Gonville and Caius exterior framed sculpture

Stephen Perse (1548 – 30 September 1615) was an English academic, physician and philanthropist, who founded schools that still carry his name.

Biography

He was probably educated at

Norwich School Norwich School (formally King Edward VI Grammar School, Norwich) is a private selective day school in the close of Norwich Cathedral, Norwich. Among the oldest schools in the United Kingdom, it has a traceable history to 1096 as an episcop ...

, and took his B.A. degree at

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, commonly known as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and ...

in 1569, where he was elected to a fellowship. Ordained in May 1573, as a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

priest and deacon, he was subsequently permitted to change his fellowship to "physick" and took the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1581. Perse amassed a fortune of around £10,000, probably from profits on business loans. He gave money to the

University Library An academic library is a library that is attached to a higher education institution, which supports the curriculum and the research of the university faculty and students. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there are an es ...

, for the establishment of the road now known as Maid's Causeway, and for the public water supply from the springs at Nine Wells to Cambridge along the stream known as Hobson's Conduit. The

grave A grave is a location where a cadaver, dead body (typically that of a human, although sometimes that of an animal) is burial, buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of buria ...

of Stephen Perse is commemorated by a memorial in the Caius College chapel and he is remembered at the College's annual Perse Feast. His epitaph there reads:

Educational foundation

In his will, Perse gave a significant sum of money for the establishment of "a Grammar Free Schoole", and adjoining almhouses for six poor widows. The school was to teach five score scholars born in Cambridge, Barnwell, Chesterton or

Trumpington Trumpington is a village in Cambridgeshire, England, mostly located in Cambridge, with a small southern area of the village extending into the South Cambridgeshire district. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 UK census, the village had ...

, with some of the boys able to proceed to scholarships at Gonville and Caius College."Perse: A History of the Perse School 1615-1976", S.J.D. Mitchell, Oleander Press, Cambridge 1976. "A History of the Perse School, Cambridge", J.M. Gray, Bowes and Bowes, Cambridge 1921. In 1615

the Perse School The Perse School is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private school (English Private schools in the United Kingdom, fee-charging Day school, day and, in the case of the Perse, a former boarding school) in Cambridge, England. Founded i ...

was founded in Cambridge. His foundation is commemorated by a

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...

at its original site (now the Whipple Museum) in

Free School Lane Free School Lane is a historic street in central Cambridge, England which includes important buildings of University of Cambridge. It is the location of the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, the Department of History and Philosophy of ...

.Cambridge Blue Plaques
The school motto is ''Qui facit per alium facit per se'', usually taken to mean "He who does things for others does them for himself"; the Latin sentence ends "per se" in a word play on the founder's name. In 1881, the Perse School for Girls was established, now part of the Stephen Perse Foundation.

References

1548 births 1615 deaths People educated at Norwich School Fellows of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Founders of English schools and colleges Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge 16th-century English writers 16th-century English male writers 17th-century English writers 17th-century English male writers English philanthropists {{England-academic-bio-stub