Bishop's College School or BCS is an English-language non-profit independent boarding prep school in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada for students in Grades 7 to 12.Thomson, Ashley; Lafortune, Sylvie (1999). Handbook of Canadian Boarding Schools. Toronto: Dundurn Press Ltd. p. 488. .Le Bishop's College School attire des élèves de partout au Canada et à l'international (2019, 27 September). Retrieved 6 June 2020Bishop's College School continues to attract qualified students from both Canada and around the world. (2019, 7 September). Retrieved 6 June 2020 Founded in 1836, BCS is the fifth oldest private school in Canada.The others being Upper Canada College, King's Edge Hill and St. John's Ravenscourt BCS has the highest endowment per student of any independent school in Canada.John Littleford & Associates. (2019). Bishop's College School Head of School Position.Bishops College School. (n.d.). Guide to giving and getting involved Retrieved 13 March 2021 Seven BCS people have been named Rhodes Scholars.Rhodes Scholars: Ogden Glass, P. T. Molson, David Wanklyn, F. R. Scott, Frank Ernest Hawkins, John Farthing A royal charter was granted in 1853 from Queen Victoria for Bishop's College when BCS was the constituent junior division. The school was recognized as the "Eton of Canada" initially by the first Governor General of Canada, Lord Monck on a visit in 1864.Page 44~50, My Canadian Leaves: An Account of a Visit to Canada in 1864–1865 by Frances Elizabeth Owen Monck, The archives of the University of California It locates at the heart the historic Eastern Townships and near New England. The school is recognized as a Quebec cultural heritage site in the Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec.
BCS was first known as the Lennoxville Classical School by the Rev. Lucius Doolittle (1800–1862) assisted by Edward Chapman (M.A., Cambridge).The Mitre (1921–1922 issue). (1922). Lennoxville: Bishop's University.Journals of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada (2nd ed., Vol. 8, Ser. 28). (1849). Ottawa, Canada: Canada. Parliament. Legislative Assembly. Traditionally, the school catered to the sons of the Protestant elites in the United Empire Loyalists and the residents of the Montreal Golden Square Mile. A link to the Canadian Royal Family was maintained by King Edward VII, George V, George VI, Edward VIII, et alia whether during royal visits or whilst studying in Canada. In May 1989, The Duke of Edinburgh inspected BCS cadet corps and presented the school a new coat of arms. The BCS Cadet Corps #2 is the oldest continuous service corps in Canada – has been affiliated with the Black Watch. Over 120 alumni made the ultimate sacrifice in the First and Second World War.
King's Hall Compton, or KHC, its sister school, was founded in 1874 where heads of BCS such as James Williams acted as the first chairman. In 1972, the two institutions merged making it one of the first co-ed independent schools in Canada. The same year, KHC closed its doors and its staff and students were transferred to BCS. In 1995, Nancy Layton was appointed as Head of School, which made BCS the first co-ed independent school with a female headmaster in Canada. The School's former faculty was also responsible for the founding of Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario in 1865, and Ashbury College as an affiliated institute in 1891 to accommodate BCS Ottawa-based students. BCS raised six Canadian independent schools in total, making it once known as the "school of the headmasters" during the early 20th century."The Inventions of Reginald Fessenden: Part XI", Radio News, November 1925, pages 590–591, 712–718SSOE – Electrical and Computer Engineering – About. (n.d.). Retrieved 9 December 2020, from https://www.engineering.pitt.edu/Departments/Electrical-Computer/_Content/About/About/
"Bishop" in the school's name derives from one of its founders, the Lord Bishop of Québec, the Right Reverend George Mountain, the first Principal of McGill University from 1824 to 1835, and the founder of Bishop's University who intended to create a preparatory grammar school for these two universities. Today, the school's senior students may be eligible to take credit courses at Bishop's University for advanced standing. Some facilities of Bishop's University are used by BCS such as the swimming pool, golf course, rinks, library, etc. In academics, the school offers the Provincial Diplomas of Québec and New Brunswick along with optional and selective Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate curricula, under a rigorous academic environment. The school has been a member of the Round Square since 1986 and affiliated to (CAIS+) (founding member since 1981), QAIS, FEEP de Québec, TABS, the U.S. NAIS and NEPSAC, etc. The students are from around 40 countries.
The school is notable for its mandatory athletic programs, where the alumni community includes multiple Olympians and five current members of the National Hockey League (NHL).Alexandre Blais, BCS'24. Anaheim Ducks, Noah Dobson, BCS'18. New York Islanders, Dawson Mercer, BCS'19. New Jersey Devils, Evan Nause, BCS'21. Florida Panthers, Elliott Groenewold, BCS'24. Boston Bruins>
History Lennoxville Classical School, the beginnings and growth
Around 1834, the Church of England in Canada Rector of Sherbrooke and Lennoxville, the Rev. Lucius Doolittle M.A. (1800–1862, American) from New England built Elmwood, to serve as a rectory of the Sherbrooke–Lennoxville mission. It is still standing at 43 Queen Street. (Elmwood Hotel Today). With assistance from Edward Chapman (M.A., Cambridge, a professor of classics at McGill University) and financial support from the church policy supporting public education in the province, he opened a school in a wing of the rectory, in 1836 which became the Lennoxville Classical School. The school was designed for "the education of sons of English Gentlemen", as the local anglophone and Protestant elites (especially the ones in the United Empire Loyalist) settling in the Lower Canada were in need of a suitable preparatory school for their children.""Siggins, M. (2000). ""Bassett: John Bassett's forty years in politics, publishing, business and sports"" (pp. 24–27). Toronto: James Lorimer & Company Limited. Lennoxville Classical School was modeled on the great public schools of Britain, especially Eton College but provided a bilingual environment and an immersion into Canadian culture under the Church of England spiritual atmosphere. The. Hon Edward Hale provided legal and finance assistance on top of the church.
