SCHOOLS 



because they began on i6 December, the day of O Sapientia, and on each 

 succeeding day the anthem began with an invocation or O. In 15 15 

 there were two brethren, monks, studying at Cambridge University, 

 and in 15 17 there were two studying at Oxford, receiving 5;-. in the 

 former and 6;-. %d. in the latter year for their ' pensions.' 



The existence of a school in Peterborough is fortunately demon- 

 strated by an entry in a single roll of one of the abbey bailiffs for the 

 town of Peterborough. The heading has been cut off, so that the 

 date is gone. But a reference in the body of the roll to an arrear for the 

 years 1510-11 shows that it is probably for 151 1 — 12. Among the rents 

 of tenements let on lease in the market place (Marketsted) was ' /[s. from 

 Thomas Keywood, now Robert Gierke, for a house in Deadmanslane 

 (Dedemanslane) called the School-house (le schole house) late of Alice 

 Garton afterwards of Jane Eyre ' ; while i s. was paid by ' Robert Gierke, now 

 Thomas Sharpp, for a grange next door, formerly Alice Gordon's, after- 

 wards John Boston's, and late Thomas Keywood's.' Deadmanslane is 

 now unknown, but it was probably, as its name suggests, the lane running 

 north between the houses formerly occupied by the grammar school, now 

 private residences, at the west end of the burial ground of the cathedral, 

 to Westgate. 



No further mention of the school occurs till after the dissolution of 

 the monastery. 



What the precise relation of this school to the abbey was remains 

 in doubt. All analogy is in favour of its being not a monastic school in 

 any sense, but a school kept by a secular clerk for seculars, lay and 

 clerical, not by monks or for monks. 



The New Foundation 



On 29 November, i 539, the monastery was dissolved by the surrender 

 of the house and all its possessions into the hands of the king by the abbot, 

 John Chambers, and thirty-five monks, sixteen of whom were pensioned, 

 but to remain on the spot with Chambers as guardian or custodian. 



On 4 September, 1541, the late abbey church was made the 

 cathedral church of the newly-created bishopric of Peterborough, with 

 the late abbot as first bishop and the abbot's house as his palace ; while a 

 cathedral body, selected to some extent from the members of the old 

 monastery, was established, and next day endowed. The new foundation 

 consisted of a dean, six canons or prebendaries, three of whom were 

 monks of the abbey, eight ' pete ' or minor canons, eight choristers and 

 their master, and a grammar school with two masters and twenty grammar- 

 school scholars. 



The statutes' of the new foundations given in 1541 prescribed that 

 there should be ' Two Teachers of boys in grammar, one to be Preceptor, 

 the other sub- Preceptor ' [dtw Informatores in grammatica quorum unus sit 

 preceptor, alter sub-preceptor), and boys to be taught grammar [pueri in 



' Copy of Statutes of Peterborough Cathedra in possession of dean and chapter (chapter i). 



203 



