SCHOOLS 



ornaments of the scenes [de lei pagents) of the gild 

 of Corpus Christi and provide for their repair, 

 and make the stages for the players as well inside 

 as outside the town, together with the common 

 (i.e. town) clerk, under the supervision of the 

 bailiffs, receiving the money for the repairs and 

 for hiring properties {arraiamentorum), costumes, 

 and others things necessary for the said pageants 

 from the farmer of the town marsh and Port- 

 man's meadow.' 



But meanwhile an endowment had been given 

 specifically for the school to make it free, and 

 relieve the poorer inhabitants of tuition fees. 

 On 2 January, 1482-3, Richard Felaw, who had 

 been eight times bailiff and twice M.P. for the 

 borough, in 1460 and 1461, with wages at 2s. a 

 day, made his will whereby he ordained that his 



mees beyng agayn the gate of the Fryers Preachers in 

 Ipswich be ordained to be for ever a common school- 

 house and dwelling-place for a convenient schoolmaster 

 to be there set and deputed by the ordinary of the 

 diocese of Norwich at the nomination of the 

 baileys . . . and . . . have the said mees for his 

 dwelling-place and schoolhouse freely without any- 

 thing therefor yielding. 



This provided a new school and a master's 

 house. But besides that Felaw gave an income- 

 producing endowment. ' Also the said master 

 shall have to him and his successors a messuage 

 with a curtilage adjoining to the ' schoolhouse 



on the North side of the same, and other lands and 

 tenements, that is to say, 3 closes in the town of 

 Whitton and within the lordship of Brooks Hall ; for 

 the which messuage curtilage lands and tenements the 

 master for the time being shall receive and teach all 

 children born and dwelling within the said town of 

 Ipswich coming to the said school, freely, without taking 

 anything for their teaching, except children of such 

 persons as have lands and tenements to the yearly value 

 of 20s. or else goods to the value of £zo to be sold, 



a standard of wealth equivalent in modern 

 language to being assessed for income-tax. 



Over that the said master shall with the said children 

 keep the mass of Our Lady at the north altar within 

 the said Fryers at six o'clock on the morrow daily. 



The governing body to establish the will con- 

 cerning this article was to be the bailiffs of the 

 town with Felaw's executors. Felaw also by the 

 same will established a hospital or almshouse in 

 another messuage ' at the Town end at the south 

 part of the way there' with two closes thereto 

 newly purchased. In i486 the corporation, the 

 bailiffs, burgesses, and commonalty, granted a piece 

 of their common soil under the walls of the friars 

 preachers to John Squier, 1 clerk, apparently in 

 perpetuity, at a rent of 3s. \d. and a red rose at 

 midsummer if demanded, the said Squyer [sic) 

 being bound to build on the said land 'a latrine 



1 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. p. 235 (J>). Deed 

 No. 42. Bacon misread (or has been represented as 

 misreading) the name as Smier. ' Latrinam pro pucris 

 gramaticalibus.' 



for the grammar boys of the said town.' This 

 entry shows that the grammar school was then 

 established in the house given by Richard Felaw. 

 John Squier 3 clerk was elected an inner burgess 

 (burgensis intrinsecus) on Thursday before 24 June, 

 I Edward V, i.e. 1483, and made treasurer the 

 same day, receiving as the balance in hand 

 £11 22^. The will of a John Squire of 

 St. Albright's chapel near Ipswich is in the 

 Ipswich Probate office circa 1518. 3 



In 1488-9 Mr. Heed had succeeded him as 

 schoolmaster. He is probably Dominus Thomas 

 Heede, 4 who on 25 January, 1478-9, as a B.A. 

 paid 2s. to the proctors of Cambridge University 

 for ' his common ' fee, and the Mr. Hede who in 

 January 1481-2 paid zod as inceptor i.e. newly 

 made master of arts, being then granted by the cor- 

 poration 20 marks ' to celebrate the Gild Day,' 

 i.e. the Corpus Christi procession and play. The 

 value of the endowment given by Felaw appears 

 from a lease of 3 closes in Whitton • part of 

 Mr. Felaw's gift ' to Robert Gooday, ' rendering 

 to the bailiffs 301. a year to the schoolmaster's 

 use.' On 14 March, 1 52 1, we find the gram- 

 mar school tenement and part of the garden 

 let to James Lilly for 20 years at 6s. rent, and 

 persons ' appointed to divide the garden.' It would 

 seem that the endowment was even for those 

 days insignificant, as ^5 a year was not large pay 

 for a grammar schoolmaster, ^10 a year being 

 more usual in a place of any size or importance. 



How entirely unfounded is the notion that the 

 monasteries did anything for general education 

 may be gauged by the fact that at this very time, 

 while the town and Corpus Christi gild were 

 supporting and regulating its public grammar 

 school, the priory of St. Peter's was being scolded 

 by the bishop at his visitations 6 for lack of 

 learning amongst its own members. In 1 5 14 

 it was a matter of complaint that they have 

 no schoolmaster {non habent ludimagistrum), 

 and in 1526 they were ordered to provide a 

 teacher to teach the novices grammar {fiat in- 

 junccio de precept ore providendo ad docendos novicios 

 in gramatica). 



On Wednesday after the Conversion of St. Paul 

 (25 January), 1520, 6 it was granted to William 

 Stephenson, clerk, to celebrate the service for the 

 souls of the 'brethren and sisters' of the Corpus 

 Christi gild, and likewise it was granted to him 

 to keep the grammar school [ad exercendum scolas 

 gramatica lei) for the coming year, and to enter on 

 the said service and into the school aforesaid at 

 Easter. So that here, as in many other places, 

 if the Corpus Christi gild had not for one of its 



' B.M. Add. MS. 30158. 



' Bk. vii, fol. 233. Ref. supplied by Mr. V. B. 

 Redstone. 



' Camb. Grace Book A, 127, 162. 



1 Visit, of Dioc. of Norte . (CamJ. Soc. 18S8, ed. 

 Dr. Jcssopp), 1 %~, 221. 



6 B.M. Add. MS. 24435, fol. 153^ ; Hist. MSS. 

 Com. Ref. 



3 2 7 



