[5] The charter was a response to a local appeal to the Crown, with the document saying the school was to be created 'in accordance with the humble petition of the beloved inhabitants of the town and parish of Penrith ... and of very many of our subjects of the whole neighbouring district'.

A linguist and a diplomat, Smith was admitted to the Privy Council in 1571 and had been educated in classical scholarship at Padua, before lecturing on natural philosophy and Greek at Queens' College, Cambridge.

As a renowned educationalist and classicist, Smith was keen to set up a grammar school in Penrith dedicated to Latin and Greek learning.

[5] It is possible that some time was needed to secure this funding before teaching could begin, as the first recorded master was elected by the governors in 1569, some five years after the charter's initial issuing.

[5] The school moved from these original premises in St Andrew's churchyard to its present site on Ullswater Road (A592), close to the railway station, in 1917.