SCHOOLS 



they went to dinner.' ' This instrument only 

 erected the ' Colledge of God's Guift,' and 

 appointed its first members; Thomas Alleyn, 

 ' citizen and barber surgeon,' to be master, 

 Mathias Alleyn, ' of Dulwich, gent,' to be 

 Warden ; ' Samuell Wilson, Mr. of Artes,' John 

 Harrison, Mr. of Artes, the Schoolmaster, 

 ' Martin Simons, clarke ' and Thomas Hopkins 

 to be the first four fellows of the College. 



The endowment took place 24 April 1620, 

 when Allen conveyed the property, in the 

 same words as in the letters patent, to two 

 trustees, William Alleyn, and William Austen 

 of Southwark, on trust for himself for life and 

 afterwards for the College So the founder 

 continued to administer the revenues at his 

 pleasure. 



In July 1619 the School was furnished. 

 ' The charge of waynskotting and seating the 

 schole chambre ' with ' the master his pewe ' 

 and ' the usher's pewe ' came to £1^ los. ^d. 

 The Preacher got £^0, the Schoolmaster ;£20, 

 the Usher £13 6s. id., and the Organist ;£io 

 a year. 



It was not till 29 September 1626, within 

 two months of his death, that Allen made 

 statutes ^ for the college. They are very 

 long, containing no less than 121 articles. 

 Yet in some points, partly by reason of being 

 inconsistent with the charter, they are so 

 obscure that there was incessant litigation as 

 to who were to be the Governing Body of the 

 College and who were entitled to share in its 

 revenues, until the matter was settled by a 

 decree of the Court of Chancery and Act of 

 Parliament in 1857. 



They were singularly old fashioned in tone. 

 Thus they laid down the qualifications of the 

 Master and Warden ' as single persons and 

 unmarried,' and these words at once pro- 

 voked a difficulty, as the first master and 

 warden appointed by Allen himself were both 

 married.^ No doubt marriage was regarded 

 as incompatible with the collegiate life. The 

 only other qualification imposed, except the 

 general one of ' honest lives and conversation, 

 of learning judgment and understanding suffi- 



' Young, ii. 149. The whole dinner is set out in 

 AUeyn's diary, and its cost, which was ^20 gs. 2d., 

 Claret, canary, ' sherey ' and white wine, and two 

 hogsheads of beer were the drink. 



2 Young, i. 63. 



' A legal opinion of two Serjeants at law and two 

 councillors at law was given that these two might 

 retain their places and wives as Allen's knowledge 

 of their being married was a sort of dispensation. 

 Ibid. i. 100. In 1650 Dr. John Alleyn the master 

 was secretly married to Mrs. Nye, who was said to 

 be a Jewess, and she got her commons from the 

 College. Ibid. i. 175. 



n 201 



cient to discharge their places,' was that they 

 were to be ' of my blood and sirname, and for 

 want of such, my sirname onlie.' This was 

 the doctrine of next of kin run mad. Al- 

 ready in 1642 the Warden elected had no 

 claim to be of kin to the founder, but only 

 to be of his name. 



The other fellows were also to be un- 

 married. Their qualifications were that 



the first senior fellowes be in degrees at the 

 least Master of Artes of either of the Univer- 

 sities, Oxford or Cambridge, preachers, the 

 two second senior fellowes graduates and 

 divines, the first of them to be an approved 

 schoolmaster, and the second to be a sufficient 

 scholler to be Usher of the Schole. 



This was a departure from the original 

 arrangement by which the first fellow was to 

 be preacher, the second Schoolmaster, the 

 third Usher, and the fourth Organist. It 

 never took effect, but had the result of intro- 

 ducing uncertainty into the positions of the 

 Master and Usher and their pay. A further 

 addition was intended by article 2, which 

 purported to add ' six junior Fellowes ' 

 * chaunters for musique,' of whom by article 

 5 ' the two first to be musicians of sufficient 

 skill in the art of musique to be Organists of 

 the College and to teach the free schollers 

 musique and to singe, and the other fower 

 chaunters to be singing men of the chappel.' 



It is to be regretted that this revival of the 

 old combination of Song and Grammar School 

 was not thought of sooner. Music evidently 

 was dear to this ex-musician's * heart. In 

 September 1619 he paid £1 15/. 6d. for three 

 vioUs for the children. In 1621 he paid 

 5/. for five quire of royall paper for songs. 

 He elaborated the musical provisions in Statute 

 35. The two first Junior Fellows were to 



singe their partes in the quire, and shall prick 

 all such services and anthems as the master 

 shall command for the use of the chappell into 

 faire books, and also all other songes and musi- 

 ques for the private or publique use of the 

 colledge, both for vioUs and voices ; and those 

 they shall keepe faire, and at their departure 

 leave them to the college. And they shall 

 teach the poore schollers to singe prick-songs 

 and to play upon the vioUs, virginalls, organs 

 and other instruments, and to teach and direct 

 any other person or persons of the college that 

 are to singe their partes in the chappell. 



The four other chanters were to be men of 

 handicraft trades, ' taylors, glovers, imbro- 



• In 1595 the first professional description of 

 him was as ' musicion.' Young, ii. 3, from Muni- 

 ment 106. 



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