A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



of the Grammar School, teaching the petits during the rebuilding of the school, but he was 

 not schoolmaster. 1 



In 1652 the rebuilding seems to have been finished, ' fenstering in the scoole chambers and 

 chimneys,' costing i 141. \d. and 'the thatcher and his server is. 8d.' A new schoolmaster 

 came : ' Paid Mr. Johnson, scoolemaster, for this half-year j 45. 4^.' 



But now Darlington School, like that of Durham and a large number of other schools 

 throughout the country, felt the benefit of a reforming government. On 29 March, 1653-4,* 

 the 'commissioners for propagating the Gospel in the fower northerne counties, sitting at Newcastle- 

 upon-Tyne,' made the following order : ' Darnton s Wheras Ralph Johnson hath beene befor us 

 and upon examinacion and tryall of his learning is found fitt to teach a schoole for ye encouragement 

 of youth in piety and good literature, and being recommended for a painfull man and of unblameable 

 life and conversacion, wee doe hereby order the said Ralph Johnson, schoolemaster at Darnton in ye 

 countie of Durham, to be confirmed, and for his support and maintenance wee doe hereby order 

 that parcell of ye tithes of Heigh ington, of the yearly value of 20, bee settled upon the said Ralph 

 Joslin and continued to him soe long as hee shall remayne schoolemaster at Darnton aforesaid.' 



This order was signed by George Vane and Henry Ogle and ten others. 



On 28 December, 1655,* by an order reciting this order in favour of Mr. Ralph Joslin, alias 

 Johnson, the receiver of Heighington tithes was ordered to pay two-fifths of the whole to him, 

 instead of the fixed sum of 20 a year. A similar order had been made, it may be remembered, 

 for Durham School out of the same tithes. Mr. Johnson was also a preacher, receiving is. id. for 

 preaching one Sunday in 1654 (p. 159). 



In 1658 we find one of Johnson's pupils, Francis, son of Robert Roper, farmer, of Kellowe, 

 who had been at Darnton for three years under Mr. Johnson, admitted as sizar at St. John's, 

 Cambridge; 6 while in 1 660 another Darlingtonian, John, son of Mark Parker, of Bowes, was 

 admitted. It would seem that these were boarders. Oddly enough, these are the only two 

 boys who went from Darlington to this great northern college in the whole 130 years from 1630 

 to 1760 ; so that the Protectorate was a golden age for Darlington School. 



Other marks of a reforming era in education were the purchases by the churchwardens in 

 1653 (p. 156) of 'a primer for a poore boy, 4^.,' and in 1655 'an accidence for a poore boy, 6d.' 

 A pupil-teacher was employed ' For Edward Holmes a poore scholler at the petit schoole, for 

 half a yeare's teachinge, 35. 3</.,' while in 1654 Roger Jewet, Mr. Swinburne, Ralph Hall, and 

 'Widdow' Seamore were paid 'forscholers teaching^i 4*.' The 1655 accounts show that the tariff 

 for these ' Dames ' was not very high, Jewet receiving ' for one quarter's wages for learning a boy, 

 if.'; 'Dame Seamer for her wages for teaching a boy one yeare, 41.'; Ralph Hall ' for 3 lads 

 learning one quarter, 4*.' ; Mr. Swinburne ' for learning John Wilson's children and Giles' 

 daughter's child, js.' These payments for teaching apparently pauper children ' on the parish ' 

 cease with the reaction of the Restoration. 



Another mark of reform was an order of the churchwardens and seventeen of the ' twenty- 

 four ' complaining of the under-letting of land belonging to the church and school, and forbidding 

 any leases for the future ' without the full and free consent' of the church wardens and twenty-four 

 ' to be agreed upon at a public meeting in the church or elsewhere upon public notice.' 



Mr. Johnson probably was turned out after the Restoration, as in 1661 the churchwardens 

 (p. 204) record 2 paid ' to defray the charge of the sute concerning the schole.' No reference 

 occurs to the school again till 1664, when Mr. Battersby was paid 2 in part of his salary, and 

 Mr. Parkins for his 'sallery ' 5. Mr. Parkins was apparently the outgoing master. Thomas Bat- 

 tersby, who stayed for four years, went on to Durham in 1667. 



We find in 1666 'for beare and tobacco bestowed on Mr. Bell and his scholars in the Roga- 

 tion Weeke is. iod.' It is to be hoped the tobacco was for Mr. Bell only. Next year the sum of is.bd. 

 was spent for 'ale and cakes' on the scholars. Was ginger hot in the mouth, too? In 1669, 

 'spent at Mr. Bell's 4^.,' and for 'cakes to the scholars 6d.,' while in 1672 no less than 2s. was 

 spent on ' the scollars in ayle and bread.' From these entries Longstaffe inferred that Bell was the 

 schoolmaster ; but from other entries it is clear that he was ' minister,' i.e., vicar, and it was in that 

 capacity that he took the boys round to beat the bounds. Battersby was the headmaster, and in 

 1666 (p. 242) there was some business over getting an usher, the churchwardens disbursing 'in 

 their severall jorneys in and about the procuring of an usher for the school and in expences and 

 charges of sending and receiving of letters from Mr. White and others us. 8d.' and the usher 

 procured ' received for his wages 4.' The same year Mrs. Colthirst (wife of Robert Colthirst, 

 churchwarden in 1667) was paid 131. 'for the translating of the schole patten (patent) into 



1 As in Longstaffe, p. 257; nor was John Hodshon, gent, schoolmaster in 1657. 



1 Lambeth MSS. Aug. of Livings, 1006, p. 423. 3 This is a common variant for Darlington. 



* Lambeth MSS. Aug. of Livings, 972, p. 387. * Reg. St. John's, i. 135, 147. 



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