SCHOOLS 



Finally Bugg was deprived of his vicarage. 



24 July 1735. You Henry Bugg clerk, Vicar 

 Choral of this church, for your notorious breach of 

 the Statutes of this church and for your subsequent 

 contumacy thereupon the Chapter has unanimously 

 decreed you to be legally deprived of your office of 

 Vicar Choral of this Church. And I, Edward Wilson, 

 Canon Residentiary, by the order and in the name of 

 the said chapter doe pronounce you expelled, and the 

 said office of Vicar Choral to be void to all intents 

 and purposes of law as if you were naturally dead. 



Mr. Bugg's vicar's place being made void who as 

 Schoolmaster and vicar used to read prayers every 

 Holyday and one part of the day every Sunday pur- 

 suant to an injunction of Abp. Sharp ; It is decreed 

 that the other remaining vicars be required to talce 

 upon them the reading of prayers at such times till 

 further provisions be made. 



It would seem, however, that the deprivation 

 was revoked, and that Mr. Bugg afterwards lived 

 at peace, for the Chapter Books reveal no more 

 of him for nearly thirty years, when the next 

 master was admitted on his resignation. An in- 

 termittent stream of boys flowed to St. John's, 

 Cambridge, throughout his time, beginning 9 May 

 1734 with his brother John son of Henry Bugg, 

 husbandman, and including a son, Whaley Bugg, 

 in 1756. 



In 1755 St. John's College rebelled against the 

 restriction of the Keton fellowships to Southwell 

 choristers. Thomas Todington, son of a farmer 

 in Leicestershire, bred at Southwell School under 

 Mr. Bugg, was admitted a sizar ' for Mr. Bugg,' 

 the schoolmaster's brother, 12 April 1751. 

 When a Keton fellowship fell vacant in 1755 

 Thomas Todington became a candidate for it, 

 but the college elected William Craven, a Craven 

 scholar, fourth wrangler, and Chancellor's medal- 

 list, afterwards master of the college, in prefer- 

 ence, and he was admitted 17 March 1755. 

 Todington therefore appealed to the Bishop of 

 Ely, as visitor, stating that he had ' been for three 

 years a chorister of the church of Southwell and 

 constantly performed choral duty there.' The 

 college said that a statute of the college provided 

 that no scholar should be in any way deformed 

 or mutilated, and that this necessarily applied to 

 fellows also, and Todington was deformed and 

 had been declared ineligible to a fellowship on 

 that account, and that they had reason to believe 

 his learning defective, while his behaviour ' did 

 not incline them to elect him.' The bishop, 

 however, directed them to elect him. The 

 college then moved the King's Bench for a pro- 

 hibition to the bishop as not being in order. This 

 was refused by Lord Mansfield 26 November 

 1757, and Todington was admitted in place of 

 Craven 19 March 1757-8. He resided for 

 nearly twenty years, and afterwards held several 

 college livings, and died 27 January 1790. 



21 Jan. 1762. Decreed that Davies Pennell 

 clerk B.A. be admitted a Vicar Choral in the colle- 



giate church of Southwell. Decreed that the said 

 Davies Pennell be elected Master of the Free Gram- 

 mar School of Southwell, now void by the resigna- 

 tion of Henry Bugg clerk, and that his licence to 

 the same be sealed at the next chapter. 



Next day he was given ' all the Salary due in 

 the Vacancy.' The only incident noted in 

 Pennell's time is a decree, 19 July 1764, 'that 

 the Grammar School scholars have leave to sit in 

 the seat on the south side the choir under the 

 choristers.' After eleven years, on 22 April 1773, 

 * The Reverend Mr. Pennell desired leave to 

 resign the office of Master of the Free Grammar 

 School of Southwell, which resignation was 

 accepted and Mr. Pennell further desired leave 

 to continue the vicarage of Barnby in the 

 Willows, which he now holds and such leave was 

 granted as far as the Chapter had power so to do.' 

 In 1778 Pennell was master of Newark Gram- 

 mar School. Pennell's successor at Southwell 

 was Richard Barrow, clerk, who was admitted a 

 vicar choral and master of the free grammar 

 school of Southwell 20 January 1774. It was 

 at the same time ' Decreed that the Expences of 

 Advertizing etc. for a School Master be defrayed 

 by the quarter's salary of the School during the 

 Vacancy and out of the money arising by sale of 

 the wood at Warsop.' 



'21 Apr. 1774 Decreed that the Grammar 

 School house be repaired in such necessary 

 manner as the next Residentiary shall direct and 

 that the Expences of such repairs be paid out of 

 the Fabric Account.' 



In 1775 the Keton fellowships again proved 

 a bone of contention. William Wood, son of 

 a husbandman of Hockerwood near Southwell, 

 had been a chorister at Southwell for six years, 

 from 1756—62, and had been in the grammar 

 school till he went to St. John's on 16 March 

 1764, and after taking his degree became parish 

 vicar at Southwell in 1769 and vicar of North 

 Leverton in 1773. In 1775 on the resignation 

 of Todington, the hero of the battle of 1755, 

 he resigned his living and stood for the vacant 

 Keton fellowship. The college preferred Cham- 

 bre William Abson, B.A. 1774, a much younger 

 man, who was not a Johnian, though his father 

 had been. The father was vicar of Kirtlington, 

 and Abson had been at Southwell school from 

 1759, at the age of seven, but only became a 

 chorister when he was sixteen years old for a 

 quarter of a year so as colourably to qualify for a 

 Keton fellowship. Wood disputed the validity 

 of the qualification, and the Bishop of Ely decided 

 against Abson, and Wood was admitted fellow 

 24 October 1775. He seems to have been a 

 litigious, but successfully litigious, person. He 

 became junior bursar and then senior bursar of 

 the college. In 1797 he was turned out on the 

 ground of maladministration and lengthy legal 

 proceedings ensued, which reduced him to bank- 

 ruptcy. Eventually, however, he took the 



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