A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



of office, the junior becoming senior for the next 

 year. Leases, however, were only to be granted 

 under the common seal and with the consent of 

 a majority of the governors. The election of 

 master and usher and their installation was also 

 to be done by the majority of the governors. 

 Any governor absent from a meeting was fined 

 is. The first twenty-four entries are wholly 

 taken up with the business arrangements. 



By article 25 the master's 'wages' were fixed 

 at £20, and by article 26 the ' huisher's' at £10 

 a year. The rest of the statutes are with few 

 •exceptions only translations of the Latin statutes 

 ■of 1550. One exception was that by article 

 50 the morning prayers were now to be in 

 English and 'at night or afternoone ' in Latin. 

 In article 70, on games, the two sports of shoot- 

 ing and running are explained to be shooting at 

 the long-bow and ' runnynge at base,' but 

 whether this means ' prisoners' base ' or ' base- 

 ball ' is left in doubt. In article 75 the prefects 

 •or monitors appear as 'enquestors' (i.e. inquisi- 

 tors), and the spies on them ' especials and withe 

 skowt watches.' 



On 1 September, 1583, 'John Wright, Master 

 of Arte ' was ' admytted and inducted to be 

 scholemaster ' from Michaelmas following 



■duringe his naturall life if he shall be duringe the 

 saide tyme of good behaveour and diligently and 

 faithfully behave himself in teachinge and governinge 

 the saide schole and scholers there for the tyme 

 beinge as shall appertayne to the dutie of a good 

 scholemaster. 



The earliest extant record of the acts of the 

 governors is in 



the Register beginning the last daie of December 

 in the yeare of our Lorde God one thousande Five 

 Hundred fourscore and nine of the names, elections, 

 actes, and remembrances of the governors, 



■etc., setting out their full legal title and date of 

 foundation. The first entry contains the 

 names of the governors on 31 December, 

 1589, only eleven in number, headed by William 

 Baker, the last survivor of the original governors, 

 followed by Albert Goldinge, esq., and Anthony 

 Payne, gent. Five others are described as 

 * gent.,' Henry Homingold and Thomas 

 Gippes having no qualification appended to 

 their names. When in a subsequent docu- 

 ment names were signed, it is noticeable that 

 Horningold could not sign his name, but made his 

 mark. The next entry is of the election seven 

 years before, 21 January, 1582-3, of four addi- 

 tional colleagues by the four then surviving original 

 governors, named in the Letters Patent of 

 Edward VI. The fact that this entry is made on 

 a loose two-page paper inserted in the book, 

 coupled with the opening words of the register 

 already quoted, seems to show that there had been 

 no register before and that the business had been 

 rather carelessly conducted. The first act of 



3 



the governors in the new register was to bring 

 up their body to the full number of 16. There 

 seems to have been some doubt of the regularity 

 of the new elections as on 3 January following, 

 1589-90, all those elected before 31 Decem- 

 ber, were declared elected by Baker as sole 

 survivor of the original governors. They then 

 proceeded to re-elect those appointed on 3 I De- 

 cember, 1589, in the presence of a notary public, 

 George Smyth, who solemnly witnessed the pro- 

 cess in a lengthy Latin ' instrument ' under his 

 notarial mark, quite in the mediaeval style. It 

 is interesting to note that the governors kept a 

 beadle [bedell) whose wages were 26*. 8c/. a 

 year. 



On 8 December, 1590, William Baker, the 

 last of the original governors, died. 



On 26 February, I 590—1, the governors raised 

 the salary of the ' Scholemaister ' from £20 to 

 £24, and of the ' huyssher, in respect that he 

 no we is maister of arts ' from £1010^136*. 8d. 

 There were then 2 'comptrollers' elected an- 

 nually, one of them being always new, who 

 apparently received all rents and made all pay- 

 ments, accounting yearly to the governors. The 

 account books have unfortunately disappeared, 

 and as the register naturally contains little else 

 than elections of governors, and grants of leases of 

 the school lands, it sheds only casual lights on the 

 school history. On 26 December, 1595, we find 

 the comptroller ordered to 



twice in the yere call twoo Apposers with which the 

 companye of the same comptrollers or one of them 

 and ij or iij of the other Governors shall resort to this 

 Schole to appose the Schollers of the same Schole. 



The term apposer for an examiner is of course a 

 relic of the old system of learning by debate, the 

 examiner putting or posing a question and the 

 examinee answering or responding. The exa- 

 miners for New College at Winchester are still 

 called Posers, and the prize-giving at St. Paul's 

 and the Mercers' dinner to celebrate it are still 

 called Apposition Day and Apposition Dinner. 

 On 1 June, 1596, Edmund Coote, M.A., was 

 appointed master on Wright's resignation, but his 

 tenure was changed from ' for good behaviour,' 

 like that of judges, to that of the 



will and pleasure of the governors, which seeme the 

 most agreable to the true intent and meanynge of the 

 king's lettres patentes. 



On 11 January, 1596-7, William Clarke, B. A., 

 was elected usher per viam probation!! — the 

 governors' minutes show a curious see-saw be- 

 tween the English and Latin tongues — by way 

 of probation to Lady Day next. This mode of 

 tenure however displeased him and he utterly 

 refused to accept office, so Edmund Aldham was 

 elected instead, on probation, and was elected on 

 Lady Day to hold at pleasure of the governors. 

 On 15 May, 1597, Coote resigned the mastership 

 and as the resignation is accompanied by the long 

 16 



