drawn such a distinction between Westminster and other scholars of the House. Still old-time anecdotes are not to be lightly rejected: at any rate Cowley came into residence in due course and was made a scholar in the same term as the four boys taken from Westminster by the electors, these five [67] students being the only scholars elected by the College in 1637.

During the seventy-seven years from 1624 to 1700 inclusive, three hundred and fifty-six scholars were elected from Westminster to Trinity, of whom one hundred and twenty-six became fellows. During the fifty years, 1701 to 1750, out of one hundred and eighty-seven Westminster scholars at Trinity sixty-two became fellows; during the fifty years, 1751 to 1800, out of one hundred and eighty, thirty became fellows; and during the fifty-six years, 1801 to 1856, out of one hundred and seventy, four became fellows. Throughout this long period the friendly relations between the College and the school suffered no change.

In 1727 there was a curious echo of the controversy of 1607. A strange suggestion had been made, apparently with the tacit approval of the authorities of Westminster, that new statutes should be given to Trinity constituting the dean and chapter of Westminster Visitors of the College, and it was decided by the advocates of the movement to open the campaign by asking the dean of Westminster to call the attention of the master of Trinity (Bentley), to the “Letters Anno Quinto Jacobi Primi.” Bentley replied on 5March 1727, denied their validity and argued that even if originally valid, they could not be pressed after more [68] than a century during which time “they had never been acted upon”: he added that, if antiquated letters were still binding, there were various matters in which he had powers, whose exercise might prove singularly inconvenient to those who had raised the question. This was really conclusive, but further consideration had shown the inherent weakness or folly of the original idea, and the chapter was wise enough to proceed no further with the matter.

Shortly afterwards, probably at the following election at Westminster, Bentley is said to have referred to the dean’s communication, and remarked that the authority of the letters of 1607 would doubtless have seemed stronger, at any rate to the dean’s predecessor (Atterbury), if not to the chapter, could they have been described as “Anno Primo Jacobi Tertii”—an irrelevant remark, but it carried a sting, for Atterbury’s devotion to the cause of the Pretender was deeply resented by the government.

From an unknown date until the early years of the nineteenth century, Westminster scholars at Trinity were allowed the privilege of wearing academic gowns of a cut different from those of other undergraduates and further distinguished by having on the sleeves a violet button with a silk loop. The gowns of all pensioners in the University were then [69] black and (except for those worn by Westminsters) cut to a common pattern. The Westminster distinction was discontinued when the present system of different gowns for different Colleges was introduced.

During the first half of the nineteenth century the numbers in the school fell seriously, and well-founded complaints were made about the standard of scholarship attained by the scholars elected to the universities. In 1856, as the result of negotiations, initiated by Whewell, the arrangements with Trinity were completely recast, and it was agreed on 5December 1856 that the school should abandon the right of Westminster boys to election to scholarships at Trinity, and that in filling up open emoluments in Trinity, former Westminster boys should enjoy no preference. In consideration of this release, the Society undertook to establish at its own cost, exhibitions, not more than three to be awarded each year, for boys elected from the school who were otherwise qualified for admission to the College; every such exhibitioner, if so deserving, to be eligible for a college scholarship tenable with the exhibition. This was approved by the queen in council on 25June 1857. It was further agreed that the Westminster exhibitioners were to be placed on the same footing as exhibitioners elected by open competition before commencing [70] residence. The mode of election is settled by the school statutes, but it would seem that the Trinity electors have no right to demand intellectual attainments beyond those required at the time for admission to the College. The exhibitions are not now confined to scholars of the school.

So ends the story of Westminster Scholars at Trinity College, Cambridge. During the two hundred and ninety-six years from 1561 to 1856 inclusive, one thousand and sixty-four scholars had been elected from Westminster to Trinity (or say 3.6 a year), of whom two hundred and seventy-eight (or say one in four) had become fellows. In conclusion I may add that in 1869 in virtue of the powers given by the Public Schools Act, 1868, the dean and chapter of Westminster, the dean of Christ Church, Oxford, and the master of Trinity College, Cambridge, created a new Governing Body in whom the governance of the school has been since vested.