SCHOOLS 



some time before 1235 for a master, brethren, 

 and sisters. 1 The Norman hall, of which there 

 are still remains, though one arch fell in Novem- 

 ber 1906, is of the architecture of about 1180. 

 There is not the smallest evidence that it ever 

 belonged to the Templars, as the so-called ' tra- 

 dition,' otherwise the invention of half-learned 

 antiquaries, has it, while the statement that it 

 belonged to the ' mendicant friars of the order of 

 St. Augustine ' is an absurd confusion of two en- 

 tirely distinct orders, the Augustine Canons who 

 first came into England circa 1 106 and the Augus- 

 tine Friars who made their appearance in the 1 3th 

 century. This hospital was probably originally 

 in the hands of the secular clergy, who were dis- 

 possessed, as at St. Bartholomew's and St. Thomas's 

 Hospitals, London, towards the end of the 1 2th 

 century in favour of Augustinian Canons. In 

 the 1 5th century the hospitals mostly had got 

 back again into the hands of the secular clergy. 

 St. John's Hospital, Wycombe, appears in the 

 Register of Bishop Thomas Bek of Lincoln as 

 in the patronage of the mayor and burgesses of 

 the town in 1344. In 1548* it was vested in 

 Christopher Chalfount, clerk, by virtue of his 

 office of master, and he granted it to Sir Edmund 

 Peckham and George Juncklyn on lease for 

 twenty-one years, at the rent of 8 a year. By 

 another indenture he disposed of his interest in 

 the hospital for his life to Sir E. Peckham rent 

 free. Under the will of George Juncklyn, 

 i April, 3 Edward VI,' Sir E. Peckham and 

 George Philyps, executors, bargained and sold 

 to the mayor, bailiffs, and burgesses of Chep- 

 ping Wycombe all the said hospital with the 

 lands and premises, to the intent that the said 

 mayor, bailiffs, and burgesses should bestow all 

 the yearly rents towards the foundation of a 

 grammar school, to be erected within two years 

 of the date thereof. In default the grantors were 

 to re-enter. 



The borough records show that on 25 March 



'55', 



it was agreed first, the whoole howsc of the towne of 

 Chiping Wicombe to keepe the Hospital of St. John'i 

 with the appurte.iances therto belongings in the hole 

 hands of the towne, that ys to saye, Richard Carye, 

 tncn Mayor with all his brethren and the Burgesses, 

 to let and sett as they shall see cause in yt. And 

 moreover we be all agreyde to pay the stypende of 8 

 yerely to the said Scole Mayster. And we all gyve to 

 Mr. Peckham hartye thanks for his good wyll, and for 

 the appointing of the Scole Maister at his pleasure, 

 and we the hoole howse be agreide that the saide 

 Mr. shall have the pleasure and profile of a Cowe, or 

 twayne in ower Corney according to the custome of 

 the Towne, and alio to have 5 loodc of woode yerely. 



At the Dissolution the hospital was valued at 

 {,1 '5'- Si^-jsothat the whole of the funds were 



1 Dugdale, Mm. vi, 754. 



1 Parker, Early Hist, of H'ycombe, 142, from deeds 

 belonging to the Municipal Charity Trustees. 

 1 1550 not 1548 as Parker (op. cit.) hat it. 



devoted to the support of the school. The first 

 master appointed was the Rev. Wrothe, but 

 the school probably was interrupted in its career 

 in the reign of Queen Mary, as she granted the 

 hospital to Sir Thomas Throgmorton. 4 He could 

 only have held it for a short time, as on 1 8 July 

 1562 the mayor, bailiffs, and burgesses granted 

 the hospital and its lands and also the rents which 

 had belonged to the Fraternity of the Blessed 

 Mary, called the Lady Rents, to Queen Elizabeth. 

 On 2 1 July she re-granted them by letters patent 

 to the mayor and burgesses and their successors 

 for ever, for the support and maintenance of four 

 poor persons, and the remainder for the main- 

 tenance of one pedagogue or master, for the good 

 instruction of children and youth in the school 

 which was to be henceforth known as the Royal 

 Grammar School. 



An inquisition * was held in 1617 as to the 

 property, when the grant by the queen of all the 

 hospital property to the maintenance of the 

 grammar school and four poor people was 

 confirmed. 



From 1629 the borough records show a list of 

 the masters to the present day, beginning with 

 Gerard Dobson, vicar of Wycombe. He must 

 have been there for many years before 1629, as 

 Edmund Waller, the poet and politician, was his 

 pupil before going to Eton, and he entered King's 

 College, Cambridge, as a fellow commoner in 

 1620. 'He was bred under several ill, dull, and 

 ignorant schoolmasters, till he went to Mr. Dob- 

 son at Wickham, who was a good schoolmaster, 

 and had been an Eton scholar.' 6 The next 

 master, Henry Wyat, appointed 1646, of Mag- 

 dalen College, Oxford, was rector of Bradenham. 

 In 1671 another rector of Bradenham, William 

 Lardner, was appointed r ' in place of Mr. Philip 

 Humfrey, deceased.' The latter having died 

 very poor, his successor was bound, on his election 

 by the Common Council, to pay to his widow, 

 Kathcrine, 10 in the course of the next two 

 years ' provided she doe not turne Quaker in the 

 mean time, or otherwise become a Sectary, and 

 not observe and obey the Liturgy of the Church 

 of England.' Lardner matriculated at Corpus 

 Christ! College, Oxford, 28 March 1655, took 

 his B.A. degree in 1658 and his M.A. in i66i. 8 

 He was ejected from his rectory in 1670 ; after- 

 wards he conformed and was reinstated in 1672.* 

 H is successor was Howe, whose Christian name 

 is given as Joseph by Parker and Carlisle, but 

 he seems to be identical with Josias Howe, of 

 Grendon, Buckinghamshire, scholar of Trinity 

 College, Oxford, where he matriculated in 1633, 



' Langley, Hist, of the Hund, of Detborough and the 

 Deanery of Wycombe. 



' Petty Bag Inq. no. j, ' Chipping Wicombe.' 



Diet. Nat. Bug. from Aubrey's Brief Livei. 



' Hiit. MSS. Com. Ref. v, App. 558. 



1 Foster, Alumni Oxon. 



' Carlisle, End. Gram. Sf&. i, 95. 



211 



