SCHOOLS 



Michaelmas 1442, and was most probably not 

 ready before Michaelmas 1443. 



The register of Thomas Bekynton records 

 that on Sunday, 13 October 11 1443, he was 

 consecrated ' in the old collegiate church of 

 Blessed Mary of Eton,' and ' afterwards he cele- 

 brated his first mass in pontificals, in the new 

 church of the Blessed Mary there, not yet half 

 built, under a tent at an altar erected directly 

 above the spot where King Henry VI laid the 

 first stone. And he held a feast in the new 

 fabric of the college there on the north side, 

 while the chambers were not yet partitioned 

 underneath.' That is, the chapel was not half 

 finished, and the chambers only had their walls up. 



It is suggested by Mr. J. W. Clark that ' the 

 north side and chambers' referred to were the 

 school and chambers in the school yard which 

 preceded the present Long Chamber and head 

 master and usher's chambers and the old Lower 

 School underneath it. But there is good reason 

 to believe that they were not in the school yard 

 till the 1 6th century, while there is positive 

 evidence that the school was not finished two 

 years later. 



There is no documentary evidence of Wayne- 

 flete's ever being head master. The first men- 

 tion of him in documents at Eton is as provost, 

 on 2 May 1443, when he agreed with his friend 

 Bekynton for the exemption of the college and 

 parish from his archidiaconal authority, which 

 is still vested in the provost ; while by deed of 

 10 September 1443 i 2s. lid. a year, in lieu 

 of the visitation fees, was settled on the arch- 

 deaconry, payable out of the manor of Bledlow. 



On 30 November 1 443 Wayneflete, as pro- 

 vost, and William Lynde, a fellow and clerk of 

 the works, contracted with Robert Whetelcy, the 

 chief carpenter, for all the carpentering work of 

 ten chambers on the east side of the college, of 

 the hall and cloisters, and for making seven 

 turrets, showing that the east side, though more 

 advanced than the north side, was not yet habit- 

 able. The public records bring Wayncflcte's 

 provostry back even further, for while the house- 

 hold accounts w show Henry Sever as one of the 

 royal chaplains receiving a gown from Christmas 

 1440, and at Whitsuntide 1442 receiving 4 casks 

 of wine as provost, at Christmas 1442 16> Wayne- 

 flete received a livery, described next year 

 as 5 yards of violet cloth as provost of Eton, 

 while Sever continued to receive a gown as 

 royal chaplain. This shows that Wayne- 

 flete became provost at some date between 

 Whitsuntide and Christmas 1442, probably at 

 Michaelmas, as Sever was made Chancellor of 



u Bekynton'i Corresfxmdence (Roll Ser.), i, p. cxix. 

 Not Nov. as Maxwell Lyte, op. cit. 19. The day is 

 specially said to have been the Translation of St. 

 Edward (the Confessor). 



" Exch. K.R. Wardrobe Accts. 19-20 Hen. VI. 



"Ibid. 2I-* Hen. VI. 



Oxford towards the end of the year. This 

 would leave less than a year for Wayneflete to 

 be head master, if he ever was head master. 



On 21 December 1443 Bishop Bekynton, 

 with the Earl of Suffolk, as commissioners of 

 the founder, formally gave statutes to the 

 college and swore Wayneflete to them as pro- 

 vost, who in turn took the oaths of the other 

 members of the college, namely 5 fellows, 2 

 clerks, 2 choristers, and 1 1 scholars. But it is 

 specially recorded that, as the buildings were not 

 finished, nor the full endowment received, the 

 king dispensed the college temporarily from the 

 observance of some of the statutes, viz. (i) as to 

 keeping the intended full number of fellows, 

 scholars, and poor ; (2) the fellows being only 5, 

 instead of 10, they were only to be bound to 5 

 masses a day instead of 10 ; (3) the scholars 

 were not required to say the prayers and adora- 

 tions set down for them till the morrow of the 

 Epiphany, ' so that meanwhile they may be in- 

 structed and fully informed in them,' while (4) 

 c as neither church nor hall, towers, chambers, 

 chests, common archives, keys, bursary, treasury, 

 nor gates were yet fully built,' the statutes relat- 

 ing to these were suspended. At the same time 

 a special statute provided that as John Clerk had 

 given up a sufficiently fat living (beneficio satis 

 competent?) to take a fellowship, he should be vice- 

 provost not for a year only, as the statutes or- 

 dained, but for life. This first and perpetual 

 vice-provost was another Wykehamist, a native 

 of Newbury, scho'ar of Winchester 1406, of 

 New College 1410 ; and the benefice he gave up 

 was that of Adderbury, Oxfordshire, one of the 

 richest New College livings. The proceedings 

 were witnessed by Richard Andrew, LL.U., 

 then King's Secretary ; Walter Lyhert or Le 

 Hart, Provost of Oriel, and William Say, an- 

 other Wykehamist, then Dean of St. Paul's. 



It has been constantly repeated that Wayneflete 

 took with him to Eton half Winchester College, 

 viz. 5 fellows and 35 scholars. It was reserved 

 for Mr. Kirby, 17 an Etonian, but Bursar of Win- 

 chester College, to show that this was almost 

 certainly untrue, and quite certainly without 

 authority. There are no such ' gaps in the 

 [Winchester] Register which such a migration 

 would make ; only six scholars are recorded in 

 the margin of the Register to have quitted Win- 

 chester for Eton. It is possible that the number 

 of 35 may have been made up from the ranks of 

 the commoners and day-boys, but no evidence 

 exists as to this. Nor is it recorded of any fel- 

 low that he quitted it for Eton. Two old 

 scholars exchanged fellowships of New College 

 for fellowships of Eton College.' Even this 

 reduced statement is not quite accurate. Only 



" Kirby, Annalt of Winchester Coll. (1894), 199. 

 In the last edition of Maxwell Lyte (1899), p. 17, 

 Mr. Kirby's statement has been substituted for the 

 older story. 



'55 



