SCHOOLS 



chamber adjoining it ; and a parlour (sola- 

 rium) called a loft above the same kitchen and 

 chamber and another chamber under the kit- 

 chen, on the west side of the chapel, situate 

 across the footway leading from Kingston to 

 London ; and a house next the kitchen ; also 

 the yarde on the North, and another yard on 

 the west, and a passage called a gallery (deam- 

 bulatorium vocatum ' a galorye ') above the 

 yarde leading from S. Anne's chapel to the 

 small place, and 2 chambers called the Mas- 

 ters lodging ; also a celler and 4 small chambers 

 under the Masters lodging ; 



with a barn and stable and a dove-cot, all which 

 were let to Richard Taverner in 1547 for 

 twenty-one years for ;£i2 is, a year. The 

 property was granted to be held as of the 

 honour of Hampton Court. Power was given 

 to the Governors to make statutes with the 

 advice of the Bishop of Winchester. Finally 

 license was given to acquire and hold lands 

 in mortmain to the value of £^0 a year, be- 

 sides the chapel. 



The Bailifis were left to make their own 

 terms with Tavemer, whose lease had still 

 seven years to run. To obtain endowment 

 for the school they obtained a further grant 

 from the Crovwi by letters patent of 17 May 

 1564,' of the George Inn, II houses and 80 

 acres of land and other pieces of property in 

 Kingston, which had belonged to the London 

 Charterhouse, and were let to Taverner for 

 twenty-one years, at £14 a year ; and a ' toft ' 

 called Draggers, and six acres of land, part of 

 the possessions of Merton Priory, near the 

 chapel, let to one John Ord, for 26s. ^d. z 

 year ; a number of small fee farm rents amount- 

 ing to 35J. 3^., and three gardens, which had 

 belonged to the Lovekyn chantry itself ; and 

 finally a house and two acres of land in 

 Ham, which had belonged to the Priory 

 of Shane. The clear yearly value of the 

 property is stated at ;Ci8 9J. jd., and it was 

 granted to be held in free socage of the manor 

 of East Greenwich, but at a rent of the same 

 amount, ;Ci8 9/. jd. The patent concludes 

 vnth an order that ' in consideration of this 

 present grant, 20 marks (£1^ 6s. 8d.) a year, 

 arising beyond the said rent of £iS gs. yd. 

 shall be paid by the Bailiffs and Freemen to 

 the support and maintenance of the school 

 aforesaid, and the Pedagogue or master of 

 the same, quarterly.' Presumably, there- 

 fore, the rack rental of the property was a 

 good deal more than the rents reserved on it. 



The school must have been going on before 

 this last charter, as in an extract given 

 by Manning and Bray from the lost 



> Heales, p. 242, from Pat. 6 Eliz. pt. vi. m. 4. 

 11 16 



School Wardens' Book, it appears that 

 in 1565 John Laurence resigned and Roger 

 Foster was appointed master in his stead. 

 The churchwardens' accounts for the year 

 1566-7 show that the old windows were taken 

 out of the Magdalen Chapel and transferred 

 to the church. The lead of the window- 

 frames was melted down, and 140 pounds of 

 lead from it sold for 1 3/. 6d. The glazier was 

 paid 6d. a foot for setting up twenty-six feet 

 of glass in the church windows, 



and mor for myndyng (mending) all the win- 

 dows about the church, gret and smal, with 

 the old glase that came from the freskyll (free 

 school) sometyme calyd the chappell, and for 

 700 quarylls (carrols or diamond panes) of 

 glass, and for leyd and soder for the same, and 

 for 10 days work thereon, 20^. 



It would seem that at one time a much 

 more magnificent foundation for the school 

 was contemplated. In 1585 an appeal for 

 subscriptions in the nature of a ' Church 

 Brief,' * was sent out on the Queen's direc- 

 tions, by the then Archbishop of Canterbury, 

 John Whitgift, and Charles Howard, Lord 

 Howard of Effingham, dated ' from the 

 Court of Nonsuch, the fowerth of August,' 

 on behalf of Kingston School. ^ 



In it the archbishop and Lord Howard 

 accordingly ask the bishop to ' deal effectually 

 with your cathedral clergy, and such other of 

 the cleargie and laitie of your citie as you 

 shal thinke good, for a voluntary and free 

 contribucion,' and also to send out three or 

 four discreet preachers in each deanery to 

 persuade the inhabitants of every parish to 

 contribute 'towards the purchasing of cer- 

 taine landes neare adjoyning to the sayde 

 towne of the yearly value of ;C200 . . . and 

 towardes the buylding of certain other faire 

 and convenient roumes meete for the said 

 schole ; whereby might be maintained for 

 ever a scholemaster, two usshers with con- 

 venient salaries and 20 poore schoUers with 

 meate, drinke and lodging and their gownes 

 yerely, together with a warden being a 

 preacher, for the government and overseeing 

 of al the rest.' The money received was to 

 be paid over to ' Stephen Chatfield, chaplain 



' A Church Brief was a circular letter addressed 

 (before the Reformation under Papal and after- 

 wards under Royal authority) to the Bishops of the 

 various dioceses to permit sermons to be preached 

 and collections to be made in their dioceses on 

 behalf of the object set forth in the letter. 



3 It was found in the Portfolio of Letters No. 8 

 of the Borough of Leicester by Miss Bateson, who 

 is editing the Leicester Muniments. 

 I 21 



