SCHOOLS 



elected on 26 September, 1639 ; but no brethren, wardens or aldermen 

 had been elected for more than thirty years before, in accordance with 

 the charter of Philip and Mary, and therefore the corporation had 

 expired for lack of members before the election in 1639. It was also 

 found that a priest had not been appointed schoolmaster as required by 

 the charter. For Mason was, it must be remembered, a layman. The 

 gild was therefore held dissolved, and its possessions escheated to the 

 Crown. Thereupon, on 13 November, 1642, by letters patent, the 

 king granted 1 the lands and ' the priest's place ' to Edward Webb, who 

 was then in orders and licensed curate to his father the vicar. 



There can be little doubt that these proceedings were in some 

 way mixed up with the strife of parties then raging. 



Deane's and Lancaster's endowments being given on condition that 

 the schoolmaster and usher should be appointed by the corporation, the 

 corporation had to a considerable extent superseded the aldermen and 

 wardens of the gild as the governing body of the school, if, indeed, at 

 the time of these bequests the gild had not already become practically 

 merged in the corporation. Probably the election of gild officers in 1639 

 took place simply and solely for the purpose of re-constituting the gild 

 for the purpose of appointing the master, who was really nominated 

 by the corporation. The then vicar, the schoolmaster's father, was 

 probably an anti-Puritan, as on 12 March, 1642-3, he was ordered by 

 the House of Commons to allow ' Mr. John Brockett, clerk, the use of 

 the pulpit in Basingstoke Church according to the intention of the 

 benefactors,' i.e. Deane and Lancaster ; for these lectures were a Puritan 

 innovation and one which Laud strenuously endeavoured to put down. 

 It was no doubt through animosity to the corporation, who were 

 Parliamentarians, that Edward Webbe tried to get the school and its 

 property out of their hands. His triumph, if he did triumph, was of 

 short duration. For in 1643 began the siege of Basing House, held by 

 the Marquis of Winchester, and Basingstoke became the headquarters of 

 the Parliamentary besieging force, so Mr. Edward Webbe betook himself 

 to the vicarage of Kingsclere, from which he was ejected in 1648," 

 Ambrose Webbe, the vicar of Basingstoke, dying in that year. 



From 1 640 the accounts of the gild were very irregularly kept. 

 Stray memoranda, mentioning Richard Brockley as alderman and James 

 Wittier and Edmund Pitman as wardens in 1 646-7-9 appear to show 

 that the alleged dissolution of the gild was ignored and that it was 

 treated as still alive. 



There was a large expenditure on its buildings in 1652-3. In the 

 former year 34 ios. was spent, 1 1,000 bricks being purchased at a cost 

 of 4 8j., while in the latter year the accounts for ' repayering the chapel 

 school and finishing it' came to over $2. 



1 Bastngstoke, p. 671, from Bill of Edward Webb in 1667, among the Basingstoke Corporation 

 Archives. 



2 Ibid. p. 24, correcting Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, p. 405 (ed. 1764), which gives the 

 name of Edmund Webbe. 



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