A HISTORY OF SURREY 



house of your Almonry, that he should under- 

 ukc the • instruction and teaching of the said 

 boys and of other scholars in the said town 

 and preside over the Public School there, first 

 about Michaelmas and again at Christmas last. 

 And the said Hugh came before us and was 

 sworn on the holy Gospels, and pubUcly un- 

 dertook faithfully to perform the promises. 

 But your fellow-monk, the Almoner of your 

 house aforesaid, being, as we hear, troubled 

 and annoyed at the said Hugh's leaving, seized 

 or sequestrated some poor goods (pona modica) 

 of his, and keeps them still under sequestra- 

 tion, thinking by these means to recall the said 

 Hugh to his service. In the name of that 

 friendship, in the soundness of which we have 

 undoubung faith, we require and ask your 

 fatherhood, that yon would be good enough 

 with salutary warnings to order the said Al- 

 moner to restore and deliver the said goods 

 to the said Hugh, or to the bearer of these 

 letters in his name, and that he will hold the 

 said Hugh excused for not returning ; seeing, 

 if it please you, that by law magistrates should 

 be created from their own town, and the 

 uncdressers » of the people be chosen from 

 the same place. And if you have any wishes 

 in our power to fulfil, pray confidently let us 

 hear your pleasure. May the Almighty grant 

 you sound and long life in all prosperity. 

 Written at Esher, 7 April 1364. 



This letter shows that the school to which 

 Hugh of Kingston was inveigled away from 

 his school at Canterbury was a school of some 

 consequence. It had already traditions as a 

 Public School, i.e. a school open to all, to 

 which scholars were accustomed to flock, not 

 only from Kingston itself,, but from elsewhere. 

 The want of a master for it was felt by the 

 inhabitants as a loss and a grievance until it 

 was supplied. So when it was supplied the 

 master was sworn in before the bishop, and 

 the bishop interested himself personally on his 

 behalf. We may gauge its status by a glance 

 at the Almonry School at Canterbury. The 

 Almonry had been established or reorganized 

 in 1319 ' to consist of six chantry priests and 

 an unspecified number of scholars ' all to sing 

 and read, and at least ten years old at admis- 

 sion.' * The original endowment of the 

 priests, of whom the schoolmaster was appar- 

 ently one, was six ' Lanfranc's liveries,' paid 

 by the cathedral monastery to which it was 



* Ut informacioni et doctrine dictorum pue- 

 rorum et aliorum scolarium in dicta villa inten- 

 deret, et scolas publicas gubemaret. 



' Vinitores, vine-dressers, i.e. teachers, from the 

 common Bible metaphor of the nation as a vine, 

 and God as the owner of the vine-yard. 



" Cambridge Univ. Lib., Ee. v. 31, f. 213. 



' B. M. Cott. MS. Gabba, E. iv. f. 92. 



attached. The 'livery' consisted in daily 

 rations of a loaf of bread, the same as the 

 monks had, and of i J gallons of beer, or \\d. 

 in money, and in addition 30/. ^. a year for 

 kitchen, and 20s. a year for clothing and shoes, 

 with competent food and drink, at a separate 

 table. In 1328 the church of Westclifle, 

 near Dover, was definitely assigned to the 

 Almoner for the endowment of this establish- 

 ment, the object of which was to supply a 

 choir for the Lady Chapel, and on high days 

 the cathedral itself. The school was suffi- 

 ciently famous for Queen Philippa * to nonii- 

 nate one Richard of Beddingfield for admis- 

 sion to it to be ' found (i.e. maintained) as 

 other free scholars there.' The Almoner who 

 seized Hugh's goods and chattels, perhaps not 

 undeservedly, as he had abandoned his post 

 at Canterbury without notice, was one Peter 

 of Sales, or Salis, several of whose account 

 rolls are preserved, but they do not unfor- 

 tunately give any details about the school 

 either as to boys or masters, the only items 

 specifically referring to the scholars by name 

 being payments sometimes for linen, sometimes 

 for canvas for table cloths for them, and small 

 items of zs. ^d. or 2s. jd. ' for flesh and fish 

 bought in the town for scholars in the Al- 

 monry in default of alms this year.' In the 

 ordinary way the boys appear to have lived, 

 like the choristers at Winchester College, who 

 went to school with the scholars, on the 

 broken meats from the monks' and chaplains' 

 tables. Like the Winchester choristers, they 

 were charity boys, and waited on the monks 

 in the infirmary when not attending service 

 in the choir, or school in the Almonry. The 

 number of scholars and the emoluments of 

 the master at Kingston must have been con- 

 siderable to attract Mr. Hugh away from the 

 flesh pots of Canterbury, though apparently 

 a patriotic desire to return to his own home 

 proved one of the compensations. 



It is vexatious that we have no more light 

 on the place where the Kingston school was 

 and how it was maintained, whether merely 

 by the fees of scholars, or by the town, the 

 bailiffs and commonalty, or through perhaps 

 the Trinity Gild, or partly by two or more 

 of these ways. It is tempting to think that 

 it was in fact maintained on the same spot in 

 the same building, and by the same endow- 

 ments as it is now, being the chantry chapel 

 of St. Mary Magdalen* in Norbiton, which 

 still forms the Assembly Hall of the school. 



5 Liurce Cantuarienses (Rolls Series). 



» Its history has been collected by Major Alfred 

 Heales, London, Roworth & Co., 1883, reprinted 

 from Surrey Archteological Society Transactions, viii. 



156 



