| Description | The records include governors minutes, 1630-1950, appointments and resignations of governors, 1558-1849, financial records, records relating to school buildings, estate papers including surveys and rentals 18th-20th century, papers relating to the appointment of teachers, pupil admission registers and records, and school magazines. |
| Administrative History | This school was founded in 1503 as Macclesfield Grammar School by Sir John Percival, lord mayor of London in 1498-99. The priest-schoolmaster and free school were to be maintained by an original endowment of £10 a year and seventeen feoffees were appointed, all local gentry. The school was affected by the Chantries Act between 1547 and 1552 when it was refounded by royal charter and acquired a further endowment of £10 from lands of the dissolved college of St. John the Baptist in Chester. A corporate body of governors was formed with powers to nominate masters, decide salaries and make regulations. Several sites have been used - the original one near the parish church, the former house of Sir John Davenport on Back Street from 1748 and at Cumberland St from 1856. A modern school was opened in 1844 and a charity commission scheme of 1879 led to some integration of the two establishments and reformed the governing body. A general expansion of the school followed. In 1909 another scheme arranged for the merging of the modern and grammar schools which were now called the King's School, Macclesfield. New extensions were added in the 1930's; in 1938 King's became a public school and after the 1944 Education Act, Cheshire County Council supported local boys' places. Local authority representation was increased by a new scheme of 1958 amended 1967 and 1974.
For a detailed history of the school, see G E Wilson, 'History of Macclesfield Grammar School, 1503-1890' |