SCHOOLS 



B.A. degree at the age of eighteen on 8 June previously. Laud's last signa- 

 ture as dean was to his admission. The ushers who were not appointed by 

 the head master but by the dean were John Angell, elected 4 February, 

 1623-4; on 23 June, 1628, Giles Workman, a Gloucestershire boy, B.A. 

 of Magdalen Hall ; on 4 June, 1632, Ezra Grayle, B.A. ; and on 25 October, 

 1634, John Grayle, of Stow, Gloucestershire, B.A. of Magdalen Hall. He 

 afterwards attained fame as head master of Guildford Grammar School, where 

 he reigned for half a century. 



Langley the head master was a very distinguished person in the scholastic 

 profession. Born at Banbury and probably educated at the Grammar School 

 there, he matriculated at Oxford 23 April, 1613, and took his B.A. degree 

 at Magdalen Hall 5 July, 1616. He did not become an M.A. till more 

 than a year after his appointment to the head-mastership. Langley's services 

 were much appreciated at Gloucester. A chapter minute of 1 1 May, 

 1628, exceptionally written in English, recites that he on 24 December 

 previous did 



by resignation in writinge surrender and resigne uppe into the hands of Mr. Wrenchc, 

 then Sub-dean, his place ot High Schoolmaster within this churche, which he had dyvers 

 yeares before that inioyed with good approbation of the Dean and chapter ; and sithence 

 that the said Mr. Langley by persuasion and request of dyvers of his friends is willinge to 

 accepte of the same place againe, and to that purpose Mr. Doctor Wynniffe, Deane of this 

 church, hath exprest his desire to Mr. Subdeane that Mr. Langley should be readmitted 



therefore the sub-dean readmitted him ' into the place of High or Cheefe 

 Schole Master in as ample a manner ' as he had formerly held it. It is 

 perhaps connected with this transaction that the same day * Mr. Hosier, 

 master of the choristers, is required to teach the catechism and principles of 

 the Christian religion ' to them. Perhaps Langley had objected to the head 

 master being obliged to take time which should have been devoted to the 

 school at large to give instruction of an elementary character to the choristers, 

 whose attendance at grammar schools from the fourteenth century downwards 

 has always been a difficulty, to the detriment of other scholars. 



The first extant account of the Chapter Treasurer, for the year 1635, 

 shows us * stipends paid the head master (archididascali) John Langley, and 

 usher (bypodidascali),]ohn Grayle, 24 13*. 4</.,' while among* extraordinary 

 payments ' (In extraordinariis) is * In primis, To Mr. Langley, for increment 

 of his salary 1 3*. 4</.' The account does not show what the payments to the 

 master separately were. It is a curious thing that here, as in other cathedrals 

 of the new foundation, there seems to be no evidence as to when the common 

 table contemplated by the statutes of Henry VIII ceased. It was doomed 

 from the time when matrimony became lawful to priests, such as head masters 

 and minor canons. It had clearly ceased at Gloucester before this first extant 

 account ; the difference between the statutory salaries of 8 Ss. 8</. and 

 2 I9/. 2d. being accounted for by the commutation of the allowances 

 for livery and commons into money. It was, as time went on, a disastrous 

 exchange for all but the canons, as while they more than made up for the 

 change in the value of money by increased rents and the fines paid for the 

 renewal of leases, those who were not members of the governing body of the 

 foundation received no such compensation. At this time the dean received 

 100, each canon 20, and minor canon 10, and the master of the choristers 



325 



