A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



meane to our most gratious Kinge which favoureth all goodnes, to bestow in timber or ells 

 what shall seem good unto his majestic for the repairinge thereof, and your said supplicant 

 shall according to his bounded dutie daily praie to God for your honnors' health and 

 prosperitie. 1 



He did not get much by this letter, for the endorsement on it is : 'I 

 am not to sollicite his majesty in other men's suites, especially in matters of 

 this nature.' R. SALISBURY. 



So the school buildings continued out of repair apparently during the 

 remainder of the tenure of Mr. Helmes. Helmes regularly received the 

 crown stipend up to Michaelmas, 1621." 



In 1622 Henry Topp, who matriculated at Oriel College, Oxford, 

 8 May, 1607, and took his M.A. degree 5 May, 1620, was appointed, pre- 

 sumably by the bishop on the authority of the foregoing order. 8 All seems 

 to have gone well till April, 1639, when Mr. Topp was complained of, and the 

 vestry ordered him to be more diligent and forthwith to provide an usher ; 

 and in the next month as he had paid no attention to their order they gave 

 him notice to leave. They would not do any repairs to the school and he 

 had to do them at his own cost. The buildings were then repaired.* In 

 1641 he agreed to go for 80. But having got the 80 Topp still held on, 

 and did not finally give up possession till early in 1646.' So says Mr. A. E. 

 Fuller in Bristol and Gloucester Arch. Soc. Trans. ; but if he retained posses- 

 sion of the master's house, he did not receive the stipend or teach school. 

 For we learn from a certificate made 30 Oct. 1651, to the parliamentary 

 authorities for sale of fee-farm rents of the stipends payable to schoolmasters 

 and vicars, that William Taylor, 6 



who succeeded in the room of Henry Topp, received the said stipend for the years 1644 

 and 1645, and likewise Hector Foorde (sic) the present schoolmaster hath received the same 

 for the years 1649 and 1650 ; the other years that are behind being unpaid, besides the 

 year ended at Michaelmas 1651, and being 4^ years some of the townesmen of Cyren- 

 cester have byn suing unto the Committee of Revenue for the obliging thereof. 



There being no bishop of Gloucester, the treasurers, minister, church- 

 wardens, constables, &c., as of old exercised the right of election, 7 when 

 Hector Foard, M.A., was appointed in 1646. The same manner of 

 election was followed in March, 1660, when John Hodges was appointed, 8 

 on terms of keeping the school in repair himself. But the vestry in fact 

 paid for repairs in 1663 and 1665. 



John Gwynne was master about 1666. About 1678 a patent under the 

 great seal was obtained for John Parkinson, who had been of Brasenose 

 College, Oxford, for the payment of 20 for his life. 9 He was succeeded 

 about i683 10 by John Turner, who was of Wadham College, Oxford, and 

 LL.D. Then followed John Reeves, also of Wadham ; Richard Arthur, 



about 1725; George Whitwick, about 1750; James, about 1755. He 



was the last appointed in the old way. Party feeling ran very high at that 



1 S.P. Dom. Jas. I, xlv, No. 78. ' Land Rev. Rec. Accts. 18-19 J as - ! bdle - 39- 

 Vestry Bk. 57^. 



4 Ibid. 50^-61^. 6 Ibid. 56^-6 5 . 



6 P.R.O. Aug. Off. Particulars for Sale, portf. 6, files 46, 47, Certificates of Stipends of Vicars and 

 Schoolmasters. 



' Vestry Bk. 6$b. Ibid. 73^. 



1 Ibid. 85-5. ' Ibid. 92*. 



394 



