Becoming the headmaster of Rugby School, in post from 1870 to 1874, as the successor of Frederick Temple, he was dismissed from the position in a very public controversy.
In October 1832, Hayman entered Merchant Taylors' School, and becoming head monitor passed with a Sir Thomas White scholarship on 28 June 1841 to St. John's College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A.
[3] Hayman was curate of St. Luke's, Old Street, London, from 1848 to 1849. and of St. James's, Westminster, from 1849 to 1851, and was assistant preacher at the Temple Church from 1854 to 1857.
Matthew Arnold looked at them, at the time, with Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, and concluded that "they are such as will perfectly enable the trustees to stand by the appointment" if they wished.
When the matter came to court, it was ruled that the incoming governing body were not bound to continue Hayman in post.
Temple, George Granville Bradley, and William Henry Bateson, partisan against Hayman, were on the governing body.
[11][12] Again, in 1873, Hayman chose to target leaders of hostility to him, Arthur Sidgwick (as "the only single man"), and Charles James Eliseo Smith (1835–1900).
[16] Richard Malins as Vice-Chancellor of England agreed with the defence's demurrer, and ruled the court should not interfere.
[1] W. H. D. Rouse's 1898 history of the school passes over the period with comments on the new building work by William Butterfield.