Catalogue description Secondary Education Endowment Files

Files of correspondence and papers relating to the administration of educational endowments and to schemes and orders made under the Charitable Trust Acts and the Endowed Schools Acts.

The endowments relate principally to the provision of secondary education in an area, or at particular grammar schools, religious education, and trusts for scholarships and prize funds, but in a few cases endowments contained some elementary educational provisions.

The records include the drafting of schemes; reports by Assistant Charity Commissioners; examination and inspection of schools; authority for the acquisition or sale of land and vesting in the Official Trustee of Charity Lands; and the sale, or transfer of stock to the Official Trustees of Charitable Funds. A few files of schemes under the Endowed Schools Acts contain the original Order in Council.

Some files for Welsh counties relate to schemes under the Welsh Intermediate Education Act 1889. There is one file for the Isle of Man.

The bulk of the papers before 1899 are drawn from the files of the Charity Commission (otherwise in CHAR) transferred to the Board of Education after 1899, but a few files originated in the Education Department both series were re-registered in a new S series but also retained their old references.

From about 1903 this series of files began to be discontinued though from 1921 endowment papers were brought together again in a single series, which has been added to this series.

The files of educational endowments previously administered by the Charity Commissioners were transferred to this department and although absorbed in a School series of files [S2000-S9000: Wales-WS 10800] they preserved their Charity Commission reference numbers. Both series of numbers are shown in the series list; files of the Education Department which recorded the department's views on educational matters referred by the Charity Commissioners prior to 1899, appear under an 'ED' reference.

The series also includes material which would otherwise be found elsewhere in ED amongst the Records of the Secondary Branch and predecessors.

Records of the Welsh Department and successors: Division within ED

Papers dealing with finance and estate management are in a special series in ED 43

Board of Education, Elementary Branch, 1899-1944

Board of Education, Legal Branch, 1924-1944

Board of Education, Legal Department, 1908-1924

Board of Education, Technical Branch, 1902-1944

Education Department, 1856-1899

Ministry of Education, Legal Branch, 1944-1964

Reports of many of these charities are to be found in the Commissioners for Inquiring into Charities: Papers - Charity Class 2. The printed reports [1817-1840] of the Charity Commissioners and the printed reports of the Schools Inquiry Commission [1868-1869] which include reports on some schools, are available for reference in the Department's Library, Elizabeth House, York Road, SE1.