A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



contracts entered into in the said town and on all 

 trespasses there committed he cannot be called on to 

 answer to another in this behalf, but only before us 

 (the abbot) or our special deputy ; and we have learnt 

 that yon, at the instance and procurement of one 

 Alexander of Walsham, a scholar of his, have brought 

 Mr. William of Kimbcrle, appointed master of the 

 said school by us, before yourselves on the case of a 

 fictitious trespass falsely pretended to have been com- 

 mitted in the same, molesting and disquieting him 

 from day to day 



— they are to stay the proceedings. 



In Abbot Curteys' Register,' on the appoint- 

 ment of Robert Lawshull, priest, to the teach- 

 ing and mastership (regimen ft magisterium), of the 

 grammar school we find it still with only the same 

 endowment, viz. 3 marks or 40J. from the moiety 

 of Wetherden rectory, which it acquired from 

 the gift of Abbot Samson 300 years before. 

 Under the heading ' Copy of a letter issued 

 on the collation of the mastership (regiminis) 

 of the Grammar School of the town of Bury 

 (scolarum gramaticalium ville de Bury),' the fol- 

 lowing document 2 dated 24 September, 1444, 

 shows a small increase in value, the master now 

 being boarded and lodged in the almonry of the 

 monastery. 



William by divine permission abbot of the monas- 

 tery of St. Edmund of Bury immediately pertaining 

 to the church of Rome, to our beloved in Christ, 

 Mr. Robert Farceux, graduate in the science of 

 grammar and in the faculty of arts, Greeting. The 

 rectorship and mastership of the grammar school in 

 the town of St. Edmunds of Bury now vacant and in 

 our collation, with all its rights and appurtenances, and a 

 yearly pension of 40/. of silver from the moiety of the 

 parish church of Wetherden in our patronage, due 

 from the hands of the rectors to us and our monastery, 

 and all right of action we have to the same pension ; 

 also I p. \d. and a gown (roba) to be yearly delivered 

 by the hands of the Almoner of our said monastery 

 for the time being, with eatables and drinkables to be 

 served to you and one clerk in the almonry of the 

 said monastery daily, 3 and a proper chamber for you and 

 your said clerk, while you rule the said school in your 

 own person in praiseworthy fashion (dummodo scolas in 

 propria persona laudabiliter rexeris) and duly instruct 

 the scholars there meeting (confiuentes) for the sake of 

 the teaching, in manners and learning (mor'tbus et 

 sciencia debits informaveris) as the rank (condicio) and 

 conscience of a good teacher or master (doctoris sive 

 magistri) demand, we grant you by grace by these 

 presents for life, as long as you have not been else- 

 where promoted ; adding, that if it should happen 

 that you desert the said school at an unreasonable 

 time, without lawful impediment and without our 

 leave, thenceforth we will that this our grant shall 



1 B.M. MSS. Add. 14848, fol. 52^, «Collacio 

 scolarum de Bury facta Roberto Lawshull, presbitero.' 



' Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey, edited by Thomas 

 Arnold (Rolls Ser.), 1896, p. 249, from B.M. Add. 

 MSS. 7096, fol. 1 10. 



3 Diatim, not as printed by Mr. Arnold ' diutine,' 

 which is no word and makes no sense. 



lose all its force and virtue ; so that it may be lawful 

 for us and our successors freely to confer the said 

 school on any one we may please, notwithstanding 

 this present grant. In witness whereof we have 

 made these our letters patent, &c. 



We are not, however, without indirect evi- 

 dence of the school's continuance. In two 

 Account Rolls of the sacrist of the abbey, 4 one 

 of 1426-7 contains the item, ' Given toS. Nicho- 

 las, bishop, I2el.' ; and a similar entry, ' Given in 

 honour of S. Nicholas,' is contained in the roll 

 of 1537-8. The boy-bishop's ceremony thus 

 duly kept up is presumptive evidence of boys 

 to keep it up. So, too, in the will of Anne 

 Barctt of Bury, widow, 21 August, 1504, is the 

 provision for the purchase of land to the value of 

 11 marks (£7 10s.) a year, for a stipendiary 

 priest for 20 years, and then ' 40J. of the same T 

 wyll that yt be geven amongs poore scolcrs to 

 help them to their exibicion and lcmyng tho 

 that be good and honest ' ; while Edmund Good- 

 body, her godson, was to have the ' service ' 

 when he became a priest, and ' be fownd to scoole 

 with my goods tyll he be of lawfull age to be 

 prystyd.' 



So, too, John Hedge by his will, 28 April, 

 1 504, gave, in the event of his son's death, a tene- 

 ment to be sold, and with the proceeds ' I wyll 

 have a priest or priests to go to scoole at Cam- 

 bridge to art and to non other science, and so to 

 continue as long as the money thereof Iaste.' It 

 would have been no use providing university 

 exhibitions if the exhibitioners could not get a 

 grammar school education first. 



When the dissolution of monasteries took 

 place, here, as at St. Albans and elsewhere, a 

 vicious construction of the law made all the 

 trust property of the abbey pass to the king as 

 if it was part of the monastic property, and the 

 school endowment went with the abbey endow- 

 ments into the royal coffers. At least in the 

 chantry certificate for Suffolk in 1 548 s there 

 is a 



Memorandum yt is to be considered that the said 

 townne of Bury is a great and a populus townne, 

 havinge in yt twoo parryshe churches and in the 

 same parrishes above the nombre of 3000 howsclingc 

 peoples [representing a population of some 9,000] and 

 a greate nombre of yowth. 



The king takes all the tithes, finding only two 

 parish priests. 



And further theare is no schoole nor other lyke divise 

 founded within the seide towne or wythin 20 miles 

 of yt for the vertuous educacyon and bringing upp 

 of yowth, nor any hospytall or other like foundacion 

 for the comfort or relicfFe of the pover, of which 

 theare is exceedinge greate nombre within the seide 

 townne. 



4 Town Hall Muniments. 



5 Engl Schools at the Reformation, 216, from Chan. 

 Cert. 45, No. 46. 



!I2 



