Claims
Historical claims
The statements that get made elsewhere as claims are set apart on this page — credit for founding, questions of precedence, dates and figures. Each carries three things: the form the claim takes in circulation, what the source actually says, and the document that would settle it.
Why this page exists
This archive is maintained by his grandson, so the strictest rule applies here. Two of the six findings below cut against the family’s case; they are on the page for that reason. About
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As it is told
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What the sources say
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What would settle it
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Rival accounts
Accounts that give the credit for these events to other people and families also circulate in the district. Such accounts will not be removed from this page — they will be recorded as they are told, with their source, and put to the same test as the claims above.
No rival account is recorded here yet. That does not mean none exists — only that none has reached this collection in a form that can be quoted. If you know of an account, circulating or published, that says something different from what is written here, it can be sent in. Given with a source, it will be set out on this page at the same length as the rest.
The rule on this page
Where a source says “secretary”, “headmaster” or “attempt”, this page does not write “founder”; and where the only basis is a single later publication, a statement stays “recorded”, not “established”.
Both sources behind this page — the 1982 booklet and the statue inscription — are set out in full on the References page, and every conflict between them in the list of discrepancies. If a document turns up that refutes a claim, it will appear here too, and the relevant line will change on both the chronology and the biography. Nothing is deleted silently; the reason for a change is recorded.