A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



Sir Thomas removed John from Lincoln and 

 sent him again 



to the Free School at Nottingham, where his father 

 married a second wife and for a while went up to 

 London with her ; leaving his son at board in a very 

 religious house, where new superstitions and phari- 

 saical holiness, straining at gnats and swallowing 

 camels, gave him a little disgust, and was for a while 

 a stumbling block in his way of purer professions, 

 when he saw among professors such unsuitable mis- 

 carriages . . . but he rejoiced in his removal, coming 

 from a supercilious pedant to a very honest man, who 

 using him respect, advanced him more in one month 

 than the other did in a year. This tied him to no 

 observation, nor restrained him from no pleasure, nor 

 needed not, for he was so moderate when he was left 

 at his liberty, that he needed no regulation. The 

 familiar kindness of his master made him now begin 

 to love that which the other's austerity made him 

 loath ; and in a year's time he advanced exceedingly 

 in learning, and was sent to Cambridge." 1 * 



The character for laziness given to Theobald 

 by Mr. Hutchinson is borne out by the Borough 

 Records. 43 On 19 January 1623-4, the school 

 wardens were presented ' for nottkepinge a suffi- 

 cientt ussher in the Free Scoole ; and we intreat 

 your Worshipps to take good order for it, for the 

 towne is greatlye hundred by it.' Next year the 

 complaint was repeated and extended to the head 

 master, 17 January 1624-5.** 'Item we pre- 

 sent Mr. Wylleam Borrowes, Usher of the Free 

 Scoole, for his insufficientie, and desire that thear 

 may be another placed in his rome.' ' Item we 

 present Mr. Theoballs for his necligence in 

 teachinge and not followinge his scollers as the 

 place deservethe.' Both of them were fined 

 3*. 4^. The head master, however, held office for 

 another three years before giving up at Lady 

 Day 1628. He retired to the living of Colwick, 

 where he was buried 23 June 1643. 



The proceedings of the council on the de- 

 parture of Theobald and the election of his 

 successor present to modern eyes a curious 

 arrangement, amounting to what we should call 

 a corrupt bargain, by which the outgoing sold 

 his succession to the incoming master, with the 

 full concurrence of the electors. But since, as 

 is well known, any reversion not only of eccle- 

 siastical benefices but of Crown appointments 

 and even of fellowships of colleges was made a 

 matter of bargain and sale it is not surprising 

 that schoolmasterships were treated in like 

 fashion. There are many instances of it. In 

 the present case, the council took exceptional 

 trouble to secure that the purchaser was com- 

 petent for the post. 



29 April 1628." Scholemaister. Ytt is agreed 

 by this Companie thatt Mr. Leake shalbe Schoole- 

 maister of the free-schoole in this towne in the place 



41b Memoirs (ed. Firth), 71-2. 



43 Borough Rec. iv, 389. M Ibid. 391. 



46 Ibid, v, 131. 



and roome of Mr. Theobalds, nowe Schoole-maister, 

 whoe nowe is preferred to the parsonage of Collwicke, 

 soe thatt Mr. Theobalds doe resigne the same place 

 unto Mr. Leake, and Mr. Coates, nowe parson of 

 St. Peter's, doe lykewise approve of his sufficiencie 

 for the same place and lykewise arbitrate betweene 

 Mr. Theoballs (sic) and Mr. Leake whatt shalbe 

 geven for his resignacion ; otherwise, in case 

 Mr. Coats dow nott approve him to be sufficient for 

 thatt place, then this Companie, upon such his dislyke 

 signifyed to Mr. Maior, to proceed to a newe elleccion 

 of a Schoolemaister ; and memorandum thatt Mr. Coats 

 approvinge of him before this Companie, all the 

 same companie went to the Schoole and gave him 

 possession of the schoole with Mr. Thibball's (sic) 

 consent and lykinge. 



Mr. Thomas Leake's bargain, whatever it was, 

 proved a good one both for himself and for the 

 town. There were Leakes at Halam in Notting- 

 hamshire and in 1596 at Sutton Scarsdale in 

 Derbyshire, and Francis Leeke was head master 

 at Southwell a little later. Thomas Leake 

 held office for close on thirty years and died in 

 harness. All through 'the troubles' he was 

 sending a continuous stream of scholars from 

 Nottingham to Cambridge ; and no doubt, 

 when Oxford ceased to be a Royalist camp, 

 to Oxford also, but Oxford has not record- 

 ed the schools of its scholars. The registers of 

 two Cambridge colleges enable us to ascertain 

 for certain, what we could hitherto only guess or 

 infer from casual scraps of biography, that this 

 and other schools were doing the duty they were 

 designed to do of sending boys up to the univer- 

 sities to complete their qualifications to serve the 

 Commonwealth in Church and State. The two 

 colleges are Gonville and Caius and St. John's. 

 The former was then but a small college, the 

 latter one of the largest and most fashionable in 

 either university. The list of Nottingham boys 

 at St. John's begins with Francis, son of Thomas 

 Leake, gentleman, of Halam, no doubt a re- 

 lation of the head master, who was entered as 

 a sizar on 24 May 1632. He was followed 

 by John Burnell of Winkburn, who went up as 

 a pensioner, or paying scholar, on 29 June 1633; 

 while William, son of John Alvey, a Notting- 

 ham baker, went up on i July 1634. They all 

 entered at sixteen years of age. Amongst other 

 Johnians were William Kinder, son of the 

 rector of Cotgrave, in 1638 ; Erasmus, son of 

 Daniel Delingue, kt., of Harlaxton, Lincoln- 

 shire, in 1639 ; Francis, son of Edward Wil- 

 loughby, gentleman (and gentleman meant as a 

 rule a son of a person of knightly birth), of 

 Cossall, in 1651 ; and the sons of a Notting- 

 ham baker, of a husbandman or farmer, and of 

 a tailor in 1655. These latter were some seven- 

 teen, most eighteen years old, on admission. 

 The last admitted at the college who had been 

 under Mr. Leake was Thomas Bealy in 1661. 

 There were two boys from Nottingham at Gon- 

 ville and Caius : one, son of a merchant, admitted 



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