SCHOOLS 



on episcopal revenues, and not merely a cliargc on lands bought by the bishop and presented 

 to the sec. However, the convent executed a deed of confirmation for wliich they insisted 

 on a quid pro quo. For while reciting that they * sincerely embraced and greatly com- 

 mended in tlie Lord the devout purpose of the ordaincrs concerning the instruction and progress of 

 those wishing to study in grammar and song, as tending to the praise and honour of God, the 

 increase of divine worship and the benefit of ourselves and the whole country, and for the intimate 

 love which we bear to the soul of the saitl late Hishop Thomas as in duty bound, at the special request 

 of his executors, from whose goods charges and expenses the said chantry is already partly endowed 

 and is to be enlarged by more ample endowment in the future ' they granted that ' the chaplains 

 may celebrate at the principal altar of the Blessed Virgin . . where the aforesaid Thomas has 

 chosen his place of burial, and has restored it sumptuously with large outpouring of his wealth,' but 

 only subject to the conditions that (i) the chantry priests were to arrange their masses so as not to 

 interfere witii the daily Lady Mass celebrated by the monks at the same altar ; (2) tiiat they should have 

 no right of entrance to the chapel except when the church was open to the public, nor have or claim 

 the right to any particular place or stall in the church or chapel ; and (3) that besides 1 the 

 scholars on Langley's foundation ' they shall be bound to teach and instruct the thirty persons 

 supported and maintained in the Almonry of the cathedral church freely, exacting nothing from 

 them, as and when such persons shall be presented for this purpose to the aforesaid chaplains by the 

 Prior of the cathedral church aforesaid, within the number aforesaid ' and (4) ' that the chaplain 

 of the Song School (" qui scolas regit in cantu ") shall be bound to be present in the choir of 

 the Cathedral on every principal and double feast at the time of high mass and both first and second 

 Vespers, robed in a surplice, and to sing, if given notice beforehand by the Prior' ; (5) that neither 

 of them shall bring any action against the Prior and monks. 



This deed reveals a design of relieving the monastery of providing masters to teach the 

 Almonry boys and planting them on the city school. But it seems doubtful whether it took effect, 

 since the names of the masters of the ' Abbey School ' or Almonry School do not correspond witii 

 those of the ' City School ' or Langley's School, except in one case, that of John Hutchinson, who 

 appears as one of the two chantry-priest schoolmasters in 1510, and is apparently the same person 

 who as Grammar Schoolmaster of the Abbey witnessed the admission of sanctuary men in 1 5 1 5 

 and 1 52 1. But it is probable that he passed from the Grammar School to the Almonry School, 

 when he obtained the rectory of the South Bailey church, which made him ineligible to remain one 

 of Langley's schoolmasters. The rectory and the Almonry schoolmastership together were 

 no doubt better than the city mastership alone. 



Langley's executors are said by Hutchinson 3 to have bought the manor of Kevardeley in 

 Lancashire and to have assigned ^^16 13^. ^d. a year to the schoolmasters out of the rents. But it 

 appears from the licence, I October, 1440, to Nicholas Hulme, Richard Bulkley and John Snawdun, 

 clerks, to purchase and grant it to John Artays and Robert Sotheryn, that the purchase was of a 

 rent-charge (annualem redditum) only, and so was fixed for all time. In return for it the chaplains 

 had at Langley's Obit on 20 November to distribute, by the oversight of the prior, 13J. ^d. among 

 forty poor and indigent persons to pray for the founder. 



The increase of endowment at the time was substantial and brought the pay of the masters to 

 ;{^io a year, the same as that of the headmaster of Winchester; but the latter was boarded and 

 clothed as well, and took, as the Durham masters did, the fees of commoners. Artays enjoyed 

 the new endowment for some four years, dying 22 August, 1442. Sotheron, the song schoolmaster, 

 is put first in the records of payment in 1453-4, Robert Grene being the other chaplain ; but 

 he was put first by virtue of seniority as chaplain, not as having become grammar schoolmaster 

 or headmaster. These two remained in office until 1463-4, when Robert Grene was succeeded 

 by John Spicer, in 1465-6 by Nicholas Kelchith, and in 1477 by Hugh Forster. They are 

 unhappily mere names. The space left after Forster by Mickleton may be partially filled by 

 inserting about 1495 John Claymond,^ re-elected a demy of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1485, 

 and afterwards President, leaving the office to become the first President of Corpus Christi College. 

 According to Claymond's biographer in Latin verse, when Foxe, the founder of the latter college, 

 became bishop of Durham, which was in Dec. 1494, he immediately sent for Claymond, 'and 

 promising a large salary set him over the boys whom that land holds to dip their tender tongues in 

 Roman river, and banish their Scythian accent.' He was made vicar of Norton in 1498, for 

 scholars from which place he established two scholarships at Brasenose College by his will 6 June 

 1537, and master of Staindrop collegiate church in 1500. In 1510 John Hotchinson was the 

 grammar schoolmaster, and as we have seen became almonry schoolmaster ; William Dossy being 

 song schoolmaster. In 1 5 1 1 Thomas Sanderson and Edward Watson were the two masters. The 



1 'Et 30 pcrsonas in clemosinaria ecclesie cathedralis predicte sustentendas et exhibendas in scicnciis 

 predictis, libere, nichil ab eis exigendc' * ii. 472. 



8 History 0/ Corfim Ciriiti College, Oxford, by Dr. Fowler, Oxford Historical Society. 



