SCHOOLS 



for the teaching and instruction of the boys 

 aforesaid.' The lease was for 60 years, from 

 Lady Day, 1559, at the old rent of ^£47 5/. ^d. 

 It contained a covenant that * the aforesaid 

 present Wardens and their successors will 

 within the term of two years after the date 

 of these letters patent at their costs and 

 charges erect and build a fit and convenient 

 house for a Grammar School there to be held 

 within the parish of St. Saviour's aforesaid for 

 the teaching of boys there, and will convert 

 the same house when so erected and built to 

 the use of a school, and will within the said 

 term of two years adorn the same house or 

 school with a learned and discreet * man in 

 the place of schoolmaster there, and will pay 

 a convenient stipend or salary to the same 

 schoolmaster and his successors for the time 

 being during the said term of 60 years.' They 

 were also to pay two curates and bear all 

 other burdens anciently issuing out of the 

 same rectory.^ There was a further cove- 

 nant to keep the school house in repair. 



The parish did not wait for the building 

 of a new school house under the terms of 

 the lease, but at once, 31 August 1559,^ 

 agreed that ' the schole house should be 

 erectyd up in the churche house, late in the 

 paryshe of Seynte Margarets,' and that ' the 

 old chappell* behynd the chansell should 

 be lett oughte toward the bennyfytt of the 

 same schole.' On 14 September the vest- 

 ments were sold for £14 6s. Sd., ' for the lease 

 and reparacions,' and copper and brass 

 vessels to the extent of another £1^ 14/. Sd. 



On 21 April 1560 the Vestry appointed a 

 ' commyssion for the ereccion of the school 

 to knowe the good benevolens of the parysshe 

 toward the erreccyon of the same,' and 

 another to ' oversee the works of the scoole 

 howse.' On 23 October another committee 

 was directed to draw up ' Orders, rules and 

 constitutions to be used in the contynuance 

 of the Free Skoole.' We may fairly assume that 

 the School was now established, if indeed it 

 had not been at work since the previous 



> Discrete. The contemporary translation of 

 this word is ' sad.' 



2 Including the curate (Kewrate) at ^13 6s. Sd., 

 these payments came to ^£22 9/., including ' ledyn 

 tokens at Easter' with other ' superstitious ' pay- 

 ments which had ceased. 



3 Vestry Minute Book I. This book begins 

 25 July 1557 with an entry recording how the 

 Vestry ' dyde send John Sadlar the Clarke and 

 Lawranse the sexton to prison to the Countar for 

 ther dysobedyence in servinge of god within the 

 quere.' Probably Mary's death saved their lives. 



* i.e. the Lady Chapel. It was let to a baker, 

 and there were frequent complaints of the nuisance 

 he created. 



September. On 24 November four persons 

 were elected the first ' Wardens for the scole ' 

 for a year to ' the morrow after Alsoule day,' 

 i.e. 3 November. On 4 March 1561 a lease 

 of the ' scole howse ' was handed to the 

 schoolwardens. Qn 16 May 11562 it was 

 agreed to buy the ' scole howse ' of Mat- 

 thew Smythe for £i[Z. £1^ was given to 

 the schoolwardens ' for the purchasyng of 

 the lycens, and the great seale and other 

 charges belonging thereto.' 



The freehold, however, was not purchased. 

 But on the last day of May 1562, Smyth, 

 in consideration of £40 paid, granted the 

 governors a lease for ' tenne hundred yeres, 

 comonly called a thousand yeres ' at the rent 

 of IS. 6d. a year if demanded, ' and that 

 messuage or tenement now commonlie called 

 or known by the name of the newe Scoole 

 house . . . nighe unto the parish church 

 theare late in the holdinge of one Mr. John 

 Sackkile esquier, and wherein at this present 

 Christopher Hockland, Scoolemaister of the 

 Scoole aforesaid, nowe dwellith.' The rooms 

 are then described, ' one hall with a chymney 

 in the same, one faire parlor, one little 

 buttrey, one kitchen with a chymney in the 

 same, one greate warehouse, one little cole 

 house, one great seller vawted and arched of 

 stone, one large chamber or loft with a 

 chymney in the same next over the said parlor 

 and wherein the scollers of the same schoole 

 doe usuallie sit and be taught.' There were 

 three other chambers, ' and a greate with- 

 draught house or privvy with a long entre 

 leadinge to the same,' and a garden 18 yards 

 long by 17 broad. ' Which said premises 

 are part of the capitall greate messuage or 

 tenement Inne, sometymes called Colbans 

 Inne, and nowe more commonlie called and 

 known by the name and sygne of the Grene 

 Draggon, wherein the said Matthew Smith 

 now dwellith.' A right of way through the 

 yard of the inn to the kitchen was granted, 

 in winter from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and in 

 summer from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and at all 

 times daily. 



On 4 September next, however, Smythe 

 wanted to be let off his bargain, offering 

 £6 i$s. /^d., ' towards the maintenance of 

 the said scoole.' This was agreed to if he gave 

 a bond for the money. But on 17 November, 

 having failed to do this, the matter was 

 referred to counsel, ' Mr. Kete, sergeant of the 

 lawe.' There are several further entries, but 

 it does not appear whether the purchase from 

 Smith was carried out. It was probably not 

 the old church house of St. Margaret's in 

 which the school was placed in 1559, but some 

 building near St. Saviour's church. 



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