SCHOOLS 



returned ' that ' John Abbot gave unto the master and wardens to finde a prest singing at 

 Fingeringhoo in the countie of Northampton and also for keping of a fre scole to teache 

 younge children in the same towne, lands amounting to £() lbs. 8d. ; whereof to James Collis, 

 prest, by yere for his stipende £6 ly. ^d. ; and then remayneth clere £2 ^V- ^^- ' which the 

 company put in their pockets. The school not being a grammar school was not within the 

 exemption of the Chantry Acts and so was suppressed, the company retaining the lands 

 subject to an annual payment to the crown of the amount of the priest-schoolmaster's salary, 

 and this was bought back from the crown in a great united purchase by all the London 

 companies combined. As Catton Lane is now Gresham Street, the investment was a 

 fortunate one for the company. The priest's house and garden at Farthinghoe were in 1563 

 in the hands of GeofFrey Dormer.^ 



THINGDON 



William Aston, citizen and freeman of London, by will 16 February, 1455-6, enrolled 

 in the Hustings Court in 1460, gave to the rector, churchwardens, and parishioners of 

 St. Martin's, Ludgate, in London, all his lands and tenements in the parish outside Ludgate in 

 trust to pay a rent-charge of 7 marks for a chantry in St. Mary's church, Thyngdon, where 

 his daughter Agnes lay buried, for his soul and for those of Adam and Emma his parents, two 

 wives named Jane, and others. This chantry was duly established ; it was in fact also a school, 

 as appears from the report of the commissioners of Edward VL' 



It does not appear what relation, if any, this bore to the foundation for which Richard 

 Walter, citizen of London, by will in 1542 gave ;^500 to build a school and purchase land of 

 £l^.o a year value for endowment. Effect was not given to Walter's bequest until, under a 

 decree of Lord Keeper Coventry in 1587, the money was paid to trustees and a school 

 built in 1595,* and by deed of 2 September, 1635, two 'yardlands' and a house and tanyard 

 in Rothwell were conveyed for its endowment ; which under an Inclosure Act in 1 8 12 became 

 an allotment of 45 acres, let for £jo a year in 1 8 16. 



By a decree* on a commission of charitable uses, 8 February, 1683-4, 'it was declared 

 that the schoole house between the churchyard south and an ancient way north was for a free 

 schoole for teaching and instructing the sons of all such persons as are or shall be inhabitants of 

 Thingdon, without any salary or reward to be exacted of the parents or guardians.' 



By a scheme of the Court of Chancery 1722 the endowment was definitely appropriated to 

 elementary education, and has so remained ever since. 



ALDWINKLE 



At Aldwinkle Chamber's Chantry was founded, we are told by the Chantry Commission, 

 to find ^ a priest ' to teach 6 poor children of the town, and to distribute in alms yearly unto 

 2 poor bedemen of the almshouse, 26s. Sd.' The priest was paid ^^8 los. Sd. a year, a good 

 salary as times went, especially as the school was not a grammar school at all, but what we 

 should call an elementary school. The foundation ordinance' on 8 November, 1489, by 

 William Chamber was for a chaplain to sing for the founder's soul and for the souls of 

 William Aldwincle,* of John Chamber and Ann, the founder's father and mother, and others, 

 at the altar of Our Lady in All Saints' church, Aldwinckle ; and ' to teach and inform 6 boys 

 of the town of Aldwinckle of the poorest sort [maxime indigentes) in spelling and reading [in 

 syllabilacione et lectura).'' The boys were to be named by the founder and Elizabeth his 

 wife, and after their death, three by the rector of St. Peter's, Aldwinckle, and three by the 

 chantry priest himself. It was a free school, as the priest was to teach 'gratis, without 

 demanding or receiving any remuneration from their parents or friends.' John Soliman was 

 the first incumbent. No more is known of this ill-fated foundation, which was one of the few 



' Chant. Cert. 34. ' Chan. Inq. p. m. (ser. 2), acxx\-ii. No. 36. 



' Chant. Cert. 36, No. 15. 'John Cotton, incumbent . . . well leamyd and a precher, and 

 teacheth childerne.' 



* Carlisle, ii, 206. '' Chancer)' Petty Bags . §. 



* Engl. Schools at the Refimatim, p. 146, from Chantry Certificate 36 (Henrj- VIII). 

 ' Harl. MS. 614, fol. 48. 



' A brass in All Saints' Church records, 'Hie jacet Willelmus Aldew7ncle, armiger, qui obiit 28° 

 die August! a.d. 1463; cujus anime propicietur Deus.' Ann Chamber was no doubt Aldwincle's 

 daughter. 



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