A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



The purport of this injunction seems to be to 

 bring the school under the direct power of the 

 chapter — that is in efiFect the residentiary canon 

 instead of the prebendary of Normanton. Hugh 

 Baskafild, M.A., is the next master mentioned. 

 On 22 May 1574 the chapter granted to him, 

 described as schole gramatice Southwelliensis ludi- 

 magistro, in consideration and recompense of his 

 labour and industry from time to time heretofore 

 bestowed and hereafter to be bestowed on the 

 education and instruction of children in gram- 

 matical learning {In litteris grammatkalibus), an 

 annuity or yearly rent of ^^14 a year for the 

 term of his natural life if he remain in the 

 zealous education and instruction of youth in the 

 school of Southwell aforesaid. This document 

 is followed in the Act Book by an act appointing 

 him attorney to receive £6 a year from Henry 

 Rubye of Wolverhampton, M.A., which he was 

 bound to pay to the chapter for the use of the 

 schoolmaster of Southwell for the time being. 

 Rubye is no doubt the same as Rathebye in the 

 Receiver's Accounts and Rabye in the order of 

 the Court of Exchequer in 1554. Probably, 

 therefore, this sum of £b was the balance of 

 ;^I0 a year payable from the Exchequer, Raby 

 retaining the rest as a kind of retiring pension. 

 Such an arrangement we saw made in 1504, and 

 such arrangements were frequent in after days 

 both as regards schoolmasterships and ecclesiastical 

 benefices, as well as civil offices, till the 1 8th 

 century. Baskafild appears as Baskerville in the 

 Gonville and Caius College register, in which 

 occurs the admission of Reginald Eton, who had 

 been a chorister at Southwell under Mr. Thet- 

 ford, musicus, and at school there under Mr. Bas- 

 kerville. At the 'audit' of 1 5 7 7 *'' the chapter 

 made and agreed upon certain articles, three of 

 which affected the school, settling its hours, 

 viz. 6-1 1 a.m., 1-5 p.m. from Lady Day to 

 Michaelmas ; and from Michaelmas to Lady 

 Day 7-1 1 a.m., 1-5 p.m. The order runs : — 



No. 6. Also for our Scholemaster it is determined 

 that he shall hereafter frome the feaste of the Annun- 

 tiation of our ladye repajre together with his scholers 

 to the schole, at the howre of sixe of the clocke in the 

 morninge, his scholers continuinge there untyll a 

 leven of the clocke, and to repayre agayne at one of 

 the clocke, and remayne untill sixe of the clocke, and 

 this order to laste frome the saide feaste of thanuntia- 

 tion untill the feast of St. MichacU, after which feaste 

 thaie shall keepe theire howre at seven of the clocke 

 in the morninge and continewe as afforesaide untill a 

 leven of the clocke, and come againe at one, and con- 

 tinew untyll fy\e and this to continewe untUl the 

 feaste of thanuntiation, and this order shall con- 

 tinewe yearelye." 



No. 7. Moreover it shall not be lawfiall for the 

 scholemaster to geve his scholers leave to playe any 

 daye in the weeke, but onelye thursdaye in the after 

 noone, excepts thaie have leave of the residentiarie, or 

 in his absence of the nexte senior master [i.e. canon]. 



Chap. Act Bk. 368. 



Ibid. 370. 



No. 8. Also the said scholemaster shall have his 

 scholers to repayre to the schole everie saturdaie in 

 the after noone, there to exercise theire writinge and 

 other exercises untill evyninge prayer. 



Two years later solemn warning was given to 

 the master : — 



1579, 26 Oct. The xxyjth dale of October Anno 

 Domini 1579 Mr. Thomas Wethered and Mr. 

 Robert Cressie, Canon residentiaries, caused Hughe 

 Baskafeld, Scholemaster of the grammer schole in 

 Southwell to be called before them in to the Chapter 

 house and there commaunded me, John Lee, notarie 

 and Registrar to the Chapter, to reade openlie unto 

 the saide Hughe Baskafild certen articles before 

 specyfied and registred towching certen houres and 

 orders to be by him and his schollers observed ; which 

 I red accordinglie ; after the reding wherof the 

 afforesaid Mr. Wethered and Mr. Cressie dyd ad- 

 monisshe the said Hughe Baskafild to observe the same 

 houres and orders declaring further unto him that it 

 was my Lord Graces pleasure that he should so doo. 

 J. Lee, Registrarius. 



On 12 April 1580 the same residentiaries 

 ' sytting in the Chapter House, caused the above- 

 said Hughe Baskafild to come before theme in 

 the presence of Mr. John Todd, Canon Residen- 

 tiarie, and of me John Lee, Registrar, and then 

 and there did discharge the saide Hughe Baska- 

 fild of kepinge the gramer schole, or teaching 

 eny longer, and also of his wages for the same, 

 for that he had so notoriouslye slacked and 

 neglected his dutie in teaching the said schole, 

 to the great hindrance of the youthe therein 

 brought upp.' A month later, 1 1 May, 

 Mr. John Cowper, M.A., was appointed by the 

 chapter as schoolmaster, during their pleasure. 



On 2 April 1585 new statutes^" for the 

 college were made by the Crown in the form of 

 letters patent in Latin. They emphasized the 

 fact that the foundation was as much for educa- 

 tion as for religion ; ' Understanding that the 

 church aforesaid is hitherto by no means estab- 

 lished with laws and statutes ; for the singular 

 love with which we embrace the continuous 

 worship of God, the catholic preaching of God's 

 word, the institution of youth in truth and 

 virtue and good literature (juventutis in veritate 

 in virtute ac bonis Uteris institutionem) and the 

 perpetual maintenance of the poor.' These 

 statutes were prepared by a general commission 

 issued to the Archbishop of York and others for 

 all the collegiate churches of the province of 

 York, founded by Henry VIII, Edward VI, 

 Mary, and Cardinal Pole. The statutes left the 

 sixteen prebendaries untouched, but reduced the 

 vicars choral to six, while the thirteen or fifteen 

 chantry priests had been swept away by the 

 Chantries Acts, though the college managed to 

 obtain the lands. As usual in cathedral statutes 



" Orig. at Southwell. Printed in Dickinson, Hist, 

 of Southwell, 364 ; and Dugdale, Mott. Angl. vi, 

 1317-23. 



190 



