SCHOOLS 



It is curious to find in what at this date is called 'Wynne Street' 

 ' a tenement in the tenure of Thomas Snygge, called the Jewys Scole house, 

 which John Ilkyns holdeth, 13^. 4^.' 



In 1535 we find 'a tenement under the skolehouse in the tenure of 

 Howell, labourer, ^s. A tenement over Frome gate with the skolemaster 

 36^. 8</.,' and in 1536 this item again occurs more fully as one which 'the 

 Scolemaster hath rent free for the techyng of chyldern.' But in the next 

 extant account, that for 1 540, under ' Krystmas street ' it appears as ' a tene- 

 ment over Frome Yate, sometyme the schole house, in the tenure of William 

 Dewe, coriar 36^. 8</.' 



Frome Gate was then deserted by the school which had now gone into 

 its fourth habitation, though only a few yards off. The reason was that a 

 new endowment had been given to the school by new benefactors, which 

 is erroneously treated as a new foundation. There cannot be a doubt that it 

 was the same foundation, and not a new one that migrated to the new site, 

 for Thomas Moffatt, the master, appears in the audit books in and after 1542, 

 but not before. In 1 542, ' paid to MofFatt skolemaister 6s. 8</.' ; and in 

 1543 'paid to Mr. Thomas MofFatt for his rewarde of the Chamber, 6s. 8</.,' 

 and in 1546 and later ' paid Mr. MofFatt for his annuytie a quarter 6s. 8</.' ; 

 and this continues to midsummer 1552, when it ceases. There can be little 

 doubt that MofFatt retired in 1542, and received a pension of i 6s. %d. a 

 year from the corporation on so doing, but that this was two years after the 

 move to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, which had been acquired by the 

 corporation for a new site, as now to be related. 



The local historians and the official reports l have hitherto credited the 

 origin of Bristol Grammar School to ' the will of Robert Thorne, 17 May, 

 1532, in which no specific bequest of money for erecting a grammar school 

 appears, but among other dispositions it has " Also I will that there be in 

 the power of my executors 1,000 to be distributed and ordered as to my 

 executors shall seem best for my soul." 



The origin of the school must, as we have seen, be attributed to 

 a much more ancient family of Bristol merchants than the Thornes, and 

 to a far higher antiquity. But the new endowment is also incorrectly 

 attributed. The will of Robert Thorne the younger in 1532 did in fact 

 contain a specific bequest for the school, but the chief endowment is due 

 not to this will, but to the will of his father of the same name in 

 1518. The Thornes were well-to-do Bristol merchants, who showed every 

 disposition to do well to the town in which they had thriven. Robert 

 Thorne the father was mayor in 1515.* He made his will 20 January, 

 15178.* He concludes : 



also I make myne Executours Sir John Goodrygge, parson of Christ church, and William 

 Wosslcy and John Wyatt, and to every of them I gyve jiO in redy money, and 

 every of them a black gowne And to se my will and my debts paid and my will fulfilled, 

 and the rest of all my goodes to be sold and doone for my soule where that ye fynd most 

 nedc, and I require as ye will aunser to for God that this be doone as God knowythe my 

 mynde as I put my full trust in you for, and God send me space and grace I wold doo it 

 myself. 



1 Char. Com. Rep. (182*), yi, 481 ; Scb. Inj. Rep. (1868), xv, 19. 

 1 Great Red Bk. 260*. 

 P.C.C. 19, Ayloffe, 6. 



a ~<T 46 







