A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



mayster de Higham Ferreres,'and did fealty to have the freedom in a certain 

 burgage near the Overbarres, which she had for her Ufe with reversion to 

 the children of the said Henry Barton. On 20 February, 1400, came 

 Thomas, son of the late Henry Barton, ' scholemayster,' and did fealty by 

 his mother, as he was under age, for (apparently) another burgage near 

 the Overbarres and paid 2J-. entrance fee. 



The records of the duchy of Lancaster,^ of which Higham Ferrers, 

 being a manor belonging to the earldom of Derby, formed a part, disclose 

 the appointment of Henry Barton's successor in the schoolmastership 

 (' Book of Grants'). King Henry IV in right of the duchy made it known 

 that ' for the great ability and sufficient discretion in grammar that was 

 reported of the person of Master Robert Orcheorerd of Burton, and for 

 the good advancement and profit [exploite et profit) that he will do from 

 day to day to the scholars and children wishing to haunt [banter) the 

 faculty of grammar under his teaching, the king granted to him the 

 grammar school [a lui avoir octroiez les escoles de gramoir) of his town of 

 Higham Ferrers To have and to hold in manner heretofore used, for 

 term of his life, provided that he behave himself well and duly in the 

 said office.' So he commanded ' all his lieges whom it concerned to be 

 aiding, abetting, and counselling the said Robert, while he did his office 

 well and duly, as often as he should ask or reasonably inform them on 

 the King's behalf The date is not given, beyond that it was in the 

 first year of the reign of Henry IV, but it was probably May, 1400. 



The reference to the 'fashion heretofore used ' points to the school 

 having already been in existence some time, and perhaps a long time 

 before Henry Barton. 



Chicheley and his College 



In 1387 the members of ' Seinte Marie College of Wynchestre in 

 Oxenford,' now, as in 1400, commonly called New College, Oxford, 

 entered on their present buildings, then newly erected. In the first of 

 the early steward of hall's books, or lists of those who dined in hall, in 

 the thirty-seventh week of the year, which began at Michaelmas, eighth 

 among the scholars appears ' Chechely.' This was Henry Chicheley, 

 as his name is now commonly spelt, the son of Thomas Chicheley, 

 twice or more mayor of Higham Ferrers, and brother of William 

 Chicheley, grocer, sheriff of London, and of Robert, twice Lord Mayor 

 of London.' 



As ' Seinte Marie College of Wynchestre,' from the scholars of which 

 only scholars of New College could be elected, had then already been 

 chartered for five years, it is practically certain that Chicheley had been 

 a scholar there before going to New College. 



' P.R.O. Duchy of Lancaster, Misc. Books, xv, f. 27. 



^ In my History of Winchester College, p. 199, misled by Mackenzie Walcott's JViiriam of Wykeham 

 and bis Colleges, p. 363, I said that the archbishop's father was Sir Robert Chicheley, twice Lord Mayor 

 of London, and the mistake is repeated in the Rev. Hastings Rashdall's 'Nezv College, ■f. 91. Sir Robert, 

 mayor in 1410 and 1422, was the archbishop's brother. 



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