William Timothy Cape

[1][2] William Timothy Cape was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School, London, and was intended for the Church of England ministry.

Though just 20 years of age he was made headmaster of the Sydney public school on 1 July 1827 when his father resigned.

[1] For seven years Cape was a successful headmaster; some of his distinguished pupils included Sir John Robertson, William Forster, William Bede Dalley, Sir James Martin, and T. A. Browne, and the number of students was approaching 300 when Cape came into conflict with the trustees and resigned at the end of 1841.

[2] The colony was passing through bad times, but it is clear that the trustees had not been able to find a successor who could approach Cape in personality and knowledge.

[1] In 1859 Cape was elected a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Wollombi,[3] and interested himself in the educational life of the colony as a commissioner of national education, a fellow of St Paul's College of the University of Sydney, and in connexion with the Sydney School of Arts.