John Banks

John Banks BD FSA
Born	1765
Died	1842 (aged 78) Spilsby
Roles	Headmaster
Years at BGS	1790-1825
Home town	Crosthwaite
Predecessor	Obadiah Bell
Successor	Thomas Homer
Spouse	Mary Hunnings
Parents	John Banks; Elizabeth Grisdale

John Banks was appointed as headmaster of Boston Grammar School on 26 July 1790.

Banks' parents were John and Elizabeth Grisdale Banks. They were married 11 June 1764 at Crosthwaite, where John was baptised on 23 April 1765.

John Banks was unanimously elected to take over the "almost entirely lost" school. He was a Cumbrian native and non-graduate clergyman. Educated at Keswick, he did not go direct from school to college. Instead, he became a "ten-year man", availing himself of a peculiar arrangement of the period whereby, through keeping his name on the books of a college for ten years, he obtained a Bachelor of Divinity degree without first graduating BA. Thus, at 23, as "a literate person", he was ordained deacon and licensed to the curacy of Surfleet on 21 September 1788, worth £20 per annum. The next year found him admitted sizar at Christ's College, and also ordained priest, and he now took over the £50-a-year curacy of Wigtoft and Quadring on 20 September 1789.

1790 brought Banks' election as BGS head, but it was not until a decade after that he gained his BD degree. Reporting his appointment, the Stamford Mercury described him as "the Rev John Banks, of Christ's College, Cambridge". The press announcement that the school had reopened under his direction after the summer holiday on Monday 2 August added:

Several very respectable Boarding Houses are ready to receive young Gentlemen upon reasonable Terms. Ten or Twelve Parlour Boarders may be accommodated in the House with the Master at Sixteen Guineas per Annum, and One Guinea Entrance. The Terms for Latin and Greek, to those who are not free of the School, Four Guineas per Annum, and One Guinea Entrance.

Banks followed Samuel Partridge (vicar of Boston) in being admitted a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1805. They were involved in a number of joint ventures. In June 1814 the Wide Bargate property Banks had bought that year to accommodate boarders, and Partridge's vicarage, where occasional boarders were also received, were among the many Boston premises to mark the end of the Napoleonic wars; the transparency Banks exhibited represented Fortitude, Faith and Britannia, the last named holding a roll signifying a treaty of peace, while her other hand pointed to "the crown of the Bourbons as an emblem of their happy return".

On Banks' retirement his Wide Bargate property became a "Ladies' boarding school". This announcement appeared in the Boston Gazette, 27 September 1825: "Miss Green, having entered upon a large and commodious House, in Wide Bargate, lately occupied by the Rev J Banks, has a vacancy for Two Parlour Boarders. NB The Tow Houses in Grove Street lately occupied by Miss G are to Let".

On at least one occasion Partridge acted as external examiner for BGS, of which his only son became a pupil. The advertisement announcing that the school would reopen after the Christmas vacation on monday, 24 January 1802, added:

At the Request of the Masters (the Rev J Banks, BS, and the Rev J Gaunt, MA) the Vicar of Bosto examined the Scholars on several Days preceding the Vacation, and he will be happy in giving account of the Proficiency of the young Gentlemen in their Learning, and of the Method by which they are instructed, to any Gentlemen who may apply to him either personally or by Letter.

On appointment as master, Bank had entered into a bond not to accept any curacy without the corporation's licence, but two months later he successfully petitioned to be allowed to retain the curacy of Sutterton which he had acquired. His BGS election coincided with the setting up of a council committee "to view the Seats in the Church appropriated for the Scholars of the Free Grammar School, and also the Garden in the School yard, and Banks was invited to take part in "the intended view". The outcome was that directions were given that "the three Seats or Pews... belonging to the Scholers" should be "repaired and made of equal Dimensions", and "that part of the schoolyard which is a root yard" was to be "levelled and sown with Grass Seeds". Certain amendments which Banks suggested should be made to the "Orders and Rules heretofore established for the good government" of the school were also approved: the changes are not specified in the minutes.

Banks married Mary Hunnings on 21 May 1796 at St Peter-in-Eastgate, Lincoln. She was the daughter of Butter Hunnings, that year's mayor of Lincoln, whose elder son, Edward, only just completed a second term as mayor of Boston in 1819 when he was obliged to sell his High Street home and old-established grocery business to satisfy creditors. Banks' marriage lasted sixteen years, until Mary's death at 46. mary, granddaughter of Boston solicitor Samuel Tunnard of Frampton was buried at Moulton on 9 January 1813.

T/he early years of Banks' mastership found BGS soundly developing as a boarding, as well as a day school. A prospectus issued in 1803 - which the master termed a "Plan of Instruction and Management at Boston School, conducted by the Reverend John Banks, BD, with the Assistance of well-qualified Masters" - stated:

The boys are not allowed to go into the Town without particular Leave; and the younger ones are never suffered to walk near any Place of Danger; the Head master walks out with the Boarders when the weather is fine. One of the masters or Housekeeper visits every room soon after the Boarders have retired to Rest; and the Head Master goes round to the different Apartments at such Times as he supposes himself to be least likely to be expected by the Boys. With regard to their manners and good order it may be justly asserted that they are much praised in the Town and neighbourhood of the School as regular and well-behaved young gentlemen.

The number of pupils rose to at least eighty four, of whom forty eight were boarders, a figure never later exceeded. In 1803 both Banks and the usher were granted salary increases - an additional twenty pounds for the head, bringing his total to £100 per annum, and an extra ten pounds for the second master.