SCHOOLS 



Wotton-under-Edge for the habitation or foundation, and likewise dispose of them for the 

 maintenance, of a master and two poor scholars of the art of grammar ; which master and 

 his successors shall govern and inform all scholars coming to the same house or school * 

 coming for instruction in this art without taking anything for his trouble from them or any 

 of them. 



Then the two chaplains convey the property and found * a perpetual house of 

 scholars ' of one master and two poor scholars clerks living college-wise therein 

 for ever ' (pauperum scalar mm clericorum collegialiter vivencium.) They then 

 say they have appointed John Stone, priest and M.A., as master to teach 

 and keep school in the same (ad sc olas in eadem regendas she gubernandas) ; 

 and now admit the two poor scholars-clerks John Beenlye and Walter Morkyn, 

 to live together according to statutes to be made by them and Lady Berkeley. 

 They then set out the property conveyed * to be held in common (com- 

 muniter et in communi) by the master and scholars-clerks.' The school- 

 house with 2 acres of land, and seventeen messuages with their appurtenances, 

 in Wotton itself; a garden of 2 acres held by Richard Panyter, six messuages, 

 three tofts, 66 acres of arable land, 15 acres of meadow, 20 acres of pasture, 

 10 acres of wood, IQJ. j\d. rent, and a rent of one bunch of cloves in 

 Nubbeleye (Nibley), Stancombe, and Woodmancote held by John Oldelond, 

 clerk ; and other lands in Nibley belonging to various persons, viz. two 

 messuages, 24 acres of land and half a virgate, and a mill ; and lastly, 10 acres 

 in Stancombe. The deed was witnessed by Thomas, fourth Lord Berkeley, 

 the grandson of Thomas III, by his brother Sir John Berkeley, and by Sir 

 Peter of Veel, Sir Thomas Fitznichol, Sir Thomas of Veel and Sir Edmund 

 of Bradeston, knts., John Sergeaunt of Stone, whom we may perhaps take 

 to be a relation of the first master, John Stone, priest, and others. 



The statutes follow. The first of them required, unfortunately for the 

 future of the school, that the master should always be a priest, and should 

 celebrate in the Lady chapel of the manor of Wotton when Lady Berkeley or 

 other lords or ladies of the manor were there, and otherwise in the parish 

 church of Wotton, for the souls of the then Berkeleys, Katherine, Thomas 

 and Margaret his wife, John and Elizabeth his wife ; for Thomas Lord 

 Berkeley her husband, Peter of Veel her former husband, Sir John of 

 Clyvedon and Emma his wife, her father and mother, and all the ancestors 

 and parents of the said Thomas and Katherine, 'without taking any stipend 

 or salary except the rents and profits given at the first foundation or here- 

 after to be given.' The master was to be appointed by the Lady Katherine 

 during her life, and afterwards by the heirs of Lord Berkeley or his brother, 

 or in default by the lord of the manor of Wotton for the time being ; except 

 that if the manor through minority or otherwise came into the king's hands, 

 the abbot of St. Augustine's, Bristol, was to appoint. The appointee was to be 

 presented to and instituted by the bishop of Worcester. The property was 

 to be managed by the master, who out of the income was to provide the two 



1 Seolam, the house being spoken of, not the institution, is singularly in the singular. 



' The reading of the words varies between domus to/arum, or schoolhousc, and Jomus icolarium, or house of 

 scholars. But there is no doubt that while the house is spoken of as schoolhouse, the name of the institution 

 was ' House of Scholar*,' in imitation of the tide of the House of Scholars of Merton, otherwise Merton 

 College, Oxford. In like manner Lady Berkeley calls the two boys scholars-clerks, which was the proper legal 

 title of boys at school or youths at the University. The ' warden and scholars-clerks ' was the corporate title 

 of Winchester College. We may remember Chaucer's ' clergeon ' or little clerk for the boy at school in the 

 Prioress's tale, and ' the clerk of Oxenford ' for the undergraduate in the prologue to the Canterbury Talts. 



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