A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



Mr. Thomas Dominel, ' chief schoolmaster,' as he signs himself in abso- 

 lutely modern spelling, came into office at Michaelmas, 1687. Bridges 

 says that ' he professed himself a dissenter, and obtained King James's 

 dispensation without qualifying according to law. His election being 

 declared void, . . . about the time of His Majesty's abdication he 

 thought fit to disappear. It was afterwards discovered that he was a 

 Jesuit from Saint-Omer.' As the school book records his election expressly 

 subject to his procuring a licence ' to teach the Latin tongue,' and as he 

 remained master up to Christmas, 1695, six years after James's abdication, 

 there does not seem to be any truth in the story. 



In 1703 occurs an extra solemn election of a master, ' when the 

 major part of the feoffees, churchwardens, overseers, and many others of 

 the inhabitants of the parish met after a publick. notice in the church,' 

 and 'John Eales, of Boreton, in the county of Warwick, clerk, who then 

 present offered his services to the said electors,' was elected, it being 

 agreed that he should ' have the present yearly sallery of the said school 

 with the Burton rents, and soe much money out of the town stock as shall 

 therewith make it worth ^^30 per annum.' Seventeen signatures are 

 appended, and it is a creditable fact that this time there is not a marks- 

 man among them. The Burton rents were an additional endowment of 

 lands in Burton Latimer, a neighbouring village, bought withj(^i30 

 given to the school by Edward Pickering in 1680. On 13 October, 1710, 

 Ben Chesterton was on one day's notice of election appointed ' Usher or 

 Writing Master.' 



In 171 1 Richard Fisher, whose name frequently appears in the 

 accounts as feoffee, collector, and churchwarden, left £1$ ^ year for the 

 school, jTio to the chief, and ^^5 to the lower master, out of the endow- 

 ment of a charity school founded by him. 



The eighteenth century was covered by the long masterships of 

 John Troutbeck, Thomas Holme, William Proctor, and James Gibbs, 

 lasting respectively 21, 18, 36, and 20 years. These all combined the 

 offices of curate and schoolmaster, a state of things almost necessary if an 

 educated person was to be obtained for the office of schoolmaster at all. 

 For while the cost of living and the income of the lands were advancing 

 by leaps and bounds, the salaries of the schoolmasters were kept at the 

 old figure which had been fixed under totally different circumstances two 

 centuries before. Thus, while the income of the school or town lands 

 had risen by 171 5 to about >Cio55 '^^ grammar-school master received 

 only, as we have seen, jTi 3 bs. Sd. out of the town lands, and a total fixed 

 income of ^30 a year. In 1803 the rental had risen to £ig2^ whilst in 

 18 10, when the land was re-let under expert advice, the rental was about 

 doubled. Nevertheless, five years later, a century after the last account 

 recorded in the old book, though the income from Easter, 18 i 5—6, was no 

 less than >C9°9> ^ record year, there is no increased grant to the school- 

 master. It is not, perhaps, surprising that the Rev. James Gibbs had by 

 1818^ reduced his position to a ' sinecure, as there are no scholars in the 



1 Carfisle, ii, 229. 

 268 



