A HISTORY OF SURREY 



one in its famous appanage, which has out- 

 lived it, St. Thomas' Hospital. But no 

 evidence is forthcoming of such a school, 

 which would have been a direct ancestor of 

 St. Saviour's School. So, too, there is no 

 evidence forthcoming as to the educational 

 doings of the gilds or brotherhoods and 

 chantries, of which there were several ' in 

 St. Olave's Church. 



ST. SAVIOUR'S SCHOOL 



The present school, so far as it represents 

 St. Saviour's, can trace a direct proprietary 

 connexion with one pre-Reformation institu- 

 tion, the Gild or Brotherhood or Fraternity 

 of the Assumption of our Lady in St. Mar- 

 garet's Church, Southwark, the memory of 

 which is now only preserved in the place- 

 name of St. Margaret's Hill. This gild was 

 founded, or at least incorporated under letters 

 patent of Henry VI., 9 May 1449.' In 1536 

 the churchwardens of St. Margaret's were 

 incorporated ' by Act of Parliament. In 

 1540* another Act of Parliament recited 

 these incorporations, stated that the late 

 monastery of S. Mary Overies ' upon certeyne 

 good consideracions is nowe dissolved, and 

 the parisshe churche of St. Margaret prostrate 

 and converted to other use,' and that the 

 parishioners of St. Margaret's and of St. 

 Mary Magdalen Overey now use the Priory 

 church as a parish church. So ' forasmoche as 

 the said churche of Sainte Mary Overey is 

 a very greate churche and very costely to be 

 maynteyned with reparacions,' the two 

 parishes were united, and four or six church- 

 wardens, to be elected by the parishioners, 

 were incorporated as ' Wardeyns of the 

 parishe churche of Saincte Savyour in South- 

 warke, in the county of Surrey,' as St. Mary 

 Overey was thenceforth to be called, and the 

 property of the Gild of the Assumption and 

 of the Churchwardens of St. Margaret's was 

 vested in them. 



The accounts of the churchwardens of 

 St. Margaret's for 1520-1, 1525-6, 1528-9, 

 iS3«>-i> 1534-S. and 1539-40 are extant. 

 Part of an account of the ' Maisters ' of 

 Our Lady Brotherhood for 1527, and an 

 account of the 'Petty Maisters of the 

 Fratemyte of our Lady ' for 1533-4 are also 



» See supra, will of founder of Guildford Gram- 

 mar School. 



' Redted in Inspeximus of Act of Parliament of 

 1 540 incorporating Churchwardens of St. Saviour's, 

 preserved in the vestry of St. Saviour's. 



^ Ibid., and Cal. Sta. Pa. 28 H. VIII. c. 31. 



* Ibid, and cf. Cal. Sta. Pa. Dom. 31 Henry Vlll. 

 No. 49S, iii. c. 64 (o. n. 49). 



extant," but neither contains any school pay- 

 ments,* unless ' Sir Rychard our Lady preste 

 who took for ys stypent £7 6s.8d. a year ' was 

 also a schoolmaster. The churchwardens' 

 accounts for 1539-40 show very large sums 

 received in subscriptions amounting to over 

 £45 (.£90° at least of our money), of which 

 ' of my lord bysshope of Winchester,' Stephen 

 Gardiner, £2^ i^s-^d., but whether this was 

 collected or given by him is not clear. This 

 was for extensive works at the church, 

 apparently building a Rood Loft. Unfortu- 

 nately there are no accounts or records of 

 the churchwardens' proceedings between 

 1540 and 1557, except one quarter's accounts 

 for Midsummer 1552. This contains pay- 

 ments for Bottrell the preacher, £'i 6s. Sd. ; 

 Sir Doughty, the curate, 40;-. ; Sir Inglysbye, 

 20s. ; Sir Thomas, 13/. ^d. It seems likely 

 that the last two may have been schoolmaster 

 and usher. It appears in som2 loose records^ 

 that on 22 May 1540 the bishop and Richard 

 Longe of the King's household entered into a 

 bond for 400 marks to be paid by the parish- 

 ioners for buying the church of St. Mary 

 Overey, and the final instalment of this sum, 

 £266 1 3 J. ^d., was duly paid by the church- 

 wardens in 1544. On 30 January 1543 the 

 churchwardens obtained a lease of the rectory 

 of St. Saviour's for 21 years at £^y 5/. 4^. a 

 year, the net value of the two rectories of 

 St. Margaret's and St. Mary Magdalen.^ 



Almost immediately after Elizabeth's acces- 

 sion they sold a quantity of old plate ' for the 

 purchase of the new lease of our benefyce,' 

 which new lease had been granted two days 

 before, 6 June 1559,° on the surrender of the 

 unexpired residue of the old lease. The sur- 

 render was ' for this, that henceforth a 

 grammar school for the teaching erudicione) 

 of boys of the said parish should be built by 

 the churchwardens,and be adorned (decoretur) 

 with a learned schoolmaster (magistro erudito) 



^ St. Saviour's Vestry. Lady Day, 11-12 

 Henry VIII. etc. They contain some interesting 

 Items such as payments for pew-money, for watch- 

 ing the Sepulchre at Easter, for dressing of torches 

 for Corpus Christi day, for decorating the church 

 with boughs and birch at Midsummer, brooms at 

 Easter, holly and ivy at Christmas ; for procession 

 to St. Mary Overey's on St. Mary's Day, called 

 Overyng,' etc., but no school payments. 



" The rental of the Brotherhood amounted to 

 the considerable sum of ^24 t^. Sd., with £2 gs. 

 more from voluntary contributions and 9/. lod. for 

 ' hyer of our lady taperis ' for burials apparently. 



' De libro recognitionum, Henry VIII. f. 191. 



« Vestry Book, 1559, 8 June. 



» Copy lease among churchwardens' records. 

 Pat. I Eliz. pt. iii. 



174 



