A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



in 1626) there were seventy-seven boys, and the usher delivered a note 

 of eleven scholars from the school w^ho had gone to the universities in 

 three years last past. Just before the outbreak of the Civil War, 21 June, 

 1642, a visitation was again held, and this time the visitors were 

 welcomed by the scholars with speeches in Greek as well as Latin and 

 English. There was no visitation again for nine years, on account of 

 the disturbed state of the country. 



Yet the Civil War made no appreciable difference to the school at 

 first. Mr. Johnson carried it on with nearly as many entries as usual 

 till 26 May, 1644, when the register breaks off. In 1646 Johnson betook 

 himself to a ' spiritual living,' and Mr. William Hix or Hicks succeeded 

 on the recommendation of ' Mr. Busby, Mr. Langley, and Mr. Dugard ' 

 (the former usher), 'Chief Schoolmasters of Westminster, Paul's, and 

 Merchant Taylors' Schools.' On his arrival there were only nine boys 

 in the upper and twenty-one in the lower school, but in 1649 he sent 

 two boys to St. John's College, Cambridge. By the time of the 

 visitation held in 1 650 the numbers had been raised to sixty-seven, and 

 these were found to be ' civilly and carefully educated,' and the books 

 lately sent down there ' conveniently placed upon desks and carefully 

 chained,' and the schoolmaster praised ' for the respect and love which 

 he gaineth by his fair carriage.' Yet at the very court at which this 

 report was presented, on intimation ' of some dissenting in point of judge- 

 ment and opinion between the Minister of the town and Schoolmaster 

 about ecclesiastical matters,' he was sent for to London, and, after being 

 ■heard, was, on 16 July, given warning to quit. On 5 November William 

 Griffith, B.C.L. and schoolmaster of Leicester, was appointed to succeed 

 at Christmas. 



The visitation in 1653 found only forty-five boys, Mr. Hicks, so 

 scandalously dispossessed, having, one is glad to hear, ' carried away the 

 chiefest scholars and of best quality.' Griffith's stipend was then in- 

 creased to £^0 a year. In 1657 Griffith obtained a living, and the 

 ex-usher, William Taylour, then keeping a school, presumably the 

 grammar school, at Fotheringhay, at last obtained Oundle School. After 

 the Restoration, Hicks the dispossessed asked to be reinstated, but 

 naturally the company could not turn out Taylour, and used against 

 Hicks the argument that he had, in trying for other appointments, stated 

 that he had voluntarily resigned. In 1665 the school could boast of two 

 sons of Robert Cecil, grandsons of the Earl of Salisbury, and twenty-six 

 boys were admitted during the year from Lady Day, 1665, to Lady Day, 

 1666, and fifteen during the next year. 



Just as the school seemed to be entering on a new era of prosperity 

 the Great Fire of London of 1666 caused disaster both to the company 

 and the school, which soon descended to the lowest depths of poverty 

 and incapacity, from which it did not recover until the beginning of the 

 nineteenth century. The company's hall and all the adjacent buildings, 

 save the turret in the garden, which fortunately contained the records 

 and muniments, and almost all the company's house property were 



254 



