SCHOOLS 



On 21 February following 1660-1 'the masters 

 (domini) read publicly a certain certificate in the 

 name of the chapter on behalf of Master Francis 

 Leeke holding the office or place of schoolmaster 

 and ordered it to be sealed.' 38 In this quiet 

 way they validated Leeke's title to the master- 

 ship without professedly making a new appoint- 

 ment or confirming the old one made by the 

 Parliamentary authorities. On 8 June 1661 

 Stephen Fothergill, bred at Repton and chorista 

 Southwellensis, was admitted at St. John's, and 

 on 7 June 1665 the master's own son or nephew, 

 Charles Leeke of Halam, son of Francis Leeke, 

 clerk, bred at Southwell, et a choro ibidem, was 

 admitted pensioner, and became a Keton fellow 

 30 October 1669. 



Leeke seems to have remained in office till his 

 death some ten years later. There is no specific 

 mention of the cause of vacancy in the Chapter 

 Act on the next appointment of a master. This 

 is entered in the Act Book under date 1 1 April 

 1670 as 'business of the election and collation 

 of the place of schoolmaster of the free grammar 

 school of Southwell on Andrew Meires, deacon.' 

 Andrew Meires was probably a Southwell boy 

 and had been admitted a sizar of St. John's on 

 1 6 June 1669 at the age of twenty, so that his 

 university career was probably passed at some 

 other college. Four boys from the school, bred 

 under Mr. Meers or Myres, as he is variously 

 called, were admitted at St. John's between 

 1677 and 1684. As one of them was born at 

 Hartington in Derbyshire, it would appear there 

 were boarders at the time. The last admitted, 

 14 May 1684, was son of Henry Watkinson, 

 D.C.L., which shows that the sons of the canons 

 as well as others frequented the school. Meires 

 probably died in 1688. For on 12 June 1690 

 ' at a chapter court,' upon petition ' made by 

 Mr. Thomas Hasildon, scholemaster of South- 

 well grammer Schole, a Certificat was made in 

 these words viz. We the chapiter of the Col- 

 legiat Church of the Blessid Mary the Virgin of 

 Southwell in co. Notts, do certify whom it may 

 concern that Mr. Thomas Hesildon was Schole- 

 master of the Gramer Schole in Southwell aforesd. 

 at Lady Day 1688 and so has continued ever 

 Mr. Hesilden is called Haseldine on the 



since. 



entrance in 1689 at St. John's, of Robert son 

 of Samuel Leek, clerk, of Nottingham, who had 

 been bred under him at Southwell. He seems 

 to have been somewhat of a pluralist. For on 

 '30 June 1692 This day was a chapter held, 

 Mr. William Mompesson the canon residentiary 

 and Mr. Porter being present, at which it was 

 decreed that . . . Mr. Hesleden's being Schole 



** Southwell Minster Chap. Min. 1660-70, under 

 date : ' Publice perlecto quodam certificatorio nomine 



Master, Vicar Choral and Vicar of the parish, is 

 thought to be inconvenient, if they can be legally 

 separated.' As, however, the pay of the master 

 was restricted to the ancient 14. a year, the 

 practical difficulty of separating the offices was 

 very great. As a vicar choral only got 9 a 

 year and the parish vicar ,20, the united salary 

 of 43 a year could not be regarded as excessive. 

 A vicar choralship at all events remained an 

 inseparable accident of the schoolmastership until 

 the fourth dissolution of the collegiate church 

 took place and the school suffered to the verge 

 of extinction afterwards. The union of these 

 two offices at least was practically recognized by 

 Archbishop Sharpe in his injunctions at a visita- 

 tion held in i6g3. 37 



Sixthly. Furthermore whereas complaints have 

 been made unto us that the Grammar School of 

 Southwell is much prejudiced through the School- 

 Master being a Vicar Choral of the Church (his 

 attendance on the service of the quire necessarily 

 occasioning a neglect of the school) For remedying 

 this inconvenience We do order and require, that 

 from henceforward the Master of the Grammar 

 School strictly and constantly attend his school on all 

 school-days and at all school hours as much as any 

 former master of the School that was no Vicar Choral 

 was accustomed to do or so much as he himself if he 

 was no Vicar Choral is in duty bound to do ; and, 

 further, if notwithstanding this constant attendance 

 that we require of the School Master the Chapter 

 nevertheless find it necessary (either for his encourage- 

 ment or for performance of the Church service on 

 Sundays and Holidays when most of the other Vicars 

 may be supposed absent at their cures) that the said 

 Schoolmaster should be continued a Vicar In that 

 case We do enjoin that the said Chapter shall provide 

 some fit person to supply his place in the quire at all 

 times when his presence is required in the school 

 Provided that he himself do in person perform the 

 duties of his Vicar Choral's place on Sundays and 

 Holidays. 



As no independent or augmented endowment 

 of the school was made, though the value of the 

 ' wonted and accustomed salary ' had very mucli 

 lessened, the practice of appointing vicars choral 

 to the schoolmastership necessarily continued. 



The Chapter Act Book from 1692 to 172} 

 has disappeared. St. John's College Register 371 

 supplies the names of masters : Mr. Benson, from 

 at least 1699 to 1707 ; Mr. Neep, an 'old boy,' 

 from 1714 to 1720; Mr. Lambe, probably 

 1720 to 1723; and Mr. Hodgshon already there 

 in 1728. The next Chapter Act Book shows 

 that the chapter fully recognized the inadequacy 

 of the salary and met it by conferring a plurality 

 of offices on the master. 



24 Oct. 1728 Decreed that Mr. Hodgshon School- 

 master of Southwell and Vicar Chorall do succeed 



capituli ex parte magistri Francisci Leeke gerentis 

 officium seu locum ludimagistri schole grammatice in 

 Southwell domini idem certificatorium sigillandum 

 fore decreverunt.' 



17 Dickinson, Hist. Southwell, 381. 

 S7a Op. cit. ii, 151, 170, 184, 215 ; iii, 30, 32, 

 37, 47- 

 193 25 



