SCHOOLS 



A note says * Note. The alms distributed among the poor, as that is 

 allowed and the rest disallowed,' i.e. the tenths were payable on the singing 

 boys' income as part of the monastic staff, but not on the payment to the 

 poor, which was a charity to outsiders. 



John Austin, master of the Lady chapel, had a separate endowment of 



I4_r. 7</. out of which he paid 



in alms to six boys or choristers of the Blessed Mary's chapel viz. in the price of 6 gowns 

 (tunicarum) and making and doubling the same ; in the price of 24 pairs of shoes and 12 

 shirts, according to a composition and ordinance of Richard, late abbot of the monastery 

 aforesaid, made and confirmed under the common seal of the monastery, 621. 



The Song School therefore and the maintenance of the 6 choristers for 

 whom alone, or primarily, it was intended, was actually a monastic school in 

 the sense that it was maintained by and in the monastery. Song Schools 

 being mainly intended to teach choristers to sing mass were regarded as 

 superstitious and not favoured by the reformers. This school and its master 

 therefore ceased on the dissolution of the abbey, but the Grammar School was 

 continued. We learn from the account of the Receiver General of the Crown 

 Revenues in Gloucestershire for the year 1566-7 more precisely its origin. 

 Dame Jane Huddleston had left money for founding an almshouse, but as it was 

 insufficient for that purpose, 400 was paid by her executors to Winchcombe 

 Abbey for the purpose of founding a Free Grammar School. By an indenture 

 between the abbots of Winchcombe and Hailes, 13 September, 1521, it was 

 agreed that Winchcombe should buy lands to the value of 2 1 $s. 8</., the 

 sum specified in the Valor. Out of this 6 scholars were to be maintained, 

 and a schoolmaster, to be elected and removed by the abbot, with a stipend of 

 6 13*. 2</. a year, ' or such as could be agreed upon,' and a gown, or zos. in 

 lieu of a gown. An honest tenement or chamber was to be provided, together 

 with fuel and meat and drink in the monastery. 



This school ought to be called the Huddleston School, and not attri- 

 buted, as it is in the Report of the Commissioners of Inquiry concerning 

 Charities 1 in 1829, to Henry VIII and called the King's school. For in point 

 of fact that king merely confiscated its endowment, which though held in 

 trust and no part of the monastic property, was as usual treated as such, and 

 taken by the Crown. The school, however, was continued. A payment of 

 10 a year seems to have been continuously made to the grammar schoolmaster, 

 though it has not been actually traced further back than 1558, when 5* was 

 paid to Richard Hide, but he is not called schoolmaster (ludimagister) till 

 1562, when a 'pension' of 10 was paid him out of the Crown revenues for 

 Gloucestershire. From 1563 to 1566 Humphrey Dicke" was paid at the 

 same rate. 



A return for Winchcombe made i February, 1570-1, by John Cocke 

 and Thomas Bolar, ' bayleis,' together with four churchwardens says*: 



We have of the Queen's Majestic, by her receiver Mr. Fludd, 10 yearly, to the 

 maintaininge of good lerninge to the virtuous bringing upp of youth in our schole of 

 Winchelcombe. Oure Schoolemaister is one Phillip Brode, a B.A., and not onely allowed 



1 Char. Com. Rep. HI, 163. In the Amah of mncbcombe, by Emma Dent (1877) it is boldly asserted 

 'The Grammar School was founded in 1522 by Henry VIII, and his endowment of 9 4*. 6J. per annum 

 was confirmed by Elizabeth.' ' P.R.O. Land Rev. Rec. Acct. bdle. 28. 



1 E. Dent, Ann. of Wincbcmbe, 144, calls him 'master of the game.' 



4 Exch. Spec. Com. No. 867, 1 2 Eliz. 



4 2I 



