A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



conceived you in her spiritual womb and brought 

 you forth into the light of knowledge, and until 

 you grew to the strength of manhood, in which 

 you excel, nourished you with most precious 

 meals, with the greatest favour and the alimony 

 of all the sciences.' This almost looks as if 

 Wayneflete had even spent his school days as well 

 as his college days at Oxford. Wayneflete first 

 appears in public records 8 " on receiving letters of 

 protection when sent in the train of Robert 

 Fitz Hugh, D.D., Warden of the King's Hall 

 at Cambridge, and John Bonner, Dec.D., and 

 others, on an embassy to the pope at Rome, to 

 explain why the force of 500 spears and 5,000 

 archers raised by Cardinal Beaufort for a crusade 

 against the Hussites of Bohemia had been diverted 

 to English purposes, viz. the 'necessarie eschu- 

 ing ' of the loss of France. The letters of pro- 

 tection are dated 15 July 1429, and describe 

 Wayneflete as Bachelor of Laws. Next year 

 there are entries in the Bursars' Roll at Winches- 

 ter of ' 2s. 6d. t for the expenses of Sir John 

 Edmond riding to Oxford to inquire and com- 

 municate with divers people to get a Magister 

 Informator,' and of '61. for expenses of Sir 

 Thomas Baylemond riding to Oxford in the 

 month of June to provide an Informator, includ- 

 ing 2s. for the hire of a horse for the purpose for 

 6 days.' For the quarter beginning 24 June 

 1430" 'Mr. William Wanneflete ' was paid 501. 

 as ' teacher of the scholars {Informator scolarium).' 

 So that he was imported direct from Oxford. 

 He continued, under curious variants of name, 

 Wanflet, Waneflett, Weyneflete, Wayneflete, to 

 be paid as head master jCio a year for eleven 

 and a quarter years, until Michaelmas 1441. 

 From Michaelmas 1441 to 1442 the head master 

 was Thomas Alwyn or Walwayn of Newport 

 Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, who, for five years, 

 24 June 1425 to 24 June 1430, had been 

 Wayneflete's predecessor in the head-mastership. 

 This looks as if the vacancy was suddenly 

 created and resort was therefore had to an old 

 and tried man to fill it. Wayneflete occurs 

 several times in the Winchester Hall books as a 

 guest at the high table in September and October 



1441. He then seems to have gone to Eton, 

 a year earlier than has been hitherto supposed. 10 

 If he went as head master, this also makes Eton 

 School a year older than it has hitherto been 

 credited with being. But the school did not 

 begin probably till 1443. In 1441 there were 

 no buildings, and apparently no site on which to 

 erect buildings, to accommodate the boys or the 

 masters. 



te Acts ofP.C. iii, 347. 



9 Not in 1429 as Walcott, Kirby, and others. 



10 Walcott's Wm. ofWykcham and His Colleges, 135; 

 Maxwell Lyte, Hist, of Eton (1899), 17 ; Diet. Nat. 

 Biog., &c., all put him down as going to Eton in 



1442. Chandler's Life of Wayneftete on the other 

 hand takes him there a year too early, in 1440. 



The Eton College building accounts are 

 happily extant. A wages book, headed ' Day 

 book of the first year ' (Jornale anno printo), 

 showing that it was started at the very beginning 

 of the works, begins on 3 July 1441 and extends 

 to 5 February 1441-2. The workmen 11 'con- 

 sisted mainly of labourers, of whom 32 were em- 

 ployed weekly until the middle of November. 

 . . . The number of labourers may perhaps 

 indicate the digging of foundations, which are 

 specially mentioned in the next year.' There 

 were a few masons and carpenters employed, 

 but it is conjectured that they were employed 

 on the old church, which was being enlarged 

 and beautified. It is probable that the founda- 

 tions dug in 1441-2 were those of the new 

 collegiate church ; for the rest of the site was 

 not yet fully conveyed. On the Conversion of 

 St. Paul (25 January) 1441-2 la the first of a 

 series of Private Acts of Parliament confirmed 

 the grants already made by the king of the old 

 parish church and of the endowment and the 

 incorporation of the college. But it was not 

 till six days later, by patent of 31 January 

 14412, that a further part of the site was 

 acquired by the conveyance of Huntercomb's 

 garden (Hundercombs gardyn), Rolf's shaw 

 (Rolveshawe), and a tenement of Walter, while 

 on 9 May 1442 the grant of the Kingsworth, 

 which is identified as part of the playing fields, 

 completed the site. These grants, with others 

 of pardon for introducing papal bulls, of fairs 

 and markets and exemption from divers royal 

 and other liabilities and imposts, were confirmed 

 by Private Act of Parliament 5 March 1445-6." 

 On 1 6 April 1442 digging foundations was still 

 the main work, payment being made for 31 

 loads of loam ' from the foundacion of the 

 college,' and on 22 July 1442 there were still 45 

 labourers digging foundations ; though 53 free- 

 masons, 15 rough masons, and 45 carpenters, 

 also hard at work, show extensive buildings in 

 progress. Apart from the church, however, the 

 school and college buildings were wholly of 

 brick with quoins and mullions of stone. It 

 was not till April 1442 that ground was hired 

 at Slough to make a brick kiln, nor till 28 May 

 1442 that the first instalment of bricks, 66,000, 

 was delivered. In that year 463,600 bricks and 

 in 1443-4 over a million bricks were taken ; so 

 that it is to the years 14424 that the building 

 of the school and college must be attributed. 

 Even if the school was begun first it could not 

 conceivably have been ready for use before 



" Robert Willis and John Willis Clark, Arch. Hist, 

 of the Univ. ofCamb. i, 380-5. 



11 The date is given in the second Act of Parlia- 

 ment passed 5 Mar. 1445-6 ; Heywood and Wright, 

 Statutes, 415. 



14 Ibid. 414-59. Through the usual mistake of 

 the year of the king they call this the Parliament 

 of 1444. 



