Monument to John Freeston of Altofts by Mike Kirby

Frieston's Hospital Kirkthorpe by Stanley Walker

John Freeston (1512
– 1594) was a barrister from Altofts,

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, admitted in 1544 to

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and W ...

in London. Possibly inspired by Walter Midway, Freeston posthumously left £500 to fund a school in Normanton, with a scholarship program in place to allow students from Normanton to gain a place at Emmanuel College, Cambridge (the scholarship was later transferred to

Sidney Sussex College Sidney Sussex College (referred to informally as "Sidney") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. The College was founded in 1596 under the terms of the will of Frances Sidney, Countess of Sussex (1531–1589), wife ...

in 1607). The will allowed for £25 of this funding to go to the school each year, enough to pay for its construction and its school master's salary. The school did not stay open long enough to use up this funding, however, and an investigation in 1890 revealed it had inflated to £400 per annum. It was decided that the town would use this funding to set up a secondary school, now the

Freeston Academy Outwood Academy Freeston (known locally as Freeston), formerly The Freeston Academy, is a state run, coeducational high school situated in Normanton, West Yorkshire near the city of Wakefield. It is a Business and Enterprise specialist scho ...

References

Founders of English schools and colleges English philanthropists Members of Gray's Inn 1512 births 1594 deaths 16th-century English people People from Normanton, West Yorkshire {{England-bio-stub

See also

References