Three charities were concerned with education in Bedford before 1868. Two of these were small. The school which was endowed by Leith’s charity was probably in existence as early as 1720, but received its endowment from the will of Alexander Leith, dated 1727. By this twenty children from the parishes of St. Paul and St. Cuthbert were to be taught to read, to write, and to understand the Church catechism. This school lasted until the early 1850s, but after 1856 the money from the charity was used for clothing needy children, and later still for other educational purposes.

The other small charity was one left to several towns by Aiderman Newton of Leicester in 1760. Bedford’s share was £26 a year to clothe and educate twenty-five boys of poor parents. These boys were to be taught reading, writing, arithmetic, psalm singing, and toning responses in divine service. The school lasted for about fifty years, but by the early nineteenth century funds proved insufficient. Fortunately this coincided with the beginning of the Harpur Trust’s full involvement in elementary education, and the Trust was able to accommodate the boys from Newton’s Charity in its new school.

The oldest educational charity, the Harpur Trust, had for long centred on one school, the Grammar School. From this had eventually developed an English School, later called the Commercial School. The Harpur endowment was also used for various other charitable purposes, including marriage portions, apprenticeships, and almshouses. It was in fact through its general charitable work that the Trust first became involved in elementary education. In 1773 an institution was founded known as the Hospital, which was to house, clothe, and educate a number of poor children. The day’s activities in the Hospital were divided between work and education and the children received instruction in reading, writing, and accounts. Although the Hospital existed for a hundred years, its teaching function became very limited after the early years of the nineteenth century.

The Governors of the Harpur Trust in the early 1800s were interested in contemporary developments in education. A group of them visited the National School in Baldwins Gardens, and as a result the Trust decided to start a school run on the monitorial system.