A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



of Henry VII, and she may possibly be the foundress.' The com- 

 missioners^ for the continuance of schools found that a grammar school 

 had been continually kept in Oundle with the revenues of the late gild 

 of Our Lady, that it was ' very mete and necessarye to be contynued,' 

 and ordered that ' William Irelande, scholemaister there, shall have and 

 enjoie the rome (place) of scholmaister and have for his wages yerely 

 j^5 6s. 8^.,' the same amount he had previously enjoyed. 



Though Ireland was already 78 years old he can be traced in 

 receipt of his 'wages' until 1554. Next year his name does not 

 appear. In the next extant account (1558—9) John Sadler, who up to 

 1554 had been in receipt of >r2o as schoolmaster of Fotheringhay, is 

 entered as receiving the wages of £^ 6s. SJ. as schoolmaster of Oundle, 

 in accordance with a decree of the Court of Exchequer of 29 October, 

 1559. It is probable therefore that in accordance with the recom- 

 mendation of the chantry commissioners he had really been acting all 

 the time as schoolmaster at Oundle, Ireland receiving his stipend as a 

 sort of retiring pension. It is probable that from the time of Ireland's 

 death Sadler received from Lady Laxton a stipend which made his salary 

 up to something beyond what he had been receiving in respect of 

 Fotheringhay. At all events it is clear that neither in place nor person 

 was there any break between the old gild grammar school and the 

 new Laxton school. It is unfortunate for bridging the gap between 

 the old and the new that the Grocers' Company's minute books ' only 

 begin in the very year of the new foundation, when, by an appropriate 

 coincidence, the very first name in the first minute book, heading the 

 list of the court present on 19 June, 1556, is that of Sir William 

 Laxton, alderman. Little is known of his career beyond that recorded 

 by Fuller, that, born at Oundle, ' he was bred a grocer in London, 

 where he so prospered by his painefull endeavours that he was chosen 

 Lord Mayor a.d. 1544,' having been sheriff in 1540. 



Laxton's last appearance at the court of the grocers is noted on 

 6 July. On 17 July, 1556, he made his will of lands, which contained no 

 charitable gifts. But a week afterwards, 22 July, 1556, he executed a 

 codicil, and this codicil, entered in the company's wills book, is the 

 foundation document of the school. 



It first states the objects : — 



Wheare I, the sayde Sir William Laxton, am fiillye minded to errecte and founde 

 a Free Grammar Schole at Owndell in the countie of Northampton to have contynu- 

 ance for ever, and the sayde Free Grammar Scole (sic) to be kepte in the messuage or 

 house of late called the Guylde or Fraternitie house of Owndell, which Free Scole I 

 will shalle be called the Grammar Schole of me the sayd Sir William Laxton, Knight, 



' It is stated in Notices of Fotheringhay, by H. K. Bonney (Oundle, 1821), following Bridges, that 

 Robert Wyat and Joan his wife built the south porch of the church at Oundle, and that after his death 

 she founded the fraternity of St. John and St. George there, 'about 1464.' Reference is given to 

 Pat. 4 Edw. IV, pt. i, m. 15, but the Calendar of Patent Rolls contains no mention of it. The gild 

 mentioned was at Windsor. 



' See above under Towcester School. 



' The best thanks of all interested in Oundle School are due to R. Somers Smith, Esq., the clerk 

 to the company, for giving me access to these books and to a valuable compilation of entries therefrom. 



242 



