Hitchin Boys' School (HBS) is an academy-status secondary school, with sixth form, located in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England. Founded in 1632 by John Mattocke, the single-sex school currently educates around 1,500 male pupils. The sixth form is part of a consortium for wider teaching with other schools in the town, mixing some classes with pupils from Hitchin Girls' School and The Priory School. History Hitchin Boys' School was founded on 25 July 1632 by John Mattock. Originally it was an Old Free School, and its first Headmaster was Thomas Heyndy. The rigours of the English Civil War put strain on the teaching at the school, especially as boys were more inclined to watch Oliver Cromwell pass through Hitchin. In 1664 William Patricke succeeded Heyndy as Headmaster. He relaxed the rules of the school, allowing laxer and simpler Latin as well as more English and Mathematics lessons to be taught in the "Free and Easy School", as Patricke put it. The school in the 17th century In 1680 Richard Stone became the third Headmaster of the School. He did not know anything about Classics and preferred to live "in the quiet enjoyment of the school". This allowed the students to become lazier than under Patricke, and the Trustees at the school were forced to endure a testing period. After Stone's death in 1691 Sir Ralph Radcliffe employed a new Headmaster – Thomas Cheyney – who invoked discipline and original Latin. Under Cheyney and his successor, Thomas Harris, school life was good, but a fallout between Radcliffe and his co-trustees brought the school to the brink again, and when Harris died in 1709 Radcliffe and Laurence Tristam – another School Trustee – appointed the new Headmaster – James Lawrence – without consulting the other Trustees. However, the Trustees hatched a counter-attack to this, and summoned the Reverend Richard Finch from London to the School so that when Lawrence, Tristam and Radcliffe arrived, the School had been overthrown. The matter went to a "Chancery suit", and in the end the defence were defeated by a strong argument for putting Finch in the job, with Lawrence proved incapable of teaching. A new board of Trustees was formed, five by the prosecution and four by the defendants. A new chapter The Reverend Richard Finch retired in 1720, having created a storm by teaching the boys too well and raising them far above their working-class backgrounds. As