SCHOOLS 



destroyed.^ From 1671 to 1679 the company's hall was under seques- 

 tration for debt, and all their charitable payments fell into hopeless 

 arrear. In 1686 they appealed to Chancery, and by a decree of a Com- 

 mission of Charitable Uses were allowed twenty years in which to pay 

 the arrears. It was not till after 1721, when a member of the court 

 was authorized to compound for payment of the charities, that the 

 company again became thoroughly solvent. 



The school suffered with the rest. The first note we have of the 

 disaster to the company affecting the school is on 27 February 1667, 

 when the master ' intimated his necessitous importunity for supplies 

 and the declining condition of the school, the Usher having deserted for 

 want of encouragement.' He was given half a year's pay. 



The numbers kept up fairly, seventeen being admitted in 1668, and 

 next year twelve. In January 1670, £100 was paid for the masters and 

 almspeople, who represented ' their indebted and wanting condition,' 

 and in October they were given a year's pay. In consequence of 

 rumours that the master intended to remove to a benefice, a visita- 

 tion, 'omitted for several years past,' was held 19 July 1671, when 

 the school was found ' thin, young in growth, and number not con- 

 siderable.' The register shows only five boys admitted in that year. 

 Three quarters' arrears to the master and usher were paid. The 

 visitors found the master ' infirm and unhealthful and not so active 

 or fit for duty as formerly.' After recreating themselves at bowls and 

 having promised a company's exhibition to a son of Mr. Cuthbert, 

 one of the overseers of the school, and to Jonathan Smyth, ' a pregnant 

 youth,' they returned home. Mr, Taylor was warned to seek for other 

 preferment as too ' antient.' ' He accordingly ' entered the ministry and 

 accepted a benefice.' 



He was succeeded by William Speed, master of Ratcliffe School, a 

 free school in London, who entered on his duties at Christmas 1672,' 

 with Joshua Ogle as usher. The latter, however, left 24 June, 1673. In 

 1679 the company was still in arrear with the master's salaries, and in 

 1687 they owed the headmaster £2^ ^ at the rate of ^60 a year, which 

 he asserted was the salary he was appointed at, while the company con- 

 tended that it was only ^40. As they paid up on the former basis this 

 was no doubt correct, though the company settled it (6 May) to be £^0 

 for the future. In 1689 Mr. Speed, tired, one may suppose, of incessant 

 struggles to obtain his pay, departed without warning and settled himself 

 in a school at Hampstead. Eight boys only had been admitted in 1687 

 and seven in 1 688. 



The decree of the Commissioners of Charitable Uses in 1686 found 

 the payments for Oundle to be jC^o^ 16s. a year, but settled them for 

 the future at only £S2 i6s. apportioned thus : Schoolmaster, ^^30 ; 

 usher, jT^o; almsmen, ^,'36 8/.; washerwoman, ^(^5 4/.; repairs, ;(^i 4^.; 

 total, j(^82 1 6s. 



' Cily Livery Companld Commission Report, ii. 13 I. 



' Court Minute, 27 September, 1672. ' School Register under date. 



255 



