SCHOOLS 



Clifton and others all his lands at Egmanton as 

 feoffees to the uses of his will. He now willed 

 that his feoffees should 



stand and be infeoffed in the same to the use of the 

 most reverend fader in God Christover Baynbryg, arch- 

 bisshope of York, and his heires, upon condition and 

 to the entent that the said archbisshoppe his heires or 

 executours within 4 yers next after my decesse, shall 

 founde a free gramer scole in Suthwell ever to endure, 

 paying yerly to my executors to the said scole be 

 founded 40^., And if it fortune ye said archbishoppe 

 his heires or executors not to provide a fre scole as is 

 aforsayde then I will that my sayde feoffes shall stand 

 and be infeoffed in the same To the use and behove 

 of the Prior and Convent of Thurgarton 



for ninety-nine years on condition of giving to 

 the prior and convent of Beauvale (Bevale) a 

 quarter of wheat and to the Friars Observant of 

 Newark another quarter each year. The will 

 was proved 27 November 1512. It will be 

 noted that the term ' free grammar school ' is 

 used here in English nearly half a century before 

 the supposed invention of the term and thing by 

 Edward VI, and that this gift was made in the 

 same year as that of Agnes Mellers at Notting- 

 ham, for the same purpose there. There is no 

 evidence seemingly at Southwell of the founda- 

 tion having been effected. But it must have 

 been. The sum of I O a year paid by the chapter 

 to the school, and as will be seen continued by 

 the Chantry Commissioners as a charge on the 

 Crown revenues and paid by the Ecclesiastical 

 Commissioners to this day, was probably due to 

 this benefaction. 



In 1530 Southwell received a benefaction 

 which had a lasting influence in preserving the 

 status of the school, though it was not conferred 

 directly on the school. This was the foundation 

 of the Keton or Keyton scholarships and fellow- 

 ships at St. John's College, Cambridge, by Dr. 

 John Keton, as he usually spelt himself, canon 

 of Salisbury. He had begun life as a chorister 

 of Southwell Minster, admitted 14 25 March 

 1479-80, and in 1492 was a chaplain at South- 

 well, 15 though in what precise capacity does not 

 appear. By deed of 27 October, 22 Henry VIII, 

 I 53 16 made between Sir Anthony Fitzher- 

 bert, judge of the Common Pleas, and himself 

 of the first part, the ' Chapiter ' of Southwell of 

 the second part, and St. John's College, Cam- 

 bridge, of the third part, in consideration of 

 j4OO (equivalent to at least j 8,000) given to 

 the college in money, plate, and other jewels, 

 the college covenanted to maintain two fellows 

 and two ' disciples or schollers,' in the same way 

 as the fellows and scholars of the Foundress 



14 Leach, Mem. Southwell Minster, 188. 



15 Ibid. 57. 



16 Printed in St. John's Coll. v. Toddington, I Burr. 

 (1757), 158. Also set out in Southwell Reg. Leases, 



foundation, with 13;. 4^. a year more to each of 

 the fellows, ' over and above the wages limited 

 unto other fellows of the Foundress foundacion.' 

 These fellows and scholars were to be ' elected 

 and chosen of those persons that bee or have 

 been quiristers of the chapiter of Southwell 

 aforesaid, if anie such able persons in maners 

 and lerninge can bee found in Southwell biffore- 

 said, and in default of such persons there, then of 

 such persons as have been queristers of the said 

 chapiter of Southwell, which persons be then 

 inhabitante or abidinge in the Universitie of 

 Cambrigge.' If ' none such be founde able in 

 the Universitie aforesaid then . . . such persons 

 that shall be most singuler in maners and 

 lerninge of what country soever they should bee 

 that shall be then abidinge in the said Univer- 

 sitie.' Though the scholar was not bound to 

 have been at the grammar school in terms, in 

 practice he was, and this endowment proved an 

 attraction to the school. Even during the Com- 

 monwealth when ' the chapiter of Southwell 

 was abolished and there were no choristers,' we 

 find Samuel, son of Thomas Leeke, clerk, ' bred 

 at Nottingham under his father, who was head 

 master there, and some time also at Southwell 

 (aliquantillo etiam tempore in schola de South- 

 well), admitted to St. John's 4 May 1654, while 

 immediately on the resumption of the college 

 Stephen Fothergill, of Epperstone, bred at Repton 

 for two years, is described as chorista Southwellensis 

 when admitted on 8 June 1661. So when 

 Charles Leeke, son of Francis Lecke, of Halam, 

 was admitted 7 June 1665, he is said to have 

 been bred at Southwell School et a choro ibidem. 

 He became a Keton fellow 30 October 1669. 

 In later years, when choristers had become of a 

 lower class, it became the practice for the canons 

 to appoint their sons or relations and friends as 

 choristers merely to qualify for these scholarships 

 and exhibitions, while not performing any duties 

 except on Sundays and holidays, but paying 

 someone else to do them. 



After the surrender of the college and all the 

 dependent foundations in 1540 it was refounded 

 by an Act of Parliament in 1543. This Act 

 enacted ' that the colledge and church collegiate 

 of Southwell . . . shall stande and bee in his 

 hole perfecte and essentiall estate in all degrees 

 and in such manner and forme to all intents or 

 purposes, as it was or stood the first day of 

 June, in the 32nd yere of the reigne of our 

 sovereign lord the king [i.e. 1540] or at anie 

 time before, and shall remaine, continue and bee 

 for ever a perfecte bodie corporate by the name 

 of the chapter of the collegiate church of the 

 Blessed Marie the Virgine of Southwell in the 

 countie of Nottingham.' All its property and 

 officers, including chantries and chantry priests, 

 lamps, and obits were restored. The only 

 difference was that the archbishop's manor and 

 his rights of patronage in the appointment of the 



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