SCHOOLS 



abolished in 1540, and it may have been con- 

 sidered to disappear with it, or there may have 

 been some endowment held by a religious house, 

 which, according to the legal doctrine adopted, 

 was confiscated with the house. 



By will of 23 January, 1566, Sir Robert 

 Fulmerston gave the Trinity Churchyard and the 

 Black Friars' Churchyard to hisexecutors, Thomas 

 duke of Norfolk, and three others and their heirs, 

 and 3 tenements in St. Mary's, Thetford, in one 

 of which R. Hargreaves dwelt and the others 

 were decayed, and also another tenement in 

 which certain poor folk dwelt, with lands at 

 Croxton, on condition within 7 years after his 

 death to procure a licence to erect and establish a 

 free grammar school in Thetford, the 3 tene- 

 ments to be chambers for the master and usher, 

 and the Black Friars' yard for a schoolhouse to 

 be built upon ; while the poor folks' tenement 

 was to be for an almshouse. There was to be a 

 preacher to preach in St. Mary's and 4 times a 

 year to preach in remembrance of the founder at 

 10s. a sermon. The lands at Croxton were to 

 go to Edward Clare and his heirs, on condition 

 of settling lands worth ^35 a year ; this sum to 

 go in certain specified proportions to the preacher, 

 schoolmaster, usher, and poor, which sums made 

 up the whole ^35 a year. 



It is probable that Hargreaves was school- 

 master already. For what happened was that the 

 trustees built the schoolhouse on one corner of 

 the Black Friars' yard with a chamber for the 

 master, but made no provision of the kind for 

 the preacher or usher. In the first 20 years after 

 the will they paid the schoolmaster 20 marks 

 (£13 6s. 8d.), the usher ^5, and the preacher 

 j£2 a year, and to the 4 poor people a shilling a 

 week each. For the next 14 years they paid the 

 schoolmaster £20 and left the others as before. 



The master who enjoyed the augmented sti- 

 pend was the Rev. William Jenkinson. The 

 landowner seems to have claimed the whole 

 surplus income as his own. But a private Bill 

 was promoted in Parliament to establish the right 

 of the charity to it. The matter was referred 

 to the two Chief Justices, Fleming and the 

 celebrated Coke of Coke on Littleton. Thus 

 the Thetford School case, reported 8 Co. 130, 

 became a famous leading case on the law of 

 schools and charities. The chief justices certi- 

 fied their opinion that the whole ' revenue of the 

 lands,' which had grown from £35 to £100 a 

 year, ' shall be employed to increase the several 

 stipends and, if any surplus, nothing to be con- 

 verted by the devisees to their own use ' ; for 

 the founder had divided up the whole income at 

 the time and given nothing to the devisees, there- 

 by showing that ' he intended all the profits of 

 the land shall be employed in the charitable 

 works by him founded.' The House of Lords, 

 ' upon conference with all the judges,' agreed. 

 So both Houses passed the Bill, and the principle, 

 which has ever since governed the construction 



of deeds and wills founding charities, was firmly 

 established. 



A private Act of 7 James I was passed, which 

 incorporated the foundation as ' the Master and 

 Fellows of the School and Hospital of Thetford, 

 founded by King James according to the will of 

 Sir Robert Fulmerston,' the king not giving a 

 penny of endowment to the foundation to which 

 he affixed his name. A very ecclesiastical tinge 

 was given to it by the preacher, who was to be 

 always the curate, i.e. incumbent, of St. Mary's, 

 being made Master of the Hospital at a salary of 

 ^30 a year, while the schoolmaster was only 

 given 40 marks, or £26 1 31. \d., the usher ^20, 

 and the poor 2j. a week. The municipal corpora- 

 tion were made the governing body, and their con- 

 sent was necessary to leases by the corporation of 

 master and fellows. A new school and houses for 

 preacher, master, and usher, and poor, were ordered 

 to be built. The Act gave the school new life. 

 After a short tenure of five years by a Mr. Smith, 

 who was also curate of St. Mary's from 1624 

 to 1629, the Rev. William Ward occupied 

 the post throughout ' the troubles ' undisturbed, 

 and contributed divers boys to the Cambridge 

 Colleges of Caius and St. John's, some of them 

 evidently boarders from a distance. After the 

 Restoration, under the Rev. Mr. Keene from 

 1662 to 1 68 1, or later, we find the sons not 

 only of clerics but of knights and baronets 

 coming thence to St. John's College. After 

 that the Rev. John Price was master. He was ' 

 a 'sequestrator ' of St. Peter's, rector of Santon in 

 Norfolk, and Honington in Suffolk, as well as 

 ' master of the free school,' and curate of St. Cuth- 

 bert's, Thetford, where having died 27 February, 

 1736, he is buried, under a stone without inscrip- 

 tion, by the middle buttress of the south aisle wall. 

 The historian of Norfolk, who was ' brought up 

 under him above 10 years,' supplies the want of 

 an inscription by stating that he was ' a man of 

 sound learning and great eloquence, an excellent 

 preacher, discreet master, agreeable companion 

 and true friend.' In 1738, the Rev. Thomas 

 Eversdon was promoted from being usher to 

 head master, acting as usher as well, a conjunc- 

 tion which points to decay in the school. St. 

 John's College Registers know it no more. In 

 1 81 8 the Rev. H. C. Manning, LL.D., had been 

 master since 1778 and 'had for some time past 

 from advance of years,' declined private pupils. 

 The Rev. William Storr, LL.D., as usher, did 

 the work, but there were only 20 or 30 boys in 

 the school. 



When the commissioners of inquiry into 

 charities visited in 1 834, they found the school 

 practically divided into two schools, one under 

 the master, the other under the usher, who set 

 up as an independent potentate. The head 

 master was the Rev. R. Ward, appointed in 

 1830, and he had under him precisely 12 boys, 



Blomefield, Norfolk, ii, 66. 



305 



39 



