Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood

6.00 a.m. was considered the time for children to start their studies but 7.00 a.m. was more common;

Pupils of upper forms were appointed to give lessons to younger ones;

Pupils were required to examine each other in pairs; and

Children frequently went to "Writing-schooles" at the end of the school day, the purpose of which was to "learn a good hand". Good handwriting was supposed to be a condition of entry to a school like MTS but Hayne for one tended to ignore it and was eventually dismissed for, among other things, low standards of hand writing. In at this time there were writing schools too and many children attended only these in order to learn sufficient skills for commerce and trade; English businessmen founded schools which encouraged an academic curriculum based on the classics.

Germany

is a weekly online newsletter

Scissorum

is the school's magazine for alumni, the name again referring to the motto.

Concordia

(published annually since 1868) is a record of the highlights of the preceding year and includes the names of all who join the school or leave, the Head Master's speech on St Barnabas' Day (the School's Feast Day), sports reports, cultural reviews, artwork and essays (a selection of its highlights 'Taylorian Analecta' is also published for alumni).

The Taylorian

Parvae Res is an online digital miscellany of video clips and picture galleries posted on the School's website each term as a round-up of recent events in the life of the school. The name is a reference to the motto of the school and the Merchant Taylors' Company: Concordia Parvae Res Crescunt. The motto is taken from Sallust's (X.6) and appears on the school's coat of arms. It figuratively means "In harmony, small things grow" (and is half of the full motto – Nam concordia parvae res crescunt, discordia maximae dilabuntur, which means "For harmony makes small states great, while discord undermines the mightiest empires" – the forerunner of the motto that renders it more colloquially into modern English as 'unity is strength').

Bellum Jugurthinum

– actor, comedian and musician

Riz Ahmed

– economist

Franklin Allen

,^[27] Bishop of Winchester and translator of the King James Bible

Lancelot Andrewes

– actor, writer (1950 - )

Robin Askwith

– artist, sculptor and photographer

Neil Lawson Baker

– conductor

Bryan Balkwill

– ICS, Author of "Memoirs of a Bengal Civilian"

John Beames

Professor – archaeologist; his work was important in the development of medieval and post-medieval archaeology in Great Britain

Martin Biddle

– writer, civil servant, and priest

Edward John Bolus

– bishop of Willesden

Peter Broadbent

Sir – Chief Commissioner of the British Crown Colony of Burma

Charles Crosthwaite

– populariser of science

Nigel Calder

Marxist historian and philosopher of history

EH Carr

– sculptor, his work 'The Beast' adorns the school grounds

Lynn Chadwick

– composer

Bob Chilcott

MBE (1910–2000), British Railways Board engineer involved in electrification of the railways in the 1960s.^[28]

Edgar Claxton

^[29] (expelled) (Clive of India)

Robert, Lord Clive

– archbishop of Canterbury, 1974–1980

Donald Coggan

– Chief Justice of the Madras High Court 1835–42

Robert Buckley Comyn

– surgeon and rugby union international, captaining both England and the British Lions

Ronald Cove-Smith

Duncan Craig – director of Continental European Operations and board member of ^[30]

Logica

– Australian-born flying ace of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War

John Curchin

– Archbishop of York 1714-1724

William Dawes

– novelist

Warwick Deeping

– African explorer, Governor of Sierra Leone

Dixon Denham

^[31] Bishop of Peterborough 1601–1630

Thomas Dove

,^[32] MP and Minister of State in the Department for International Development

Alan Duncan

Egyptologist

Iorwerth Edwards

Admiral – naval officer and explorer, member of Scott's Terra Nova Expedition (expelled)

Edward Evans, 1st Baron Mountevans

Sir , GCMG, MBE, QC – judge, a decade at the European Court of Human Rights

Vincent Evans

composer, pianist, and pedagogue

Herbert Fryer

Colonel , MLC – military officer, head of the New South Wales Customs Service 1834–1859, Crown appointed Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council

John George Nathaniel Gibbes

The Rt Hon – life peer

John Gilbert, Baron Gilbert

MC – headmaster and writer

Ronald Gurner

The Rt Hon, The , OM, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE – Chairman of the Committee on Post-War problems in the Colonies, Governor of the Punjab and later the United Provinces

Lord Hailey

– Egyptologist and historian

Henry R.H. Hall

– Television presenter and executive

Jack Hargreaves

(born 1964) – Cricketer^[33]

Gordon Harris

Sir – Professor of Modern History, Oxford University

Brian Harrison

Air Vice Marshal – Head of British Defence Staff/ Defence Attaché Washington (2008–2011)

Michael Harwood

– Host, Al Jazeera UpFront

Mehdi Hasan

(1591–1674) lyric poet, author of "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may..."

