SCHOOLS 



Another task which the Almonry boys performed was the ' dressing, trimming, and making 

 bright ' the ' Pascall ' l or great candle for Easter. 



The Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535 * sheds more precise light on the Almonry school. From it 

 we learn that the Farmery, which must not be confounded with the monks' infirmary inside the 

 precinct, was for twenty-eight lay brothers and sisters, each of whom received 45. yd. a year, or 

 about a penny a week. It was by foundation of Philip, lord of Bromtoft ; Gilbert of Laya, lord of 

 Whitton, Adam of Bradbery, Robert ' de Monasterio,' Robert of Amundevill, Roger de Mowbray, 

 and many more. Its exact site we learn from the first receiver's account, or rent book, after the 

 dissolution of the monastery and foundation of the college of canons, that for the year 1541. Under 

 the heading of ' North Bailey, going southwards on the east side of it,' (the original is in Latin) after 

 giving the rental of ' Kyngysgate,' now Bow Lane, it has the following : 



' Entre on the east side of the same (i.e., the North Bailey) 



' From a great house (magna domo) called the Fermarye with orchard and garden adjacent, yearly. 



' From a great room above, where the school was held (De magno solario supra, ubi tenebatur scola). 



' From the schoolmaster's chamber (De j camera magistri scole). 



' From the same for a cellar beneath the schoolmaster's chamber (cellario subtus cameram eiusdem).' 



After two more items comes the statement, ' This is the end both of the South and of the 

 North Bailey.' This fixes the site as that where a lane or ' entry ' used to run down towards the 

 river Wear between what is now 28 North Bailey and I South Bailey, the beginning of which is 

 now occupied by the stables of the latter, which has recently reverted to educational uses as 

 St. Chad's Hall, the most recent of the halls of the present Durham University. The absence 

 of any sum for rent opposite the items shows that the premises were then unoccupied or at least unlet. 

 The school had clearly ceased, as it is spoken of in the past tense. In 1594 the master's chamber 

 had become ' the usher's chamber (camera hypodidascalt), the lodging of the usher of the re-founded 

 grammar school, allowed him rent free, while the cellar underneath was let as early as 1 546 to 

 Richard Massam, then to his widow, and in 1594 to his son Robert, who was a lay-clerk or singing 

 man of the cathedral, at i s. 6d. a year. 



The Valor Ecclesiasticus also tells us the number of boys in the Almonry who went to school 

 across the road, in the Outer Infirmary. ' In alms given for maintenance of thirty poor scholars 

 daily in a place called the Almonry (Elemosinariam), by the outer gate of the monastery, studying 

 grammar (artem grammaticalem) in the school of the monastery, in bread and drink provided by 

 26 quarters of wheat and 52 quarters of barley malt, 21 13*. \d? We have seen, however, that 

 besides this bread and beer they had the broken meats from the novices' table, though meagre fare for 

 thirty boys were the scraps of six or seven novices and one master. 



When the school of the Almonry began is not quite clear. It is said in the Valor to be ' of 

 the foundation of the founders aforesaid,' Roger de Mowbray and the rest. By analogy from 

 Canterbury, Winchester, and Westminster, it was probably in the first half of the fourteenth 

 century. 



The earliest mention of a master of the Almonry in the extracts from the accounts published by 

 Dr. Fowler is in 13523, and this marks the beginning of the school. The roll for 133940 shows ' in 

 stipend of priests 8 13*. 4^.,' while that for 1352-3 shows ' in stipends of priests and of the master of 

 the boys of the Almonry, i I I is. ^.d.' The difference between the two suggests the introduction in the 

 interval of the Almonry boys, who were used as choristers, and a master to teach them. In what is per- 

 haps the earliest mention of scholars in the Almonry, though it much more probably refers to scholars in 

 the Public Grammar School, is a deed in the Almonry Register, whereby Richard, bishop of Durham, 

 formerly of Salisbury (i.e. Richard of Bury, 13331345), arbitrated between the convent of Durham 

 and the master of Trinity Hospital, Gateshead, about the manor of Kyhou (Killow), 'formerly given 

 to the Almonry of Durem (Durham) for the maintenance of three clerks, 8 scholars of the school of 

 Durham in the liberal arts, by Mr. Symon of Ferlington, but afterwards given by his brother Henry, 

 the heir of Simon, to Gateshead, for the maintenance of three poor men and a chaplain.' The 

 bishop settled the dispute by letting the hospital keep the manor, paying 401. a year to the convent. 



The priests appear to have been three in number and founded * by John dc Hamaldunc 

 (? Hamilton), who for the souls of himself and others gave lands in Westchuton (Chewton) for the 

 maintenance of three priests, whom the monks were to assign to celebrate daily, one at the altar 

 of St. John the Baptist in St. Oswald's church and to serve the infirm and dead of St. Oswald's 

 Hospital in confessions and funerals ; the second to serve in the church of the Lepers* Hospital of 

 St. Mary Magdalen and under the Almoner take care of the lepers there ; and the third to minister 

 in the Hospital of St. John the Evangelist before the abbey gate. 



1 Ritei ofDur. p. 17. * Vahr Eccl. v. 301-3. 



1 Reg. Elemosinarie, f. 1 2, ' ad lustentacionem trium clericorum, tcolarium scolarum Dunelmensium 

 libcralium arcium.' * Ibid. f. 30, No. 77. 



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