A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



whitewashing of the frescoes in chapel ; but 

 John Lecke, the porter (janitori) was in fact paid 

 3*. ifd. (pro dealbatlone templi) on 2 December, 

 when Aldridge was still provost ; and on 

 25 January, a month before Smith set foot in 

 Eton, 6s. 8d. was paid ' to those labouring about 

 the high altar in overturning and carrying out 

 the sculptures.' Next year the gold of the images 

 was sold for 5*. Smith's salary, instead of being 

 30, as had been usual of late, was restored to 

 the old figure of 50, with 25 more for the 

 rectory. Including commons and livery for him- 

 self and his men, he had due to him some ,250 

 in April 1550, of which he took out ^130 in 

 42 Ib. of old plate, at the rate of 55. zd. an 

 ounce Xroy weight. 



Several of the fellows and Mr. Barker, the 

 head master, followed the provost's example, and 

 took unto themselves wives, which was regarded 

 by the conservative opposition as a heinous 

 offence. In 1549 117a Barker had been accused to 

 the provost that he was a ' diseplayare, cardeare, 

 riotter or gammeare, nott applying his schole 

 trewely.' This the vice-provost Goldwyn re- 

 pudiated : ' For I know he is none of that 

 sortt, I can fynd no faught in hym, but he 

 is sumwhat to gentle and gyvethe his scholars 

 more licence than they have byn usid ' ; a fault 

 which was perhaps the best testimonial to his 

 virtues. On 6 May 1552 1I8 some of the 

 Cambridge University Commissioners, the Lord 

 Chancellor, the Bishop of London, Sir John 

 Cheekeand two others, were ordered to visit Eton 

 and ' see what things are to be reformed or cor- 

 rected there . . . and geve such injunctions as 

 may be for the increase of vertu and learning.' 

 Provost Smith was now out of favour, being a 

 dependant of the Protector Somerset, and had 

 been deprived of his secretaryship and sent to the 

 Tower, and the directions to the visitors included 

 one to ' leave owt the name of and style of the 

 late Duke of Somerset,' beheaded as a traitor. 

 The immediate result of the visit 119 was 'a letter 

 of apparence 'on 1 1 May to one of the fellows, 

 Thomas Fawding or Faulding, to appear before 

 the Privy Council, and his committal to the 

 Fleet on 14 May for some unknown offence. 

 Reby, 120 the vice-provost, was directed also to 

 go up to the council with " Harland " the usher 

 and one Avise fellow.' The result does not 

 appear. Thomas Harland was rather an inter- 

 esting person. An Etonian and Kingsman, he had 

 been usher since 1542. Anthony Wood says that 

 under Mary he had to conceal himself under the 

 name of Fuller. But he appears under the 

 name of Fuller in the Eton audit books, and 

 Edward Harland alias Fuller, perhaps his father, 

 appears in the same books as constable of Wind- 



ma S.P. Dom. Edw. VI, vii, 4. 

 118 Acts ofP.C. 1552-4, p. 35. " 9 Ibid. 44, 46. 

 1M This name has been misread by the editor. His 

 name was Ryby. 



sor about this time. So that he seems to have 

 gone indifferently under either name. The 

 later audit books of Edward Viand those of Mary 

 appear to be missing. But we know from the 

 sole brass remaining in Fotheringhay Church, 121 

 the college of which, like the castle, had been a 

 Yorkist foundation, on which some Latin verses 

 record the praise of Thomas Harland Paedotnba 

 bonus, who died 5 January 1589-90, that he was 

 ' scholemaster ' of the grammar school there for 

 thirty-three years, and must therefore have gone 

 there in 1557. 



When the Court was at Windsor, the Privy 

 Council on 26 September 1552 121a 'ended a 

 matter at Eton College between the Master and 

 the Fellows,' and also ' took order for the amend- 

 ment of certain superstitious statutes.' Next 

 year the college was ordered to convert their 

 church goods ' from monumentes of superstition 

 to necessarye uses,' which took the form of silver 

 wine-pots, jugs, bowls, and other ' plate for the 

 buttarie.' 



After Mary's accession Thomas Smith re- 

 signed the provostry and the deanery of Carlisle 

 ' quasi-spontaneously.' Henry Cole, of Godshill, 

 Isle of Wight, scholar of Winchester 1519 and 

 of New College 1521, and warden of the latter 

 college from 1542 to 1551, when, being adverse 

 to the Reformation, 122 he resigned both the 

 wardenship and the rectory of Newton Long- 

 ville, was, in accordance with a royal mandate, 

 elected fellow of Eton and provost on the same 

 day, 13 July 1554. He restored the old services 

 and, as far as possible, the old ornaments. One 

 of the disputants against Cranmer and Ridley 

 with a view to their conviction as heretics, he 

 preached at the former's burning, and was re- 

 warded with the deanery of St. Paul's in 1556. 

 He was also made vicar-general to Cardinal Pole. 

 Three old Etonians and Kingsmen were burnt 

 for heresy by his party, viz. Robert Glover and 

 Lawrence Saunders at Coventry, and John Hul- 

 lier at Cambridge. Cole did not shrink from 

 upholding his reactionary views when Elizabeth 

 came in, and, though committed to the Tower, 

 led a disputation against Protestantism in West- 

 minster Abbey in 1559. On 20 May 1560 he 

 was deprived of his provostry and other prefer- 

 ments ; he was afterwards sent to the Fleet, and 

 was still a prisoner there in 1579. 



The return to Protestantism was enforced by 

 a University Commission, 20 June 1559, to 

 tender the oaths of allegiance and supremacy at 

 Eton, as a college forming part of Cambridge 

 University. Probably by the influence of Cecil, 

 one of the commissioners, a Johnian, William 



111 V.C.H. Northants, ii. 



" Ia Maxwell Lyte, op. cit. 139, from Burnet, Hist. 

 of Reformation, v, 85. 



1!J Not, as Anthony Wood {Atben. Oxon, i, 1 97) 

 says, on the authority of Bishop Jewell's biographer, 

 ' a preacher up of the Reformation.' 



188 



