The school was founded in 1585 by Edwin Sandys (1519-1588), one of many founded in the sixteenth century to fill the gap left in the educational system by the dissolution of the monasteries and the closure of cathedral schools under King Henry VIII (1491-1547). It was rebuilt in 1675 from funds donated by ex-pupil Daniel Rawlinson, a London vintner who kept the Mitre on Fenchurch Street.
The Rev William Taylor was headmaster of the school from 1781 (11) until 1786 (16) when he died at the age of 32. He was an important formative influence on the adolescent William, encouraging him not only to read, but also to write poetry. One of William's earliest poems was written to celebrate the bicentenary of the school.
And has the Sun his flaming chariot driven
Two hundred times around the ring of heaven,
Since Science first, with all her sacred train,
Beneath yon roof began her heavenly reign?
While thus I mused, methought, before mine eyes,
The Power of EDUCATION seemed to rise;
Not she whose rigid precepts trained the boy
Dead to the sense of every finer joy;
Nor that vile wretch who bade the tender age
Spurn Reason's law and humour Passion's rage;
But she who trains the generous British youth
In the bright paths of fair majestic Truth:
Emerging slow from Academus' grove
In heavenly majesty she seemed to move....
Wordworth's three brothers also attended the school. Richard became a lawyer, John a sea captain for the East India Company, and Christopher Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.