SCHOOLS 



This school must have been continued by the 

 Chantry Commissioners' Warrant, as in 1694 

 Clopton's grant was still paid to the free school. 1 



Grammar teaching certainly went on in this 

 school until the mid-seventeenth century, as the 

 Caius College Register shows boys going thence to 

 Cambridge up to 1620. 2 In 1670, the Lady 

 chapel had been converted into a parish school- 

 room, and continued to be so used until the 

 National Schools were built in 1840. When this 

 'much ruinated' chapel was first used, the in- 

 habitants combined to give the necessary materials 

 for the work of reparation. Sir Robert Cordell 

 contributed three large trees and ' certain wains- 

 cotted pews.' Mr. Roger Clopton gave two 

 trees, and two other parishioners were stimulated 

 into lending carts and horses to carry out the 

 good work. 3 



It is difficult to say when this school became 

 purely elementary. There is no positive evidence 

 of grammar teaching after 1620. Carlisle knew 

 nothing of any endowed school there in 1818, 

 nor did the Schools Inquiry Commission in 1867. 



SUDBURY SCHOOL 



In 1375 the parish church of Sudbury was 

 purchased from the nuns of Eaton by Simon 

 Theobald of Sudbury, bishop of London, 4 and 

 converted into a collegiate church of St. Gregory 

 by him and his brother, who built a col- 

 lege for the canons on the site of their parents' 

 house. Any teaching of grammar within the 

 walls has remained unrecorded, and in 1532 

 we even learn that nulli existant choristae} 

 Before this date, however, grammar teaching had 

 begun outside. William Wood, dean of Sud- 

 bury College, gave by will, 6 April, 1 491, a 

 croft of land near the lane leading from the 

 house of the Dominican friars to the church of 

 St. Gregory for a grammar schoolhouse, and an 

 endowment of some 90 acres of land at Maple- 

 stead, Essex. The master was to be appointed 

 by the dean of the college, to receive lew. a year, 

 and to repair the house and school himself. 

 When the college was surrendered in 1538 the 

 school being independent remained unaffected 

 except that its patronage passed to the patron of 

 St. Gregory's Church. 



In the Caius College and St. John's College, 

 Cambridge, matriculation registers wc find men- 

 tion of the following masters : Mr. White in 

 1578, Mr. Brittaine in 1652, Mr. Weston in 

 1664, Mr. Newton in 1676. Mr. Nathaniel 

 Farclough in 1677, was assisted, or succeeded, 

 or both, by Mr. Chapman. 6 



1 Parker, Hist, of Long Melford. 



' Venn, Reg. of Gonz'ille and Caius Coll. 



3 Parker, Hist, of Long Mclford. 



4 Ca/.Pat. 1377-81, pt. i, 413 ; Ibid. 1381-5, pt. 

 ii, 371. 



5 Jessopp, Visitations of the Dioc. of Nora: (Camd. 

 Soc), 298. 



6 Venn, Reg. of Gonz'ille and Caius Coll. 



About this time the school recovered the rents 

 of the * school farm ' at Great Maplestead, a 

 much needed benefaction, as we learn from a 

 letter of Mr. R. Smyth, the minister, to Sir 

 Simonds D'Ewes, which states that the 'church 

 school and hospital had been abused.' 7 



A Mr. Hast was master in 1 697-1 700, and 

 then Mr. Mabourn. In 17 12 the lessee of 

 St. Gregory's Church brought forward and es- 

 tablished his claim on the tithes of the school 

 field. 8 



Between I 7 14 and 18 14 the perpetual curate 

 of Sudbury held the mastership of the school, 

 and either taught himself or by substitute. There 

 seem to have been about six free scholars at this 

 time. During the mastership of the Rev. Hum- 

 phrey Burroughs, 1723-55, his nephew, Thomas 

 Gainsborough, was educated in Sudbury, the 

 painter's first masterpiece being probably the 

 caricature of his master on the old school wall, 

 now pulled down. 



The next interesting event in the history of 

 the school was its purchase by Sir Lachlan 

 Maclean after the death of the Rev. W. Finley, 

 curate and master. He rebuilt it in 1817. 9 The 

 Rev. Simon Young was appointed master in 1 8 1 2, 

 but in 1827 Maclean installed his son Hippias, 

 a minor, and claimed the school farm. A law- 

 suit — ' Attorney-General v. Maclean ' — was in- 

 stituted, and lasted for some years. The school 

 struggled on under a locum tenens till 184 1, when 

 it was closed. In 1857 judgement was given 

 against Maclean. In 1858 the old schoolhouse 

 was demolished and fresh buildings were erected 

 at a cost of ^2,500. But owing to the incum- 

 brances on the property, and to a consequent 

 rapid succession of practically unendowed masters, 

 the school did not flourish. In 1867 the Schools 

 Inquiry Commissioners found the number of 

 day boys increased from 12 to 17, under the 

 Rev. Francis Slater, of Queens' College, Cam- 

 bridge. Since being placed under a proper 

 governing body by a scheme under the Endowed 

 Schools Acts, 1878, the school has been fairly 

 successful as a second-grade secondary school. 



After Mr. Slater's retirement in 1883 and 

 two brief head-masterships, there came in 1889 

 the Rev. W. G. Normandale, B.A. Lond., and 

 he has remained ever since. He has now 44 

 boys (of whom 12 are boarders), paying tuition 

 fees of £6 to j£8 a year, under 3 assistant 

 masters. 



STOWMARKET SCHOOL 



Some time before the year 1547 ' by common 

 consent of the lord of the manor of Abbott's 

 Hall and diverse inhabitants of Stowmarket,' 

 the Guildhall was converted into a school- 

 house and was for 'diverse years' so used, but 



7 1 64 1. 8 W. W. Hodson, Trans. Suff. Arch. Soc. 

 3 Carlisle, Endowed Gram. Sck. ii, 533. 



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