A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



23 June, 1621, and became M.A. 15 June, 1626. After his retirement to a 

 living on 28 June, 1640, Smith appointed Joseph Woodward, who covenanted 

 to keep an usher or under master, a B.A. at least, if the number in the school 

 was over 50. His successor, Mr. Thomas Byrton, was appointed by Lord 

 Berkeley and Mr. Smith. He was himself a Wotton boy who had matricu- 

 lated at Lincoln College 5 April, 1639, became B.A. in 1642, and M.A. 

 3 December, 1646. On 10 July, 1647, Byrton granted a new lease of the 

 lands in Nibley to Smith, who made him covenant to resign the school when 

 called upon under penalty of 500, so that if he or any succeeding master 

 refused to renew this lease he could be turned out at a moment's notice. 

 Thomas Byrton had a very long tenure, as a lease by him is extant among the 

 school papers dated 14 November, 1687. Two of his sons, no doubt 

 educated in the school, went to St. Edmund's Hall, Oxford, in 1665 and 

 1669 respectively. 



From a deposition in the suit of Bennett v. Smith taken in 1715, we 

 learn that a schoolmaster who left the school about 1703 was named Peirce, 

 and that during the vacancy in the mastership after his departure, George 

 Smith, grandson of John Smith of Nibley, had the school study and trunk 

 broken open and purloined some documents. 



Samuel Bennett, the next master, by contesting the usurped rights of 

 the great-grandson of John Smith to the school property, saved the school 

 from being starved to death. He was himself a Wotton boy, and 'before he 

 went to the University spent some time as apprentice to a clothier in 

 Wotton.' On 21 May, 1702, at the age of 19, he matriculated at University 

 College, Oxford, and took his B.A. degree there 14 February, 17056. In 

 April, 1706, he was appointed master 'at the request of some of the cheifF 

 inhabitants ' by George Smith, who then claimed the patronage. He was 

 made to give a bond to resign when called upon to do so. Shortly after- 

 wards George Smith obtained from Bennett a renewal of the lease of the 

 school land at the rent of 32 IQJ. only without paying any fine. But 

 in Trinity term, 1710, the Attorney-General at the relation of Bennett, with 

 Richard Osborne, esq., who had been one of the poor scholars of the 

 school, and John Austin, on behalf of themselves and all other inhabitants of 

 Wotton, filed an information and bill against George Smith to set aside the 

 lease of Warren's Court at Nibley and the other school lands which Smith 

 had got into his possession, which were said to be worth 350 a year or 

 more, ten times the rent which Smith paid for them. 



On 1 6 December, 1718, the Master of the Rolls ordered the lease from 

 Bennett to George Smith, and the bond for resignation to be delivered up ; 

 but decided that the Smiths were still entitled to a lease of the original lands 

 of Warren's Court at only one-third of the real value, but were to pay full 

 value for the other lands at Nibley. On appeal the decree of the Master of 

 the Rolls was confirmed 26 July, 1723, with a trifling exception as to some 

 of the lands, and the defendants were ordered to pay 4,225 to the school. 

 A scheme was confirmed by the court i March, 1725, by which George 

 Smith's rent was increased to 60 a year, and the master's salary to 40 a 

 year ; the number of poor scholars was raised from 7 to I o, and they were to 

 be distinguished by caps and gowns, while exhibitions were to be provided 

 for them to the University. 



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