A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



at the most only allotted to the schoolmaister, untill Mr. Bird came to teach schoole there, 

 and upon hope that the said Mr. Bird would have proved a diligent and painefull schoole 

 maister, the said stipend hath been since increased to 40 marks out of the lands of this 

 citye ; Now in regard the said Mr. Bird is found to be very negligent careless and remiss 

 in performance of the duty of his place, 



they reduced his stipend to 20 marks, and also ' ordered that care be taken 

 for the speedy removinge of the said Mr. Bird.' 



But England was then under the government of the ex-Dean of Glou- 

 cester. Soon there arrived the following letter under the Privy Seal : 



Charles R. Trusty and well-beloved wee greet you well. Wee understand that John 

 Bird hath been Schoolmaister of the Towne Schoole of Gloucester for this many yeares, and 

 that he is a very sober man of conversation and learned in that way, and hath deserved vere 

 well of you and that City in the instruction and education of the children there. Notwith- 

 standinge this wee are informed that there are some amongst you which indeavour to remove 

 him from that place and attempt to bringe in one Langley a man sectiously sett agaynst the 

 goverment of the Church of England, insomuch that at the late Metropolitical Visitation 

 of the Most Reverend father in God the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, hee, publiquely 

 inn courte before the Vicar Generall, obstinatly refused to conform himself to those thinges 

 which were required of him accordinge to lawe and forthwith deserted the Schools in 

 Gloucester belonginge to the Deane and Chapter ; We doe therefore hereby will and com- 

 mand you and any of you, that you suffer the aforesaid John Bird to continue Maister in 

 the school, which he hath, and fairly and reasonably to allow him all such fees and profitts 

 whatsoever belonging to his place, as have heretofore beene enioyed by him, without any 

 interuption or molestation ; and whensoever that place shall become void by death or other- 

 wise, Wee doe further hereby enioyne and require you & any of you whom it may con- 

 cerne, that you choose not the said Langley to succeede there, without the expresse consent 

 of the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury for the time beinge first hadd and obteyned, as you 

 or any of you will answer it at your perills. And our further pleasure is that our letter bee 

 registered by you that the succeedinge Mayor and Electors may take notice of it. Given 

 under our Signet at Our Pallace of Westminster, the Two & Twentieth day of April, 

 in the Sixteenth yeare of Our Reigne [i.e. 1641]. 



In humble obedience to this calm interference with the chartered right 

 of the corporation to manage their own school, it was on 4 May ' ordered at 

 this house that Mr. Bird shall have restowered him out of the chamber all 

 such fees and profitts as have heretofore been received by him.' 



It is highly probable that this high-handed action on the part of the 

 king and Laud largely contributed to the stalwart resistance made by Glou- 

 cester to the royal forces, which had no small effect on the result of the Civil 

 War. Laud was sent to the Tower 18 December, 1640. In January, 

 1640-1, John Corbett, B.A., was appointed usher at a salary of 14 i6j. 8d. 

 On 1 3 May following an Act was made for removing and putting out of 

 Mr. John Bird from being schoolmaster. The Act was read to him by 

 Alderman Toby Bullock in the presence of the mayor, town clerk, sheriffs 

 and others, and he was requested to remove from the master's chambers. 

 ' Nevertheless he refused saying that he had wronges and would continue 

 there.' On 25 May, however, an 'act' was passed 'to elect Mr. John 

 Biddle schoolemaister of Criste.' He was a Gloucestershire boy, born at 

 > Wotton under Edge and educated in the grammar school there. While a 

 boy he had translated Virgil's Eclogues and the first two satires of Juvenal 

 into English verse, and composed an oration in Latin on the funeral of a 

 school-fellow. He went to Magdalen Hall 27 June, 1634, and took his 

 M.A. degree on 20 May, five days before his election as master. The mayor 

 and corporation went out in their robes to meet and greet him on his way 



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