SCHOOLS 



Apparently before the new charter was 



obtained the school had been moved from 



its old place in the Castle ditch, for on the 



front of the school its date is given as 1550,' 



and on 9 February 1551,^ the 'late schole 



howse ' was let to Richard Monger as 



tenant at will. It was not, however, till 



20 July 1555 that Thomas Smallpiece 



granted to the corporation the ' garden 



plott in the parish of Holy Trinity.' It is 



described as ' betwene the messuage ^ some- 



tyme John Parrish, inholder, on the est parte, 



and a messuage of Smallpiece on the west, 



and a garden late of Thomas Combes,' 



bought by the corporation ' on the south.' ^ 



So Austen * must be mistaken in saying that 



it was only in 1557 the town began ' to builde 



the large Rome nowe used for the Schole house 



with the great chamber and garrett over them.' 



In 1569 John Austen raised by subscription 



£106 ip. j\.d., and began ' the Schoolmaster's 



Lodging ' on the west or lower side of the 



school; but it was not finished till in 1586 



George Austen raised a further subscription 



reinforced by fines for offences levied by 



county justices, and finished it. Meanwhile 



the schoolmaster lived in the wing on the 



east side of the school, meant for the usher's 



lodging, buUt by WiUiam Hamond, mayor 



of Guildford, in 1571, and connected by a 



' gallery ' with the Schoolmaster's Lodging. 



The south side of the ' gallery ' was rebuilt 



in 1586 by George Austen for the Library 



to hold the ' bookes of divinitie,' chiefly 



theological, given, as we have seen, by John 



Parkhurst, Bishop of Norwich. These books, 



chained to the book-case after the fashion of 



the day, may still be seen in the Library. 



A curious episode prevented the earlier 

 completion of the master's lodgings. In 

 1557, during the Roman Catholic reaction 

 under Philip and Mary, Southwell Minster 



• Mr. Stevens assumed {Surrey Arch. Soc. x. ix.) 

 that the date was a mistake. But the lease of 1 5 5 1 

 shows that it is correct. Unless, indeed, the late 

 school house was that used before Beckingham's 

 foundation ; which is not likely. 



a Court Book in the ' Great Coffer ' of the 

 Town. 



' These neighbouring houses, known as High- 

 gate and Somerset House, are stiU standing, though 

 their fronts are now of eighteenth century work. 

 As late as 1592 the corporation had to pay five 

 marb, to buy off a claim of John Smallpiece, a 

 descendant of the grantor, notwithstanding a fine 

 duly levied. 



* According to Austen, p. 37. But from the 

 entry given above out of the town accounts either 

 he must be mistaken or the late school house must 

 be that of the school before Beckingham's foun- 

 dation. 



was restored, and Heath, Archbishop of York, 

 who was also Lord Chancellor, claimed the 

 rent of £1-^ 6s. Sd., part of the endowment 

 granted to the school by Edward VI.'s 

 charter, as belonging to ' the coUegioners,' 

 as Austen calls them, of the Minster, and 

 withheld payment of it. He even called on 

 Guildford to surrender their charter, saying 

 that ' the school was but a means to breed 

 empty heads to deceive the county.' Austen, 

 however, argued that the chantry had not 

 been a part of the college of Southwell 

 Minster, but a corporation of itself. This 

 was so. Austen gives at full length the foun- 

 dation Ordinance made in 1482 by Robert 

 Booth, Dean of York, the brother, and one 

 of the executors of Lawrence Booth, Arch- 

 bishop of York, 1476-80. He had directed 

 the foundation of a chantry for two priests 

 in a chapel of John the Baptist, at the south- 

 west corner of the Minster, which he had 

 begun but not finished in his lifetime. The 

 license in mortmain was in 1481, and the 

 Ordinance, the date of which is not given, 

 is probably of the same year. It provided 

 for two chaplains of Our Lady, Saint William 

 and Saint Cuthbert, at the altar of St. 

 Cuthbert, dividing equally the rent charge 

 of £1^ 6s. Sd., and praying for the souls of 

 Lawrence Booth and others. It is a curious 

 coincidence that one of the two chantries 

 was used as an endowment of Southwell 

 Grammar School. In 1484 ^ William Barthorp, 

 the first incumbent of the chantry, com- 

 plained that he got nothing from the Gram- 

 mar School master, though he did the work 

 for him. On Barthorp's * death the senior 

 vicar choral claimed to be presented to the 

 chantry according to a provision to that effect 

 in the foundation deed, but the chapter 

 asked him to give up his claim as, for the 

 common good, they wanted to present some 

 one ' who would be fit to teach the Grammar 

 School.' So William Babyngton was appointed 

 and sworn to teach the school. He was still 

 doing so when he surrendered the chantry 

 to Henry VIII. on 17 August 1540,'' at the 

 same time that the Minster was surrendered. 

 In the collusive suit in the Exchequer 

 by which Southwell Minster was re- 

 established under Mary, all the pro- 

 perty of the Minster was set out; but no 

 mention was made of this chantry, it not 

 being a part of the college but a separate 

 corporation. Heath, therefore, Austen 

 6 Visitations and Memorials of Southwell Minster 

 by A. F. Leach. Camden Soc. 1891, p. 53. 

 8 Ibid. p. 177. 



' Ibid. p. 185. The surrenders are printed in 

 Rymer's Foedera, 

 167 



