A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



Of the grammar school attached to the college we can learn very 

 little. The master has been erroneously represented ' to have been one 

 of the clerks, not one of the chaplains or fellows, but the words quoted 

 from the licence, repeated in Chicheley's charter of foundation, distinctly 

 say ' one of the chaplains or clerks.' In point of fact he seems to 

 have been always one of the chaplains, that is, a fellow of the college, 

 not a subordinate person as the clerks were. For when on i 5 December, 

 1443, Archbishop Stafford" appointed Richard White, LL.B., warden or 

 master of the college, he addressed his letter of induction to the sub- 

 warden {vice custodi) and Sir Clement Smyth,' master of the scholars 

 {magistro scolariuni) there. The schoolmasters were no doubt appointed 

 by the college, and the college registers are not forthcoming. 



In 1507 John Tucke * resigned his fellowship at New College on 

 undertaking teaching at the college of Higham Ferrers, but as he was 

 the author of a treatise on music (Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 10,336) he 

 may have been song and not grammar master. 



On 31 August, 1534,^ William Fauntleroy," warden, and five fellows, 

 Thomas Freer, Robert Goldson, Thomas Gamon, Thomas Mylys, and 

 Thomas Pyckle, signed the acknowledgement of the supremacy of the 

 crown. It does not appear which was the schoolmaster, possibly 

 Goldson. 



In the V^alor of 1535 the income of the college is set out as amounting 

 in all to £2.0^ 5J. 6d., about >r4,ooo a year of our money. The bedes- 

 men's emoluments were the same as in Chicheley's time, a penny a day, 

 increased only by 30J. a year among them at the obits of three deceased 

 wardens, coming altogether to £^2^ gs. id. a year. Under the heading of 

 ' Stipends of the Master and Chaplains or Fellows {sociorum) ' we find 

 Robert Gulson, guardian or warden (gardia?70 she custodi), with a stipend 

 of ;^I4 13;-. 4^/. and 6s. %d. more for obits and daily distributions, making 

 £1 ^ in all. The sub-warden {vice custodi), Thomas Freer, received for 

 stipend ^8 and 4^. yd. for obits and daily distributions. Next comes 

 Nicholas Stere, teacher of the grammar school, with yTio 13J. \d. for 

 stipend and 4/. yd. for obits and distributions. Of the other four fellows 

 or chaplains two received £y 12s. 2d., and two £6 lys. lod. The song- 

 school teacher is not particularly mentioned, but was probably one of the 

 other chaplains. The grammar school master was therefore the second 

 person in the college in pay, and practically in rank, the sub-wardenship 

 being no doubt, as was the case at Winchester, an office held in turn by 

 the fellows for one or two years. 



^ Bridges, Norlhamptonshire, p. 177. '4 clerks whereof one to be grammar master, another 

 musick master.' 



^ Cant. Arch. Reg. Stafford, i. 11 b. 



' His identification in History of Winchester College, p. 200 to 208, with the Eton and Winchester 

 head master (1453-69) of the same name is probably erroneous. 



* New College Fellows' Protocols. 



5 P.R.O. Chapter House. Acknowledgements of Supremacy, No. 64. 



' He was rather a distinguished person. He came from Sherborne, Hants ; was a scholar of 

 Winchester College, 1480 ; scholar of New College, 1487 ; D.D. Oxon, 8 Feb. 1507 ; Vice-Chan- 

 cellor of Oxford, 28 October, 1510. Boase's Repster, pp. 43,298. 



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