SCHOOLS 



There can therefore be no doubt of the fact that Sponne's foun- 

 dation was partly for a free grammar school, a grammar school without 

 tuition fees. Further, under s. 2 of the Chantries Act' of Edward VI 

 the commissioners were directed ' in every place where a gild or the priest 

 or incumbent of any chantry by the foundation, ordinance, or first institu- 

 tion thereof should or ought to have kept a Grammar School,' to assign 

 lands or other ' hereditaments ' for its support. It came about ^ that the 

 commission charged with this work did not re-endow the schools with 

 lands, but contented themselves with assigning a fixed payment in the 

 nature of a pension to the existing schoolmaster, purporting to make him 

 a corporation 'until further order.' The commissioners found on 20 July, 

 1548, that a free grammar school had been continually kept at Towcester 

 with a salary of ^g i jj-. 7.d., and that this school ' is very mete and necessarie 

 to contynewe,' and, apparently as in the case of other grammar schools, 

 meant to order its continuance accordingly. But by a strange slip the 

 executive clauses for the continuance of a preacher and school at Tow- 

 cester dropped out. Yet it is certain that this was a mere slip, perhaps 

 only of the copyist of the official copy preserved in the Record Office, 

 because in fact a stipend was always paid to the grammar school master 

 of Towcester from the land revenues of the crown. For in 1549' 

 William Symondes, 'ludimagister sive instructor puerorum in Towceteour,' 

 was paid £11 gs gd. for a year and a half' s salary at the rate of jTy i 3^ 2d. 

 a year, and this payment can be traced to 1555.* In 1559^ William 

 Savage received ^15 6s. \d. or ^j 13J. id. a year for two years after he 

 had sued for it and recovered judgement in the Court of Exchequer. For 

 some unknown reason later masters received a shilling a year more, 

 Stephen Johnson being paid jT/ 14J. id. as ludimagister in Towcetour 

 in 1568,* and Richard Thomas,^ as ludimagister in Towcester in 16 16, 

 receiving the same amount. 



In view of these documents the statement made by Lord Brougham's 

 Commision in 1830, founded probably on the similar statement made in 

 a Chancery decree of 1638, that Sponne's chantry was merely for priests 

 to pray for souls, and that in 1552 it was purchased and coverted into 

 a school, is clearly wrong. The Chantry was founded as to one half of its 

 personnel and nearly one half its revenues as a free grammar school, and 

 was such from its beginning in 1451. Documents show that the founda- 

 tion was completely endowed according to the founder' s designs, not only 

 with the lands conveyed in 1451, but to the full value of £io a year. 



What really happened in 1552 was this. In pursuance of a direction 

 in Sponne's will, his executor had established by deed ^ of 5 January, 



' English Schools at the Refii-mation, p. 67. 



' See for a statement of the why and wherefore EngFtsh Schools at the Rejhrmaticn, pp. 67, 73-8. 

 The commission is printed p. vii, of the same book from Pat. 2 Edw. VI, pt. iv, m. 22d. 



' Exch. Mins'. Accts. 2-3 Edw. VI, 4-5 Edw. VI, No. 87, 5-6 Edw. VI, No. 78. 



* Ibid. 3-4 Ph. and Marj', No. 72. ' Ibid. 1-2 Eliz. No. 57. 



' Ibid. 9-10 Eliz. No. 56. ' Ibid. 14-15 James I, No. 54. 



' The original deed is preserved at Towcester in the safe of the trustees of Sponne's Charity, in the 

 very house, formerly the Tabard Inn, now called the Talbot Hotel, portions of which are the original 

 building of Sponne's time. 



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