A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



kinges tenthes, 23*. 8</. ; for 2 obbytes yerely, 4^. ; for 2 tapers yerely, 2s. ; 

 And so remayneth, nil.' There must have been some handsome chalices and 

 plate belonging to the chantry, as the plate, ornaments, and jewels were 

 valued at 15 3-f. 9^-> equivalent to upwards of 303 of our money. 



The Chantry Grammar School was not touched by Henry VIII, whose 

 right of entry on the possessions of any college or chantry or gild he chose, 

 including the colleges in the universities, was very sparingly exercised. 



Under the Chantries Act of Edward VI, which definitely abolished all 

 chantries as from Easter, 1548, several certificates appear to have been taken. 

 First, one 1 by nine of the commissioners for the county, headed by Sir 

 Anthony Hungerforde and three other knights and ending with 'Thomas 

 Sterneholde and Richarde Pates, gentilmen ' ; then, another * by the same 

 Thomas Sterneholde, ' partycular surveyor unto the Kinges maiestie, appointed 

 for the said countie and cities unto certeyne articles here under wrytten, as 

 doth here after ensewe,' being a special inquiry with a view to ascertaining 

 what chantries which were also grammar schools or endowments for the poor 

 and other works of charity such as bridges and havens had a right to continu- 

 ance under sect. 2 of the Act, or where vicars or curates of necessity or new 

 schools were required ; and lastly, particulars s of the foundation of the 

 chantry set out when its confiscated possessions were to be leased or sold by 

 the Court of Augmentations for the crown under the Act. In this case the 

 last account is perhaps the fullest and best. Putting these various accounts 

 together we get exceptionally full and clear details of the foundation. 



The * Chauntry of Blakbroke, alias dicta Greyndours [also Grynedowres] chauntrye 

 or schole, founded by one Robert Gryndour, esquier, by licence ' ' by * hym opteynd of 

 Kinge Henry the Vlth for th'errection of the same, dated 28 Feb. in the 24th yere of his 

 regne' 28 February 14456, 'to th'entent that there shuld be an honeste and discrete 

 preste, being sufficientlie lerned in the arte of gramer to kepe and teache a grammer scoole 

 ther half free for ever ; that is to saie, to take of scolers lernynge gramer, 8^. the quarter, 

 and of other lernynge lettres and to rede 4^. the quarter, within a house there called the 

 Chauntrie house or scoole house. 



The alternative name of Blackbrook Chantry was derived, as appears inci- 

 dentally, from this chantry or schoolhouse being called, presumably from 

 its geographical position on a stream of this name Blackbrook. The master 

 was also ' bounde 6 by the graunte of him the said founder to fynde one 

 scoller to teache under him there gyvinge him meate, dryncke, clothe, and 

 all other necessaries.' This institution of an usher who was also a pupil is 

 quite common in these foundations. The pupil teacher instead of being 

 a modern invention, the creation of the elementary school of the nineteenth 

 century, was a well-known institution in the fifteenth century. We shall 

 find him at Bredgar, Kent, in 1334, as we found him at Wotton under Edge 

 in 1384, a century before this Newland foundation. The provision for one 

 shows the school was expected to number from 60 to 80 scholars. Had the 

 foundation stopped there it would not have fallen under the Edward VI 

 Chantries Act, which in its preamble set forth as one of its objects the 



1 A. F. Leach, Engl. Sch. at the Reformation, 82, from Chant. Cert. 22, No. 70. 

 ' Ibid. 83, from Chant. Cert. 23, No. 34. * Harl. MS. 605, fol. 12, 13^. 



* Chant. Cert. 22. 



6 Harl. MS. 605. The same words in a slightly different order and with different spelling are given in 

 Chant. Cert. 23. 6 Chant. Cert. 23. 



412 



