A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



warned on 23 August 1470 to keep suit of 

 choir better on pain of suspension. Again on 



2 October 1475, and on 30 July 1478, he was 

 given a similar warning, and on 6 May 1484, 

 when he was warned to attend on feast days 

 only. In 1490 he was said to say his masses 

 out of choir and to come to choir barely twice or 

 thrice a week. He had in 1476 resigned his 

 original chantry for Haxey's chantry, and at 

 some unknown date, probably November I53> 

 exchanged that again for one of the two chan- 

 tries of Our Lady and St. Cuthbert, founded by 

 Archbishop Laurence Booth in 1479." The 

 chapel of this chantry, in which both Laurence 

 himself and his brother and predecessor as arch- 

 bishop, William Booth, 1452 to 1464, were 

 buried, was built at the south-west corner of the 

 church. It is probable that all through Barthorp 

 was acting as usher in the grammar school, 

 probably holding his chantries on condition of 

 doing so. He was much better endowed than 

 the master, whose usher or at all events deputy 

 he was, if, as seems to be the case from the entry 

 quoted, the grammar schoolmaster only received 



f2 a year, for the chantries were worth 

 3 iSs. lid. and 10 igs. lid. The master 

 must therefore have derived the chief part of his 

 emoluments from tuition fees. He may have 

 had boarders. After Barthorp's death on 



3 December 1504 a rather solemn entry is made 

 as to the appointment of his successor. Mr. 

 William Fitzherbert and Thomas Fitzherbert, 

 the two canons residentiary, holding a chapter, 

 put before the assembled churchwardens, regis- 

 trar, and vicars choral, their title to collate to 

 the chantry. Then Henry Frankyshe, one of 

 the sixteen vicars choral, asked to be promoted 

 to the same according to the ordinance and 

 foundation of it. 



They answered that his petition was just, but they 

 asked him to abandon his proposal this time in order 

 that for the common benefit and his own they might 

 present a fit chaplain who would be able to teach the 

 grammar school. P'or which reason Sir Henry 

 Frankyshe acceded to their request. And so the said 

 canons residentiary the same day instituted, invested, 

 and installed a chaplain named Sir William Babyngton, 

 who was sworn according to the ordinance and 

 foundation of the said chantries. Moreover, after his 

 institution and installation, on the same day in the 

 chapter-house, of his own free will and not under 

 compulsion, the said Sir William Babyngton swore on 

 the holy gospels, that he would undergo the burden 

 of teaching the grammar school, the whole time that 

 he held the said chantry. lla 



In this very convenient way the endowment 

 of the grammar school, or of its usher, was in- 

 creased by the chapter who were bound to main- 

 tain it, without any cost to themselves. It is 



" Test. Ebor. (Surt. Soc.), iii, 250. 



lu Leach, M em. Sout/m-ell Minster, 177. 



probable that from this time onwards the 

 chantry chapel was used as the grammar school. 

 At least it is stated to have been so used about 

 1784, in which year it was pulled down by the 

 chapter ' because it destroyed the regularity of 

 the buildings ' of the minster. By a curious 

 coincidence, 12 which may have been suggested 

 by its previous use, the endowment of the 

 chantry, being a fixed rent-charge of 13 6s. 8d. 

 a year payable out of the archbishop's manor of 

 Battersea, was after the Dissolution in 1548 

 granted by Edward VI as the chief part of the 

 endowment of Guildford Grammar School. 

 Afterwards by forgery Archbishop Heath regained 

 the endowment to Southwell Minster under 

 Mary, but it was restored to Guildford Gram- 

 mar School by Act of Parliament in the reign of 

 Queen Elizabeth. Battersea Manor afterwards 

 passed to the St. Johns and then to Earl 

 Spencer, who still pays the rent-charge, though 

 it is believed that the lands out of which it 

 issued have been sold. 



Apparently Babyngton, after his appointment 

 to St. Cuthbert's chantry, did the whole work 

 of the school, and Barre practically retired on a 

 pension. For a little later, 18 January 1505-6, 

 the chapter decreed that Barre should pay 

 Babyngton i is. 8d. at Whitsuntide following 

 and at Martinmas another iu. 8d. and 1 a 

 year afterwards. It does not appear when Barre 

 ceased to hold office. As we have seen, he was 

 probably alive in 1525, when Dr. Robert Barra 

 made his will. He, by the way, gave to Edward 

 Barra, scholar, his nephew, if he wished to 

 become a priest, jCio and all his grammatical 

 and legal books, and the course of canon law and 

 Abbatt on the Decretals if he wished to learn 

 law or canon law. Babyngton was still holder 

 of the chantry when on 17 August 1540 it was 

 surrendered by him, when the rest of the possessions 

 of the church were surrendered by his colleagues 

 and the chapter and vicars choral and other holders 

 of offices and endowments, to Henry VIII. So 

 that two masters only filled the office in the 

 seventy years from 1469 to the Dissolution. 



Before that event took place an attempt seems 

 to have been made to establish in Southwell a 

 free school, that is, a school free from tuition 

 fees, the chapter school with its small endow- 

 ment being, as we saw from the entry of 1484, 

 not free, but one which cost money. Robert 

 Batemanson, who was seemingly one of the 

 household of Laurence Booth, Archbishop of 

 York, whose will of 28 September 1479 he 

 witnessed, came from Broom, near Durham, to 

 Southwell, in the time of the archbishop, and his 

 brother Roger was a vicar choral in the minster. 

 Robert made his will on 23 June 15 J2. 13 He 

 had by deed of 18 June 1492 given to Hugh 



" f.C.H. Surr. ii, 166-7. 



11 Leach, Mem. Southwell Minster, 115; cf. Test. 

 Ebor. iii, 25on. 



186 



