SCHOOLS 



tent himself with the more modest proportions 

 of 25 scholars at Eton and 12 at Cambridge. 



Indeed, the earliest connexion of Eton with 

 a university was with Oxford, for on 3 February 

 1441-2 the king granted the manor of ' Ponyng- 

 ton ' (Hants) parcel of the alien priory of 

 Ogbourne to John Carpenter, master or warden 

 of St. Anthony's Hospital, London, for the 

 exhibition of five scholars at Oxford (each having 

 lod. a week until he took the degree of B.A.) 

 who had received the rudiments of grammar at 

 Eton, and were appointed according to the Eton 

 statutes. So the earliest edition of these statutes 

 provided for scholars to Oxford instead of to 

 King's, Cambridge. This grant was apparently 

 resumed at the beginning of the reign of Ed- 

 ward IV, and these Eton scholarships at Oxford 

 then ceased. 



On 5 March 1440-1 'the Kyngc's College 

 of oure Ladye of Eton besyde Wyndesore ' was 

 endowed by letters patent bestowing on it a 

 great mass of property which had belonged to 

 alien priories. A large part consisted only of 

 annual pensions payable from English cells to 

 their principal houses abroad. Thus the first 

 item is an annual pension of 1 8 marks from the 

 alien vicarage of Marlon, the next are pensions 

 of 40*. from Aveley Church, Essex, and from 

 Fulbourn Church, Cambridgeshire, and the whole 

 tithes of Bures St. Mary, Essex, all belonging to 

 the alien priory of Panfield in Essex. Then 

 came an annual tribute which the priory of 

 Montacute was bound to pay the Crown for the 

 ancient apportus (i.e. export) ' payable in time of 

 peace to the head house of that priory in parts 

 beyond the sea,' and a similar apportus of 20s. 

 which the Prior of Goldcliff had to pay to his 

 head house. Next followed three alien priories 

 which were bodily transferred to the new college, 

 viz. ' the alien priory and manor of Toftes,' Nor- 

 folk, of Sporle, Norfolk, and of Brimpsfield, 

 Gloucestershire. Then came the manors of 

 Blakenham, Suffolk, and Cottisford, Oxfordshire, 

 part of the alien priory of Ogbourne (Okeburn), 

 i Hampshire ; all the manors in Wiltshire belonging 

 to the Dean of Mortain ; and 1 31. \d. the apportus 

 due from Thetford Priory to Cluny. There 

 followed the rent of ^8 13;. \d. payable by Sir 

 William, Lord of Lovell, kt., ' for the custody of 

 the alien priory of Minster Lovell, with its appur- 

 tenances, granted to him for 18 years from the 

 death of Jane, late Queen of England, and the 

 reversion of the same priory when it falls in.' 

 The rest of the items are similar, a large number 

 consisting, at first, of the yearly rents only of 

 alien priories, leased like that of Minster Lovell 

 to the neighbouring landed proprietors fora term 

 of years, the full benefit of which would only 

 accrue to the college on the expiration of the 

 leases. The actual rents accruing at once 

 amounted 10^513 2s. id., in addition to four 

 whole priories, two manors, and some odd 



lands given in immediate possession, worth per- 

 haps between them another 100 a year. The 

 total income was slightly larger than that on 

 which Winchester College was started. 



On Saturday, 31 July 1441, 'Henry VI went 

 to Winchester College, where ' he was present at 

 first vespers and next day at mass and second 

 vespers and offered 131. 4^.,' a mark of gold, the 

 usual royal offering. The result of this week-end 

 visit was momentous to Eton. For it resulted in 

 the transfer in October or November 1 44 1 of Wil- 

 liam Wayneflete, the then head master of Win- 

 chester, to Eton, and it was to Wayneflete rather 

 than to Henry VI that Eton owed its final con- 

 stitution, its preservation from destruction, and its 

 restitution by Ed ward IV, and the completion of its 

 buildings. It is by no means certain that Wayne- 

 flete went to Eton, as commonly stated, as the 

 first head master. The evidence strongly suggests 

 that he went, not as head master, but as provost. 

 But a curious darkness overhangs the whole of 

 Wayneflete's life until he became head master of 

 Winchester. It is extremely doubtful, to say the 

 least of it, whether he ever was, as has been 

 asserted, a scholar at Winchester or of New Col- 

 lege. His family name is said to have been 

 Pattene, otherwise Barbour. No such name is 

 found in the Scholars' Register at Winchester, 

 unless he can be identified with William Pattene 

 of Patney, Wiltshire, admitted in 1403. The 

 identification is unlikely, as it would make him 

 at least ninety-five years old when he died, and 

 it would be very strange, as it is certain that 

 Wainfleet in Lincolnshire was his birthplace, or 

 at least his breeding-place, that he should have 

 been Pattene of that ilk in Wiltshire. Nor is 

 his name to be found in the records of New Col- 

 lege as a scholar or fellow. It is a rather violent 

 assumption that he was a commoner at either 

 college. There are nearly complete lists of trip 

 commoners at Winchester to be deduced from the 

 steward of hall's books, which show those dining 

 in hall in each week, and neither Wayneflete, 

 Barbour, nor Pattene, occurs among them. It is 

 doubtful if there were any commoners at New 

 College at the time. None appear in the hall 

 books there, nor does Wayneflete's name appear 

 in them. On the other hand it is certain that 

 Wayneflete was at Oxford from a letter addressed 

 about April 1447 to him by the university 8 when 

 Provost of Eton, in which they say, ' we believe 

 that you have always before your eyes the great 

 love by which you are bound to the mother who 



7 Not 1440, as given in Chandler's Life of H'atne- 

 tttte and Mackenzie Walcott's William of Wykeham and 

 His Colleges, 1 36 ; Kirby, Annals / Winchester College, 

 192, and Maxwell Lyte's Eton, 5. The dates relating 

 to the Eton foundation have been as much confused 

 as those of Winchester, owing to its not being ob- 

 served that the year of the king did not coincide with 

 the year of our Lord. 



Ef'ut. AcaJ. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), i, 158. 



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