Local or, as they were then called, Middle Class examinations were established by the University of Oxford in 1857 and by Cambridge in 1858. The scheme was prompted by Dr Temple (later Archbishop of Canterbury) and Mr (later Sir) Thomas Dyke Acland. The object of the examinations was to bridge the gap between public schools, which looked to the universities, and elementary schools, which looked to the examinations of HM Inspectors. The idea that girls might enter for these examinations was discussed by Emily Davies and Elizabeth Garrett but no actions were taken (see Barbara Stephen, Emily Davies and Girton College, page 83).
In June 1862 the admission of women to university examinations was one of the questions discussed in London at the sixth annual meeting of the Social Science Association. In July ED wrote to Dr G D Liveing (Secretary, University Local Examinations at Cambridge) and to Mr J Griffiths (Secretary at Oxford) about the possibility of admitting women to the examinations. GCPP Davies 8/6 and 8/138 are their replies.
A committee was formed in October with ED as secretary, with a view to obtaining the admission of women to the examinations, in the interests above all of providing an objective qualification for female teachers. Other members were Barbara Bodichon, Eliza Bostock (founder of Bedford College), Isa Craig, Mr Russell Gurney, George Hastings, James Heywood, and Lady Goldsmid (Treasurer). Later the Dean of Canterbury (Dr Henry Alford) became chairman.
The papers LOC 1-276 (now GCPP Davies 8/1-190) were found so arranged and numbered in 1976. To them Marguerite Gollancz added (in 1976) the minute book of the committee, October 1862 to 13 August 1869 (being the date of the dissolution of the committee) with an undated memorandum (one of several papers enclosed with the minute book) on Reasons for the Admission of Women to University Examinations (now GCPP Davies 8/191-192). Many of these letters and papers would seem to form part of the archive of the committee, others would seem to form part of ED's personal archive, others again were probably either returned to her or sent to Girton College, those to Henry Tomkinson and to Anna Richardson being returned after the deaths of the recipients (Family Chronicle 272).
There is some interconnection between this correspondence and that assembled as SIC (now GCPP Davies 6), this forming part of ED's personal archive and relating mainly to the Schools Inquiry Commission of 1864.
The papers included in GCPP Davies 8 relate mainly to: Cambridge, including the London centre with Henry Tomkinson as secretary, and Liverpool with a hostile group; Oxford, with Thomas Dyke Acland a member of the Exeter Group; Scotland; general, including the committee minutes and other papers; general correspondence, including that with Anna Richardson (Family Chronicle 257-261, 263-288). The papers relating to Cambridge include the memorial submitted to the University and passed, by a tiny majority and to ED's surprise, in March 1865, letters of support from many signatories, and correspondence from and to ED about an experimental examination of girls held in London in December 1863 (about finding examiners, range of subjects and practical arrangements for the examination).
Frequent correspondents in these papers include the following:
Sir Thomas Dyke Acland (1809-1898): eleventh baronet, a politician and educational reformer (10 items);
Charles Gray: Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; succeeded G D Liveing as Secretary of the Cambridge University Local Examinations Syndicate (8 items);
John Griffiths (1806-1885): Secretary to the Delegates of Local Examinations, keeper of the archives of Oxford University, and later Warden of Wadham College, Oxford (27 items);
Thomas Markby (1824-1870): a headmaster, Classical lecturer at Trinity Hall and a member and later Secretary of the Cambridge University Local Examinations Syndicate (8 items);
Robert Potts (1805-1885): of Trinity College, Cambridge; a mathematician, a private tutor in the University of Cambridge, active in University reform and Secretary of the Local Examinations Committee at Cambridge (92 items);
Anna Deborah Richardson (1806-1892): social reformer living in Newcastle upon Tyne and Grasmere (11 items);
Henry Richard Tomkinson (1831-1906): a staunch supporter of women’s higher education who served Girton College for many years in various positions (25 items).