Bishop's University was established in 1843 as Bishop's College and remained under the Anglican church's direction from its founding until 1947. At the beginning of the establishment, the main students of BCS came from the merchant/political families of the Ross, Gault, Stoker, McConnell, MacLernon, Price, Bronfman, Molson, MacDougall, McNaughton in the Golden Square Mile residential area of Montreal.
In 1861 the foundation stone of the first school built on the Bishop's University site was laid by the last office holder of the Commander-in-Chief, North America General Sir Fenwick Williams, of Kars, who took a great interest in the Institution and who was a personal friend of Captain Rawson, an BCS alumni who later taken place in the Anglo-Egyptian War. The new school was a handsome Gothic building, surmounted by a tower—a wing being added to it in 1864.
Notably in the Classical School Era, Sir James David Edgar (10 August 1841 – 31 July 1899), later the 7th Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada, was educated at the School, where his father James Edgar of a Peerage of Scotland decent was appointed the Second Master by the Rev. Lucius Doolittle.
The Classical School was also being investigated by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham (Lord Durham) and his chief secretary The Right Honourable Charles Buller during their famous survey tour of the two Canadas that leads to the famous Durham Report. Buller commented the education in Lower Canada and BCS as that:
At Little Forks, in Bishop's University
"Bishop" in the school name today comes from the Lord Bishop of Québec and Montréal, The Right Reverend Dr. George Mountain (DCL, Oxford) who was also the first Principal of McGill College from 1824 to 1835 and the founder of Bishop's University. In 1843, the Lennoxville Classical School became Bishop's College School, under the direction of Edward Chapman (Headmaster 1842), the Bishop Mountain and the principal of BU, Jasper Hume Nicolls (a fellow of The Queen's College, Oxford). The original Prospectus referenced the foundation of the college, with clause five granting BCS the affiliation with BU:The Mitre (1894–1895 issue). (1895). Lennoxville: Bishop's University.https://www.ubishops.ca/wp-content/mitre-archives/1894-1895-Issue6.pdf
James Williams (bishop) (1825–1892) graduated from Pembroke College, Oxford in 1851 was appointed Headmaster of the grammar school in 1857. The Bishops William Hall at the Little Forks Campus is donated completely by BCS alumni to honor their headmaster, yet after the transfer of the school across the river, the building became the property of Bishop's University.
Bishop's College applied to Queen Victoria for a royal charter and received it in 1853 highlights providing education for young people in Lower Canada when BCS was a constituent part of the Bishop's College, and where then Bishop's University today was the University of Bishop's College. There was no gymnasium in those days, but the boys had bars, swings, etc., in one corner of the play-ground. From 1860 onwards, the surroundings of the school began to develop substantially. The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) located a station in Lennoxville. It would now take only 4 hours to Ottawa, 6 hours to Toronto and 8 hours to New York City from BCS by train. The student body began to grow more diverse. In 1864, the first Governor General of Canada (Then as the Governor-Generals of the two Canadas) after the Canadian Confederation, Lord Monck visited BCS with Lady Monck, a quote was left:
BCS Cadet Corps #2, the oldest continuous service corps in Canada, was formed in 1861 as the Volunteer Rifle Company in the Fenian Raids and the for facing the threats of the North from the American Civil War by the BCS Rector/BU Principal Rev. Dr. Thomas Adams (Oxford). Beating the oldest regular force military unit in Canada, The Royal Canadian Regiment for 22 years. In 1879, the first Prime Minister of Canada Sir John A. Macdonald granted the Rifle Company the number "No.2" in its name in the newly authorized Drill Associations in the dominion schools and permitted a grant of the rifles.Order in Council under Section 77 of the Militia Act, 10 July 1879No.1 Cadet Corps was St. Hyachinthe which ceased to exist
During the American Civil War, the president of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis sent his two sons Williams and Jefferson Jr. to BCS and her daughter at Couvent du Sacré-Coeur, he eventually lived on BCS campus and Lennoxville with his wife.
In October 1879, BCS obtained financial independence from the Bishop's University and established the Bishop's College School Acossiation under a capital stock of five hundred dollars registered under the company act of Québec, through an act passed in the Legislative Assembly of Quebec forming a corporation that forms by the Lord Bishop of Quebec and 11 other members.Statutes of the Province of Québec 1878. (1878). Québec. The school also used historically the Latin name of "Episcopi Collegium de Lennoxville" The Mayor of Sherbrooke and the influential leader in the Eastern Townships Richard William Heneker acted as the first chair of the BCS Board. His son General Sir William Heneker subsequently attended BCS.
Independence of the BCS Association