The Bootham Connection

It is noteworthy that Family seem to congeal around various specific centres of activity. Looking back at the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the following stand out.

Schools, Religious Traditions, Geographical areas, Professions.

Yorkshire was a centre of Quaker activity and it is not surprising that Quaker Schools where started in the area.

Bootham

On the 30th September, 1818, William Tuke, who had already been responsible for the foundation of the Girls' School, suggested to the Quarterly Meeting that a Friends' Boys' School. should be established and carried on by that Meeting at York.
Owing to lack of support. the original project fell through, but, in October, 1822, it was decided to start a school on premises which belonged to the Retreat and were situate in Lawrence Street, immediately outside Walmgate Bar, William Simpson was the Head Master. The School was opened in January,1823.

Bootham which opened in 1823 was a centre of gravity for the Rowntree, Gray and Thorp families ( and of course many others).  It seems likely that strong relationships developed through connections with the school.