Panel C3
The Colston's Hospital School Years
​3 August 1760 - 30 June 1767
Age: 7-14
The Colston's Hospital School Register
Thomas Chatterton's future is mapped out for him.
It starts with his registration in the school register for 3rd August 1760; it is worth noting that Chatterton was rejected from Pile Street School in 1757/8 for being too dull to learn, but now he is assessed as suitable to become an Attorney's apprentice, at Lambert's on the 1st July 1767.
Colston's Great House,
On St Augustine's Back, Bristol
Became Colston's School.
Delight and Disappointment
​
Chatterton was looking forward
To this new episode in his Life.
He was in his eighth year
And full of hope for what lay ahead.
But, on his first day at Colston's School,
Sunday 3rd of August 1760,
His hopes were dashed.
​
The education rammed into the boys
The Five 'Rs'
Reading, Writing, Arithmetic
And Religion by Rote
Was basic in the extreme.
​
Chatterton is said to have claimed
He could learn more at home from books.
Suddenly he had gone from being
A free soul able to wander as he pleased
To practical 'imprisonment' as a border.
In bed at 8 pm summer or winter.
A Colston's Schoolboy
The Traditional Uniform
Included a Dolphin on a Brass Badge.
Silver Badges were Introduced in 1776
Thanks to the gift of John Purrier,
An old boy of the school (1743-1751).
So it seems that not everyone
Disliked the education at Colston's
(.QE!.) is currently working on this page
Chatterton's Works at Colston's
3 August 1760 to 30 June 1767.
Twenty-two works to consider
During Chatterton's
6 years & 11 months at Colston's.
​
3 Authentic Works; 5 Doubtful;
2 Lost; 12 Wrongly Attributed.
There are no known works
by Chatterton
Before he attended Colston's Hospital School.
According to D.S. Taylor
Chatterton, in his 7 years at Colston's,
Wrote only three 'authentic' works.
Taylor has been the foremost authority on Chatterton since before publication of his indispensable The Complete Works of Thomas Chatterton in 1971.
​
If you know anything of the career of the Murderer and Forger, Mark Hofmann, you will know that everything can be forged and everyone can be fooled!
​
This is why we must reconsider
Works of Doubtful Authenticity
(WODA).
Nuff Said!
Authentic Works (3)
Writ 1764 - Published 1803. TP811
Writ 1764 - Published 1803. TP811
Works of Doubtful Authenticity?
(Works to be Considered 5)
Not all titles will link to a work at present. I am held up by the Pandemic and waiting for Bristol Library to reopen in order to obtain images of some of the First Printings of the works on this page (in Felix Farley's Bristol Journal).
The Churchwarden and the Apparition
Written 1764 - Published 1764 TP1139
I've let my Yard, and sold my Clay
Written 1764- Published 1764 TP1139
Letter from Fullford, the Grave-digger
Written 1764 - Published 1764 TP1139
Custom. A Satire
Written 1766 - Published 1766 TP1140
Lost Works (2)
Works Wrongly Attributed
(.QE!.) is currently working on this page