SCHOOLS 



bent of St. Nicholas and of St. Mary Magdalen Chapel in Gillygate.i Under him the school 

 received one of its few benefactions, William Birche, ' pastor,' of Stanhope, bequeathing by his will 

 29 May, 1575, 'to the porest Schollers of the Lattin Speiche in the Grammar Scholle in Durham 

 and Houghton, 401., to twenty, 21. a piece.' * He and Robert Cooke the headmaster appeared at 

 the visitation of the parish of North Bailey, 3 February, 1578. 



Francis Kaye or Key was admitted Headmaster on 22 March, 1580, 'to enter into his wages 

 from Christmas last past.' 8 



On 28 June, 1580, the vice-dean warned him 'to conforme himself accordinge to the statutes 

 and caused him to take his corporal othe for obedience to the Deane and Chapitre.' Apparently the 

 subject of disobedience was the common table, as ' the same day the said Vice-Deane admonished 

 Mr. Blenkinsoppe, peticanone, Robert Prentys, Thomas Lytle, Mr. Grene, and Mr. Francis Kaye 

 to kepe house together as the Pety canons are bound to doo, and that they should make ther answer 

 within the fortnight, and the said Mr. Vice-Deane promised them that they should have the 

 tiethe corne of Dalton towards ther housekepinge.' With the usual irregularity of these Chapter 

 Act books there is no entry as to the answer ; and we do not know whether the joint household 

 was established and maintained or not, or for how long. Next year we find Mr. Kaye was given 

 3 6;. SJ. ' of our benevolence ' by the chapter ' towards his proceedinge in Cambridge ' to his 

 M.A. degree presumably. ' Also it is decreed that the said Mr. Key shall grant no libertie to the 

 schollers to plaie without commandement of the Deane, Vice-Deane, and senior Residentiary, or at 

 the least at the sute of some Prebendarye.' Cuthbert Nichols, the usher, who succeeded Grene about 

 1587, is probably the person who appears as a notary public to examine the churchwardens of St. 

 Nicholas, Newcastle, on 12 April, 1578, and was the sub-deacon or reader of the Epistle in the 

 cathedral in 1580, and combined the ushership with that office. Mr. Kay went off to be vicar of 

 Northallerton, where he is buried, in 1593. James Calfhill, M.A., of Christ Church, Oxford, and 

 probably a son or nephew of Dr. Calfhill, Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity there, came next. 

 He combined the vicarage of St. Oswald's with the headmastership. He has been confused by some 

 Durham historians with John Calfeld, who may or may not have been a relation, for the spelling of 

 the surnames seems to wander about between Calfhill and Calfield ; but the Christian names are 

 distinct, and John, who was some six or seven years James's junior at Christchurch, became a canon 

 of Durham in 1607. Robert Bowlton or Bolton became second-master under Calfhill. 



The Dean, Tobie Matthew, and the chapter seem to have taken the opportunity of the change 

 in the headmastership, or perhaps to have been compelled by the bishop, Matthew Hutton, to make 

 statutes* 2O November, 1593, approved by the bishop 'in his visitation holden and ended the 291)1 

 daie of the said month (November) in the said yeare.' They are called ' Orders for the schoole of 

 Duresme.' They begin ' Ordered for the Schoole Maister,' and the first order is, according to a 

 marginal note, ' The religion and hability of the schoolemaister.' ' First and principally because 

 that an unlearned schoolemaister cannot make a learned scholer ; therefore it is ordered that the 

 schoolemaister shalbe furnished both in the Greake and Latin tongues, fully able to discharge his 

 dutye : which shalbe both a honest man in conversation and also a zealous and a sound professor of 

 true religion abhorring all papistrie.' ' The planting of true religion in the schollers ' was to be 

 done by ' weekely ' lessons and also by making them ' gett by heart some short catechism allowed 

 by authoritie ' and ' note the sermons ; which schoolemaister shall appose them, upon Frydaie after, 

 in the same.' 



The school hours were laid down as 7 to 1 1 a.m. and 12.45 to 5 P-m., and a ' cheif monyter ' 

 was to be appointed to note the names of late comers ' which he shall deliver to the schoole- 

 maister upon Fridaie .... and the maister to correct all such as shalbe founde culpable.' Friday 

 was the regular day in schools for expiating in blood all the offences of the week. The master was 

 to teach 'grammar, being the principles of the Lating tonge, as the schollers shall and may under- 

 stand everie point thereof ... by often and daielie appositions in the said schoole, teaching the 

 schollers to varie diverse and sundrie grammar rules, by making of their owne mind some short 

 dictamen of everie grammer rule.' They were to ' have perfectly by heart every rule contayned 

 in the king's grammer.' As soon as any boy had ' any perceyving ' in Latin he was to ' make one 

 epistle weekly and everie weeke of his own mind both in matter and words . . . according to the 

 principles of Erasmus or Ludovicus Vives in their books De scribendis, which shall be showed . . . 

 upon Saterday.' Next he was to learn to make 'a theame according to the precepts of Apthonius.' 

 Thirdly, . . . ' he shall have redd unto him the bookes of Cicero ad Heremium, wherein the 

 schoolemaister shall teach the schollers to frame and make an oration according to the precepts of 

 Rhetorick . . . thus : the schoolemaister shall propound a theame or argument which shall have 



1 Bp. Barnes's Eccl. Pnx. 46, 47, 73, 96 (Surtees Soc. No. 22, 1850). 8 Ibid. App. on. ' 



8 Chapter Act Book G. 1 578-83, marked 1 567, but p. 49, which is the first page, is for 1 587-8. 

 * They are preserved in a MS. book O. p. 1 54, kindly lent me by Mr. F. Bacon Frank, of Campsall 

 Hall, near Doncaster. 



i 377 48 



