There have been forty-three High Masters during the Manchester Grammar School's five hundred year history, but by far the longest serving is Charles Lawson. He held the role from 1764 until 1807, an impressive forty-three years. Prior to his appointment to the top job, he had been Second Master (or "Usher"), and so in total worked at MGS for fifty-four years. Not much is known about Lawson's family background, but before his engagement at the Grammar School, he had received his M.A. from Corpus Christi College, Oxford.
Lawson took over the reins from William Purnell who himself had served for a respectable fifteen years. In his first year as High Master he made a public address which gives us some insight into his philosophy of education:
"Were we born only to speculate idly, a private education might not incapacitate us for these employments; but we are designed to act as well as to think, and a youth spent in privacy and retirement has too often been found an obstacle to appearing afterwards to advantage in the busier scenes of life. Our founders were men who lived not in shade and retirement, but in the most illustrious scenes of public life; who served their country in the highest offices of church and state, and were therefore highly sensible of the advantages which these public institutions might be of, in order to qualify others for these great employments."
The first half of the eighteenth century had been one of evolution for the School, and under Lawson this continued. The number of boarding boys from further afield increased; the High Master's tied accommodation was built to be large enough to house these pupils. Surplus funds were used to employ extra teachers and to add to the exhibitions and scholarships available for MGS boys at Oxford and Cambridge.
It was during Lawson's tenure that the first substantial new building since 1518 was erected (An annexe had been added in 1685) on the site of the first School. The "new" building of 1776 comprised two storeys and the owl plaque that adorned the gable end is our earliest example of the School's use of Hugh Oldham's rebus and is still with us today.
The Old Boys' Dinner was set up in 1781, and Lawson served as its first Recorder. At the first dinner, various toasts were drunk, including one to Lawson. Lawson faithfully attended every dinner from its inception until the year of his death. After his death, the toast was changed so that the Old Boys toasted his memory.
Our main pupil sources for life at MGS under Lawson come from the end of his years as High Master. Thomas De Quincey was at MGS between 1800 and 1802 and spent his time as a boarder in the High Master's house. By the time De Quincey knew Lawson, he would have been in his early 70s: "Mr. Lawson was gradually becoming a curse to all who fell under his influence, through pure zealotry of conscientiousness...If he could have reconciled himself to an imperfect discharge of his duties, he would not have betrayed his insufficiency for those duties. But this he would not hear of. He persisted in travelling over the appointed course to the last inch; and the consequences told most painfully upon the comfort of all around him." De Quincey went on to explain that the School day started at 7am and the boys worked until 9, when they were meant to be released for breakfast until 10am. Instead, Lawson would plough on, and the boys' would gradually lose more and more of their breaktime. De Quincey wrote that Lawson similarly eroded the boys' lunch time, and would have had the School day run on past 5pm if it were not for the fact that the day boys (De Quincey was a boarder) were expected home by their parents. De Quincey wrote "Mr. Lawson...had barred up all avenues from morning to night through which any bodily exercise could be obtained".
An artist's impression of De Quincey and Lawson at MGS
De Quincey later explained that the rigor of the MGS day and its impact on his health led directly to his choice to run away from School. However, on De Quincey's part there were no hard feelings, and on his final day he saw Lawson and thought to himself "He is old and infirm, and in this world I shall not see him again...Very sincerely I respected him as a conscientious man, faithful to his duties, and as, even in his latter ineffectual struggle with those duties, inflicting more suffering upon himself than upon others; finally I respected him as a sound and accurate (though not brilliant) scholar. Personally I owed him much gratitude; for he had been uniformly kind to me, and had allowed me such indulgences as lay in his power"
Frederick Calvert entered at age 12 in 1805. Writing in "The Autobiography of an Octogenerian", he provides a vivid description of Lawson in his final years as High Master: “Dr. Lawson was a personage of most venerable appearance, an old, old man on the extreme verge of life [he was 75]; he wore a complete suit of black velvet, lace ruffles at his wrists, black silk stockings and diamond buckles on his shoes, with a well-powdered peruke projecting like a full blown cauliflower, from behind.” Calvert's memories of MGS were not particularly happy, but he spent his time at the School working in the "lower" school which was not taught by Lawson. He therefore did not have De Quincey's advantage of seeing Lawson's dedication and scholarship in teaching the older boys.
Certainly it seems that continuing in the position of High Master for so long led Lawson to some errors of judgment. Ian Bailey, writing in Ulula in 1983 recounts an old story told of Lawson: "On one occasion, Lawson's Form were reciting Latin Verse and the dunce of the Form was doing very nicely because a boy standing right behind Lawson was holding the book open for the dunce to read. Mr. Darby, the assistant master, saw this naughty ruse and sent a messenger to inform Lawson what was going on—literally behind his back. Lawson said: " Oh no, my boys are good boys! " and sent the messenger back. Mr. Darby saw that the book was still being held up behind Lawson, so he sent the messenger again. And what did Lawson do? He promptly flogged the messenger!"
Lawson never retired and died whilst still in post in 1807 at the age of seventy-nine. It seems that Lawson was a committed and dedicated High Master, and certainly achieved a number of important things whilst at MGS. His later years were understandably ones of stagnation, but not due to a lack of dedication or laziness. He was certainly well regarded by many former pupils and upon his death, a group of Old Mancunians set up a memorial fund which was used to commission John Bacon to create a permanent marble memorial to their High Master in the regimental chapel of Manchester Cathedral.
Charles Lawson's time at MGS also gave us the first prize awarded by the School, the Lawson Medal. The surplus of the Old Mancunian memorial fund was used to create a gold prize medal to be awarded for the top mark in Classics examinations. The medal is no longer awarded, but the year 12 prize for Latin still bears Lawson’s name. It was created by William Wyon, official chief engraver at the the Royal Mint from 1828 until his death in 1851. The first medal was made from gold. By the 1870s, two medals were being awarded – a gold medal that carried with it £18 and a silver medal. £18 in today’s money would be roughly £1100. Later medals were made of bronze with varying amounts of money awarded with the medals. The last medals were created in the 1950s.
William Whatton, who produced a history of the School during the time of Lawson's successor, Jeremiah Smith, wrote of Lawson:
“After filling the High Master's chair during a period of more than forty-three years, with the greatest credit to himself and advantage to his pupils, many of which became shining luminaries of the Pulpit, Bar, and Senate, he died on the 19th April, 1807, in the 79th year of his age. Mr. Lawson uniformly displayed a dignity and propriety of conduct, and a fixed principle of action, that could not fail to conciliate the esteem and affection of his pupils, and the warm admiration of his fellow towns-men. The extensive literary abilities which he possessed were of a higher class that are usually met with even in the most distinguished of our preceptors; and the depth and assiduity with which he constantly pursued his erudite researches, rendered him eminently qualified for that station wherein he was so judiciously placed”
Rachel Kneale
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