SCHOOLS 



INTRODUCTION 



BUCKINGHAMSHIRE is for histori- 

 cal purposes a single-school county. 

 The Grammar School of the Royal 

 College of the Blessed Mary of 

 Eton by Windsor bulks as largely 

 in the sphere of records in the past as it does in 

 the world of education to-day. The other 

 grammar schools of the county have been de- 

 prived, by the carelessness, or worse, of their 

 parents and guardians, of all their early history, 

 as in later times they were of their proper status, 

 until restored by the Endowed Schools Acts and 

 the Charity Commissioners. It is incredible 

 that in a county like Buckinghamshire grammar 

 schools should begin in the year 1440. But this 

 date, the date of the first foundation of Eton 

 College, is in the present state of knowledge the 

 earliest to which we can definitely assign any 

 educational foundation in the county. It can- 

 not really be the case that Buckingham, or 

 High, otherwise Chepping, Wycombe, or New- 

 port Pagnell, or Aylesbury, were without gram- 

 mar schools till the middle of the i6th century. 

 But as things stand, though it may be suspected, 

 it cannot be proved that they did possess them. 1 

 The only grammar school besides Eton which 

 can be proved to have existed in the county 

 before the Reformation is one, long extinct, at 

 Thornton. This was founded by one of two 

 brothers who both bore the same name, that of 

 John Barton. The elder was a successful lawyer 

 and Recorder of London. Presumably he had 

 come from Buckingham, which county he repre- 

 sented in Parliament in 1397, as by his will, 

 5 June 1431,'* he directed his body to be buried 

 in St. Peter's Church in St. Rombald's aisle, and 

 gave 401. to the Hospital of St. Thomas Becket, 

 called of Aeon, London, to pray for his soul, and 

 all his lands to his brother, John Barton, junior, 

 on condition of maintaining a chantry chap- 

 lain for his and his parents' souls, to be appointed 

 by the master of the aforesaid hospital. These 



1 While thil was passing through the press, the 

 proof as to Buckingham School has been found. In 

 a renul of John Barton (probably the elder of the 

 two mentioned below) of his lands in Buckingham at 

 Michelmas, 1423, the fint item is: ' Of the school- 

 master (Je magiitro icolarum) 40^.' at each of the four 

 terms of the year, or 1 3/. 4^. a year (B.M. Lansd. 

 Chart. 572). 



" Browne Willis, Hut. Biuki. 54. 



lands appear to have included the manor of 

 Thornton, conveyed to the two Bartons and 

 others in 1414.' John Barton, junior, also 

 founded, or refounded, a chantry, which had 

 originally been founded in 1344 by his prede- 

 cessor in title, John le Chastillon, with licence 

 from the Bishop of Lincoln, in whose diocese 

 Buckinghamshire was, the chantry chapel being 

 the chancel of the church. Barton directed this, 1 

 by his will in 1443, to be rebuilt, and there he 

 and his wife still lie in effigy on an altar tomb. 

 The new foundation was either not completed 

 at the time, or else, being founded under licence 

 from Henry VI, it was thought prudent to re- 

 found it, under a licence from Edward IV. He 

 on 8 July 1468 4 granted the necessary permis- 

 sion, at the request of Thomas Littleton, ' Little- 

 ton on tenures,' Lord Chief Justice, and other 

 feoffees for Isabel the widow of John Barton, 

 who had become Isabel Shottesbrook, to Robert 

 Ingilton, who had bought from them the manor 

 of Thornton. In consequence the Chantry 

 Commissioners of Henry VIII * reported it as 



Barton's Chauntrye, founded by Roberte Ingleton, to 

 the intente to fynde a prieste for euer. And that the 

 said prieste shalle gyve yearly to 6 poore folkes contynu- 

 ally 6V. the weke for euery of theyme. And to gyve for 

 the lyuerey of 6 poore children euerye yeare to euerye 

 of theyme 4;. And also the said prieste to teache the 

 children of the said towne. The said chauntrye . . . 

 is obserued accordynge to the foundacyone. . . . And 

 so is verye necessarye. . . . Ycrly value il IU.6J. 

 [Outgoings] 59/. 5|</., and so Remayneth for the 

 accustomablc paymentes as is before mencyoncd, viz. 

 for the priestes salary, 9 1 21. oj</. ; in almesse to 6 

 poore folkes, ~ \6t. ; and to 6 poore childcrcn, i\s.\ 

 in all, 18 lit. o^J. William Abbotte, Incumbent 

 there. 



There was besides 'a mansyone house,' but 

 this had for 1 4 or 1 5 years been in the hands of 

 Humfray Tirrell, whose family had succeeded 

 the successors of the Bartons. 



The Chantry Certificate of Edward VI * gave 

 the additional information that Sir William Abbot, 

 the chantry priest, now ' of the age of 60 years, 

 having none other promocion, but onelie that, 



Ibid. 295. 



1 Part of his will is given in Browne Willis, op. cit. 

 301. 



4 Pat. 8 Edw. IV, pt. ii, m. 19. 



' Chant. Cert. 4, no. 10 ; printed in A. F. Leach, 

 Eagl. Seboolt attkt Rtfirm. 14. Ibid. 15. 



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