SCHOOLS 



the school, one-third for relief of the poor and 

 * payment of the rent of the Lord Protector 

 and his commonwealth and other reprizes.' 

 Mansfield being a Crown manor, the Lord Pro- 

 tector's rent meant only the fee-farm rent payable 

 to the Crown (21. 6d.). Rowland Dand, however, 

 the heir of the surviving trustee, objected, and 

 eventually conveyed the property, by deed of 

 I December 1656, to eight persons as feoffees 

 or new trustees two-thirds of the rent for the 

 (oncionator or public preacher (who was at that 

 time actually the vicar, one of the great Puritan 

 reforms being to convert the parish clergy 

 into preaching ministers), and one-third to the 

 school, of which third, two-thirds were to go 

 to the master and one-third to the usher. It 

 was expressly provided that the vicar should have 

 nothing out of it unless he was also the preacher. 

 According to a tale told by the vicar some thirty 

 years afterwards this was a new gift to the 

 school, the preacher having previously had the 

 whole ; but in view of the expressions in the 

 deed of 1625-6 this is extremely unlikely. At all 

 events it was an appropriation which the inhabi- 

 tants had no right to make, and as the Commis- 

 sioners of Inquiry in 1833 pointed out, the 

 panel in the church which purports to give a 

 record of the Mansfield charities gives a mistaken 

 account when it represents the purchase of the 

 Intake lands in 1606-7 ^ being made for the 

 use of the preacher. 



The school received indirectly encouragement 

 and endowment from the foundation by deed 

 in 1673 by Richard Sterne, Archbishop of 

 York, of four scholarships at Jesus College, Cam- 

 bridge ; two for scholars of the county of York, 

 and two out of the county of Nottingham, of 

 whom one was to be a native of Mansfield. 



About 1682 the then schoolmaster James 

 Holcote and the usher Gabriel Hazard made 

 an attempt to get the school property separated 

 and distinguished from the church property, 

 filing a bill in Chancery against the vicar and 

 churchwardens, the governors of both school 

 and church lands. The outcome was a deed of 

 arrangement or amicable compromise of 7 Novem- 

 ber 1682, which from James Firth, the vicar, 

 being the party of the first part, came to be 

 known as Firth's Agreement. Under this the 

 vicar was to receive 60 and the schoolmasters 

 ^30 a year, of which the master had 16 6s. 8d. 

 and the usher ^13 135. \d. ; the residue of the 

 rents, about 20 a year, going to the use of church 

 and school. This agreement was made between 

 the vicar and churchwardens and seven of the 

 assistants, and the schoolmasters were not parties to 

 it. On a subsequent information of the Attorney- 

 General at the instance of Holcote, it was alleged 

 by the vicar that to better the resources of the 

 school, which were only 24 a year, he had per- 

 suaded the last trustee of the Eight Men's Intake, 

 worth j6o a year, which according to him was 



intended to provide a condonator or preacher, to 

 allow 20 to go to the school ; further that about 

 1682 when Holcote, the schoolmaster, exhibited 

 articles in Chancery against him and others, for 

 the recovery of the school lands, he had with the 

 wardens and assistants, guaranteed 50 a year to 

 the school for the future ; that they had given ^40 

 to settle better industry in the town from surplus 

 funds, and expended 100 for church and school 

 for objects for which the parish was liable : that 

 the value of church and school lands was 

 jio8 8s. 6d. per annum, besides the profit of a 

 lease taken for the use of the school by the vicar 

 and churchwardens amounting to the clear yearly 

 value of 33*. 8d. ; that the schoolmaster was 

 really satisfied, but was being egged on by other 

 persons who had promised to indemnify him. 

 The Firth agreement was acted upon for 180 

 years, the income being divided in the proportion 

 of two-thirds to the vicar, who also held the office 

 of preacher, and one-third to the school. 



James Holcote, the master at the time of the 

 suit, was of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 

 where he took his B.A. degree in 1676, M.A. 

 in 1682 ; while Gabriel Hazard, the usher, a 

 Nottingham School boy, was of St. John's College, 

 Cambridge, admitted 19 April 1675, B.A. 1678. 

 A Mansfield boy, Thomas Langford, was sent 

 from the school to St. John's, 20 August 1685 ; 

 and Holcote was still master in 1696, when a boy, 

 Richard Goodwin, who was probably a boarder, 

 as he was born at Shirland, Derbyshire, also went 

 up to that college. 



In 170910 we learn from the admission at 

 St. John's of Cornelius Ford, son of a doctor, that 

 Mr. Man, called in 1711 Dr. Mann, was master. 

 He was perhaps Miles Man, admitted to St. John's 

 28 June 1683, a Westmorland boy, and seems 

 to have been master at Hemsworth School, York- 

 shire, before coming to Mansfield. In Dr. Mann's 

 time the school was rebuilt, Queen Anne, as 

 lady of the manor, giving 20 loads of timber for 

 it, Dr. Mann 10, and the usher, the Rev. Mr. 

 Hay wood, ^4 ; while there was ' collected from 

 ladies at a dancing 3 4;.' e It was a lofty room, 

 63 ft. long by 1 8 ft. broad. In 1719 the master's 

 house was rebuilt partly by subscription, with 

 accommodation for about 12 boarders. 



In 1722, when John Jebb went from Mans- 

 field to St. John's, 7 Mr. Hucklebridge was master, 

 and also in 1727. 



In 1747 Mr. Depleidge, called in 1749 De- 

 plage, had become master. 



From a tombstone in the churchyard we get 

 the name of a later master, William Kendall, 

 clerk, scholae grammaticae praecfptor, who died 

 4 September 1794, at the age of 46. 



The Rev. William Bowerbank was appointed 

 master in 1801, and John Cursham usher. At 



6 Harrod, Hist, of Mansfield, pt. ii, 27. 

 r St. John's Coll. Reg. pt. iii, 33. 



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