A HISTORY OF SURREY 



being the builder. But fortunately for his 

 reputation this is untrue Not twenty years 

 after its completion, on 6 July 1638, the 

 tower fell, which caused a dissolution of the 

 College for six months. 'Not long after' 

 the whole of one side and part of the other 

 fell down, and in 1703 the porch and Treasury 

 chamber also feU. The East wing was en- 

 tirely rebuilt in 1740. The result is that the 

 present building contains very little of the 

 original, and in outward view is almost wholly 

 different, especially as the fourth side of the 

 quadrangle has long disappeared. 



By the summer of 1616 the building was 

 ready for habitation, the first chaplain or 

 preacher, Cornelius Lymer, then chaplain of 

 Christ Church, Oxford, being formally ap- 

 pointed on 31 July.' On i September the 

 chapel was consecrated by Abbot, the Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury (who as we have seen 

 was a Surrey man), the see of Winchester 

 being vacant by the death of Bilson. Imme- 

 diately afterwards Allen appointed inmates, 

 who were to be a warden, four fellows, twelve 

 alms folk, six of each sex, and twelve poor 

 scholars. The almsfolk and scholars were to 

 be named by the parishes with which he was 

 connected, St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate, where 

 he was bom ; St. Giles', Cripplegate, where 

 he played and managed the Fortune Theatre ; 

 St. Saviour's, Southwark, where he lived and 

 chiefly made his fortune ; and lastly Camber- 

 well, in which parish Dulwich was situate. 

 The first ahnspeople were named on i Octo- 

 ber 1616. 



The school did not begin till about a 

 year later ; the first schoolmaster, Edward 

 Young, being admitted 20 June 1617.' The 

 first scholars were named by the rector and 

 churchwardens of St. Botolph's Bishops- 

 gate, on 7 August 1617. They were all of 

 the pauper class : Richard Merrydall, an 

 orphan, ten years old ; Simon Waddup, eight, 

 whose father ' is both very lame and past his 

 labour ' ; and Thomas Shippey, ' the sonne 

 of a wofull and a distressed widow, and some 

 eight years oulde.' These, vnth three others 

 named by each of the privileged parishes, 

 were admitted on 6 September 1617. This 

 day may therefore be taken as the date of the 

 beginning of the school. 



The first usher, John Harrison, was ap- 

 pointed 20 November 1617.' Young only 

 stayed a year, Harrison becoming master 

 28 September 1618. In February 1619 Allen 

 and Harrison shared the cost of 22s., the price 



» Young, i. 22-3. s Ibid. 34. 



Ibid. 36, but in the list on p. 429 it is given as 



20 December. 



of a Minishawe's, i.e. Minshew's dictionary, 

 ' being 1 1 languagies.' The book was called 

 Ductor in linguas, ' a guide to the tongues,' 

 and was published only the year before. On 

 9 June 1621, 10/. was paid for ' Coper's dic- 

 tionary for the boys,' showing that the school 

 was carried on as a Grammar School. 



The legal foundation was then taken in 

 hand. The first step was to get the necessary 

 patent or licence in mortmain drawn and 

 passed by the attorney-general, which was 

 done II July 1618. It received the Privy 

 Seal, the necessary preliminary to a writ to 

 the Chancellor to attach the Great Seal, on 

 16 August. The chancellor. Lord Bacon, 

 ' stayed the patent at the Great Seal ' on 

 grounds, on which he had already opposed 

 the patent for the Charterhouse. The first 

 was because it affected the revenue. ' If his 

 Majesty give way thus to amortize his ten- 

 ures, the Court of Wards will decay.' But 

 the chief reason was that the king had lately 

 refused the establishment of two ' lectures,' 

 one at Oxford and one at Cambridge, ' foun- 

 dations ... of which there is great want ; 

 whereas Hospitals * abound and beggars never 

 abound a whit-the less,' a remark which shows 

 how Bacon in this as in many matters was in 

 advance of his time. It was Hot till a year 

 later that the chancellor's opposition was 

 overcome and the letters patent sealed, 21 

 June 1619. By this charter' Allen, de- 

 scribed as ' of Dulwich, esquire, chief master, 

 ruler and overseer of all and singular over 

 games of beares, bulls, mastive doggs and 

 mastive bitches,' was empowered ' to found 

 the ' colledge of God's gift ' in Dulwich, and 

 to grant to it the Hall Place and the ' manor 

 or lordship ' of Dulwich and its lands and 

 some 249 acres more, besides the tenements 

 and lands in St. Botolph's which he inherited 

 from his father, and the Fortune Theatre in 

 St. Giles' without Cripplegate. The Foun- 

 dation deed in pursuance of the license was 

 executed 13 September 1619. 'And there 

 wear present the Lord Chancellore, the Lord 

 of Arundell, Lord Coronell (i.e. Lord Colonel 

 or Lord Lieutenant), Ciccell ' the High 

 Sheriff, ' Inigo Jones the Kinges Surveyor,' 

 and other magnates. ' They both heard a 

 sermond, and, after, the instrument of erec- 

 cion ' was by me read, and after an anthem, 



* The word Hospital was then used for houses 

 for almsfolk, such as Christ's Hospital and Sutton's 

 Hospital, as well as for houses for the sick. 



5 Young, i. 39. The charter was in English. 



« Ibid. 39. 



' In Young the word is given as ' creacion.' 

 But this is a misreading of the original. 



200 



