SCHOOLS 



will to teach there for the said wages, who answered that he will gladly 

 do his best to teach, but thinketh the stipend to be very small.' The 

 wardens also appointed for 'the Schoolmaster's lodging the tenement from 

 time to time called the Priests' Houses or Priests' Chambers, and did like- 

 wise appoint for the usher's lodging the tenement sometime called 

 Gybson's house. . . . Item for as much as Mr. Wardens found the 

 schoolhouse even in that order as it was when it was a Brotherhood house 

 to eat and drink in, with high tables round about, more like a tavern than 

 a schoolhouse, they therefore did make request to the inhabitants of 

 Oundle to take such order as the said schoolhouse may be made with 

 forms and seats after the manner of the schoolhouse at Stamford, and to 

 whitewash the schoolhouse round about and to see the tyling of the 

 same to be well finished and thoroughly repaired.' 



The schoolmaster was paid up to Midsummer 'according to the 

 agreement before made with him by the Lady Laxton.' In fact the 

 proceedings make it clear that Lady Laxton had carried on the whole 

 foundation exactly as it was left at the dissolution of the chantries. There 

 was no break between the old and the new foundation, and the same 

 master and usher who had carried on the old school in the interregnum 

 became the first master and usher of the new school. 



Mr. Sadler did not remain long, as on 15 March, 1 575, the court was 

 informed that the schoolmaster of Oundle is willing to resign his room to 

 the company. He was succeeded by a Doctor of Physic named Wilkin- 

 son, who had received the influential support of Sir Walter Mildmay, 

 Chancellor of the Exchequer, who was member for the county from i 557. 



One of the new schoolmaster's first acts (3 June, 1575) was to pray 

 for 'two great Dictionaries in Latin and Greeke to be ledgers in the school 

 for the furtherance of the Scholars, which was granted, and the Wardens 

 willed to buy the said books and send them down with the Table of 

 Orders by the next Carryer.' 



The original of this Table of Orders, which were practically the 

 governing instrument of the school, is not forthcoming, and it was only 

 the happy accident of a contest with the schoolmaster in 1604 that 

 caused it 'to be thought good ' by the company to have them registered 

 in the minute book of that date. In the copy thus made the exact date 

 of the original is not given, but a memorandum at the beginning states 

 that they were ' set forth by Dame Jone Laxton with the advice of the 

 Overseers (of Laxton's will) and consent of the Wardens and Assistants of 

 the Company.' They were probably therefore made shortly after the 

 date of the will, when Lady Laxton intended to hand over the lands at 

 once, and at all events before the company took possession in 1573. It 

 is not clear whether they were originally in Latin or English. As entered 

 in the minute books they are in English. As these orders contain twenty- 

 nine items of considerable length, they cannot be reproduced here in full. 



The first article prescribed the qualifications of the schoolmaster, not 

 differing from the usual mediaeval form. He was to be ' whole of body, 

 of good report, and in degree M.A., meet for his learning and dexterity 



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