Sixteenth century benefactor William Harpur was a Bedford boy. Sent to London  as an apprentice tailor he made his fortune, became Mayor of London and founded Bedford's Harpur Trust. He rose from the  humble position of  apprentice to become a freeman of the Merchant Tailors' Company in 1553, and  developed wider business interests which brought him considerable wealth and a knighthood from Elizabeth I. Harpur was determined to put the fortune he amassed to good use in his home town. He purchased land in Saint Paul's Square, Bedford, for the construction of the Grammar School around 1548, and in Holborn to provide an income through rents, to maintain the school and pay for pupils. Money left over was to be used to marry off poor girls and feed the malnourished. Harpur married twice, first to Dame Alice in 1547 after whom one of the town's girl's schools is named, and then,  taking his second wife at the age of seventy-seven, to  Margaret Lethers with whom he is buried in Saint Paul's Church, Bedford.

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