A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



Diuerse and sondrye places within the parishe of Est 

 Rethforth, As by the Survey therof made particulerly 

 yt dothe appere, 73*. SJ. Wherof in 



Rentes Resolute yerely, 9/. 3</., And so 



Remayneth clere yerely vnto Charles Weste, Schole- 

 master there, for and his finding in keping of a Scole 

 there by yere, 64*. $d. 



Memoranda : Goodes Remayning or coming to 

 the Kinges maiesties vse by reason of this chauntery, 

 over and besydes one Challice of syluer waying 7$ 

 ounces not deliuered vnto the Master of the Kinges 

 Jewell house as yet, 3*. \d. 



The Churchewardeines there haue vpon their othes 

 presented, That there ys one Annuall rent of 

 73;. %d. apperteyning to theis saide 2 Chaunteries 

 comming and Growing of Ten decaied messuagies and 

 5 Toftes in Estrcthforthe aforesaide, Nowe in the 

 severall tenures of the Inhabitauntes of the Burgage 

 there for terme of certaine yeres, as appereth by a 

 Rentall therof made, Whiche houses about 20 yeres 

 paste were burnte with the hole towne, By reason 

 wherof Richarde Beyoke and Robert mowbery, Then 

 Chauntery preistes there, were removed by the 

 mutuall consentes of themselves and the saide Bailyfes 

 and Burgiesses for a tyme vntill the saide Toftes and 

 messuages were buylt and Reedyfyed again, at whiche 

 tyme it was agreed, as before, that they shoulde be 

 restored vnto the hole Ivyinges againe, whiche, before 

 the said burning chaunsed, was moche more then the 

 said somme of 73*. \d. And forasrnoche as the said 

 Baylyfes and Burgiesses were not able to buylde the 

 said houses and other the premysses vnto the v.iliewe 

 of suche a some as of long tyme before was payeable 

 to the said Chauntery preistes, They haue employde 

 and converted the said somme of 73^. \d. by them 

 recouered (before this Survey) vnto the finding of one 

 syr Charles Weste, preste and scolemaster there, to- 

 wardes the Bringing vp of youth, And for bycause, in 

 the meane season, the said landes are commen vnto 

 the Kinges maiesties handes by reason of an acte of 

 parlyament therof made, the saide 2 incumbentes are 

 vnprovydede of theyr said Ivyinges vnto them pro- 

 mysde by the sayd Baylyves and Burgiesses, And that 

 Sir Robert mowebury hath 16 yerely, That is to 

 saie, being pencyoner of one of the vicar's chorals in 

 Southwell, and 10 being vicar of Knesall. 



An abstract 4 of this certificate, made shortly 

 afterwards for the purpose of enabling the officers 

 of the Court of Augmentations to determine 

 what chantries or parts of chantry income should 

 be continued because appropriated to education 

 or eleemosynary purposes, found at 



EAST RETFORDE 



The Trinytie Chauntrye and our Lady Chauntrye 

 within the parishe Churche ther, wher Arr by esty- 

 macion Fyve hundreth houselinge people and no 

 mo priestes but the vycarr and this 



Founded to maynteyne the seruyce in the Churche 

 ther, to bringe vp Children, and other Godly pur- 

 poses not expressed, 73*. [Plate and Gooddes], 

 44,. U. 



But the statement that the chantries were 

 founded to bring up children, being in contradic- 



4 Leach, op. cit. 170, from Chant. Cert. 95, 



tion to the certificate, was ignored, as in the 

 warrant for the continuance of schools and the 

 like in Nottinghamshire, 20 July 1 548, the only 

 schools mentioned are those of Southwell and 

 Nottingham. 



Whether the school ceased then may well be 

 doubted. The loss of 3 4*. $d, a year, though 

 no doubt a great deprivation in days when 10 

 a year was, as we have seen, a good endowment 

 for a first-rate school, was not necessarily fatal 

 to its continuance. As the corporation be- 

 stirred itself and received the assistance of the 

 country round, and the aid of the diocesan, the 

 reforming Archbishop of York, Robert Holgate, 

 who had shown his own keen interest in the 

 spread of free schools by founding no less than 

 three in Yorkshire, they obtained not indeed a 

 restoration of their own chantry lands, but a 

 grant of the lands of dissolved chantries in other 

 places in the county, towards the endowment or 

 re-endowment of the school. 



By letters patent 9 December 1551 ' not, as 

 it is given by Carlisle and other writers through a 

 misrendering of the year of the king into the year 

 of the Lord, 1552 ' on the petition as well of the 

 bailiffs and burgesses of East Retford as of very 

 many others of the whole country round, the 

 king granted that there should be a grammar 

 school at East Retford to be called the Free 

 Grammar School of King Edward VI,' to con- 

 sist of a master and usher, to continue for ever. 

 For its maintenance he granted 'all that chantry 

 of Sutton in Loundale within the parish of 

 Lound ' and its lands, the chantry of Tuxford 

 with its lands, mostly in Kirton, and the chantry 

 of Annesley and its lands in Kirkby in Ashfield, 

 Morton, Annesley, and Bleasby, the whole worth 

 1$ $s. T^d. a. year, 'for the maintenance of 

 the school and of the master and under master 

 and for other things concerning the same.' The 

 bailiffs and burgesses had the appointment of the 

 master and usher, and were empowered to ac- 

 quire other property up to the value of 20 a 

 year and to make statutes with the advice of the 

 Archbishop of York. The statutes made accord- 

 ingly and signed by the archbishop on 30 April 

 1552 are preserved, and are some of the fullest 

 and most interesting of Edwardian school statutes, 

 very few specimens of which are extant. 



The statutes begin with assigning the usher to 

 teach the lower forms, and directing master and 

 usher to ' command and compell ' their scholars 

 to attend service in the parish church every 

 Sunday and holiday, ' and that those scholars 

 which be apt and meet for the same do help in 

 the quire to maintain divine service there.' This 

 might have been taken from any pre-Reforma- 

 tion statutes. But the next was new. They 

 were to ' cause one of their said scholars every 

 Sunday to read the catechism in English openly 

 and distinctly in the body (i.e. nave) of the said 





no. 9. 



4 Pat. 5 Edw. VI, pt. ii, m. 2, 3. 



240 



