SCHOOLS 



In the 1619 accounts, 'Mr. Knott, scolemaster,' and * Mr. Abell, 

 his usher,' were paid from Easter to Michaelmas, 16 18, when they were 

 succeeded by ' Mr. Roberte Harryott . . and his usher.' At Easter, 

 1637, a new man appears, signing ' Henry Jones, Ludimagister.' We 

 may suspect that he was a relation of Thomas Jones, the vicar, who had 

 held office since 1608. This year the town was honoured with a visit 

 from King Charles I, which caused the school roof to be repaired, at a 

 cost of ^3 3J., and its windows at £^1 3J., while the repairs of church, 

 jTio ; roads, ^(^5 5J-. ; and supplies 'to the Court' cost ^55, all defrayed 

 out of the several endowments. 



To judge from the entries in 1639 and 1640, 'Mr. Henry Jones, 

 scoolmaister, for his year's wages jC^o,' he preferred to do without an 

 usher and get the usher's pay, a not unfrequent arrangement. The 

 regular yearly rent had now risen to close on £^to^ yet the master's 

 salary, always inadequate, had never been raised, while money was spent 

 on the church and plague patients and all kinds of objects of doubtful 

 legality. Yet the school seems to have retained its position as a grammar 

 school, since in 1639 the son of a medical man at Wellingborough, 

 Oliver Garnet, after being under Mr. Jones for two years, was admitted 

 at St. John's College, Cambridge, at the age of eighteen. In 1641 we 

 find a real educational payment 'for a dixionarie for the school, jTi.' 



The school profited under the Puritans. In 1642 the ' cheef 

 schoolmaister,' Mr. Power or Powers, had his salary raised by a third, 

 the accounts for 1643 and 1644 showing ^\b and _^6 13^. \d, as the 

 amounts paid to the head master and the usher. Powers was succeeded 

 in 1654 by 'Mr. Power the Younger,' followed at Michaelmas, 1656, 

 by Edward Norris from Beverley Grammar School and St. John's 

 College, Cambridge. He was turned out at the Restoration for William 

 Clendan, when extensive repairs were made to the school, and five 

 times the usual amount was spent upon window-glazing alone. After 

 two years TuUy Wells came at the enhanced salary of ^Tao a year. In 

 1669, however, his successor, Rees, received only >r 12 loj-., though there 

 was no usher, apparently because repairs were done at the schoolhouse, 

 and a lexicon and dictionary bought for ^^ 2s. — an entry which shows 

 that Greek was taught. Under Joshua Ogle (1673) Henry Hawkins 

 was lent £6 ' towards placing out his Sonne at Cambridge,' and next year 

 received ^^4 ' towards mayntenance of his Sonne there.' This seems to 

 be the only instance of anything like a University Exhibition in the 

 whole of the accounts. The expenditure bore fruit, as in 1677 we 

 find Mr. Hawkins paid as usher, and may safely infer that he was the 

 same Hawkins returned to his own town and school. In 1680 he for 

 the first time is called by the more august title of undermaster, and in 

 1 68 1 appears with a christian name as John Hawkins, ' chiefe school- 

 master.' But his salary was on the most economical scale, as in 1682, 

 and for some years afterwards, only ^^20 was paid ' to the two school- 

 masters ' ; and in 1684 it appears Hawkins and Lucas, 'his usher,' 

 divided that sum in the proportion of ^Ti 3 6/. SJ. and ^^6 13J. 4^'. 



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