[6] The school was founded in 1561[1] by Thomas White of the Merchant Taylors' Company in a manor house in the parish of St Lawrence Pountney in the City of London, where it remained until 1875.

Sir John Percival (Master of the Company in 1485, Lord Mayor of London in 1498) established a grammar school at Macclesfield in 1502,[8] while in 1508 his widow founded one at St. Mary's Wike in Cornwall (which moved to Launceston shortly thereafter).

Also in 1508, Sir Steven Jenyns (Master in 1490, Lord Mayor in 1508) founded Wolverhampton Grammar School, which still maintains strong links with the Company.

The outbreak of 1666 was curtailed by the Great Fire of London, which started on 2 September close to Suffolk Lane and completely destroyed the school buildings.

The Court appointed a committee to investigate and concluded: Being situate neere the middest of this honourable and renowned citty is famous throughout all England ...First, for number of schollers, it is the greateste schoole included under one roofe.

Thirdly it is a schoole for liberty most free, being open especially for poore men's children, as well of all nations, as for the merchauntailors themselves.The probation was imposed without consultation with the schoolmasters.

Hoole described the nature of education at the time: The Head Master William Hayne (1599–1624) presided over the new methods of examination, but his success did not save him from dismissal for alleged financial misdemeanours.

Though the work had been licensed by Milton, it was seized and publicly burned, yet Dugard survived as headmaster and was simply required to give up his printing enterprise.

In 1710 Ambrose Bonwicke, son of the former Head Master, was captain of the school and refused to read prayers for King William on St Barnabas Day.

[citation needed] Townley wrote a successful play, High Life Below Stairs, which was staged at Drury Lane by David Garrick and proved very popular.

His memoirs, from the late 18th century, include these observations: I was now translated from Dominie the flagellator's garden of knowledge in St Martin-in-the-Fields to Merchant Tailors' School, to gain what Pope so aptly terms 'a dangerous thing', a little learning.

He had chalk stone knuckles too, which he used to rap on my head like a bag of marbles, and, eccentric as it may appear, pinching was his favorite amusement, which he brought to great perfection.

Rose was so adept at the cane, that I once saw a boy strip, after a thrashing from him, that he might expose his barbarous cruelty, when the back was actually striped with dark streaks like a zebra.In 1814 Cherry made a detailed proposal for the setting up of an arithmetic and writing school and for the teaching of mathematics and accounts.

Still, in the 1870s, Sir D'Arcy Power comments on the curriculum he faced: It seems to me, as I look back on the education at school in my time, that it was conducted with the design of giving a broad training without any utilitarian object.

Bishop Samuel Thornton remembered the London fogs of his schooldays in the 1840s when "little was done on those dark days, the dreamy and unwonted state of affairs generating an excited condition in the Forms, unfavourable to discipline and work".

The Oxford Commission restructured the arrangements for scholarships between the school and St. John's College so there was no longer such an easy path for boys to reach university.

Baker was conservative in his views, considering the classics as the best means of training the mind, but he was almost equally keen on mathematics and paid much attention to its teaching in the school.

On the appointment of John Nairn in 1900 to succeed Baker the new headmaster asked Professor Ernest Weekly to inspect the modern language teaching.

He drew attention to the dominant role of Latin in determining a boy's promotion, to the beginning of Greek at too young an age and to the lack of systematic instruction in English.

Science and technical subjects were being developed in institutions funded by public money and there was some pressure on the incomes of the class that sent its sons to schools like Merchant Taylors'.

The next Head Master, Spencer Leeson, served for just nine years but in that time he proposed and supervised what was probably the greatest single event in the history of the school, the movement from the city of London to the green suburbs of Ruislip, Northwood, and Rickmansworth, an area bounded by branches of the Metropolitan Railway.

He attached a letter from Cyril Norwood which included these words: In these next twenty years we shall see a belt of good secondary schools built all round London at a sufficient distance out to provide playing fields and space, and with all that is modern in equipment.

He will not send them to the noise and congestion of London, to premises which are congested and largely out of date, with playing fields miles away from the teaching centre...The site at Sandy Lodge was bought in late 1929 and plans were drawn up for the new school by architect WG Newton, in the Neo-Georgian style The cost of the initial proposals was greeted with some dismay, meaning that they had to be revised "at great sacrifice of beauty and efficiency" to bring costs down, and eventually the Court accepted them.

Lord Clauson, who had great influence within the Court, was particularly eager to implement the scheme: "Our predecessors made an educational ladder on which boys could climb to the university, whatever their circumstances.

[12][13] In addition, reform was creeping into the school at this time, with the privilege of not wearing a cap (which had previously only applied to Monitors), was extended to Prompters and House Prefects, and subsequently to the entire Sixth Form.

[13] Hugh Elder was succeeded by Brian Rees (1965–73) and subsequently by Francis Davey (1974–81), under whose tenures the Recital Hall and a new Biology department was built.

Under the headmastership of David Skipper (1982–91), wide-ranging developments took place, notably the building of a new Sports Hall and indoor swimming pool (1986), with the old Gymnasium being converted into a studio theatre for Drama.

OMTs include Lancelot Andrewes, who oversaw the translation of the King James' Bible; John Walter, founding editor of The Times; John Sulston, Nobel laureate in Physiology and Medicine; Marshal of the Royal Air Force The Lord Stirrup, former Chief of the Defence Staff; historian E. H. Carr; actor Boris Karloff; Lord Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Clive and many more.

The school prefect body, known as the JCR, is composed of members from the Upper Sixth Form and is divided into two groups: monitors (referred to as "the table") and prompters ("the bench").

For example, all JCR members are permitted to wear pinstriped shirts and jackets with silver buttons, while monitors are distinguished by gold-buttoned suits, with the style selected by committee.