A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



equally, gave thirty-five for each ; a number that was regarded as none 

 too big for a class even thirty years ago. 



There were however other assistants. In the Hall Book for 13967 

 appears ' Goring, co-adjutor,' and in the accounts for that year and the 

 next his commons were paid for by the college until the fourth term of 

 the year. This was clearly not an expense legally chargeable to the 

 college, and he does not appear again. But we get occasionally such 

 entries as this, two or three times repeated in the twelfth week of the 

 fourth term of 1416, 'A priest of the Schoolmaster's to dinner with the 

 Fellows.' This points to a priest kept by the headmaster to assist him 

 with his duties, probably in much the same position as the commoner 

 tutor of later days. 



The first headmaster of Wykeham's scholars was, as we have seen, 

 Mr. Richard Herton, in 1373. The next we know of was Mr. John of 

 Melton, mentioned in the letter already quoted as to the election of 

 scholars to New College, of 8 April, 1388. He had then been 

 master some little time, as the two wardens and John Keton, fellow of 

 New College, presumably acting as ' poser ' or examiner, were directed 

 to see that he duly observed the injunctions given, ' in obedience to the 

 oath which he made to us.' The first known usher is also named in that 

 letter, ' John Seward his (Melton's) vice-gerent.' It is probable that 

 Melton succeeded Richard Herton, whose ten years would have expired 

 in 1383. As Melton is called master he must have been a master of arts, 

 no doubt of Oxford. 



A stain has been cast upon his character by his being identified with 

 a clerk of the same name who appears in Wykeham's Episcopal Register 

 as convicted of stealing cloth at Hursley, a place about four miles from 

 Winchester, and it has been stated that he lost his situation as headmaster 

 in consequence. The dates however disprove this statement. The 

 college account roll l shows that Melton ceased to be headmaster exactly 

 at Michaelmas, 1394, having been appointed master of the Magdalen 

 Hospital on St. Giles' Hill by Winchester on 10 May, 1394,* no doubt 

 by way of a retiring pension, and the thief of the same name was 

 convicted in May, 1397. 



Of Melton's successor, Thomas Romsey, little is known. Somewhere 

 about 1560 Christopher Johnson, then headmaster, wrote a series of 

 ' distichs ' or two line Latin epigrams (published in 1573 with the 

 poems of Richard Willes or Willis), on the wardens and headmasters up to 

 his time, which sometimes furnish curious bits of information about them. 

 All that Christopher Johnson could find to say of Romsey was that he 

 was both lucky and unlucky, in that he saw Wykeham alive and then 



1 The 2nd Roll, Computus Magistri Morys, Custodis, from Saturday before Michaelmas, Sept. 26, 

 1 8 Rich. II. to Sept. 26, 19 Rich. II. Mag. John Melton appears as dining in hall the first week, while 

 Mag. Thomas Romesey appears in the second week. Melton must therefore have retired at Michaelmas, 

 after six months' statutable notice given. 



* See History of Winchester College where the date, 1393, given in Kirby's Annals, was corrected 

 from the extract from Wykeham's Register printed in Fetusta Monumenta, iii. 3. In Mr. Kirby's edition 

 of Wykeham's Register, i. 190, the date is now correctly given as 1394. 



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