SCHOOLS 



bishop of York, and founder of a small Eton at 

 Jesus College, Rotherham, in 1480, who was 

 already more than 19 years old. 



As only those above 1 5 n had to swear to the 

 statutes, it looks as if even in December 1443 

 the school was not filled up. The completion 

 of the college was marked by the famous Amica- 

 bilis concordia or covenant of alliance between 

 Wykeham's two colleges of the Virgin at 

 Oxford and Winchester and the two royal 

 colleges of the Virgin of Cambridge and Eton 

 for mutual assistance, signed by their respective 

 wardens and provosts i July 1444. 



The first head master mentioned at Eton is 

 William Westbury, in the Bursars' or Audit Roll of 

 1444-5, which is the earliest preserved. Now 

 William Westbury was an old pupil of Wayne- 

 flete's. He was in all probability son of William 

 Westbury, serjeant-at-law, who appears in the 

 Winchester Bursars' Roll for 1423-488 receiving 

 half a mark as leader of several counsel in an action 

 about some Andover property of that college, 

 and was a judge of the King's Bench in 1426. 

 He came from Westbury, Wiltshire, where he 

 endowed a chantry. The son is described as of 

 Alresford, when admitted a ' poor and needy ' 

 scholar of Winchester in 1428-9. He went on 

 to New College in 1433. The New College 

 records report him as leaving his fellowship ** 

 'in the month of May 1442, transferring him- 

 self to the King's service.' It can hardly be 

 doubted that the royal service to which he was 

 transferred was that of head master, and, it is 

 contended, first head master of the royal col- 

 lege. The Audit Roll of 1444-5 shows indeed, 

 by its beginning with 'arrears ' or surplus received 

 from the bursars of the preceding year, that it was 

 not the first, though the small amount of the sur- 

 plus, 3 3*. id., compared with one of j54 odd 

 carried over to the next year, and other entries, 

 make it probable that it was only the second 

 roll ; and that nothing like the full income had 

 been received in 14434. 



The Dictionary of National Biography avoids 

 all difficulties as to the opening of Eton School 

 and the first head master by the assertion that 

 Wayneflete was ' in the first charter of Eton, 1 1 

 October 1440, nominated a fellow and removed 

 to Eton in 1442. A class-room was then open, 

 but the pupils were lodged in private houses.' 

 The first two statements are, as we have seen, 

 wrong. Wayneflete was not named in the 

 charter of 1440, and he left Winchester in 

 1441. The last two statements may be true, 

 but no authority for them now exists, nor is 

 any cited. 



When the Winchester boyi were iworn to their 

 statutes in 1400, 36 out of 70 took the oath. 



" The protocol* of admission of fellows show that 

 his successor was admitted ' in loco Willelmi West- 

 bury transferentis se ad obsequium," to which another 

 hand has added ' regis." 



The statutes given to the two royal colleges in 

 1 443 made them now like the two Wykehamical 

 colleges. As the statutes, in words copied from 

 those of Winchester, say : ' Though situate in 

 different places, they come from one stem, and 

 originally issue from one spring ; they do not 

 differ in substance, and so naturally do not 

 produce different effects.' The statutes of Eton 

 are in fact a mere transcript of those of Win- 

 chester, mutatis mutandis. Even the mutanda 

 are limited to the narrowest possible changes, 

 such as the substitution of Eton for Winchester, 

 Cambridge for Oxford, and Henry VI for 

 William of Wykeham, the very title of the 

 Patron Saint, Our Lady of Eton, being closely 

 adapted from Our Lady of Winchester. The 

 adaptation of the statutes is much closer even 

 than that made by Chicheley for his own 

 college of All Souls, though that is close enough, 

 or by Wayneflete himself for Magdalen College. 



The whole 45 statutes of Winchester, with 

 the preamble, called in the Eton copy the 

 Mem et Intentio fundatoris, and the solemn ' end 

 and conclusion of all the statutes,' appear 

 verbatim et literatim, for the most part, in the 

 Eton statutes. These number 62, however, 

 because the preamble and conclusion are num- 

 bered as statutes, and nine statutes were added 

 for the almsmen, not included at Winchester, 

 and destined quickly to disappear from Eton. 

 Mr. Mullinger's remark in his History of Cam- 

 bridge University, ' The Latinity ... is more 

 correct, and copious to a fault, and there is also 

 to be noted an increased power of expression,' is 

 not easy to understand. The expressions are 

 identical, even to the anachronistic repetition in 

 the King's College statutes of the Black Death 

 and its successors in 1361 and 1368 as having 

 caused a dearth of properly educated clerics, for 

 which Chicheley in the statutes for All Souls 

 substituted the more up-to-date cause of the wars 

 between England and France. The corporate 

 title bestowed on the college was markedly 

 different. Instead of being ' the Warden and 

 Scholars Clerks ' (scolares cleric!), it was the Pro- 

 vost and College (Prepositus et Collegium). The title 

 of provost was substituted for warden, undoubt- 

 edly by way of distinction from Winchester. 

 That title, and not rector or master, was no 

 doubt chosen because the head of the college of 

 St. Elizabeth, which stood next door to the 

 college at Winchester and is now part of it, was 

 called provost, as was also the head of King's 

 Hall (Oriel) at Oxford, a post held by John 

 Carpenter, who took some part in the foundation, 

 and was consecrated Bishop of Worcester in 

 Eton Chapel, and the head of Queen's College, 

 founded next after Oriel. The corporate body 

 was almost the same as at Winchester, being 

 a provost and 70 scholars with 10 fellow* and 16 

 choristers. But there were ten instead of only 

 three hired chaplains, who from being ctnductitii tt 



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