A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



is ten years later. On 26 March 1248, at a 

 general convocation of the canons, statutes were 

 made dealing with various matters, chiefly of 

 internal economy. The second ordinance and 

 statute ran : ' also, that schools of Grammar and 

 Logic shall not be held in the prebends of canons, 

 except according to the custom of York.' The 

 fact that grammar schools were held in the out- 

 lying prebends of the minster raises an irresistible 

 presumption that in the mother town itself of 

 Southwell there was a school. The graimnar 

 school and the logic school were generally one 

 and the same, except at places like universities ; 

 logic or the science of argument having been 

 taught in the grammar schools at least from the 

 age of Quintilian, who, writing his Institutes of 

 Rhetoric about a.d. 90, complains that grammar 

 schoolmasters have encroached and are daily more 

 and more encroaching on the sphere of the 

 rhetoric schools, which included dialectic, or 

 logic. 



The custom of York we only know from the 

 York statutes as written down rather more than 

 half a century later, in 1307,* in which it is 

 said the chancellor ' who anciently was called 

 schoolmaster, to him it pertains to collate to 

 grammar schools, but he ought to present to the 

 school of York a regent master in arts, of whose 

 proficiency there is hope, who according to the 

 ancient custom of the church shall hold it for 

 three years, and no longer, except by grace for 

 one year more.' Probably the object of the 

 Southwell statute was to enforce that the right of 

 collation, i.e. of appointment, of the master in all 

 grammar schools belonged to the chancellor as 

 the officer of the chapter, not to the individual 

 prebendary in whose prebend the school happened 

 to be. In 1248 there were thirteen territorial 

 prebends, besides Normanton, viz. at Norwell 

 (three prebends), Oxton and Cropwell (two), 

 VVoodborough, North Muskham, South Musk- 

 ham, Beckingham, Dunham, Halloughton and 

 Rampton. None of them were ever places of 

 any size or importance ; but in mediaeval and 

 Elizabethan times tliere is evidence of schools 

 at Dunham, Oxton, South Aluskham, and 

 two other places in the prebends. Unfor- 

 tunately Southwell has not, like York and 

 Lincoln, preserved all the minute books of its 

 chapter proceedings. Its Chapter Act Books, as 

 they are called, begin only in November 1469, 

 while those at York and Lincoln commence 

 at the beginning of the 14th century. So there 

 is no definite information about Southwell 

 Grammar School till after the date when the 

 Chapter Act Books begin. That it existed, 

 however, is clear from one casual mention of it 

 in the White Book. The chapter on i Septem- 

 ber 1413 made a charter of inspeximus of an 



' A. F. Lcich, Early J'oris. Sckooh (Yorks. Arch. See. 

 Rec. Ser. 1 899), 12. 



earlier deed containing the result of an inquisi- 

 tion taken in 1372 setting out the lands of the 

 various chantries founded in the minster. This 

 inspeximus of 141 3 was witnessed among others 

 by Master Metham, rector of Southwell Grammar 

 School ( ' magistro de Metham, rectore scolarum 

 gramaticalium Suthwell ' ). The first mention 

 of the school in the Chapter Act Book has the 

 marginal note ' Southwell Grammar School 

 (Scola gramaticalis)^ and bears out the state- 

 ment made in the White Book that the presenta- 

 tion to the grammar schools belonged to the 

 prebendary of Normanton. For at a chapter 

 held on I December 1475' a new grammar 

 schoolmaster of Southwell was admitted on his 

 nomination. 



To the Venerable the chapter of the collegiate 

 church of the Blessed Mary of Southwell in the 

 diocese of York, John Danvers, prebendary of the 

 prebend of Normanton in the same church, Reverence 

 due to such great men with honour. To the 

 grammar school (scolas gramaticales) of the town of 

 Southwell aforesaid now vacant and belonging to my 

 presentation in right of my prebend aforesaid, I 

 present to you my beloved in Christ, John Barrc, 

 humbly and devoutly beseeching you that you will 

 graciously deign to admit the same John to the afore- 

 said school with all its rights and appurtenances, and 

 to do all other things which it is incumbent on you 

 to do in this behalf. In witness whereof I have set 

 my seal to these presents given at London 26 Nov. 

 H7S- 



The record proceeds : ' After the exhibition, 

 inspection, and examination of which letter, the 

 chapter aforesaid duly and effectively admitted 

 the aforesaid John Barre, being fit and able in 

 arts and learning, at the presentation of the 

 aforesaid John Danvers, to the grammar school 

 of Southwell with all its rights and appurtenances 

 as has been anciently accustomed to be done.' 



It will be noted that though the legal docu- 

 ment and entry has grammar school in the plural, 

 the marginal note has the word in the singular. 

 It was just at this epoch that the mediaeval use 

 of the word school in the plural was being super- 

 seded in common parlance by the word in the 

 singular. John Danvers, the prebendary, was, 

 like most of the canons, non-resident. At South- 

 well, as at Beverley and elsewhere, there were 

 never more than three canons resident at this 

 time, and often only one. 



John Danvers, who was also a canon of York, 

 was an Oxford man, who often acted as vice- 

 chancellor or commissary of Thomas Chaundeler, 

 warden of New College, when chancellor ol 

 Oxford University, between 1457 ^^^ H^J- 

 Danvers became canon and prebendary of 

 Normanton 13 March 1463, and remained so 

 till he resigned in 1495, on a pension of £1^2. 

 year, payable at the high altar of St. Magnus the 



184 



' Leach, Mem. of Southwell Minster, 29. 



