A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



This pert diarist then proceeds to tell how he 

 once routed Mr. Hubbard, an M.A. of Trinity 

 College, Cambridge, who came and examined 

 his form : — 



I took him twice or thrice tripping in false Latin 

 and gave him notice of it, which so nettled him he 

 broke off abruptly with me and awhile after departed 

 out of the school. 



The system of using the upper boys as pupil 

 teachers and of talking Latin in school was 

 common to all the public schools at this time. 



On 17 April, 1 61 8, 'the highe master,' as by 



his continuall prayers and dilligence he hathe much 

 weakness of body and spirits . . . unlesse he may 

 take some other helpe unto him to goe throughe with 

 his worke in the busines of the schole, 



the governors, 



considering the great losse that a multitude of youth 

 shoulde susteyne in their education and instruction if 

 the said master should give up his place, 



gave him £5 a year more, £40 a year in all, 

 ' whereby he maye at his owne charge take some 

 helpe unto him,' a third master in addition to the 

 usher. This was to be ' no president ' for his 

 successor as ' highe master.' 



On 26 October, 1624, the first mention of a 

 leaving exhibition from the school was given, 

 'John Glover, nowe a scholler whoe hath 

 formerly hadd £3 a year allowed him by this 

 Company,' apparently by way of exhibition at 

 the school, being given '£6 a year towards his 

 mayntenaunce in Cambridge,' and 20s. towards a 

 gown. 



In 1626 the governors bought lands at Brad- 

 field from Sir Thomas Jermyn. 



On 16 January, 1632-3, £10 a year was 

 given the 'highe master' towards his 'under 

 huisher,' and Mr. John Hobman, the ' chief 

 huisher's' salary was raised from /20 to £25 a 

 year : and an exhibition of £4. a year at Cam- 

 bridge given to Thomas Fison. On 12 March, 

 1635-6, the governors paid 'as a voluntary gift 

 20 marks towards £213 16;. 8^/.' assessed on 

 Bury as part of £8,000, ship-money levied from 

 the county of Suffolk, but it was refused in 1640 

 when Parliament had declared it illegal. 



Dickinson produced one most distinguished 

 scholar in William Sancroft, the archbishop of 

 Canterbury, who, after standing up to James II 

 as one of the ' seven bishops' while he was king, 

 blindly adhered to his allegiance to him when he 

 had abdicated. Sancroft was from Fressingfield 

 in Suffolk, and went from Bury to Emmanuel, 

 the great Puritan college at Cambridge, 3 July, 

 1634. 



Another was John Gauden, the real author 

 of that creation of dreary platitudes, lion Basilike, 

 which had a furore of success as the reputed 

 work of the ' royal martyr, Charles I.' More 

 perhaps than any other book it contributed to 



the restoration of the Stuart dynasty, and its 

 author was rewarded with the bishopric of 

 Worcester. 



On 1 April, 1637, Dickinson's long and pros- 

 perous reign came to an end, and an entry in 

 Latin records his solemn surrender of office ' in 

 the upper chambre ' of the school. Edward 

 Frances, M.A., was the same day elected to 

 succeed him, but on 27 July, 1638, 'according 

 to his former promyse ' he delivered up his place, 

 receiving £5 towards his charge ' during the 

 sicknesse' (? the plague) at Bury. Mr. Hob- 

 man, the usher, received a similar sum. Dickin- 

 son retired to the living of Barton, where he died 

 in 1643 at the age of 70, having 'ruled Bury 

 School through 34 years most prudently,' as 

 his epitaph records. On 16 August William 

 Cowper, M.A., was elected master, only to 

 resign on 29 September. 



On 10 October, 1638, Thomas Stevens (or 

 Stephens, as he writes it himself), M.A., was 

 elected, to be ' high master of the free grammar 

 schoole.' He was a considerable author as well 

 as schoolmaster. He acquired fame by his edi- 

 tion, and still more by his translation into English 

 verse, of Statius' Achillas and Sylvae, published 

 during his second term of office, the former in 

 1648, the latter in 1651. In a dedication to 

 the governors he thanks them for restoring the 

 school buildings. The statues of Grammatica (or 

 Grammar) and Rhetorica (or Rhetoric) which 

 used to adorn the old school are believed to have 

 been of his procuring. He enjoyed the singu- 

 lar distinction of being the only master whe 

 had two terms of office, having after his retire- 

 ment in 1645 been solicited to return 2 years 

 afterwards, and enjoying a second reign longer 

 than the first. His entry into office was signal- 

 ized by new developments. On 27 March, 

 1 639, it was agreed that ' a house shall be bought 

 for the present mayntenaunce of Mr. Stephens 

 the high master,' and for that purpose a house 

 was bought from Mr. Hayes in the upper end 

 of Eastgate Street, and £100 paid for it on 

 9 September, 1640. This house, in his second 

 term, on 29 April, 1652, Mr. Stevens bought 

 from the governors for £120, perhaps in view 

 of the removal of the school, which, though it 

 actually took place only in 1 665, after Stevens' re- 

 tirement, was decided upon, during his mastership, 

 on 1 5 April, 1 66 1 . At the same time that a house 

 was bought, the school library was overhauled — 



the bokes belonging to the schole shalbe perused and 

 those which are superfluous and not fit for use shalbe 

 sold and newe of better use to be bought with the 

 money by Mr. Stephens. 



Another new development or, at least, one, if 

 not new, hitherto unnoticed in the governors' 

 books, was a school play ; the high master being, 

 on 10 October, 1639, allowed £6 131. 4^. 

 towards his charges in the late acting of a 

 'comedye by the schollers.' On 16 December 



3'8 



