A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



Mr. Tate left in 1884. Mr. James Russell 

 Ward held the mastership till 1895. Mr. P. E. 

 Tuckwell followed, and Mr. Madeley, the present 

 master, entered upon his duties in 1900. At the 

 present day the school presents an appearance of 

 healthy prosperity, which it is pleasant to chronicle 

 after recording the decay of so many of these 

 older foundations. 



Under a new scheme under the Endowed 

 Schools Acts approved by Queen Victoria a 

 substantial addition was made to the school 

 revenue from the superfluous funds of the 

 hospital. 



PALGRAVE SCHOOL 



There is no record of the foundation of a 

 grammar school at Palgrave, but, besides the 

 evidence of Gonville and Caius College Register, 

 which shows that grammar was taught, it seems 

 strange that Mr. More of Botesdale should 

 relinquish his head mastership there to come to 

 Palgrave in 1586 unless the appointment were 

 worth something. About 1790 Mr. Barbauld 

 and Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Philips were successful 

 grammar teachers. 1 The school is advertised in 

 the Bury Post in 1805, but must soon after have 

 lost any rights it ever possessed to be classed as a 

 grammar school. 



STONHAM ASPALL SCHOOL. 



In 1 61 2 the Rev. John Medcalf, incumbent 

 of Stonham Aspall, left tenements, &c, for a 

 schoolmaster and usher, who were ' to instruct in 

 good letters freely,' and the school was founded 

 soon after. Practically nothing is known of its 

 history before 1 769, when Mr. Samuel Haddon 

 left Stowmarket for Stonham Aspall, and his stay 

 there was marked by a suit in Chancery, during 

 which he locked up the school and the house for 

 three years. 2 He seems to have refused to 

 perform part of his duties, and after spending all 

 his money on the legal proceedings he had to 

 give up the contest. He returned to Stowmarket 

 and opened a private school there. By 1785, 

 if not earlier, the school was in good working 

 order under the Rev. William Betham, who, 

 advertising it as the Free School, offers a curri- 

 culum including Latin and Greek. 



In 1829 the Commissioners report that — 



The school, which was once in considerable repute, 

 has of late declined, being attended by free children, 

 except those of the labouring class, and the number of 

 scholars seldom exceeds twenty. 



At this date, too, the master and usher were old 

 and the teaching presumably not vigorously 

 carried on. 3 



1 Venn, Reg. of Gonville and Caius Coll. ,- Bury Post, 

 Anniversary Dinner advertisement, Aug. I 795. 

 * Hollingsworth, Hist, of Stoumarket. 

 3 Char. Com. Rep. xx, 593. 



In 1868-9, tne school had become entirely 

 elementary in character, appointments to the 

 mastership being made by the rector, church- 

 wardens, and constables. 4 



LITTLE THURLOW SCHOOL. 



An inquisition of charitable uses tells us that 

 Sir Stephen Soame, knt., during his life — 



did firm found a Free School in the parish of Little 

 Thurlowe, 1 ; James I ; and built a Schoolhouse to be 

 for ever a benefit to Great and Little Thurlowe, Great 

 and Little Bradley, Wratting, Ketton, 1 



and other parishes. The children were to be 

 carefully instructed in the English and Latin 

 tongues 



untill they shall be preferred by their friends as 

 scholars at the University of Oxford or Cambridge, or 

 apprenticed or otherwise. 



The master was to be elected by the parsons of 

 Great and Little Thurlow, and was to receive 

 ,£20, paid quarterly, his usher receiving j£i0. 6 

 Sunday attendance at church was compulsory ; 

 backward children were to be taught in church 

 on seats before the font. Mr. Moore from 1623 

 to 1647 7 sent m * n }' pupils to Cambridge. 



Mr. Billingsley was master in 1653, anc ^ 

 under him the school was kept up to its old 

 standard. 7 In 1659 a good deal of friction arose 

 over the election of Mr. Christopher Holmes to 

 the mastership by the two parsons. Sir Thomas 

 Soame, the sole surviving executor, objected to 

 him, and the ' best inhabitants,' who appear to 

 have had a customary right of consultation, were 

 displeased owing to the privilege being ignored 

 on this occasion. 8 



Holmes began work in December, 1659. An 

 inquisition by the Commission for Charitable Uses 

 in 1677 found him unpopular. He took money 

 from some of the parents and borrowed horses 

 from them as a reward or bribe for extra attention 

 to their children. He was convicted of 'misde- 

 meanour and breach of trust,' and the Commis- 

 sioners advised his removal. Nor did the clerical 

 electors escape censure ; convicted of neglected 

 duties, they were relieved from further perfor- 

 mance of them, their electoral powers passing to 

 Samuel Soame, esq. (son and heir of Sir Thomas), 

 Sir Thomas Goldinge and John Morden, until 

 new rectors should be appointed to Great and 

 Little Thurlowe. 



The record of masters is not complete. 

 Mr. Harwood was there as early as 1708, and 

 Thomas Crick, senior, about the middle of the 



4 Sci. Inq. Rep. xiii, 236. 



5 Petty Bag. Com. for Char. Uses, bdle. 28, 

 No. 24. 



'Codicil to Will, 2 March, 161 8. 



7 Venn, Reg. of Gonville and Caius Coll. ; Reg. of 

 St. Join's Coll. 



8 Com. for Char. Uses, bdlc. 28, No. 24. 



348 



