SCHOOLS 



following another play was in contemplation, he 

 being ordered to be paid what he had 



layd out and disbursed for the makyng of a stage at 

 the Abby for a commodye for the entertaynment of 

 the High Sheriff of the county of Suffolk that now is ; 

 and the seid stage to be kept and preserved to the use 

 of the schoole. 



On 9 September, 1640, £6 13*. \d. was again 

 paid to the ' high mayster towards his charges 

 of performing a commodye.' 



There are continual entries of exhibitions, one 

 of ^5 on 27 March, 1641, to Thomas Fletcher, 

 'for his reedying at Lincolnes Inne,' while 

 Thomas Sargent the barber was ordered, 4 May, 

 1 64 1, to have an exhibition of £4 a year at 

 Cambridge ' soe long as he shall well behave 

 himself,' and on 20 June, 1641-2, Thomas son 

 of Sibell Crew was given 401. ' towards his 

 setting forth for Cambridge.' 



The Civil War made no difference to the 

 school. Some arrears of rent due for 1644 were 

 not recovered till 1649, but the school itself went 

 on as usual, and so did the governors' meetings. 

 On 15 October, 1 645, Thomas Stevens resigned 

 the mastership. Thomas Lye, B.A., was the 

 same day appointed in his stead. On 23 Decem- 

 ber following John Hobman retired, after being 

 usher apparently ever since Plumbe's dismissal 

 in 1 609, and at all events for some years before 

 1633, when as we saw his salary was raised. 



On 9 April, 1646, Mr. Isaac Tucker was 

 appointed usher. But on 20 January following 

 both he and the high master Lye received notice 

 to go at Lady Day. On Lady Day, 1647, 

 Jeremy Welby, M.A., was elected high master 

 (quamdiu se bene gesserit) ; and on 30 March 

 Reginald Bokenham, usher. The latter held for 

 8 years. The former, though he received £40 

 a year and the house, surrendered the place 

 17 days later, 12 April. 



For 6 months there was no master. Then, 

 ■on 11 September, 1647, the governors, ' takinge 

 into consideration that the schoole ... is be- 

 come muche decayed and very few schollers left 

 therein,' as Mr. Stevens undertook to 'use his 

 utmost endeavoure to replenyshe the hye schoole 

 with many of his schollers which he now 

 teachethe,' and having had ' experience of his 

 abilities,' elected him high master again. It is 

 interesting to find the term ' high school ' used 

 in the thirteenth century thus being still applied, 

 like the term 'school hall,' to the ancient school 

 in its new quarters. Probably the ill-success of 

 Stevens's successors had been due to the com- 

 petition of Stevens himself, who seemingly was 

 conducting a private school in the town all the 

 time. At Lady Day following Mr. Bokenham, 

 the usher, was given £5 for teaching the whole 

 school during the interregnum. 



Very soon after Stevens's new election we find 

 exhibitions again being given : Edward son of 

 John Pettyt 'of this towne ' being allowed £5 



3 1 



a year for maintenance and 331. \d. for 'a gowne 

 and other necessaryes.' On 4 August, 1649, 

 William son of Lancelot Thetford was given an 

 exhibition to keep him at Emmanuel College, 

 Cambridge ; while in the following March 

 2 exhibitions were given to John Clarke and 

 William Elliott, both sons of poor ministers 

 deceased, for a year ; and these were subsequently 

 extended, Clarke's ceasing in 1654, and Elliott 

 then receiving 10s. ' towards the charge of his 

 commencement,' i.e. taking his degree. On 

 20 December, 1655, on the resignation of the 

 usher Reginald Bokenham, this William Elliott 

 was made ' huissher ' in his place. He seems to 

 have been a Puritan, as he resigned 23 June, 

 1660, when Mr. John Norris replaced him. 



The exhibitions were not confined to town 

 boys, for on 12 October, 1655, on the cessation 

 of Thomas Cressner's exhibition, John son of 

 William Cobell of Horningsheath was awarded 

 one of ^5 a year. Nor were they confined to 

 the county, for on 11 February, 1656, William 

 Dubye, 1 of Issham, Cambridgeshire, was given 

 an exhibition of the same amount. 



On 30 March, 1654, in consideration of 

 Stevens's 'service in advanceinge the schole,' 

 £15 out of £20, the residue of the purchase- 

 money still due for his house, was remitted. 



In 1656 we get the first and only list of boys 

 in the school until quite modern times, in spite 

 of the explicit directions in the statutes for the 

 maintenance of a register of admissions and the 

 daily reading of the roll. 



There were 86 boys. 2 Of these 26 were from 

 Bury, 13 of them sons of tradesmen. The bulk of 

 the residue must have been boarders, as they 

 include boys from Cambridgeshire and Norfolk 

 as well as Suffolk, sons of country gentlemen and 

 clerics and knights. The most di>tinguished 

 names are those of Dudley North and his brother 

 John North, sons of Sir Dudley North, knight of 

 the Bath ; Sir William Spring, already a baronet; 

 Henry Boldero, son of a merchant of Dort, whose 

 uncle became master of Jesus College, Cam- 

 bridge, and was then keeping an illegal Anglican 

 conventicle at Bury ; Thomas son of Clement 

 Everard, then governor of St. Christopher's, 

 West Indies ; Thomas son of Sir William Poley 

 of Boxted ; Lees, sons of Sir John Lee ; Jermyns, 

 Lovcls, and so forth. 



Ten pounds was contributed by the governors 

 to the public charge of £44 1 2s. lod. at the 

 'solempnizacion' on the Restoration of Charles II. 

 On 1 February, 1 660-1, the first institution 

 of school prizes appears. ' For the incourage- 

 ment of the Boyes or Schollers of the two high 

 formes of the upper end of the schole and the 

 highest form of the lower end ' every Easter and 



1 He seems to be the same person who heads the list 

 of scholars as Davye or perhaps Dadge. 



' The list was printed by Dr. Donaldson in his 

 Retrospective Address in 1850, pp. 36-41. 



