Pate's Grammar School Foundation

Pate's Grammar School Foundation was set up by Richard Pate in the year 1586. He endowed his old college, Corpus Christi, Oxford, with property he had purchased, on condition that three-quarters of the income should be used by the College 'for the perpetual maintenance and foundation of a free Grammar School at Cheltenham ... and also a Hospital or Almshouse for six old poor people'. The Grammar School in Cheltenham was founded in 1574, and is now known as Pate's Grammar School. Richard Pate, "a very excellent and charitable man", was one of the most influential men in Gloucester in the sixteenth century. He was probably born in Cheltenham, son of Walter Pate and a nephew of a Richard Pate, Bishop of Worcester. He later lived in Gloucester, and is also said to have lived in Minsterworth. He owned extensive property, having purchased a great deal after surveying the possessions of the religious houses in the district, being a commissioner under Henry VIII and Edward VI. In 1541 he was admitted at Lincoln's Inn and later called to the Bar. He represented Gloucester in Parliament on a number of occasions and was Recorder of Gloucester from 1561 until his death. He died on the 29 October 1588, aged 73, and was buried in the south trancept of Gloucester Cathedral.