A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



of the land revenues of the crown after the 

 Restoration this sum was included in the pension 

 list of Charles II. This inference is confirmed 

 by finding in the register of Caius College, 

 Cambridge, a fair sprinkling of students who 

 matriculated from Stoke by Clare School. The 

 St. John's College Register for the year 1639 

 gives us Richard Cutts,of Debden, M.A., esquire, 

 admitted a pensioner from that school, and the 

 name of the master, Mr. Bevior, apparently 

 Peter Beauvoir of Jesus College, Cambridge. 



After the Restoration, the payment, though 

 it seems to have been irregularly made, still 

 continued. 1 For Sir Gervas Elwes, bart., by 

 will 20 September, 1678, proved in the Prero- 

 gative Court of Canterbury 25 October, 1706, 

 reciting that 10 a year had been allowed out 

 of the revenues of the crown to the schoolmaster 

 of Stoke, and that Mr. John Owen was school- 

 master, in case the jio should cease to be paid 

 out of the revenue, gave 10 a year to John 

 Owen and his successors, Protestant divines, and 

 20 more for board and lodging. The Land 

 Revenue Accounts from 1674 to 1705 are 

 missing, but from 1660 to 1674 and from 1706 

 downwards, no pension of jTiO has been paid to 

 the schoolmaster at Stoke, though provided for 

 .by the pension deed of Charles II. The school- 

 .house was pulled down about 1780, and by 

 i8i8, 3 there was ' no vestige of a school house ; 

 ^neither does there exist at this time a Free 

 :School of any description in this parish.' So 

 this collegiate school must be reckoned among 

 those done to death by the reputed founder of 

 schools, Edward VI, and by his Chantries Act, 

 ostensibly passed in order to substitute grammar 

 schools for homes of superstition. Some remains 

 of the college itself are still standing as part of 

 .a private residence. 3 



CLARE SCHOOL 



The neighbouring town of Clare, the capital 

 of the honour, described in 1548 as ' a greate 

 and populous towne,' was even less happy in 

 the fortunes of its school. For it, too, possessed 

 a grammar school due to the lords of the honour, 

 acting rather as legislators making a new scheme 

 for a charitable endowment than as actual donors 

 and benefactors; for in 1 445-6 4 Richard, 

 duke of York and lord of the honour of Clare, 

 gave by deed a free chapel in Clare and its pos- 

 sessions to the gild of St. John the Baptist, in 

 Chilton, a hamlet of Clare, to find, says the 

 chantry certificate of 1548, 



a. pricste to saye masse one day in the weke in the 

 saide chappie to praye for the sowles of the same Duke 

 and other. 



1 Char. Com. Rep. xxiv, 497-8. 



' Carlisle, Endowed Gram. Set. ii, 532. 



3 East Anglian Daily Times, East Anglian Misc. No. 



53- 



4 Chant. Cert. 45, No. 24. 



It proceeds 



And oone Sir Roberta Wyncome, clerk of thage of 

 xxx tie yeres having no other lyvinge, well learnid, doth 

 now as well the said devyne service, as also the reste 

 of the weake he singeth in the churche of Clare, and 

 helpyth the curatte to discharge his cure. And also 

 he teacheth oone grammer scole to the goode and 

 vertuous instruccion and education of the yowthe 

 theyre. 6 



This chantry school came to an end, not being 

 a grammar school, by the express terms of the 

 foundation. 



We hear no more of any school in Clare until 

 William Cadge, yeoman, who died in 1 669, gave 

 by will a farm called Borhard's in Barnardiston, 

 then let at 28 a year, of which i 5 was to go in 

 clothing poor widows, and jiO a year to a school- 

 master for teaching 10 poor boys in that town. 

 The master was to be chosen by the vicar and chief 

 inhabitants, and was to teach English, Latin, and 

 Greek. The schoolroom was over the Market 

 Cross. By 1 8 1 8 ' classics 6 had not been taught 

 here for some time past.' The school is not even 

 mentioned by the Schools Inquiry Commission. 

 It must, unless the Charity Commissioners can 

 interfere, be numbered among the many legions 

 of ' lost charities.' 



LONG MELFORD SCHOOL 



In 1484 Robert Harset clothmaker bequeathed 

 his house near the churchyard in Long Melford 

 to his wife, during her lifetime, ' except where 

 the children lerne,' and after her death, to the 

 priests of Melford, the west end being reserved 

 as a school. 7 



Ten years later, I495, 8 John Hill of Melford, 

 granted by deed the manor of Bowes Hall, and 

 other lands at Pentlow, Essex ' for 99 yeres and 

 further so long as the lawes of the realme wyll 

 suffer,' for a stipendiary priest losing for his soul. 

 In 1548 we find 'Sir Edward Tyrrell, clerk of 

 the age of 50 yeres,' the stipendiary priest, and 

 it is stated that he aids ' the curat, the towne 

 being very populus. He doth also teache a gram- 

 mer scole thear.' It was no doubt this school 

 that Sir John Clopton of Melford was thinking 

 of when he bequeathed the residue of his personal 

 estate, ' two parts to go to sad priests and ver- 

 tuous to sing a trental for me and to find vertuous 

 scolers to scole.' 



These ' vertuous scolers ' are probably referred 

 to in the following item from the books of Hugh 

 Isacke, churchwarden (1582-4) : ' Geven by 

 Dr. Jones' commandement to twoo scollers of 

 Melforde ijs.' 



Ibid. 



6 Carlisle, Endowed Gram. Sch. ii, 5 1 9. 



7 Parker, Hist, of Long Melford. Will dated 29 Feb. 

 1484, proved 15 Mar. 1484. Bury Probate office, 

 Bk. iii, f. 365. 



8 Leach, Engl. ScA. at the Reformation 2 1 4, from 

 Chant. Cert. 45, No. 22. 



34 



