Dr. Gordon Jackson

Emanuel School was established by Lord and Lady Dacre, who probably had three motivations to do so: (i) A way to memorialize the family name following the death of their only son, (ii) A way to mitigate the effects of King Henry VIII's income seizure and asset dispossession of monasteries (dissolution of the monasteries), between 1536 and 1540, (National Archives, 2012), and (iii) A genuine concern for the poverty and suffering around them. Lord Dacre died on September 25th, 1594 and Lady Dacre died on May 15th, 1595. Shortly after Lord Dacre's death, Lady Dacre purchased about three acres of land near Buckingham Palace. The present-day boundaries of this land are Palace Street, Buckingham Gate and Castle Lane. Her will stated that Lord and Lady Dacre desired that a charity be established to provide relief for the aged, and to bring up children in "vertue and good and lawdable artes." She specified that income from the hundred-year lease of Brandesburton Yorkshire Manor be used for funding (Scott-Giles).