The Sherborne Penny
What is now known as the ‘Sherborne Penny’ is in fact a copy of the seal granted to the Governors of Sherborne School (then known as the Free Grammar School) by King Edward VI when he re-founded the School on 13 May 1550.
King Edward VI’s founding charter awarded the School Governors with ‘a Common Seal to be made use of in matters touching or concerning only their said business and other things in these Letters Patent expressed and specified or any part thereof’.
Around the edge of the seal are the words ‘SIGILLUM LIBERE SCOLE GRAMATICALIS DE SHIRBORNE’, which in translation means ‘The Seal of the Free Grammar School of Sherborne’.
In the centre of the seal are the words ‘VIVAT REX EDWARDUS SEXTUS’, which in translation means ‘Long-live King Edward the Sixth’. In 1887 these words were incorporated by Headmaster E.M. Young in the words of the School Song, ‘The Carmen’, which was first sung at Commemoration Day in 1887, and ends with the rousing chorus ‘Vivat Rex Edwardus Sextus! Vivat! Vivat! Vivat!’
From the 19th century onwards the ‘Sherborne Penny’ was commonly used alongside the School Crest and was printed on School prize books, the Blue Book (termly list) and, until 1930, on the cover of The Shirburnian (the School magazine).
In September 2008, the ‘Sherborne Penny’ replaced the School Crest as Sherborne School’s new corporate identity.
The School Crest and Motto
In 1550, King Edward VI created Sherborne School into a separate corporation and endowed it with lands. According to the charter of 13 May 1550 the School’s proper title is Libera Schola Grammaticalis Regis Eduardi Sexti. It was libera because the education was to be free, so far as the endowment would allow; it was grammaticalis because it was a seat of higher education, grammatical; and it had a right to the epithet regalis because of its royal foundation. Since 1871, when the Scheme of the Endowed Schools Commissioners came into force, its only legal title has been Sherborne School, although locally it continued to be known as the King’s School.
Owing to its royal foundation, Sherborne School has since at least c.1560 used as its school crest the Tudor coat of arms of Edward VI. The coat of arms includes two supporters – a crowned lion (symbolising England) and a red dragon (symbolising Wales) standing rampant either side of the shield. The School motto – ‘Dieu et mon Droit’ (‘God and my right’) – is taken from the coat of arms.
On the south-side of the gatetower entrance to the School Courts is the inscription ‘Nisi Dominus Frustra.’, which is a contraction of the first line of Psalm 127, ‘Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain.’
Above the original southern entrance to the School site from Church Lane is the inscription ‘EDVARDI impensis patet hic Schola publica SEXTI Grammaticae cupidis nobile REGIS opus’, which in translation means ‘This public school, the noble work of King Edward the Sixth, is at the disposal of those who desire learning’.
For further information about the Sherborne School Archives please contact the School Archivist.
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