SCHOOLS 



said Michael Sturbote but whether father or son 

 is not clear granted to Matilda Sudbury, wife 

 of Robert Hod, for a mark of silver, a toft at the 

 High School (apud magnas scolas) lying between 

 the king's way on one side and a messuage of 

 Walter Hangemore on the other, abutting at 

 one end (caput) on Hod's toft and at the other 

 in Reym Strete, 17 ft. long by 16 ft. broad. 

 The deed was endorsed 'for the Sacrist.' As 

 Schoolhallstreet still bears the same name, and 

 the alderman's grange is now the Shire Hall, and 

 Reym Street is Rungate Street, there is no 

 difficulty in pointing out the exact spot. It was 

 and is of course well outside the abbey precinct 

 and in the town ; a conclusive proof that it was 

 no monastic school in the sense usually attached 

 to that term. 



In process of time, just as the bishops' possessions 

 rights and privileges became severed from those of 

 the chapter, which they had originally held in 

 common, so were estates allotted to the abbots 

 separated from those of the Benedictine monas- 

 teries of the monks at large. 1 In a series of chapters 

 (capitula) containing the customs or ' statutes ' of 

 the abbey (which have come down to us only in 

 a thirteenth-century copy) the first heading or 

 chapter is ' that some things specially belong to 

 the abbey and some to the convent.' The sixth 

 heading 2 is ' On the collation of schools, to whom 

 they belong and how masters are removed or 

 appointed.' The chapter runs as follows : 2 



The collation of the school of S. Edmund belongs to 

 the abbot in the same way as the collation of churches 

 in which the convent receives some yearly interest, 

 and the aforesaid school ought to be conferred like the 

 aforesaid churches, namely, with the assent of the 

 convent. The schools indeed on the m.inor of Milden- 

 hall and of Beccles are by law to be conferred by those 

 in whose custody the manors are. And it is to be noted 

 that when a schoolmaster (rector scolarum) is to be 

 removed he ought to be given notice by the person 

 who appointed him (datore) before Whitsuntide. If 

 on the other hand the master wishes to retire, he is 

 bound to give like notice to the person who appointed 

 him, i.e. the abbot, the sacrist, or deputy (vices gerentis) 

 of the abbot and convent. 



The fifth chapter tells us how the collation is 

 made to churches in which the convent have a 

 yearly interest, viz. by the abbot, with the consent 

 of the convent after due notice. The school 



1 At Bury the division of estates said to have been 

 made temp. Henry I, was solemnly confirmed by 

 charter by Edward I in 1281 at a cost, the chronicler 

 says, of 1,000, a sum we can hardly put at less than 

 30^; o of our money. Cont. Chron. Flor. Wigorn. 

 By B. Thorpe (Engl. Hist. Soc.), 1849, p. 225. 

 This part of the MS. was written late in Henry III 

 or early in the days of Edward I, in about 1260-80. 



* Harl. MS. 1005, fol. 95^: ' Collacio scolarum, qui- 

 bus spectat et qualiter magistri amovendi sive consti- 

 tuendi sint. Collacio quidem scolarum S. Edmundi sic 

 pertinet ad abbatem sicut collacio ecclesiarum, in 

 quibus conventus aliquid percipit annuum.' 



therefore was treated just like an ecclesiastical 

 benefice, as to all intents and purposes it was, 

 except that the holder was not bound to be in 

 holy orders. The implication of the ubiquity 

 of schools by the reference to schools outside 

 Bury in the dependent manors of the abbey 

 is remarkable. 



At first there seems to have been no endow- 

 ment of Bury School, which was dependent on 

 fees. In a statement of the ancient customs of 

 the abbey we find 3 that on the evening before 

 Maundy Thursday the almoner of the abbey 

 ought to receive 150 swans 4 to make his maundy, 

 which he ought to give to these persons ; the 

 prior 3, himself 12 or more, his sub-almoner 2, 

 the cellarer, the principal officer of the abbey, 22, 

 the chamberlain (or bursar) 7 and sometimes 2 

 more as a matter of grace, the schoolmaster 

 (magistro sco/arum) 13, and so on. Each private 

 monk got one. An account is also given of a 

 'custom in school for cocks on Shrove Tuesday,' 5 

 by which someone, it does not say who, had to 

 distribute cocks to all the servants of the abbey, 

 the 'steyrars' having 2, the carpenter I, and so 

 forth. The custom of the schoolmaster provid- 

 ing cocks for ' cock-shys ' or for cock-fights, 

 on Shrove Tuesday extended far down in the 

 eighteenth century in some places, and a learned 

 origin and philosophic defence of the cock-fights 

 was given by Christopher Johnson, M.D., head 

 master of Winchester, to his boys in 1564. 

 The occasion of these cock-fights was utilized 

 for the boys to bring presents from themselves 

 and their parents, which, in free grammar schools 

 where fees were forbidden, afforded an ingenious 

 way of mitigating the rigour of the law, and pro- 

 viding something like a decent salary for the 

 master. We may therefore safely conclude that 

 at Bury the schoolmaster provided these cocks 

 and got a return for doing so. 



Eighteen years after the gift of the school- 

 house, Abbot Samson gave the school a small 

 endowment. 'When 6 (c. 1 198) an agreement 

 had been made between Abbot Samson and Sir 

 Robert of Scales, knight, about a moiety of the 

 advowson of the church of Wetherdene, and the 

 said Robert had recognized the rights of St. 

 Edmund and the abbot, the abbot, without a 

 previous covenant or any promise, gave that half of 

 the church to Master Roger of Scales, the knight's 

 brother, on condition of his paying an annual pen- 

 sion of 3 marks to the sacrist for the schoolmaster 

 who for the time being taught in the town of 

 St. Edmund (magistro scolarum quicunque legeret 

 in -villa 5. Edmundi]. This the abbot did through 

 gratitude for the kindness above related, that, as 

 he had first bought the stone house for the 



' Ibid. fol. 52. 



4 Signis, apparently for cygnis. 

 6 Harl. MS. 1005, fol. 213. 'Consuetudo in scolis. 

 de gallis die martis ante cineres.' 

 ' Ibid. fol. 133. 



37 



