SCHOOLS 



left Bury to ' finish ' at Botesdale. Maybourne 

 was master for 50 years, and sent 23 boys to 

 Caius College, including his own 3 sons. 1 In 

 1738 a conscientious rector, Mr. Gibbs, was 

 sufficiently scandalized at the neglect of the 

 founder's regulations to nominate governors for 

 the school, thus restoring an office which had 

 lapsed for 50 years, and the establishment of 

 the ' School Minnet and Account Book ' was 

 begun in the same year. The governors failed 

 to elect their successors, and the rector again 

 intervened. 



In 1743 the Rev. Mr. Price became usher, 

 and latterly did most of the work. The veteran 

 Maybourne resigned in 1752. The Rev. Mr. 

 Christian was appointed in 1753, and held the 

 post until 1762, when the Rev. John C. 

 Galloway succeeded him, followed in 1774 by 

 his usher, the Rev. John Smith. 



The Rev. William Tindal was the next 

 master, but within a year of his appointment in 

 1789 he was suspended for non-compliance with 

 the ordinances, probably caused by the insufficient 

 salary. 3 He was replaced by the Rev. W. Hep- 

 worth, under whom Edward Law, afterwards 

 Lord Ellenborough, and Hablot K. Browne 

 ('Phiz') were pupils. In 1828 Mr. Hepworth's 

 health had declined. He had given up boarders, 

 but still taught 6 free scholars and 1 2 paying pupils, 

 having long been unable to pay an usher. The 

 Commissioners of Inquiry of that date reformed 

 matters by appointing 6 trustees, but when these 

 died out their places were not filled. In 1841 the 

 Rev. W. Hepworth, junior, took his father's place 

 and settled the free scholar problem by sending 

 the boys to Mr. Joseph Haddock's private ' com- 

 mercial ' school and paying ^20 a year for them, 

 receiving the rest of the salary and enjoying the 

 house with a large garden as a sinecure. Had- 

 dock's successor, Mr. H. E. Laker, was even- 

 tually appointed master of the grammar school, 

 a happy solution of the disastrous competition. 

 Mr. Laker died in 1878, and the school was 

 closed. 



There being no further endowment forthcom- 

 ing, by a scheme under the Endowed Schools Acts, 

 approved by Queen Victoria in Council 2 May, 

 1 88 1, the school funds were converted into the 

 Bacon Exhibition Endowment. So, through lack 

 of foresight in giving a fixed income instead of 

 lands to the same value, ended a once famous 

 school. The building has become a private house, 

 its ancient bell, with the name and crest of the 

 Bacon family, is still to be seen on the roof between 

 the chapel and the old schoolhouse, and there also 

 existed recently (in a room parallel to the west 

 end of the chapel) a double desk and other wood- 

 work of the school, all over three hundred years 

 in age. 8 



1 Venn, Biog. Hist. ofGonville and Caius. 



' Min. Bk. 



3 Easting/. Daily Times, East Anglian Misc. No. 755. 



LOWESTOFT SCHOOL 



In 1472 John Gallion left by will 40*. to 

 place a chained ' Liber Gramaticus ' in the chancel 

 of Lowestoft parish church, 4 and there is evi- 

 dence that the church was used as a parish 

 schoolroom during four centuries. 5 In 1570 

 Thomas Annot by indenture gave lands in 

 Whitacre Burgh to secure 20 marks for the 

 salary of a schoolmaster appointed by the chan- 

 cellor of Norwich diocese, and in 1571 this 

 endowment was increased by his heir-at-law to 

 jTi6. The master was 'to be learned in gram- 

 mar and in the Latin tongue,' and was to teach 

 40 Lowestoft boys, vacancies among these 

 foundation free scholars being filled by suitable 

 candidates from Lothingland and Mutford. The 

 school does not seem to have formed any close 

 connexion with the Cambridge Colleges usually 

 favoured by Suffolk boys, but if many of the 

 masters performed such manifold duties as Mr. 

 Philip, for eighteen years parish clerk, registrar, 

 and ' Mr. Annot his schoolmaster,' we cannot 

 be surprised. He taught the 40 free scholars 

 on the foundation and others at a charge of 

 2dd. each. 6 



In 1609 there was a suit in the Court of 

 Chancery on the question whether the school 

 was entitled only to a rent-charge or to the 

 whole value of the estate out of which the 

 was paid, and the school lost. 



Mr. Hawiis was master from 1620 to 16312 

 or later, 7 the schoolhouse in his day being pro- 

 bably in the original town-close by the east wall 

 of the churchyard. By 1670 this building was 

 dilapidated, and a scheme was formed by the 

 Aliens of Somerley to unite ' Annot's School ' 

 with that founded by Sir Thomas Allen. A 

 letter from Mr. Henry Britten, master from 

 1667 to 1696, shows that the Allen family held 

 the school lands, that the master's salary was in 

 arrears, and that Sir Thomas wanted Mr. Britten 

 to resign in favour of Mr. Evans, who proposed to 

 open a writing school in the old building lately 

 repaired by Sir Thomas. Mr. Britten refused 

 to yield ; he wasted money on a chancery suit 

 which he finally relinquished, and after receiving 

 jTiOO from Sir Thomas renounced all claim 

 to the mastership. 8 Meantime in 1674, the 

 ' Town Chamber ' had been fitted up as a 

 schoolhouse. 



The early eighteenth century shows the usual 

 decline in the fortunes of a slenderly endowed 

 school. By a resolution of the inhabitants in 

 1716, the number of free scholars was reduced 

 to 13. But the welcome bequest of an estate 

 in Worlingham by John Wilde in 1735 once 



4 Ipswich Wills, Bk. ii, fol. 249. 

 4 Redstone, Social Life in Engl. Trans. Roy. Hist. 

 Soc. (New Ser.), xvi, 165. 



8 Longe, Lowestoft in Olden Times. 



1 Venn, Reg. of Gonville and Caius Coll. 



8 Gillingwater, Hist, of Lowestoft. 



343 



