A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



The local historians 2 have asserted that it was expressly ordered in the will that ' the children 

 elected should be the offspring of poor people ... to be educated in reading, writing, and arithmetic 

 and the principles of the Christian religion.' As a matter of fact, Collyer said nothing at^ all as 

 to what the scholars were to be taught, but the reference to the admission of gentlemen's sons 

 shows plainly that it was to be, as every free school then founded without express terms was 

 intended to be, a grammar school. These words, in fact, occur not in Collyer's will but in a 

 scheme of 1815, which while degrading the school into an elementary school, yet had the grace to 

 preserve, ' at the discretion of the Schoolwardens, the Latin language.' 



Up to the point we have now reached in his will, Collyer trusted to the local powers to see 

 his school go right ; but then, following the example of Colet, who was a member of the same 

 company, the Mercers', he, unfortunately for the school, brought in the company as its governing 

 body. Though the vicar and honest Horshamers were to appoint the master and scholars, they 

 were not to manage the estates or pay the master. 



Also I wille that the said vicar and churchwardyns aforesaid present the said scole maister and 

 Ussher to the wardeyns of the mistere of the Mercers of the citie of London, and they to admitte him 

 yf he be habill to occupie the same rome orells another be chosen by the said vicar and churchwardeyns 

 and other above said. And the said wardene of the mercers to paye the yerely salary of the said 

 scole maister and Ussher. 



And the said wardens and feliship of the said mistere of mercers to have for the perfourmaunce of 

 the same the howse called the Key with thappurtenaunces in Chepe sett and being in the parishe of 

 St. Pancras in the warde of Chepe to be made sure to the said felisship and their successours for ever- 

 more, paying that afore is resited. And the wardeyns of the said felishipp yerely to have owt of the 

 same 20;. yerely for their payne taking, and more to be taken owt of the same when it shalbe nedefull 

 to see such reparacions as shalbe mete forto be doon to the mayntenance of the same scole house. 

 And if the same wardeyn and felishipp refuse the said house for the premisses afore made Than I 

 will that the vicar and churchwardeyns of the parishe church of Horsham aforesaid receyve the rents 

 that the wardeynes of the mercers afore rehersed shulde have doon. And the residue and overplus of 

 the same more than the charge of the Scolehouse by them to be receyved yerely to be bestowed on 

 the reparacions of the said mesuage on the mayntenance of high wayes abowte the said towne and 

 parishe of Horsham. 



The residue of his lands he gave to the Mercers Company, one quarter for the charity box 

 and three-quarters for the repair of highways within 8 miles of London. 



Collyer died very shortly after making his will, which was proved 12 March, I532. 3 



On 15 August, 1540, the company 4 had conveyed to them the schoolhouse near St. Mary's 

 Church, which was bought for 8 6s. 8d. from Henry Pulford, husbandman. 



The company say that until 1546 only a quit-rent of 6s. 8d. was paid to them out of the 

 house in Cheapside called the Key. But in 1547 they received ' Of Lady Dormar for the Key in 

 Chepe 22.' From this they paid Nicholas Haynes, the schoolmaster, jTio ; Nicholas Levee- 

 kenhee, usher, 6 13$. \d. ; the four wardens i ; leaving a surplus of 4. The fact that there 

 was a schoolmaster and usher is sufficient proof that the school was a grammar school. Nicholas 

 Haynes has not been traced to his university or college, nor Nicholas Leveekenhee, whose name 

 suggests a misreading by the person who supplied it. But in this and all other respects, for the 

 further history of Horsham School we are dependent entirely on what the Mercers' Company chose 

 to state to the Livery Companies' Commission, as they refuse to allow access to their records. They 

 state that in 1596 they increased the master's salary to 16 131. 4<, and the usher's to 6 13*. ifd. 



In this year they became possessed by a bequest of Andrew Mallory, a mercer, of the house 

 next to the Key, and the properties in the Mercers' books are thenceforth merged. These houses 

 were burnt in the Great Fire of London, and when rebuilt were not distinguished from each other. 

 But the company have always treated the income from them as being in the proportion of four-fifths 

 Collyer's and one-fifth Mallory's. They are now known as 3 and 5 Queen Street and 68 Cheap- 

 side, and produced in i86o 6 720 a year, and in 1884 2,300. 



The company vouchsafed no further information about the school till the middle of the 

 eighteenth century. 



From the register of St. John's College, Cambridge, however, we learn that at least as late as 

 1695 the school was still a public school sending boys to the universities, under a master who bore 

 the famous name of John Wiclif or Wickliffe. Of five boys who went from the school to this 



* Howard Dudley, Hist, and Antiq. of Horsham (1836) ; Anon, (but by Miss D. Hurot). Hist, and Antiq. 

 of Horsham (1868). 



* The Mercers Company in their return to the City Livery Companies Com. Rep, 1854, i, 104, say that 

 he died in 1 546. Probably it was the son or daughter of the founder who then died. 



4 So say the Company in the Commission's Report, but Dallaway says the executors did so. Dallaway is 

 probably wrong. 5 City Livery Companies Com. Rep. 1884, iv ; Mr. Hare's Reports, 9. 



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