# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mayo, Charles (1792-1846)

​MAYO, CHARLES (1792–1846), educational reformer, born in London 9 June 1792, was son of Charles Mayo, a solicitor in London, grandson of the Rev. Charles Mayo, M.A., rector of Corringham, Essex, and Castle Frome, Herefordshire, and great-grandson of Charles Mayo of Hereford. Elizabeth Mayo [q. v.] was his sister. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School and matriculated 25 June 1810, from St. John's College, Oxford. He was elected scholar of St. John's in the same year, and Laudian fellow 26 April 1813, and he graduated B.A. 1814, B.C.L. 1817 and D.C.L. 1822. He was ordained in December 1817, having in the previous August gone to Bridgnorth, Shropshire, as head-master of the grammar school, where he remained two years. Hearing through Mr. Synge of Glanmore Castle, Wicklow, of Pestalozzi's principles of education, he in 1819 joined the latter's establishment at ​Yverdun as English chaplain, bringing with him some English pupils. At Yverdun he remained nearly three years, mastering Pestalozzi's principles. Returning to England in April 1822, he resolved to devote his life to their introduction into this country. He at once opened a school at Epsom for the purpose of showing their application to the education of the upper classes, and when, in 1826, the number of boys outgrew the accommodation of the house there, he removed to Cheam, where he continued to carry on his school till his death. The undertaking was very successful; boys' names were entered several years before their school age, and on some occasions immediately upon their births. Among his more distinguished pupils may be reckoned Samuel Waldegrave, bishop of Carlisle; Henry Shepheard, fellow of Oriel, and subsequently master of Cheam school; Henry Richards Luard [q. v.], registrary of Cambridge University; and three sons of Sir Thomas Francis Fremantle, first lord Cottesloe. ‘With great earnestness of purpose, in Dr. Mayo's character was combined a sincere and all-absorbing yet somewhat simple piety, which was tinged with the principles of the evangelical revival, while at the same time he was a consistent and loyal son of the Church of England.’ Mayo took every opportunity of expounding Pestalozzi's system, and delivered a lecture on his life at the Royal Institution in May 1826. He also took great interest in the foundation and management of the Home and Colonial Training College in Gray's Inn Road, London, which was intended to show the application of Pestalozzianism to elementary education.
Mayo died 23 Feb. 1846, and was buried at Cheam, where a tablet, erected by pupils and friends, speaks of his work as illustrating, ‘both in theory and practice, the blessings of an education based upon Intellectual Development, Scriptural Teaching, and Christian Influence.’ By his wife Mary, daughter of Edward Walwyn Shepheard, esq., of Great Russell Street, London, he left issue a daughter Mary, and two sons, the Rev. Charles Theodore Mayo, M.A. (1832–1892), vicar of St. Andrew's, Hillingdon, Middlesex, and the Rev. Theodore Mayo, M.A., of Quatford House, Shropshire.
Mayo wrote ‘Observations on the Establishment and Direction of Infant Schools,’ 1827, and ‘Memoirs of Pestalozzi,’ 1828, besides numerous school books and sermons.
[Hist. of Mayo Family, 1882.]
C. H. M.