A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



for 30 years before 1565 it was in the tenure of 

 private persons. 1 This is all we know of its 

 origin. The names of a few boys who entered 

 Cambridge from Stowmarket are found in the 

 college registers, but these records do not begin 

 until the mid-sixteenth century, and cannot, 

 therefore, establish any early dates. The Parish 

 Record Books, No. 51, tell us that in 1632 the 

 ' skoolehouse ' was built and 'glassed.' 2 



In 1764 Mr. Samuel Haddon was head 

 master, and was succeeded in 1769 by his son 

 John Haddon. 3 The elder Haddon taught the 

 poet Crabbe, and both these teachers were ' ex- 

 cellent scholars, good Grecians, and superior 

 mathematicians.' 4 If the Stowmarket Academy 

 of an advertisement in 1808 is the grammar 

 school, then Dr. Owett was head master at that 

 date, 6 and ten years later Mr. Paul and Mr. Dade 

 advertise, on separate occasions, what seems to 

 be the same institution, as ' Stowmarket Classical 

 School ' 6 and ' Stowmarket Academy.' 7 These 

 gentlemen were partners, and took boarders in 

 addition to the day school. In 18 19 the school 

 was removed to the premises which had been 

 until then occupied by Miss Batley's girls' school, 8 

 and in the following year Mr. Paul ' the younger' 

 and Mr. Dade dissolved partnership, the former 

 continuing the school. 9 It does not, however, 

 figure in the Inquiry Commissioners' Report of 

 1829 nor in the Schools Inquiry Commission 

 Report of 1865-8. 



BOTESDALE SCHOOL 



Whether there was any pre-Reformation school 

 here does not appear, but the Elizabethan school- 

 house included an old chantry chapel. Sir Nicholas 

 Bacon obtained letters patent of 20 July, 1 56 1 , 

 from Queen Elizabeth, founding it as a grammar 

 school for the instruction of boys living in Red- 

 grave and the neighbourhood. Already in 1 57 1 

 it sent up a boy to Caius College, Cambridge, who 

 had been educated in Botesdale for 5 years. 



By deed 25 March, 1577, Bacon endowed the 

 school with a rent-charge of ^30 a year on the 

 Blickling estate, Norfolk, once the house of 

 Anne Boleyn, £20 for the master, £$ for the 

 usher, and £2 for repairs of the schoolhouse. 



Ordinances dated 10 October, 1566, provided 

 for the appointment of two governors, one for 

 Redgrave and one for Botesdale, each to hold 

 office for one year and to appoint his successor ; 

 while the schoolmaster was to be appointed by 

 Sir Nicholas and his heirs male. The master's 

 salary was £20, and the usher's £10. The school 

 was limited to 60 boys, and a preference was given 



1 Petty Bag. viii, 10. 



' Hollingsworth, Hist, of Stowmarket, 160. 



3 Bun Post, July, 1808. 



1 Hollingsworth, Hist, of Stowmarket. 



* Bury Post, July 1808. 6 Ibid. Dec. 1818. 



7 Ibid. June, 1820. " Ibid. July, 1819. 



9 Ibid. June, 1820. 



to poor men's children as free scholars. The 

 parents were required to supply their children 

 with the usual school materials, including candles, 

 and also • a bow, three shafts, a bow-string, 

 shooting gloves, and a bracer.' This provision 

 is almost a certain mark of Bacon's hand in 

 school statutes. It is found at St. Albans and 

 Harrow and many more. There was to be a 

 common chest for all documents pertaining to the 

 school, but no trace of this chest has been found. 10 

 Bacon also founded scholarships tenable at 

 St. Benet's (i.e. Corpus Christi), Cambridge, from 

 which college the masters and ushers were to be 

 elected, preference being given to former scholar- 

 ship holders. 



No school documents earlier than 1670 exist. 

 The first master was probably Mr. Bartholomew, 

 and his usher, Mr. More, succeeded him in I 58 1. 

 Several of the scholars were Catholics u who 

 matriculated at Cambridge but could not take a 

 degree. Attendance at the parish church (which 

 was binding on the schoolboys) was of cour:-c 

 permissible to Catholics before 1580. There 

 seem to have been no Catholic scholars sent to 

 Cambridge after that date. 



Between 1580 and 1680 the school flourished ; 

 there were 39 admissions from the school to Gon- 

 ville and Caius College alone, others to St. John's 

 College, and no doubt more to Corpus, showing 

 steady maintenance of a high grade. During this 

 period the masters were Mr. More (already men- 

 tioned), who went on to Palgrave School, and who 

 was succeeded in 1586 by Mr. Foules (or Fowle). 

 One of his pupils was Anthony Gaudy, whose 

 father had been in the Revenge, and who, during 

 his undergraduate years, assaulted the dean of 

 Caius. Mr. Nicholas Easton (or Eason) was 

 master as early as 1 63 1, 12 and in 1640 the usher, 

 Mr. Neave, took his place. Mr. Ives followed 

 in 1646. In 1664 Mr. Loades became master, 

 one pupil being the John Forby afterwards 

 licensed to teach at Beccles. Then for a time 

 we find a quick succession of names, viz. : Mr. 

 Locke in 1670 ; Mr. Paston, 1673-8 ; Mr. Leeds 

 in 1684 ; Mr. Leader, 1684-91, or possibly 

 longer. There is other evidence to show that 

 the school was in some disorder owing to the odd 

 arrangement under which the governors held 

 office for only a year, which caused them, 

 having no voice in the master's and scholars' 

 elections, to feel little interest in their formal 

 duties ; while the originally ample endow- 

 ment had, through the fall in the value of 

 money, become insufficient to attract capable 

 graduates. Yet, in 1698, the school received 

 Mr. Samuel Maybourne as master, and under 

 him the teaching became so efficient that boys 



,0 East Angl. Daily Times, East Anglian Misc. No. 

 585 onward. 



11 e.g. Robert Seare and William Flacke ; vide Foley's 

 Rec. of the Jesuits. 



12 Mr. Easton was in Ipswich from 1616 to 162?. 



342 



