SCHOOLS 



to see that the school and benches, when the 

 boys go away in the evening are swept, cobwebs, 

 dust, and dirt carried away. The last statute is 



62. The masters are not to keep a family under 

 the school roofs, nor have beds there ; let women, as 

 deadly pests, be kept away (muliercs tanquam pestet 

 capitalts absunto). 



Then comes a pompous and long-winded 

 admonition, addressed to the masters, to the 

 effect that they may add anything that occurs to 

 them as useful, and, as with mock modesty the 

 governors add, 'for all we know, better,' and a 

 reminder that though their province is small it is 

 of great importance. 



Lastly, follow in English, ' Articles to be re- 

 cited to them that shall offer their children to be 

 taught in the schoole.' They comprise an under- 

 taking that the child shall obey the master and 

 'huisher,' that the parents will find him paper, 

 ink, pens, books, candles in winter, and other 

 things necessary ; and allow him 



at all tymes, a bow, 3 shaftes, bowstrynges, and a 

 braser to exercise shootynge. You shall be contente to 

 receive your childe and put him to some occupacion 

 if after one yere's experience he shall be founde unapte 

 to the learnynge of Gramer. 



Finally ; \d. was to be paid the usher ' for 

 enrollinge of your childe's name.' 



The first schoolmaster under the charter, who 

 we may reasonably conjecture was carrying on 

 the school at the time of the grant, was John 

 King, who described himself as 'of Bury, Scol- 

 mayster,' in making his will 1 on 12 August, 

 1552, 'in the syxt yere 'of Edward VI, and gave 

 20J. and a silver spoon to each of 5 people, includ- 

 ing his mother, Margaret Tomlynson, wife of 

 Richard Tomlynson of Colchester, whom he 

 calls his father-in-law. But his wife was dead, 

 and he lodged at ' my hostyes Cheston,' to whom 

 he gave ' my cobbornes, the fire pans, and the 

 tonges,' and William Cheston, tanner, no doubt 

 her husband, he made executor and residuary 

 legatee. The most interesting legacy was — 



Item I do geue for implements to remayne unto 

 the scholle the hangyns in my chamber, one table, one 

 jovned form, one sede [no doubt his master's chair], 

 Pline de naturali historia, Virgilius cum commento, 

 Oratius cum commento, Ouidius cum commento. 



Item I geve to Mr. Stirman, Eusebius ecclesie 

 historia. 



The boys of Bury were therefore already 

 reading the best classical authors. 



The resuscitated Bury school quickly regained, 

 if it had ever lost, the highest rank among the 

 schools of the county. For it appears in the Gon- 

 ville and Caius College Register as one of the chief 

 contributors to that college in the early years of 

 Elizabeth, when the register begins. In 1562 

 2 boys from that school, in 1563 3 boys, in 



1 Bury Wills, Camd. Soc. 1850, p. 140. 



1564 2 boys, were admitted. As they came at 

 the ripe ages of 18 and 20, instead of at such 

 immature years as 16 and even 12, as boys did 

 from smaller and inferior schools ; and comprised 

 boys not only from Bury itself, but from Stan- 

 ningfield, Brettenham, Stowmarket, Moulton, 

 Tuddenham, and West Wickham in Cambridge- 

 shire, and as several of them were described as the 

 sons of gentlemen, though most of them, it is true, 

 were sons of those of middling means or middle 

 class (mediocr'u fortunae), it is pretty clear that it 

 occupied the position of a great public school. 



Similar evidence of status is afforded by the 

 St. John's College Register when that begins in 

 1630, the boys being drawn from all over Suffolk 

 and comprising not only yeomen (agrico/ae), whose 

 sons were mostly admitted as sizars, but esquires 

 and D.D.'s, whose sons were admitted as 

 ' pensioners,' or paying pupils and as fellow com- 

 moners. 



The school library, to which John King con- 

 tributed, received a considerable accession from 

 Henry Hervey's gift in 1 560. He had succeeded 

 Stephen Gardiner as master of Trinity Hall, and 

 was no doubt one of the neighbouring family at 

 Ickworth, who became earls and then marquises 

 of Bristol. Stephen Cheston, a witness to King's 

 will, who became archdeacon of Winchester, gave 

 Cicero's works in 1561; and one of the governors, 

 Thomas Andrews, gave a large number of books 

 in 1565. 



The master in 1562 is said to have been 

 Philip Mandeville. 



The first accretion to the endowment was an 

 exhibition foundation by Edward Hewer, citizen 

 of London, and no doubt an old boy. He gave 

 by will 6 February, 1569, three houses in Botolph 

 Lane near Billingsgate, London, for the main- 

 tenance of 4 scholars from Bury School to be 

 ' found and presented by the several oaths of the 

 schoolmaster and usher to be most apt to learn- 

 ings and likely to continue in the same,' to have 

 yearly each £6 131. 4^. The scholars were 'to 

 principally and chiefly study physic and civil law 

 after they should have proceeded in the knowledge 

 of the Latin and Greek tongues and other arts,' 

 2 to civil law and 2 to physic. These exhibi- 

 tions have been regularly kept up. 



On 12 March, 1583, the governors made new 

 statutes with the expressed consent of Edmund 

 [Scambler] bishop of Norwich. This time they 

 were in English, but were inscribed in the gover- 

 nors' statute book in black letter. They provided 

 for yearly meetings on Thursday after the Epi- 

 phany, 6 lanuary. One main object of the new 

 statutes appears to have been to devolve the 

 duties of the governors, during the interval be- 

 tween the yearly meetings, on two ' comptrollers,' 

 to manage the affairs of theschool, including the ad- 

 mission of boys, and render account at the yearly 

 meeting, writing the account in a book. The 

 books, unfortunately, have disappeared. After 

 the account the senior comptroller had to go out 



15 



