A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



of Jesus College, Cambridge, was master from 

 1901 to 1904. The school in 1905 numbered 

 46 boys, of whom 23 were boarders, under the 

 Rev. Percy Raymond Humphreys, of Repton 

 School and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 

 with 3 assistant masters and 3 visiting teachers 

 in art, music, and woodwork. 



EYE GRAMMAR SCHOOL 



The origin of Eye Grammar School is to be 

 sought in the ' lands and tenements put in feoff- 

 ment by John Fluke and others for the finding 

 of a scoolemaister in Eye for ever.' At what 

 date this was has not yet been shown. But it 

 must have been before the reign of Henry VIII, 

 for William Gale, clerk of Eye, provided in his 

 will for two scholars from Eye at Gonville and 

 Caius College, Cambridge; 1 and Humphrey 

 Bysby gave an endowment of 35/. a year for a 

 similar purpose in 1540. 



The chantry certificate in 1548 avers that the 

 school had continued till Michaelmas, 1547, 



saving that the samescoole was voide of a scoolemaister 

 sumtyme by the space of halfe a yeare, bicause they 

 could nott be provided of oone in that tyme, and for 

 the same cause yt is nowe voydc. 



The parishioners also made the interesting aver- 

 ment that this schoolmaster had been ' sometyme 

 a layeman and sometyme a prieste.' The yearly 

 net value of the lands was £5 2s. id., which the 

 town at this time did 'take to their own use.' 2 



In a letter from Sir William Cardall to the 

 Bishop of Norwich, dated 10 October, 1556, 3 he 

 tells how he and Sir Edward Waldegrave sum- 

 moned the town authorities before them to answer 

 charges of the ' abusyng of town lands.' The 

 Commissioners considered that the founders of 

 the late chantry had 



a meanyng in themselves that the same preste suld be 

 a scolemaster and lernyd in latyn tunng to teache and 

 travne up the yowught of the town in good lernyng 

 and vertu, and accordyngly thexpens therofF hat 

 hytherto ben. 



Sir William goes on to say that they arranged for 

 the election of such a master by 'the Vicar and 

 Balyves off the towne,' with the stipulation that 

 * none at all be chosen as scolemaster except he 

 be also a preste.' 4 



Ten years later, in 1 566, we find it stated in 

 the ' Constitutions of the Borough ' — hitherto 

 reckoned the first notice of the school — that such 

 townlands as had been given for a schoolmaster's 

 use should now be employed for maintenance of 

 a learned man ' to teach a grammar school in 

 Eye.' He was to receive £10 for his work, was 



1 Sept. 1504 ; will proved 9 Nov. I 509. 

 ' Leach, Engl. Sci. at the Reformation, 213, from 

 Chant. Cert. 45, No. 5. 



3 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. x, 533. 4 Ibid. 



not required to teach writing, showing that the 

 authorities were determined the school should 

 not be reduced to an elementary status unless the 

 master pleased, and was not to remove without 

 half a year's warning. 



Among the documents relating to the 'Eye' 

 is a Memorandum Book which contains a note 

 of William Lambert's appointment as usher in 

 the grammar school in accordance with the will 

 of Francis Kent of Oxborough, Norfolk, 5 who 

 by will 18 September, 1593, bequeathed lands 

 and tenements in Bedfield and Worlingworth 

 as an endowment for 



a sufficient usher to teach freely all such children of 

 Eye, Horham, 6 Allington, and Bedfield as should be 

 put into school to learn grammar and also to teach 

 them all to write. 



He therefore wished to make the school do the 

 double work of elementary as well as secondary 

 teaching. 



There is a succession of matriculations at 

 Caius College during the sixteenth century, but 

 in no case is the master's name given until I 585, 

 when a Mr. Popson held the post. He was 

 followed in 1590 by Mr. Lomax, and in 1608 

 by Mr. Mosse. 



The school received another endowment from 

 Edward Mallows, who by will 5 December, 

 161 4, directed estate to the value of £200 to 

 be settled for two or three scholarships at Cam- 

 bridge for boys from Eye ; or failing a demand 

 for this, for the grammar school itself. 



In 1623 came Mr. Dorman (or Dormer). 

 Mr. Hall was licensed in 1624, and held office 

 for a long time, apparently up to the Resto- 

 ration. The usher Henry Youll sent his son 

 up to St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1634. 



Thomas Browne was licensed in 1642, pre- 

 sumably as usher, and he eventually succeeded 

 Mr. Hall, and was for many years moderator 

 dignissimus, grammaticus in ignis,' dying only in 

 1695, aged 79. 



In 1 666 Mr. Francis seems to have been 

 usher. 



In 1692 the town authorities agreed that as 

 the school had decreased in numbers the usher 

 might be dispensed with, the master doing all the 

 work and receiving pay from both endowments, 

 and his salary being increased to £20 a year. 

 From 17 1 7 to 1739 only ^18 a year was paid. 

 Naturally, under these conditions, we find little 

 trace of the school in the college registers. The 

 existence of an endowed grammar school at Eye 

 was unsuspected by Nicholas Carlisle, in 181 7, 

 so that if it went on at all it must have been at a 



5 Will of Francis Kent, gent. 1593. 



6 Memorandum Book (unbound and marked B — 

 Eliza). This book also contains 'Orders to be observed 

 by the Usher in the Gramer Schole, made by the 

 Feoffees of the lands given for his mayntenance by 

 Francis Kent, Gent,' 2 May, 1600. 



7 Venn, Biogr. Hist. 0/ Gonville and Caius Coll. 



338 



