A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



School is the nursery,' who had made him patron, and they ask him 

 ' not to despise the lowly name and office of procurator or first seneschal 

 of their lands.' He did not disdain the salary of 5 a year, emphasized 

 as it was by occasional perquisites, as when in 1587*116 received 20, 

 and the same amount in 1595 'in the matter of Stoke Park,' and 5 f r 

 release of the college from tithes. In 1 567 he was specially invoked to get 

 a Mr. Cobham, for whom the queen had asked for a lease in reversion, 

 which they could not give without breach of statute, to induce her to be 

 content with their having * in such friendly wise dealt with him that, as 

 we trust, he holdeth himself right well contented and satisfied,' and to 

 stop such attempts for the future. In 1581,' however, the queen ex- 

 tracted from the college a lease of the rectory of Downton for the clerk 

 of the council, Thomas Wilkes, which was sent with the expression of a 

 vain hope that it would not be taken for a precedent. 



Her Majesty was, however, worsted in the chief contest of all, 

 when she took upon herself to intrude on the college a non-Wykeham- 

 ical warden. 



Johnson's successor as headmaster, Bilson, had ruled not always 

 quietly, for in 1579' some of the scholars had run away, and the 

 complaints of the scholars had to be met at court, but with success 

 seemingly, as he became warden on Stempe's death in 1582. Under 

 Bilson's wardenship the college passed through one of the gravest crises 

 which ever threatened its position as a public institution. This was 

 caused by the revival under Warden Stempe of the rights and privi- 

 leges of founder's kin. 



We saw how Wykeham, following Merton, had made provision, by 

 way of compensation for the legal portion of his natural heirs diverted to 

 the endowment of the College, for preference of admission for his relations, 

 with special privileges in the way of age of admission and leaving, pay- 

 ments for clothes and other necessaries and expenses on proceeding to 

 New College. 



This right, though in terms absolute, ought to have been interpreted 

 in accordance with the principles of the canon law, which recognized no 

 kinship after the seventh degree. In Wykeham's case, he being an en- 

 forced celibate, there could only be collateral next-of-kin. Wykeham had 

 no brothers and only one sister, Agnes. She became Agnes Champneys, 

 and her only child Alice married William Perot. The pair had three 

 sons, who all assumed the name of Wykeham. The eldest, William, 

 was admitted to New College in 1387, but left the same year. He 

 married, but died without issue. The third, John, became one of the 

 earliest founder's kin recorded at Winchester, having been admitted 

 before the opening day (not on it, as Annals), and had his expenses on 

 going up to New College paid for him in 1394 (not 1395, as Annals, 

 p. 94 note). He became a priest, and therefore left no descendants. 



1 Annals, p. 283. 



* Walcott, p. 158, from Strype's Annals, III. i. chap. 5 ; State Papers, Domestic, EKz. 142, 13 

 March, 158$. 8 Annali, p. 19*. 



316 



