SCHOOLS 



was assigned to two vicars choral appointed 

 assistant curates. Accordingly, the accounts^* 

 of the Receiver-General of the Court of Aug- 

 mentations of the Revenues of the Crown for 

 Nottinghamshire show ' And in like cash by the 

 said receiver paid to John Lowthe master of the 

 grammar school [scale grammaticalis) in South- 

 well from ancient time at ;^io a year, by virtue 

 of the warrant aforesaid,' i.e. the warrant of 

 Sir Walter Mildmay and Robert Kelway for 

 continuance of the school. We thus learn the 

 name of the master who presumably was master 

 from the time of the refoundation of the church. 

 He may be identified with John Lowthe, scholar 

 of Winchester 1534, of New College 1540, in 

 which year he took his B.A. degree, and a fellow 

 there till 1543. He afterwards became chan- 

 cellor of the diocese of Gloucester, rector of 

 Gotham, Canon of Wells and of Lincoln, vicar 

 of St. Mary's, Nottingham, and Archdeacon of 

 Nottingham, which promotion he held when he 

 told John Foxe, the martyrologist, some weird 

 and, it must be admitted, libellous stories against 

 the warden of New College, Dr. London, in the 

 early days of the Reformation, when he was 

 trying to suppress the reformers. Lowthe was 

 paid until Michaelmas 1552,^^ when he was 

 succeeded by Henry Rathebye.^ In 1553 the 

 money was not paid, but on application to the 

 Court of Exchequer,^^ and production of the 

 warrant, it was held by the Court that the 

 amount was payable to the master of the grammar 

 school for the time being, and, 12 November 

 1554, was ordered to be paid, together with 

 a year's arrears, to Henry Rabye (sic) now 

 master of the said grammar school. He con- 

 tinued to be paid till Michaelmas 1555.^' 

 After that year the payment cannot be traced. 



While the school was thus going on the col- 

 legiate establishment was in abeyance ; the 

 prebendaries, vicars choral, chantry priests, and 

 even the choristers, having been pensioned ofF. 

 In 1553 9 prebendaries, 1 3 vicars choral, 7 chan- 

 try priests, 2 deacons, and 6 choristers, were 

 still in receipt of their pensions ; while the 

 vicarage was served by Robert Salvine and 

 William Allerne at stipends of £b and £/^ a 

 year apiece. The bulk of the property had 

 been granted to John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, 

 afterwards Duke of Northumberland, and by 

 him to John Beaumont, Master of the Rolls, 

 who, being convicted of fraud and misfeasance 

 in his office, ' conveyed and assured them by de- 



" P.R.O. Land. Rev. Rec. Accts. 2 & 3 Edw. VI, 

 bdle. 90, m. 29. 



" Ibid. 3 & 4 Edw. VI, bdle. 89 ; 4 & S Edw. 

 VI, bdle. 91. 



'" Ibid. 5 & 6 Edw. VI, bdle. 75, m. 24. 



" Exch. L.T. Memo. R. Mich, i & 2 Phil, and 

 Mary, m. 2. 



" Ibid. I & 2 to 2 & 3 Phil, and Mary, bdle. 66, 

 m. 17. 



benture fine or otherwise ' to King Edward VI 

 ' for the discharge and satisfaccion of divers 

 great sums of money wherein the same John 

 Beaumont was indebted to the said late king.' 

 The title of the Crown against Beaumont was 

 confirmed by Act of Parliament, 4 & 5 Philip 

 and Mary, cap. i, sec. 7. The site and precinct 

 and the rest of the land had remained in the 

 Crown. During the Roman reaction under 

 Mary, in the same year which witnessed the 

 restoration of Westminster Abbey, 1 557, thanks 

 no doubt to the action of Nicholas Heath, Arch- 

 bishop of York and chancellor, the canons and 

 chapter of the minster re-entered on the church 

 and their houses, and retook possession of the lands. 

 An information was then laid on 9 April 1558, 

 by Edward Gryffyn (Attorney-General v. Chap- 

 ter of Southwell), for trespass on lands belonging 

 to the Crown in virtue of the Chantries Act. 

 The information was no doubt collusive ; for the 

 Attorney-General himself argued that the college 

 had not been in the actual and real possession of 

 Henry VIIL After elaborate pleadings the 

 Court of Exchequer gave judgement ^' in favour 

 of the chapter on the specious and untenable 

 plea that owing to the refoundation of Henry 

 VIII by Act of Parliament the college had not 

 come to the Crown under the Chantries Act, 

 and that the grant to the Earl of Warwick and 

 the subsequent escheat to the Crown were void. 

 By Inspeximus Charter, 20 June 1558,^* all 

 this was recited and confirmed. So the minster 

 was re-established in law as it had already ^^ been 

 in fact. It was, however, constantly harassed in 

 the title to its lands till a fresh charter and grant 

 were obtained from James I, 26 July 1604. 



The Chapter Act Books begin again at 

 Michaelmas 1558. There is, however, no 

 mention of the school in them for some thirteen 

 years. Presumably Henry Rathbye or Raby 

 carried it on continuously. On i March 

 157 1-2 injunctions were given by Edmund, 

 Archbishop of York, after a visitation. One 

 of these injunctions ^° is — 



Item 10. Item we do injoyne, that a dewe 

 regarde be had that the grammer schole there be 

 alwaies furnished with a godlie, lerned and zelouse 

 scholemaster And an usher for the educacion of the 

 youthe in good lerning and vertue and that thaie be 

 sufficientlye provyded for of a competent lyving and 

 lodging. Provided alwaies that yf enye be or shalbe 

 admytted to that office or funcion who shall not dili- 

 gentlye and carefullye behave him selfe therin to the 

 proffett of the youthe there to be brought upp, that 

 then everye suche Scholemaster or usher without 

 delaye to be removed, and a more diligent to be 

 provyded with as convenyent spede as maye be. 



^' Exch. K. R. Memo. R. East. 4 & 5 Phil, and Mary, 

 m. 20 ; Southwell Min. Reg. Leases, fol. 35. 

 ** Southwell Min. Reg. Leases. 

 "■ Ibid. 95. 

 "* Chap. Act Bk. ii, 62. 



[89 



