SCHOOLS 



School as early as 1592, when the Exchequer 

 payment to Thornton was transferred to him. 

 Potter seems to have been in the place and setting 

 up a rival and unlicensed private school, as in 

 1599* 'the Archbishop of Canterbury, John 

 Whitgift, issued an inhibition against him,' for- 

 bidding him to preach or teach school in the 

 town of Buckingham. James Smith, as we saw 

 under Thornton, continued master until the last 

 year of Queen Elizabeth. Then Robert Tom- 

 lyns, who is unknown to Browne Willis's or 

 Lipscomb's Histories, succeeded and held for six 

 years. He was followed in 1609 for half a year 

 by John Nichols, who was perhaps a resident in 

 Buckingham acting as a stop-gap, for he married 

 on 22 June 1622 a daughter of Simon Lam- 

 bert, then bailiff of the borough," and his burial 

 is recorded in 1646. Richard Earle we can put 

 back from 1617, the date given by Browne Willis, 

 to 1609. After nearly twenty years' tenure he 

 was discharged by the corporation for neglect of 

 the school in 1625. As he died vicar of Stow 

 in 1635, we may conjecture that the common 

 combination of a living at a distance with a 

 school had proved fatal to the good conduct of 

 the school. 



The next master was Richard Home, who 

 had matriculated at Hart Hall, taken his B.A. 

 degree in 1621, and his M.A. in 1624. He 

 left in 1633, and became rector of Finmere, 

 Oxfordshire, and was succeeded by Thomas 

 Dutton, of Merton College, B.A. 1628, M.A. 

 1632. On 1 8 May 1638 the Corporation elected 

 Edward Ummant, M.A., as master. In 1645 

 he obtained the vicarage of Padbury, which he 

 held with the school, as his name appears as 

 master on 20 August 1639, when his wife was 

 buried. His name is given in the register as 

 Ummans. During the Commonwealth this, 

 like so many other grammar schools, so far from 

 being stopped or starved, as is generally, but 

 falsely, supposed or asserted, was well looked 

 after, and had its endowment increased. On 

 I February 1658 10 the Committee for Mainten- 

 ance of Ministers and Schoolmasters ordered 

 that 'the yearly summe of 10 bee graunted to 

 and for increase of the maintenance of the 

 schoolemaster of the freeschoole att Buckingham 

 . . . and that the same bee from time to time 

 paid unto such godly and able schoolemaster as 

 shall bee from time to time settled there.' 



On I O February n ' the Trustees for mainten- 

 ance have thought fit to allow the augmentacions 

 herafter mencioned and have certified the same 

 for the approbacion of his Highnesse and the 

 Councell. ... His Highnesse and the Councell 

 doe approve the said augmentacions and order 



' Browne Willis, op. cit. 8 1, quoting Cant. Archiepis. 

 Reg. Whitgift, fol. 112. 



Browne Willis, op. cit. 67, 69, 70. 

 ' Lamb. MSS. 1004, fol. 173. 

 " Ibid. 997 fol. 151. 



that the sime be paid accordingly . . . To the 

 Schoolemaster of Buckingham Towne^io.' 



The name of the master is unfortunately not 

 given. A master of the i8th century informed 

 Browne Willis that Ummant remained master as 

 well as vicar of Padbury and employed as ushers 

 Mr. Paine and Mr. Thompson and Mr. Stephens. 

 Thomas Stephens was licensed by the ordinary, 

 i.e. the bishop, as master on 19 March 1660. 

 ' The great William Lowndes of Winslow,' says 

 Browne Willis, ' spoke much to me in his praise 

 and says that he quitted this for a greater school," 

 and he ' bred up several good scholars ' a suffi- 

 cient refutation of the libel in Carlisle. The 

 ' greater school ' he went to was Bury St. 

 Edmunds, 11 where he became famous. 



On 10 October 1664 William Waiters was 

 appointed master, and in 1668 we find William 

 Warters, 13 son of William, of Buckingham, 

 minister Warters was then vicar of Bucking- 

 ham matriculating at Balliol. As the master 

 from i October 1665 to 1682, Roger Griffiths, 

 was also a Balliol man, having matriculated in 

 1660 and taken his B.A. degree in 1664, we may 

 infer that the young Warters had been educated 

 in the school. Griffiths became vicar of Pad- 

 bury and held the living with the school. On 

 his death, Thomas Dalby, M.A., was elected 

 master on 16 January 1682, and held till he 

 became vicar of Wendover. Thomas Yeomans, 

 appointed in 1685, had taken his B.A. degree 

 from Brasenose in 1678. He went on to 

 Brackley Grammar School, in Northampton- 

 shire, one of the Magdalen College Schools, 

 in 1690. Mark Noble, who took his degree 

 from St. Alban Hall in 1686 and was curate of 

 Maids' Moreton, followed for two years. Robert 

 Styles, elected in 1692, 'having raised a very 

 good school here, to the great loss of the town 

 quitted it for Northampton School.' Among his 

 scholars at Buckingham were Mr. Backwell and 

 Mr. Justice Denton, both of whom afterwards 

 gave him benefices, in Tyringham and Preston. 

 This brings Carlisle's ' times immemorial ' to a 

 period of 120 years, even if no boys went later 

 to the university, which seems unlikely, as the 

 masters continued to be university men, largely 

 from Oxford. Thomas Ford, B.A., son of a 

 Buckingham alderman, was elected master on 

 21 October 1696 ; he afterwards became a pre- 

 bendary of Wells Cathedral. Samuel Foster, 

 M.A., vicar of Little Horwood, held the master- 

 ship from 1 7 May 1 709, when he got another 

 vicarage. Richard Card well, of Hart Hall, was 

 appointed in 1715. He became vicar of Thorn- 

 borough the next year. He held both places 

 till he became vicar of Raunds, Northamptonshire, 

 in 1723. Then he resigned both the master- 

 ship and the vicarage of Thornborough to 

 William Halsted, M.A., of Brasenose College, 



"Scef.C.W. Suf. ii, 318. 

 " Foster, Alumni Oxon. 



' 209 



