The
Dissolution of Colleges Act 1547 closed all of the
Kingdom of England's
chantries, including the Hospital of St John, Marlborough. The town's burgesses then petitioned
the Crown for the hospital to be converted into a "'Free-scole for the inducement of youth", and by
letters patent dated 18 October 1550 a grammar school was established. The former hospital thus became the school's first home, but in 1578 it was demolished and a new building was erected which provided a
schoolroom, a house for the
schoolmaster, and dormitories. This survived until 1790. but in the course of the 18th century it began to be known as Marlborough Grammar School. In 1834 a Charity Commissioners' report called the school the "Free Grammar School" and found that its original purpose was to teach Greek, Latin, and the church catechism, and that the governing body was the Corporation of Marlborough. Fourteen boys were then being taught the prescribed subjects without the payment of fees, but had to pay for other subjects. There were also twenty-six "pay-scholars", including some
boarders. In 1853 the school survived a proposal by
Earl Bruce to amalgamate it with the new
Marlborough College. During the nineteenth century it declined in numbers. In 1872, the school had endowments worth £248 a year, and there were five schoolmasters teaching 85 boys. Some 37 of those were "sons of persons resident three years in town" and so were on the foundation, paying fees of six
guineas a year, while the rest were boarders paying between 45 and 50
guineas. The school was entitled to Exhibitions at
Brasenose College, Oxford, two worth £52 a year and four worth £36, and to a smaller number at
St John's College, Cambridge. In 1877, with the resignation of its long-serving Master Frederick Hookey Bond, the school was closed, awaiting the appointment of a new Master and a reorganisation. By 1880, it was again open, under a new scheme, and in December put on a prize-giving event. But by the 1890s, the school had dwindled to only six boys, taking intermittent lessons in a single room. This led to another closure, However, reporting the school's demise in August, the
Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette told its readers After gaining grants from
Wiltshire County Council and others, it was reported in January 1904 that the Governing Body of the school had accepted a tender from Downing and Rudman, of Chippenham, to pull down the old school and build a new one at a cost of £6,000 (). In October 1905, the school reopened in new buildings on the same site, now formally known as Marlborough Grammar School and taking the form of a mixed school for eighty boys and girls, with a new headmaster, Sidney Pontefract. ==Masters==