SCHOOLS 



and St. George. Whether that endowment was applied for the purposes 

 of a school before the dissolution of the gild in 1548 must still remain 

 doubtful. 



The report then made on ' the Fraternitie or Guylde of Our Lady- 

 there ' ^ says that it was founded ' to the intent to do suche dedes of 

 Charytie as shoulde seme to the masters of the same bretherene most 

 mete,' and was in fact chiefly spent on the town bridges, and the value of 

 the lands was stated to be £i, 6s. lold. Appended is a 'memorandum, to 

 the intent it might please the king's majesty to erect there ^ a free school, 

 appointing the same lands towards the same ; the vicar there is contented 

 to charge his benefice for ever with 40J. a year towards the same, and 

 the township offereth to purchase as much more land as shall be con- 

 venient for the erection thereof 



On 21 December, 1549,' the lands 'late belonging to the gild or 

 fraternity of Wendlyngbrough ' were with other property of gilds in 

 other places conveyed by the king to John Monson, esquire, who was 

 seemingly acting as agent for the people of Wellingborough, for on the 

 very next day, 22 December, 1549, he conveyed the Wellingborough 

 gild lands to John Vyncent and John Dynnet, to hold in the same way 

 as they were granted to him, in common socage of the king as of his 

 manor of Caistor in Lincolnshire. It is most probable that the school 

 was then set up, but there is no absolute evidence of it. 



In Elizabeth's reign John Mershe of London, who had been a sur- 

 veyor for Northamptonshire of the Court of Augmentations, and Francis 

 Greneham obtained, i November, 1570, letters patent enabling them to 

 search for lands concealed ; that is, to enable the Attorney-General to bring 

 actions to recover lands which had belonged to monasteries or chantries 

 and had been withheld from the crown. In pursuance of this patent, on 

 30 January, 1 576, lands of the late gild of Wellingborough were con- 

 veyed with other lands to John and William Mershe, who in a month's 

 time sold them to six inhabitants of the town. William Ball, the last 

 named of these six, was in 1595 * charged, as 'surviving feoffee of the 

 lands in the bill ^ mentioned to the use of fynding of a scholemaster,' with 

 detaining ' the evidences ' and ' the whole profit of the same lands to his 

 owne use, wherefore there is now no Scholemaster there.' He was 

 ordered to produce the ' evidences ' and to pay what had usually been 

 paid to the schoolmaster. In further proceedings on 4 February 

 following* it appeared that Ball had conveyed the lands to ' dyvers 

 unmeet persons ' who ' sought to make a private gayne ' and would 

 not consent to the schoolmaster having '■ £12 by yere and the usher 

 _^4,' as was thought right in consideration of the land being ' worthe 

 about _^30 by yere.' The court eventually ordered a convevance to be 



' Printed in my EngFtsh Schools at the Reformation, 149-50, from Chant. Cert. 35, No. 16. 



' On the dissolution of Croyland Abbey in 1540 the town had passed from the lordship of the 

 abbot to that of the crown. In 1555 it was held by the Lady (afterwards Queen) Elizabeth, as 

 appears from a copy of court roll among the school muniments. 



' Pat. 3 Edw. VI, pt. vii, m. 17. * Chan. Dec. and Orders, A 1595, fol. 280. 



' The bill is not forthcoming. ' Chan. Dec. and Orders, A 1595, fol. 866. 



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