SCHOOLS 



the measure of the tyme, and withall the company 

 have subscrybed theyr names to a letter in his behalfe 

 to the Bailiffs and brethren of Darby to commend 

 him unto them and to desier theyr loves towardes him. 



It is interesting to see from the next entry, 

 under the same date, that it was not at 

 Newark alone, because of its song school en- 

 dowment, that singing was still taught in 

 school, but in Nottingham also provision was 

 made for it, though by voluntary effort and 

 no doubt on payment of fees. It is also 

 noticeable that, as in the Middle Ages, the 

 teacher of singing was also the teacher of ele- 

 mentary subjects. ' Maister Allen. Lastly, the 

 company is contented that Mr. Allen doo teach 

 still to wryte and singe, as heretofore he hath 

 doone, and that he have the libertie of the parlor 

 to teach his children in : whereto Mr. Soresby 

 hath assented, and that those children be under 

 the order and government of the said Mr. Soresby. 

 And so all things is thus established amongst 

 them to all theyr good lykings and content- 

 mentes.' 



This Mr. Allen was probably the person who 

 was 'presented' on 13 October 1623 as 'Wil- 

 liam Allen of Adboulton, for keepinge of a Writ- 

 inge Scole in the parishe of St. Maryes, for that 

 he is a recusant,' i.e. Roman Catholic. 



It is amusing to see the council taking ad- 

 vantage of an application by the master to 

 enforce Sunday observances and fewer holidays. 



1 9 June 1 6 1 1 .'" Before this company was the 

 Schooll account made, and the company is contented, 

 upon Mr. Soresbies good desert and upon his humble 

 mocion, to build him a little brewhouse for his 

 necessary use ; and accordingly Mr. Hurtt, Mr. 

 Freeman, Mr. Stables, Aldermen, the Schoolwardens 

 and others are gone to view ytt. 



And itt is agreed, that the Schoolmaster have a 

 care to have his children come to him upon every 

 Sonday morninge before servyce, and so in the after 

 noone and lykewise on every holyday, to be instructed 

 by him and to attend him to the churche. And that 

 the children be restrayned from so oft playinge as 

 heretofore they have used, and herein Mr. Soresbye is 

 required to take a speciall care that they p'ay not, in 

 any case, upon any Monday, Wednesday, or Fryday, 

 nor att the request of any mariadges, prout hereto- 

 fore, &c. 



On 17 August 1614 King James I spent a 

 night at Nottingham, and the school no doubt 

 took part in his reception ; and in spite of the 

 prohibition in Elizabeth's charter against the 

 school endowment being applied to any but 

 school purposes, it was made to contribute 

 6 13*. 4^. towards the expenses of the visit. 

 As however the visit cost the town ^57 19*. 3^., 

 the bulk of which they had to borrow, they 

 might perhaps be pardoned for getting a contri- 

 bution from the school. A less defensible pay- 

 ment was that of 401. out of the school funds 



40 Borough Rec. iv, 302. 



towards the wages of William Gregory as M.P. 

 for the borough, an office he combined with that 

 of member of the town council and town clerk. 



Soresby had a distinguished pupil in the person 

 of Richard Sterne, who became in 1633 master 

 of Jesus College, Cambridge, and after being 

 ejected in 1644 was at the Restoration made 

 Bishop of Carlisle and in 1664 Archbishop of 

 York. He is perhaps best known now, not so 

 much for what he did as by his monument in 

 York Minster, and most as having been great- 

 grandfather of that somewhat disreputable cleric, 

 Lawrence Sterne, the author of Tristram Shandy 

 and the Sentimental Journey. 



Soresby was buried in St. Mary's Church 

 ii March i6i5-i6. 41 His successor, Robert 

 Theobald, a scholar of Westminster School and 

 of Trinity College, Cambridge, was installed in 

 state, according to the Council Minutes: 42 



29 May 1616. New Schoolmaister. Before this 

 company Mr. Hutchinson and Mr. Alton brought 

 Maister Theobald, who delivered a letter to Mr. 

 Maior and his brethren in his commendacion from 

 Mr. Doctor Richardson and 8 or 9 of the Fellowes 

 of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge to preferr him to be 

 Schoolmaister, and upon conference he is admytted to 

 be Schoolmaister upon his tryall and desert and to 

 have 20 wages and the howse, and to be moderate 

 in takinge of borders. And Mestris Soresby, beinge 

 talked withall by us att the Schooll, ys contented and 

 hath promysed to departe att Bartholemewtyde nexte, 

 and in the meane tymc the Scholl Master to have the 

 garden and all the upper roomths, and she att her 

 departure to have zos. of this present quarter's wages 

 and young Smith and his brother to have 30;. of the 

 same quarter's wages and the new Schoollmaster to 

 have 50^. of the same quarter's wages att Midsomer 

 next. And hereupon he was admytted, all this com- 

 pany beinge atte ye Schooll with him. 



Theobald had a distinguished pupil in one of 

 Nottingham's chief worthies, John Hutchinson, 

 the Parliamentary colonel, governor of the town, 

 whose memory was enshrined in a Life, by his 

 widow Lucy. He was the son of a country 

 gentleman, Sir Thomas Hutchinson, of Ow- 

 thorpe, but born in Nottingham, having been 

 baptized in St. Mary's Church there on 18 Sep- 

 tember 1615. 



When it was time for them to go to school [which 

 would be about 1622], both the brothers were sent 

 to board with Mr. Theobalds, the Master of the 

 Free School at Nottingham, who was an excellent 

 scholar ; but having no children, some wealth, and a 

 little living that kept his house, he first grew lazy 

 and after left off" his School. Sir Thomas removed 

 his sons to the Free School at Lincoln, where there 

 was a master very famous for learning and piety, Mr. 

 Clarke ; but he was such a supercilious pedant, and 

 so conceited of his own pedantic forms that he gave 

 Mr. Hutchinson a disgust of him, and he profited 

 very little there."" 



41 The forester, Apr. 1891, from Parish Reg. 

 41 Borough Rec. iv, 342. 

 4>a Memoirs (ed. Firth), 66. 



227 



