Philanthropist, born in Rugby, Warwickshire, C England, UK. A grocer in London, he became the founder of Rugby School (1567), by his bequest and endowment of estates, including his own house. The school became the model public (fee-paying) school for boys for many generations afterwards. The game of rugby football originated there.
Lawrence Sheriff or Lawrence Sheriffe (c1510-1567) was an Elizabethan gentleman and grocer to Elizabeth I who founded Rugby School.
Not much is known about Lawrence Sheriff's early life, but it is thought that he was born near St Andrew's Church in Rugby Warwickshire. Sheriff was apprenticed by his father to a London grocer named William Walcott, at which point he went to London.
Sheriff became grocer to many of the great and good of the day including Princess (later Queen) Elizabeth.
He earned a great fortune through his life, but remained childless, and upon his death in 1567, he stipulated in his will that his fortune should be used to found almshouses and a school "to serve chiefly for the children of Rugby and Brownsover...
He was buried at the old Grey Friars Church in Newgate Street, London. He is remembered today by the Lawrence Sheriff School in Rugby. Both Rugby School and the Lawrence Sheriff School use versions of the coat of arms granted to Lawrence Sheriff in 1559.
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