A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



founded in Thomas Becket's house in the city of 

 London, now the site of the Mercers' Hall. 

 The certificate, 3 after giving an account of ' the 

 Brotherhood of the Trynytie and Our Lady ' 

 with two priests, one to sing for the souls of 

 Henry VI 4 and the brethren of the gild, and of 

 Barton's chantry, says : 



Also there is one other chauntrey ... of St. John 

 the Baptist and St. Thomas of Aeon called Mathewe 

 Stratton chauntre. The revenues thereof is 69^. and 

 Thomas Hawkyns is incumbent there, and hath yerly 

 the profettes thereof for his salarye over and besides 

 37/. %<t. which he receyveth yerly of [blank in MS.] by 

 reason of the late house of St. Thomas of Aeon in 

 West Cheppe London as it is said. 



The chantry, therefore, was worth 5 6s. 8d. 

 a year, which is rather above than below the 

 average of chantries, though the other chantry 

 priests in Buckingham got 6 a year each. It 

 was, at all events, more than the stipend of the 

 usher or lower master of Eton, which was only 

 4 a year. Stratton's chantry was the oldest 

 chantry in Buckingham, having been founded by 

 Matthew Stratton, Archdeacon of Buckingham 

 from 1223 to 1268. The chantry chapel was 

 rebuilt by John Ruding, Canon of Lincoln and 

 Prebendary of Buckingham in that cathedral 

 from 1471 to 1481. Browne Willis says that 

 on the ceiling over the altar was to be seen a 

 painting of the Lamb of God, the usual emblem 

 of the Baptist, with his head on a charger under- 

 neath it; but it was destroyed in 1688, 'as a 

 relic of popery, by the schoolboys.' Underneath 

 was Ruding's motto, ' May God amende all,' 

 and his arms with crescents and scallop shells. 

 The chantry being reputed part of the foundation 

 of the hospital of St. Thomas of Aeon which, 

 by the way, has nothing to do with Acre, as 

 commonly stated, 6 but was merely the name of 

 a former owner of Thomas Becket's house it 

 was suppressed with it by Henry VIII. The 

 chantry priest was pensioned, and the Land 

 Revenue Records 6 duly record the payment to 

 him of his pension up to 1565, first under the 

 name of John, but from 1550 under the name of 

 Thomas Hawkins, for celebrating divine service 

 in the chapel of St. John the Baptist. 



The chantry not being reported on by the 

 later Chantry Commission under the Chantries 

 Act of Edward VI, we have no opportunity of 

 learning whether or not the chantry priest did, 



3 Chant. Cert. 4, no. 9. 



4 Because it received a licence in mortmain from 

 him ; Pat. 28 Hen. VI, pt. i ; cited in Browne 

 Willis, op. cit. 45. The document recited that the 

 fraternity had long been maintained in honour of 

 St. Romwald, but had no legal foundation, which 

 probably only meant that it was founded before the 

 Statute of Mortmain, and therefore had no licence 

 under that statute. 



5 Carlisle, End. Gram. Sch. i, 47. 



6 Land Rev. Rec. Accts. (Ser. i), bdle. 96. 



either by the foundation or in fact, keep a gram- 

 mar school. But it seems extremely probable. 

 There are no documents at Buckingham among 

 the municipal records older than the Reforma- 

 tion, except two volumes of the Portmote or 

 Borough Court beginning towards the end of 

 the reign of Henry VII. They are almost ex- 

 clusively actions about small debts or petty tres- 

 passes with a few elections of ale-tasters and the 

 like. There appears to be no mention of the 

 school. There is, therefore, little chance of ever 

 proving any connexion between the old school, 

 which must have existed, and the present one. 

 According to Browne Willis and the deed of 

 1830, the present foundation is due to a bequest 

 of Dame Isabel Denton in 1540, to which 

 Edward VI added an annuity from the Ex- 

 chequer of 10 8s. o%d. This, if true in fact, 

 must have been due to one of the warrants of 

 the Chantry Commissioners for the continuance 

 of schools and preachers and other objects. But 

 the only Buckinghamshire warrant found does 

 not include it, and the Patent Rolls are silent. 

 Nor can the payment be traced in the Ministers' 

 Accounts. There seems to be little doubt that 

 Edward VI had nothing to do with it, and that 

 the Exchequer payment of 10 8s. originated 

 with the transfer from Thornton Grammar 

 School to that of Buckingham in 1592, as already 

 shown in the introduction to this article. 



Browne Willis gives Henry Webster as the 

 first master, and says that he was curate here. 

 The register records his burial as Henricus Web- 

 ster, priest (sacerdos), on 29 June 1569. Alex- 

 ander Sheppard, master in 1574, became vicar of 

 Whitchurch in 1580 and of Buckingham in 

 1599. In the extant Borough Minute Book 

 he appears as an LL.B. and acting as ' commis- 

 sary or official of the peculiar and exempt juris- 

 diction of King's Sutton,' a will being proved 

 before him 2 April 1604. He afterwards took 

 the degree of D.C.L. from Jesus College, Oxford, 

 in 1609, and is described by Wood as 'a learned 

 civilian.' 7 Thomas Potter, described as M.A., 

 succeeded Sheppard in 1580. 



The Register of Gonville and Caius College, 

 Cambridge, shows the admission on 13 June 

 1591 of William Potter son of Thomas, at the 

 age of fourteen. He is said to have been born 

 at Buckingham, and to have attended school 

 there 'under Mr. Herl.' According to the list 

 of masters given in Lipscomb's County of Bucking- 

 ham, Thomas Potter was master from 1580 to 

 1594, when he was succeeded by James Smith, 

 and Richard Earle only became master in 1609. 

 If these dates are correct, Mr. Earle, or Herl, 

 must have been usher under Mr. Potter while 

 the young Potter was at school. James Smith 

 is, as we saw in the Introduction, under Thorn- 

 ton School, described as master of Buckingham 



7 Carlisle, loc. cit. 



208 



