A HISTORY OF SURREY 



ing, sustentation and reliefe of certain maymed 

 poore, needie or impotent people to have 

 continuance for ever ... to consist of one 

 Wardeine which shall be the head of the said 

 Hospitall, and of maymed poore or impotent 

 persons not exceeding in all the number of 

 forty, which shall be the bodye and members 

 of the said Hospitall.' The corporate name 

 was ' the Wardeine and Poore of the Hospi- 

 tall of the Holie Trinitie in Croydon of the 

 Foundation of John Whitegift, archbishop of 

 Canterburie,' the common seal being in- 

 scribed ' Sigillum Hospltalis Sancte Trini- 

 tatis in Croydon.' The corporation was 

 licensed to hold lands up to £200 a year. 

 Statutes were to be made by the arch- 

 bishop. 



There is no trace of a school in the founda- 

 tion deed. In this respect the archbishop fol- 

 lowed ancient precedent. Of the many scores 

 of colleges, hospitals, and chantries which 

 maintained schools, it is exceedingly rare to find 

 any mention of the school in the foundation 

 deed, a fact which accounts for the prevailing 

 ignorance as to pre-Reformation schools. 

 For where, as in the case of Surrey, there is 

 no chantry certificate left to tell us that a 

 school was maintained by the chantry, and 

 we have nothing but the foundation deed or 

 license in mortmain on the patent roll to go 

 by, we should not know that a school had been 

 maintained. The particular duties of the 

 hospital or chantry, as the case might be, were 

 defined, not in the foundation deed, but in 

 the statutes. 



In this case the statutes at once reveal the 

 school, and show that it was a very important 

 part of tlie foundation. 



First I do ordeine that the number of the 

 brethcren and sisters of the saide Hospitall 

 shalbe ever thirtie at the least and so many 

 more, under il. in all, as the revenues may 

 bcare ; Of the which number of bretheren one 

 shall teachc a common school in Croydon in 

 the schoole house there by me bnilded. 



' Chapter 10. Of the Ellection and placinge of 

 the members of the Hospitall ' having vested 

 the appointment of the brethren in the arch- 

 bishop, proceeds. 



Item, I ordeine and appoint that the poore 

 brother appointed to be the schoolemaster 

 shall be a person well qualified for that func- 

 tion ; that is to saye, an honest man, learned 

 in the Greeke and Lattin tongues, a good 

 versifiere in bothe the forsayde languages and 

 able to write well (if possible it bee). 



He was to have for hii ludgiug 



' the house builded for that purpose adioin- 

 inge I to the saide Hospitall and nere unto 

 the saide schoolhowse.' 



His stipend was to be jCzo ' with other 

 further commodities and come or wood ' as 

 other poor brethren had. The archbishop 

 is particular that the houses built for the 

 ' schoole howse and schoolemaster shalbe 

 for ever imployede to that use onely and no 

 other.' 



The school was therefore a Grammar School 

 and a Free (i.e. gratuitous) Grammar School. 

 But it was only free for the poor of Croydon 

 parish. Chapteri 7 provided that 



The Schoolemaster shall freelye teache 

 suche of the children of the parishe of Croydon, 

 without exactinge any thinge for theire teach- 

 inge, as are of the poorer sorte, suche as shalbe 

 so accounted by the vicar or curate of Croydon 

 and two of the better sorte of the inhabitants ; 

 but yet it shalbe lawfull to and for the said 

 schoolemaster to receave that which is volun- 

 tarily bestowde upon him by any of the said 

 pooreir sort of parishioners of Croydon. If 

 the saide schoolemaster shall exacte to muche 

 for their teachinge or refuse to teache them, 

 the same shall be ordered or moderated by the 

 Archbishopp. 



The schoolmaster was ' besides teach- 

 inge of his schollers ' to act as clerk, ' making 

 entries into the lidger bookes,' and also chap- 

 lain saying ' publike prayers,' morning and 

 evening, in the chapel of the Hospital on 

 ' workinge days,' excepte Wednesday and 

 Friday mornings and Saturday afternoons, 

 when the poor brethren, except the school- 

 master, were to go to church two and two. 



The warden, who was elected by the rest 

 of the brethren (and if the votes were equal, 

 that side on which the schoolmaster was, 

 prevailed), was to receive £6 a year, the other 

 four brethren £^ ; but the schoolmaster, as 

 we have seen, ;C20. In fact, though the 

 warden was the nominal head of the corpora- 

 tion, the schoolmaster was the prinicipal 

 person. He was exempt from the restrictions 

 of the other brethren as to qualifications of 

 poverty, residence and employment, from the 

 procession to church and the provisions as to 

 absence from the hospital and the like, and he 

 was to join with the warden in trying and, 

 if need be, admonishing refractory mem- 

 bers. If he himself needed correction it 

 was (chapter xix.) to be done by no one 

 less than the archbishop. It was only the 

 precedent set in Elias Davy's Hospital, by 

 which the warden was one of the brethren, 



Not in the Hospital. 



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