SCHOOLS 



Taylors, the oldest of its kind. The Oundle register^ begins with the 

 names of the boys then in the school. They were 68 in all, arranged in 

 two divisions : (a) those under the head master, numbering 37, divided 

 into three forms, 6 in the highest, i 8 in the middle, and 1 3 in the lowest ; 

 and (^) those under the usher, also arranged in three forms, 9 in the 

 highest, 17 in the middle, and 5 in the lowest. Rather vexatiously the 

 register does not state what the forms were called. The first half-dozen 

 names are a fair sample of the whole. The first was Daniel, third son 

 of Robert Mawley, freeman (ingenuus) of Oundle, six years old, to be 

 taught grammar by the usher, admitted 2 October, and paid for his 

 entrance fee 2s., which, it may be observed, was four times the amount 

 allowed by the statutes. The next was Matthew, eldest son of Matthew 

 Robinson, born at Masey, twelve years old, to be taught by the usher, 

 admitted 5 October, paying the same entrance fee. The third was 

 Edward, third son of Edward Bing, who is described in Greek characters 

 as bursodepson, with the Latin alternative of cobbler {allutarii), seven 

 years old, admitted 9 October, under the usher. Fourth came Benjamin, 

 son of Edward Rolt, gentleman, deceased, born at Boneast, Bedfordshire, 

 twelve years old, admitted under the head master. And so on. There 

 was a real admixture of classes, the son of the cobbler side by side with 

 the son of the gentleman. Thus No. 22 was Edward Maria Wingfield, 

 eldest son of James Wingfield, knight [equitts aurati), of Kimbolton ; while 

 No. 28, with his name in beautiful red letters, was Gervase Pierpont, fifth 

 son of Robert, Viscount Newarke, who paid 2j. entrance fee ; and Nos. 

 30 to 32, also in red, were the three sons of Edward, Lord Mountague 

 of Boughton, who paid los. each entrance fee. On the whole, of the 

 75 boys admitted between 2 October, 1626, and 1 1 June, 1629, the gentle- 

 men's sons largely predominated. The entrance fees varied from is. to 

 loj., but the latter sum was paid by the Mountagues only, John, the 

 second son of Lord Fitzwilliams, as it is spelt, paying only zs. What 

 law (if any) determined the fees of the rest, between is. and 3/., it is 

 difficult to say. The age of admission varied from six to fifteen, but the 

 majority were between ten and thirteen. The school was evidently on 

 the upward grade both in numbers and quality. Under the next usher, 

 William Bonder, 17 August, 1629, to 27 July, 1634, 102 were admitted, 

 or some twenty a year. They seem, however, to have stayed not more 

 than three years on an average, as a list is given of the whole school, then 

 arranged in eight classes, on the arrival of Thomas Johnson, Cobb's suc- 

 cessor, 3 February, 1636, and there were exactly seventy of them. The 

 head boy was aged sixteen, the next eighteen, the third fifteen, the fourth 

 twelve, and the fifth, John Newton, who had been in the school nearly 

 ten years, was seventeen. 



At the visitation in 1638 under Johnson (the usher being Strickland 

 Negus, who was in the fifth form of the school when the register was begun 



' The heading runs : ' Nomina sive catalogus eorum qui admissi sunt in Scholam Publicam 

 Aromatopolon Londinensium Oundclensem, ab eo tempore quo Gulielmus Dugart in artibus Bacca- 

 laureus hypodidasculatum suscepit, Septembris scilicet xv° 1626, Magistro Samuele Cob Schola; correc- 

 tore.' 



253 



