A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



divers other towns £20 a year, including the rent of 

 the manor of Falkenham with rents marshland and 

 tithes of corn there : The monastery of St. Peter's, 

 Ipswich ; rent of the tithe of corn in St. Peter's parish, 

 £5 ; in Wharstow £$ ; the rent of Thurston rectory, 

 £8 3/. 3d. ; and divers pensions in the town of 

 Ipswich, viz. from the parish of St. Mary at Key 40;., 

 and from St. Clement's 40/. 



But the total value of this is £43 os. \d. only. 

 If ever this endowment was effectively given, 

 the king at some time took it back, and gave 

 instead a charge on the crown lands in the 

 county. For it is recited in Queen Elizabeth's 

 charter to the school in 1565 that there was 



a certain general and free grammar school (generalis et 

 libera scola gramaticalis) founded by our most dear 

 father consisting of a master and usher (magistro infor- 

 matore et hypodidascalo) to instruct the children . . . 

 within the town aforesaid and elsewhere within the 

 kingdom of England ; which offices of master and 

 usher are in our disposal and the said master and 

 usher have had and were to have for their wages and 

 stipends £38 13/. \d. a year . . . out of the issues 

 and profits of our manors lands tenements possessions 

 and hereditaments in our said county of Suffolk. 



Probably this charge on the crown revenues was 

 by warrant to the Exchequer or of the Court of 

 Augmentations. 



Somehow or another the corporation of 

 Ipswich recovered Felaw's endowment, for in 1550 

 they granted part of the grammar school lands 

 to the chamberlains for 21 years at a small 

 reserved rent ; and in 1 5 5 1 * a lease for 2 1 years 

 at 6s. 8d. a year was granted by the bailiffs of 

 8 acres of land ' beyng parcel of the closes some- 

 times called the Grammer Scole landes.' 



Foxe, the martyrologist, 2 made a somewhat 

 violent attack on ' Richard Argentine, doctor of 

 physic,' (he took the M.D. degree at Cambridge 

 in 1 541) who was usher and then head master 

 from Henry VIII to the end of Mary's time. 

 Under Edward VI, he says, Argentine was a 

 professing Protestant, 



but when Mary came to her reign none more hot in 

 all papistry and superstition than he, painting the 

 posts of the town with ' Vivat Regina Maria,' and in 

 every corner . . . till at length towards the end of 

 Queen Mary he came to London, and in this queen 

 (Elizabeth's) time began to show himself again a 

 perfect Protestant. 



The Ipswich records give only the following item 

 about him on 3 June, 1552: 'Mr. Argentine 

 shall have 4OJ. for translating the charter into 

 English to be payed by moieties at Midsummer 

 and Michaelmas.' He published, while at Ips- 

 wich, in 1548, a school-book, ' Certeyne preceptes, 

 gathered by Hulricus Zuinglius, declaring how 

 the ingenuous youth ought to be instructed and 

 brought unto Christ.' In virtue of this and 



1 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. p. 236^. 

 ' Acts and Monuments (ed. 1839), 22Z - 



some sermons he finds a niche in the Dictionary of 

 National Biography. 



There seems to have been some difficulty 

 about the due supply of masters after Argentine's 

 removal to London. This led to the granting 

 of a charter by Queen Elizabeth, which has re- 

 sulted in the school being wrongly dubbed 

 ' Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School,' though 

 even the charter itself did not, as was usual, give it 

 any such title. The difficulty arose from the 

 appointment being vested in the crown, and the 

 consequent delays in getting a new master on a 

 vacancy. The charter dated 18 March, 1564-5, 

 after reciting Henry VlII's so-called foundation 

 as already set out, proceeds : — 



And whereas we are given to understand that the 

 school aforesaid hath often been vacant by the death 

 or cession of the master of the school for a long time 

 before it has been provided with another master, 

 whence it has happened that the boys there at school 

 during the times of such vacancy have not been taught, 

 and have spent the time idly without any benefit, to 

 their great loss and detriment ; 



besides which the salaries have been in arrear, 



whence it has often happened that the said master and 

 usher have been the less able to stay there longer and 

 give their diligence in instructing boys in learning, to 

 the great prejudice and loss as well of the boys as of 

 the inhabitants of the whole town and contrary to the 

 pious and good intention of the aforesaid founder. 



Moreover, there was no governing body to keep 

 the master in order : 



Also the master and usher have often been remiss and 

 negligent in executing their offices in all things relat- 

 ing to their attendance and teaching of the children 

 and scholars, because neither the bailiffs burgesses and 

 commonalty nor any other our magistrates has any 

 right or authority to animadvert upon them, to the 

 great detriment of the scholars aforesaid. 



For remedy of these grievances — which must 

 surely be considerably overstated, as they relate 

 only to a period of some 8 years — the charte* 

 gave the corporation ' after the death of out 

 beloved subject John Scot, who now possesses 

 and exercises the office of headmaster,' the power 

 of ' presenting a fit person ' to the Bishop of 

 Norwich ' being ordinary ' to be head master, who 

 on approval by the bishop, was to be admitted 

 by the corporation. They were also to appoint 

 an usher ' such ... as the master . . . shall 

 have adjudged fit to undertake the said office,' 

 and to remove such usher. Of the crown en- 

 dowment the master was to receive £24 6s. 8d. 

 and the usher £14 6s. 8d., and the corporation 

 were empowered to retain the money out of 

 the fee-farm rent payable by the town to the 

 crown. The corporation were also empowered 

 to make statutes with the consent of the 

 ordinary. 



Somewhere about the same time the school 

 was removed into the ancient chapel of the 



332 