Robert Herrick

– author, mainly historical fiction

Conn Iggulden

Sir ,^[34] Astronomer Royal, 'new physicist', 'Quantum theorist', after whom there is a major 13+ Scholarship

James Jeans

– MP and Minister of State in the Department of the Environment

Robert Jones

– Home Secretary

William Joynson-Hicks, 1st Viscount Brentford

– archbishop of Canterbury; he attended Charles I on the scaffold in 1649

William Juxon

^[35] – actor

Boris Karloff

^[36] – Literary critic and author of Inspector Ghote mysteries

H. R. F. Keating

– Comedian

Matt Kirshen

– Renaissance dramatist, author of The Spanish Tragedie

Thomas Kyd

– judge and politician

John Lort-Williams

(1954–2009) geneticist, entomologist, Professor of Evolution at the University of Cambridge

Michael Majerus

– economist, one of the founders of neoclassical economics, creator of the Cambridge Economics Tripos

Alfred Marshall

- investor and hedge fund manager, co founder of Marshall Wace Asset Management

Sir Paul Marshall

– Classical scholar who devoted much of his life to the Moral Re-armament movement

Morris Martin

^[37] – politician

Reginald Maudling

^[38] – comedian

Michael McIntyre

– cricketer

Adrian Mee

– corrupt magistrate and local politician of Bethnal Green

Joseph Merceron

– composer and crime writer

Bruce Montgomery

– chaplain to the Queen (1986–1998)

Michael Moxon

– 1950s traditional jazz trumpeter and bandleader

Mick Mulligan

^[39] – classicist, after whom there is a major 13+ Scholarship

Gilbert Murray

Sir – Royalist army officer

Thomas Nott

– British publisher and bookseller

David Nutt

suffragan bishop of Pretoria

Mark Nye

– (1665–1666, expelled)

Titus Oates

FRS – astronomer

Bernard Pagel

– landscape painter

Samuel Palmer

– chef, author, entrepreneur

Jeremy Pang

– cricketer

Donald Parry

– dean of Christ Church, Oxford

Martyn Percy

,^[40] churchman and academic, one of the translators of the Authorised King James Version of the Bible

John Perrin

– BBC foreign correspondent

Michael Peschardt

– historian

Walter Alison Phillips

– violist and professor

Ashan Pillai

rugby union player and cricketer, captained the 1910 British Lions tour to Argentina

John Raphael

Lord , Conservative MP for Uxbridge and formerly Deputy Chief Whip

John Randall

Musician and producer, one half of Dubstep and Drum 'n' Bass duo Nero (band)^[41]

Joseph Ray

Lord – Conservative MP, Minister of State for Northern Ireland, ex Coldstream Guards Officer, SAS

Andrew Robathan

– tennis player – Wimbledon doubles champion 1909, 1912, 1923 and GB Davis Cup team 1900

Herbert Roper Barrett

– political cartoonist

Martin Rowson

– professor of Oriental Studies at the University of Sydney.

Arthur Lindsay Sadler

Emeritus Professor of Geology, Royal Holloway University of London

Andrew Cunningham Scott

– radio & TV broadcaster

Pat Sharp

– Banker and Chairman of the BBC.

Richard Sharp

– writer, novelist, broadcaster & podcaster.

Nikesh Shukla

– bishop of Worcester

Peter Selby

^[42] – poet and playwright

James Shirley

Sir – Recorder of London 1803–1822

John Silvester

FBA – Egyptologist and academic

Harry Smith

– MP for West Aberdeenshire (Liberal Democrat)

Sir Robert Smith, 3rd Baronet

– Film critic for BBC Radio

Jason Solomons

– Renaissance poet, author of The Faerie Queene

Edmund Spenser

Sir ,^[43] Chief of the Defence Staff

Jock Stirrup

Sir ^[44] – Nobel Laureate (2002)

John Sulston

– author, archaeologist and journalist

Paul Sussman

footballer, currently playing for Seattle Sounders FC

Andrew Thomas

Major (Ian), DSO, TD – Royal Fusilier and preacher

W. Ian Thomas

– Anglican bishop of Ballarat, Australia

Samuel Thornton

OBE – ^[45] radio presenter, former presenter of the "Today" programme and "Any Questions"

John Timpson

– dramatist and anonymous playwright (1714–1778)

James Townley

– surgeon, medical pioneer

Sir Frederick Treves, 1st Baronet

– President of the Royal Meteorological Society (1871–72)

John William Tripe

– author

James Twining

– cricketer

Jonathan Turnbull

– cricketer and educator

George Vasey

^[46] – early 19th century surgeon and medical author

William Wadd

– founder of The Times newspaper

John Walter

– Virginia landowner, common ancestor of George Washington and Elizabeth II

Augustine Warner Jr.

Renaissance dramatist, author of The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil

John Webster

– Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire cricketer

Oliver White

Sir – Civil War politician who enshrined the principle that only parliament could dissolve parliament

Bulstrode Whitelocke

– part of the first group to use ultrasound for body imaging, most notably for diagnosing cancer

John J. Wild

- A pioneer of global Parkinson's fundraising and the founder of The Cure Parkinson's Trust.

Tom Isaacs (fundraiser)

– the school's first Head Master, an educationalist, thought by many to be the model for Shakespeare's Holofernes

Richard Mulcaster

– first female Lord Justice of Appeal and, until 2004, was the highest-ranking female judge in the United Kingdom

Baroness Butler-Sloss

Bishop of Peterborough, Head Master, instigated move of the school from Charterhouse Square to the current Sandy Lodge site

Spencer Leeson

2nd Earl of Stockton – First Upper Warden of the Merchant Taylors' Company

Alexander Macmillan

KCB, OMT – career civil servant who became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Exeter from 1994 to 2002; Chairman of the Governors until 2011

Geoffrey Holland

– classical scholar and the last Professor of Greek at University of Glasgow

Douglas MacDowell

Bishop of Ely, a figure at Oxford and Cambridge; Master at Merchant Taylors'

Peter Walker

St John's College, Oxford

Merchant Taylors' Company

Merchant Taylors' Company

Fuller versions of the School's history.

MTS Website