SCHOOLS 



belonging to it to seven trustees and their heirs, 

 to apply the profits to the maintenance of a 

 schoolmaster, who was to keep a free grammar 

 school in the barn behind the inn. The chim- 

 ney, loft, and parlour at one end of it were to 

 serve as a house for the schoolmaster. Any 

 scholars of the town, or of the next towns 

 adjoining, who were minded to learn grammar, 

 or to write and cipher, were to be admitted and 

 taught their principles in religion. 



The schoolmaster occupied a house and gar- 

 den rent free in 1832, receiving a salary of 

 about 17, and also an entrance fee of is. from 

 each scholar. He taught about 80 boys from 

 Stony Stratford, Wolverton, and Calverton in 

 reading, writing, and arithmetic, and gave them 

 religious instruction. In 1867 there were 90 

 scholars, paying id. a week, under one master 

 and four unpaid monitors. In 1903-4 the 

 school, with three departments, had an average 

 attendance of 319. 



AMERSHAM GRAMMAR SCHOOL 



Robert Challoner, D.D., rector of Amersham, 

 by will 20 June 1620, granted out of lands in 

 Wavendon 'a yearly stipend of 20 for a 

 schoolemaister in the free Grammer School in 

 Knarisburrough in Yorkshir, and the like yearly 

 som of 20 out of the lands in Wavendon to 

 my wellbeloved friends Mr. William Tothill, 

 esq.' and others 



to erect a free Grammer Schools in Amersham in the 

 county of Bucks, to be established by dcede of feof- 

 ment or otherwise as their wisdomes cann devise, the 

 towne and parish allottinge theire chimhhovvsc for 

 the jchoolchowse, or my successor a tenement in the 

 occupation of Enoch Wyer, now or late, for the 

 dwellinghowse of the Schoolemaister, whom I will 

 to be chosen by my executors, my successor and 

 Mr. Tothill, and afterwards by my successors and 6 

 of the eldest feoffees and chiefest. . . . Orders for 

 the schoole I desire my successor to procure from the 

 best ordred Schoole. 1 



The town and parish had allotted the church- 

 house for aschoolhouse on 12 September, and the 

 succeeding rector the tenement for the school- 

 master on 14 September 1624, but we have no 

 information as to what school the successor chose 

 for his model as the ' best ordred.' Dr. Chal- 

 loner died I May 1621. At an inquisition 

 under the statute of Charitable Uses held at 

 Missenden 16 September 1624 it was found 

 that the annuity not having been paid for the last 

 three years, arrears of 60 were due. But 

 Thomas Day, husband of the founder's daughter 

 Ellen, had lately, without the knowledge of the 

 trustees, paid 10 to Mr. Edward Rayner, 

 schoolmaster. 



1 Petty Bag. Inq. 22 Jas. I, no. 7. 



The Commissioners therefore decreed that 

 the arrearages amounting to 50 should be 

 'ymployed and bestowed in and for the repayr- 

 inge and amcndinge of the schoolehouse, found 

 by the inquisition to be appoynted there, and 

 also for the repayringe of the said house appoynted 

 for the habitation of the schoolemaister,' and that 

 the yearly sum of 20 should in future be paid 

 regularly for the wages and maintenance of an 

 able and sufficient schoolmaster. They declared 

 that the school should be for ever thereafter a 

 free school for the education, institution, and 

 instruction of children and youths within the age 

 of eighteen years, as well poor as rich, inhabiting 

 within the said parish of Amersham or in any other 

 place whatsoever, and be called ' the Free School 

 of Robert Challoner, Doctor of Divinity, late 

 rector of the parish church of Amersham in the 

 county of Bucks.' 



Mr. Angel, probably the next master, is 

 known to have sent a boy to St. John's College, 

 Cambridge,' as a fellow-commoner in March 

 1648-9, the son of Sir John Henden, kt., of 

 Biddenden, Kent, so that the school must at 

 that time have been of good repute. Angel was 

 followed before 1651 by Humphrey Gardiner. 

 This appears in an inquisition held in 1674, 

 when steps had again to be taken to enforce 

 payment of the annuity. Interrogatories * were 

 administered to witnesses by James Perrot, esq., 

 on behalf of the free school, against Gifford Bale, 

 George Wells, and others, who were excepting 

 to the decree made fifty years before. The 

 depositions were taken at Newport Pagnell on 

 27 January 1674-5. The first witness, Na- 

 thaniel Wingfield, mercer, swore that, being one 

 of the churchwardens, in the year 1651 he 'did 

 receive of John Wells, father of George Wells, 

 one of the exceptants, who had bought part of 

 Challoner's lands, 10 101. for that year's pay- 

 ment for the use of the said poore of Amersham, 

 and did see Humfrey Gardiner, gent., now one 

 of the Commissioners (being the schoolemaster of 

 the said free schoole) receive of the said John 

 Wells 20 for that year's payment to the free 

 Schoole.' Many other witnesses gave testimony 

 to the same effect. The depositions ended 

 abruptly. A decree was made on 14 June 

 1675, confirming the decree of 1624 and set- 

 ting out the exact land charged. To avoid 

 further disputes these lands were bought and 

 conveyed to trustees by deeds 1213 June 1676 

 by Gifford Bale and his son. 



In 1790 the Rev. Richard Thorne was mas- 

 ter, when there were 1 2 boys, 4 but in the first 

 quarter of the igth century there were never 

 more than 4. Carlisle* in 1819 incorrectly 

 gives the endowment as of lands at Waddesdon, 



1 ddm'usioni to St. John's Coll. pt. i, 91. 



1 Petty Bag Dep. no. 10. 



4 Char. Com. Rep. xxv, 8. 



4 Carlisle, End. Gram. Sch. i, 44. 



213 



