A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



Chapman, notary public, citizen and mercer of 

 York, ' count palatine of the holy palace of the 

 Lateran,' and registrar of Cardinal Archbishop 

 Wolsey for York diocese and city, * born in the 

 parsonage of Kneesall,' provided that a fit chap- 

 lain to celebrate mass and other divine oflSces at 

 the altar of St. Nicholas, the patron saint of 

 schoolboys, in the parish church of Kneesall, 

 should be erected and newfly established to pray 

 for his soul and the souls of his parents, and his 

 nephew, William Clairburgh, doctor of either 

 laws (and also canon of Southwell, Lincoln, 

 Howden, Hemingbrough, and St. Sepulchre's, 

 York), and the last two archbishops. He directed 

 his feoffees of lands in Kneesall, Ampton, and 

 Allerton in Sherwood, and in Foggathorpe, 

 Escrick, and North Dalton in Yorkshire, to con- 

 vert the income to the use of his chantry. 



Evidence^ taken after the dissolution of 

 chantries shows that there was duly ' erected one 

 chantry and one scholehouse in Kneesall and he 

 that was the chantry priest was also the schole- 

 master.' The chantry priest was Mr. Cleg- 

 borowe, born at Southwell, the son of a mercer. 

 He sang mass in the chantry choir, commonly 

 on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, and con- 

 tinued chantry priest and schoolmaster there for 

 about sixteen years, when he went north to a 

 better preferment. After him Mr. Baxter kept 

 the school, but had not the chantry. Bartholo- 

 mew Truswell said that as a young man he led 

 sandstone and wood for building the school and 

 the priest-schoolmaster's lodgings, of two or 

 three chambers, built of sandstone. Baxter only 

 taught the school when the plague was at 

 Newark. The school was then pulled down, 

 and none maintained there since. Among those 

 educated at the school were Sir William Mering, 

 Mr. Thomas Markham, and Mr. Lee of South- 

 well. 



In a somewhat similar way the chantry at 

 Mattersey was either founded or used as a 

 grammar-school endowment. This foundation 

 is described by the Chantry Commissioners of 

 1546 ' as follows : — 



The Chauntrie of Mattersey, so named in the 

 Boolce of the loths. Ncverdieles Robert Buttie, 

 Stipendarie prieste there, Deposithe vppon his othe 

 that the same is no Chauntrie, butt Certeyn landes 

 gyven by diuerse men, as apperithe by Dedes of 

 f eofFmente, to Fynde A prieste for helpinge of the 

 vicare there and to teach children, beinge no founda- 

 cion therof nor Donaty\'e perpetuale, butt a prieste 

 to singe att the will of the parissheners. 



[The yerlye valewes, accordynge to the boke of the 

 tenthes] ^^4 6s. BJ. 



[The yerlye valewes as now svrseyed &c.] ^^4 1 01. id. 

 clere, besides zs. zd. in Rente resolute to diuers per- 



* Brown, Hist, of AVtr^ri, ii, 178. The reference 

 for the document is not given. 



' Leach, Engl. Sch. at the Reformathn, 161, from 

 Chant. Cert. 13, no. 29. 



180 



sons, which is imployed to the lyvinge of Roberte 

 Buttie, stipendarye pryste there. 



The same is not voide nor hathe anye mancion. 



There is neither chalis, plate, goodes, nor oma- 

 mentes to the same belonginge, butt a vestment of 

 Grene satten of Briggis with an olde alb of smale 

 valewe, by the othe of the said incombente. 



The later abstracts of the certificates say 

 curtly : — 



A Chauntrie within the parish Churche there. 



Founded to Fynde a priest to helpe the Vicar And 

 to teache Children, £\ los. i^d^ 



A Chauntrie within the parishe church. 



Founded to finde a priest to helpe the vicar and to 

 teache Children, £\ \os. id^ 



The Court of Augmentations must, however, 

 have held that the school was not obligatory 

 by the original foundation. For by the Con- 

 tinuance Warrant issued 20 July 1548 under 

 a section of the Chantries Act providing for the 

 continuance of payments to preachers, school- 

 masters, and the poor, though two houses belonging 

 to the chantry of John the Baptist, held rent-free 

 by two almsfolk, were continued to them, no 

 mention is made of the school, which would 

 otherwise have been continued with a salary 

 charged on the Crown revenues of the county 

 equal to the net income previously enjoyed. 



This school therefore perished as a result of 

 the Chantries Act of Edward VI, which pur- 

 ported to take the chantry property from super- 

 stitious uses, and apply it to pious uses, such 

 as the maintenance of grammar schools. On 

 the other hand it will be seen that the inhabi- 

 tants of Retford bought back some chantries, 

 though not those of Retford itself, which 

 they had used for their grammar school, and 

 which form the endowment of the present school ; 

 while at Mansfield a chantry or stipendiary 

 priest's property seems to have been actually 

 diverted for the first time after the Dissolution 

 from superstitious uses to a grammar school, 

 though not till the reign of Queen Elizabeth. 

 Mansfield seems to be the only existing grammar 

 school in Nottinghamshire which was founded 

 in those Tudor times, which have been so 

 erroneously credited with the creation of English 

 schools. The next foundation is attributable to 

 that much maligned period of the Interregnum. 

 The grammar school at Elston was provided for by 

 the will of a former rector, Laurence Pendleton, 

 and decreed to be founded by the Court of 

 Chancery in 16 14, though it was not actually 

 founded till 6 February 1652. Tuxford Grammar 

 School, founded after the Restoration, in 1 669, was 

 better provided for, and was apparently a gram- 

 mar school. At Bulwell Free School, founded 

 by George Strelley in the same year, the school- 

 master had only ' all revenues which were on 



' Chant. Cert. 95, no. 8 (Leach, op. cit. 1 70). 

 ' Ibid. 96, no. 50 (Leach, op. cit. 171). 



