A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



At Arundel also, once a thriving port, now superseded by Littlehampton at the mouth of its 

 river Arun, as on a greater scale Winchester has been by Southampton, there was, as might be 

 expected, a very ancient school. In the thirteenth century we find a deed of covenant (convencio) 

 between Denis, prior of Arundel, and Master William of Wedon, by which Master William seems 

 to have surrendered his birthright as schoolmaster for something like a mess of pottage. The prior 

 with the assent of the convent 



conferred * on Mr. William his table viz. the monks' table in eatables and drinkables as well when 

 sound as when sick for the term of his life, and the Prior granted to the same William to find him a 

 fitting inn (hosficium) to keep school in and a chamber in the Priory at the Prior's cost. 



In return Master William of Wedon granted in perpetuity to the prior and monks of St. Nicholas 

 of Arundel a messuage and appurtenances in the High Street (magno vico), which was Simon Cole's, 

 with a courtyard under the castle extending along its whole front (?) ; and for nine years a messuage 

 in the same street with a hand-mill and all its possessions held of the hospital of St. John the Baptist; 

 with an acre in the [open] fields of Arundel and [the copy is here very corrupt] the tithe of all his 

 temporal possessions, receiving, however, a mark of silver while he is able efficiently to teach the 

 school (dum idem Willelmui scolas regere possit suffidenter). 



There was clearly something irregular about this arrangement, as it was provided that if the 

 prior should die before William, and his successor should refuse to ratify the deed, the premises 

 should be dissolved from the priory and fully resumed by the said William. The deed is not dated, 

 but is apparently of the reign of Henry III. It was witnessed by five monks. 



Now it is quite clear that to that time the school had been independent of the priory, was 

 not within its precinct, and was taught by a secular clerk, not a monk. Indeed the school was no 

 doubt a great deal older than the priory. For it appears from a petition to the pope in 1380 7 that 

 Roger de Montgomery, called the founder of the priory, ' obtained the appropriation to it (the abbey 

 of Sdez) of the said priory, in which were previously 1 2 secular canons of the English nation.' The 

 priory, in fact, had been a large collegiate church before the Conquest, and as such had necessarily 

 maintained the grammar school as an integral part of itself, as the collegiate church of Hastings did, 

 and as York, Beverley, Warwick, and the rest of the pre-Norman collegiate churches did. 



Now it is to be feared Mr. William of Wedon was giving up the ancient and independent 

 possessions of the school in return for a new schoolhouse, no doubt more modern and commodious, 

 to be found by the priory, and giving up his then independent position as the master to become the 

 kept dependant of the priory. The monks, however, were not destined to endure. A hundred 

 years later, as an alien priory, it was seized by the crown during the French wars. The alien 

 monks were extruded, and had even to go a-begging, says the papal petition in 1380. The convent 

 of S6ez obtained leave to sell it, as the earl of Arundel ' desired to bring it back to its pristine state 

 and to institute anew and endow therein a chanter with 1 1 secular canons.' The collegiate church 

 was after some difficulties refounded as a college of the Holy Trinity for a master, a warden, 

 1 2 canons, 7 deacons, sub-deacons, and acolytes, 7 choristers, and other officers. Among these was 

 included no doubt the grammar schoolmaster. The Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535 mentions, however, 

 only 'a master of the choristers,' who was 'paid yearly for his teaching (erudicione) of the choristers 

 according to the statutes of the foundation 201. a year.' The college was dissolved by surrender on 

 12 December, 1544, and the school disappeared. 



At Seaford again, in 1320,* we find Mr. William, schoolmaster ('magistro Willelmo, magistro 

 scolarum de Sefford '), witnessing a deed, and a casual reference to ' Richard le Scolemaister ' of New 

 Shoreham occurs in 1302.' Many more such schools we may suspect to have existed, in Rye and 

 Winchelsea, in Bosham and East Grinstead, and the like, and it is only the lack of documents and 

 research, eyes to see them and note them when seen, that prevents our knowing of them. 



Of a later development of school foundations was the school contemplated, if not founded, at 

 Billingshurst in connexion with the gild there by John Hall ' of the parishe of Cullington,' who by 

 will, 13 October, 1521, gave to his son Thomas all his ' morgage ' lands and his leasehold farm held 

 for thirty years called Strowde and Penysfold, ' except 6s. %d. deducted out of the said morgage lands 

 at Warnam, the which I bequeth to the brotherhede of Byllingshurst for the terme of 20 yeres, yf 

 the said free Schole precede and be kept, or ells not.' The will was proved 29 January, 1522. 



i 



' Prior . . . contulit dicto Willelmo mensam suam, viz. monachorum, in esculentis et poculentis, tam 

 infirmo quam sano ad vite Willelmi terminum, et Prior dicto Willelmo fit competens hospicium ad scolas 

 honeste regendas, et cameram in prioratu de sumptu proprio concessit invenire.' B.M. Add. MS. 5701, fol. 18. 

 The deed only exists in a rather imperfect eighteenth-century copy in the Burrell Collection, with no indica- 

 tion of whence the copy was taken, or where the original is or was. 

 ' Cal. Papal Let. iv, 239. 



For this, as for the references to the school in Battle charters, I am indebted to Mr. Salzmann. 

 ' Assize R. 1329, m. 31. 



398 



