The Mace-Bearer Magazine - Guild of Mace-Bearers

THE CEREMONY OF THE WHITE GLOVES
On the last day of term before Christmas the Mayor of
Hertford and Town Councillors attend Richard Hale
School’s prize-giving, for a ceremony that has been
enacted annually for more than 350 years.
This unique ceremony began in 1657, initiated by the
will of Ralph Minors (c1600-57), one of many
Headteachers to have guided the fortunes of Richard
Hale’s School in Hertford.
In his will, Ralph Minors left to “the parish of All Saints
Hertford ten pounds.to the Mayor, Justice and
Minister…they to secure the stock and disperse the
income in White Gloves for themselves if
they three trustees be present at the
scholars’ breaking-up in December.”
In his 30 years as Master, Minors had
made Richard Hale’s one of the foremost
Grammar Schools in the country. He
held it together during the Civil War,
educating the sons of eminent Royalists
and Parliamentarians alike, but he feared for
the School’s future and determined to secure
that future as best he could.
Minors foresaw that the interest in the welfare of
the School by members of the Hale family who, by
foundation deed and governance were its hereditary
patrons, must inevitably decline. He reasoned that the
hitherto passive interest taken in the School by its ten
Patron-appointed Governors, most if not all of whom
were eminent Hertford townsmen, must be activated.
What better way than by inviting their two senior
members and the Vicar of the School’s Church to
formally visit and join the School’s celebrations at the
end of Christmas term, the scholars’ feast, speeches,
songs, orations and, “if they be present”, give them
each a pair of White Gloves?
A MAYOR’S BEST FRIEND
An excellent public relations exercise, the tactic went a
long way to ensure the Borough’s involvement in the
school. Today things are a little different; it is only the
Mayor who receives a pair of White Gloves and the
Senior Scholar’s Latin oration recounts murky doings
in the years between.
(Put succinctly, the original, sizeable capital
investment of £10, from the interest on which the
White Gloves ought to be purchased, went missing
from - or into - the Borough accounts and has not been
seen since!)
Thus it is that nowadays, whilst the Justice and the
Minister no longer attend, when the Mayor of Hertford
visits at the end of Christmas term, he or
she is reminded by the senior scholar
that:
“in his Will proved in 1657 Ralph
Minors, the third Headmaster of this
School, left the Chief Burgesses of the
town of Hertford a sum of money, out of
the interest of which they were to buy a
pair of White Gloves for the Mayor
whenever he visited us before the
Christmas holidays, and he further directed
that if any interest was left over, it was to be
given to the well-deserving scholars.
However, in the reign of George 11 the money
disappeared.
Nevertheless, we offer you, most worthy Mayor
(dignissime Maior), this sign of our goodwill and good
behaviour, and we have no doubt that you will see to it
that the money is found and the interest paid to us”.
To which matter the Mayor annually promises, in Latin
and later in English, to give full attention. In the
meantime the School pays for the new White Gloves!
Frank Ferguson, Hertford
(With acknowledged thanks to the staff of Richard Hale School, Hertford.)
A mayor struck by lightning while on his way to feed his animals has hailed his pet dog after it led him back to his
house to raise the alarm and get medical treatment.
Ian Thomas, Mayor of Redruth in Cornwall, was struck by lightning while holding a metal bowl, throwing him into the
air and leaving him stunned and dazed on the floor. He grabbed hold of his eight-stone black schnauzer, Monty, who
led him back to his house where Mr Thomas alerted his wife, Sharen.
Southern Daily Echo, October 2011
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