SCHOOLS 



On 26 March 1646 Lancelot Johnson, 

 who was the tenant of the School lands, 

 showed an order from the Committee of 

 Plundered Ministers 



. . . and brought with him one Mistress 

 Wilson, a widdowe woman, whoes late husband 

 deceased for his inordinate course of lyfe, 

 beinge schoolemaister, was deprived from the 

 same place, and after divers unsemely passages 

 and provocacions used by the said Mr. Johnson 

 and her . . . threateninge to keepe possession 

 of the seyd schole as her right 



Mr. Scott, one of the Governors, reported 

 that she had threatened to burn the school 

 down. So the Governors, ' being informed 

 what a perverse and turbulent woman she 

 was . . . that the scholars mi^ht not be 

 disturbed, which were growen to a good 

 competent number ' — unfortunately the num- 

 ber is not stated — confirmed Everard in the 

 mastership. They were careful to add that 

 it was not out of any contempt of the order 

 made by the ' honorable committee of 

 plundered ministers,' and that Everard had 

 produced testimonials from Sir Richard 

 Onslowe, and other members of the House of 

 Commons, ' of his good affection to the 

 Parliament.' 



As no more is heard of Mrs. Wilson, she 

 presumably ceased from troubling. 



The school was no doubti in a high state of 

 efficiency. Godfrey can be identified beyond 

 doubt as a Westminster scholar, elected 

 thence a student of Christ Church, Oxford, 

 in 1637.' As a student he contributed to 

 the usual University shower of epithalamiums 

 on royal marriages, on the occasion of Princess 

 Mary's wedding to William of Orange in 

 1640, and to the congratulations to Charles I. 

 on his return from Scotland in 1641. He 

 was ' Presbyterian true blue ' apparently, 

 for he went to Geneva on leaving Camberwell 

 School, and on his return refused to assent to 

 the University's protest in 1647 against the 

 Solemn League and Covenant. His succes- 

 sor, Samuel Everard, was no doubt introduced 

 by him, being also a Westminster scholar of 

 the same election as Godfrey,' both to West- 

 minster and to Christ Church, where he took 

 his B.A. degree in 1641 and became M.A. in 

 1644. -^ school, the mastership of which was 

 sought by scholars of Westminster School, 

 must certainly have been . a school of no 

 inferior kind. 



On 15 July 1647, the Governors, 



finding that the numbre of the poore schol- 

 lers was not expressed in the fundamental! 



' Alumni Westmonasterienses. 



statutes, nor any rate put upon their admission, 

 and that through the requirement of being 

 able to reade English well, to write a legible 

 hand, entred or iitt to be entred into accidence 

 in grammar at the least . . . the poore in- 

 habitants reaped but little benefitt 



proceeded to make ordinances. They ordered 

 ' twelve poore schollers ' of Camberwell or 

 ' other places or paryshes adjoyninge to be 

 freely taught . . . paying 2s. 6d. for theire 

 admittance, and id. a quarter for the use 

 mencioned in the Statutes,' viz., brooms and 

 rods, ' and the blanckes in the sayd statutes 

 ... to be supplyed accordingly.' This they 

 perhaps had power to do ; but when they 

 went on to order that scholars, though not able 

 to write a legible hand, should be admitted 

 ' yf they be able to reade a chapter in the 

 newe testament, bringing their accidence with 

 them,' the Governors were going altogether 

 beyond their powers and were making a new 

 scheme, calculated to degrade the status of 

 the school. As a matter of fact, the ' blanks 

 of the statutes ' were not filled up at this 

 time, except as to the number of ' twelve ' 

 free scholars. The amount of entrance fee 

 was not filled in till a considerably later date, 

 and then not with 2s. 6d. but with the figure 

 5^. in Arabic, while to the ' 2d. a quarter ' of 

 the original for brooms and rods written in 

 Roman characters, a Roman unit was prefixed 

 in the same ink. This made the sum 5^. for 

 entrance and ^d. a quarter for brooms and 

 rods. When the Governors printed the 

 statutes in 1824, this clause was made to run, 

 ' The Schoolmaster's duties to be paid at the 

 entrance of every scholar : five shillings and 

 three pence a quarter towards brooms and 

 rods.' ^ 



On 8 February 1647-8 Thomas Monck, 

 son of John Monck, is solemnly entered as 

 having been admitted a free scholar by Sir 

 Thomas Grymes and the other Governors, 

 including ' captayne George Moore Esquire,' 

 at the rate of 2s. 6d. entrance fee and 2d. 

 quarterage. 



On 4 October 1650, ' after hearing 2 

 Orations made by 2 of the schollars,' the 

 Governors ' went up into a chamber belong- 

 ing to the Schoolmasters house ' and received 

 Everard's resignation and elected James Coleby 

 ' after examination by Mr. Cooper, minister 

 of God's word at Tooley,' i.e. St. Olave's, 

 Southwark. On 21 October Coleby was in- 

 stalled, and next day six free scholars besides 



" Reproduced with comments as to the assumed 

 high price of rods by Mr. Blanch, who did not see 

 that a quarterly payment could hardly be made 

 at entrance. Te farish of Camberwell, p. 251. 



213 



