SCHOOLS 



patronage of the school, which, without express 

 episcopal and papal authority, it is certain they 

 could not effectively transfer to anyone else. 



The next item of information we have as to 

 Newark School is lOO years later, and shows it 

 as the school selected by Archbishop William 

 Melton for some of his young relations. In his 

 accounts occurs the item : ' To Simon, master 

 of the school at Newark, for the expenses of our 

 kinsmen [consanguineorum) William and Thomas 

 of Melton and their tutor, as long as they are 

 there, 2s. $d. a week.' This sum is made up, 

 probably, by id. a week for each of the boys 

 and I J. id. for the tutor, since at Winchester 

 and Eton we find ?id. a week the sum allowed 

 for the boys' commons, and u. a week for those 

 of the fellows and masters. The disturbed state 

 of the North, due to the war against Scotland, no 

 doubt accounts for the archbishop, though an 

 East Riding man, sending his cousins, nephews, 

 or perhaps sons, to a school under the shelter of 

 Newark Castle rather than to Beverley or even 

 Southwell. 



The schoolmaster, Simon, to whom the boys 

 were sent was Simon of Botelesford (Bottesford), 

 clerk. For next year, 1334, among the corporation 

 records is a deed which witnesses that John son 

 of Henry Cotington granted to Symon of Bo- 

 telesford, schoolmaster [rectori scolarum) of New- 

 ark, a messuage in Frere (Friar) Lane near a 

 messuage of the prior of St. Katharine outside 

 Lincoln,* while some eleven years later, on 

 St. Gregory's Day 1345, Thomas son of Sir 

 Richard of Byngham, kt., appointed ' Master 

 Simon of Botelesford, schoolmaster [magistrum 

 scolarum) of Newark, his attorney to receive rents 

 for him in the Peak. As early as 1325 he occurs, 

 probably as a trustee, in a grant ^ by William son 

 of John son of Peter to John son of John son of 

 Peter, chaplain, and Simon of Botelesford, clerk, 

 of four messuages in Newark. He acquired pro- 

 perty on his own account. On 17 June 1334 ' 

 Gilbert Girdeler granted him a rent of 2s. out 

 of a house in Northgate, and William of Barnby 

 another rent of td. out of a house in Barnibi- 

 gate (Barnbygate). On 25 April 1334 1° Robert 

 Stuffyn had granted him a rent of 1 3^. /^d. from 

 a house in Baldertongate next to Gild Lane. 

 This rent was by deed of 25 March the year 

 following,^^ 1335? under licence in mortmain 

 20 March 1334,^^ granted by Simon to John of 

 Bynington, chaplain, warden [custadi) of the 

 Trinity altar, who celebrated for the brethren of 

 the Trinity gild, and especially for Robert StufFyn, 



* Brown, Hist. ofNeu}ark, ii, 175. 



' Ibid, from B.M. WoUey Chart, ii, 25. 



' Ibid. op. cit. i, I II. ' Ibid", i, 134. 



'" Ibid, i, 216. A facsimile of the deed is given. 



" Ibid, i, 218. A facsimile. 



'^ 8 Edw. Ill, and therefore not, as in Hist. Newark, 

 1336, but 1334. "^^^ licence of course preceded the 

 grant. 



2 20 



his wife Alice and their children, and the soul of 

 Richard StufFyn. On 24 August Simon further 

 granted to the same chaplain celebrating for the 

 fraternity of the Trinity and St. Peter, and es- 

 pecially for the king and queen, Queen Isabella, 

 Archbishop William of Melton and others 

 named, eight messuages worth 40J. a year and 20s. 

 rent. The chaplain was to be presented by the 

 provost of the gild, or, in default, by the five 

 other chantry priests of the church. This was 

 not, as Mr. Brown says, the foundation of a 

 chantry, but the augmentation of an existing 

 one ; as is shown by the property being valued 

 in 1535 " at £^ i8f. i^d.y whereas the grant by 

 Simon of Bottesford was only ^^3 135. 4<s?. It 

 would appear that school-mastering was a gainful 

 profession at Newark in the reign of Edward III, 

 when its master could thus afford to endow a 

 chantry priest in his own lifetime. The papal 

 sanction to it was given in 1341. When Simon 

 died we do not know. 



That Newark School maintained its reputa- 

 tion is evidenced by a safe-conduct granted by the 

 king on 26 July 1380 to — 



Brother Hugh Maigne, monk of the order of St. 

 Benedict, of Paslowe in Scotland, who has supplicated 

 us that, inasmuch as he has stayed at Newark for a long 

 time in order to study there, and purposes to stay 

 longer, we will be so good as to graciously provide for 

 his security. We, therefore, wishing to accede to his 

 request, have taken the aforesaid Hugh and all his 

 goods into our safe and secure conduct and into our 

 especial protection and defence, while for his aforesaid 

 study at the aforesaid town of Newark sojourning there 

 and going thence to the aforesaid parts of Scotland, in 

 order to seek his expenses and transact other business 

 there, and returning thence within our Kingdom of 

 England to the aforesaid town of Newark. . . . To 

 last for one year." 



It is sufficiently amazing to find a monk thus 

 journeying backwards and forwards from Scot- 

 land to Newark for his studies. The document 

 almost looks as if Newark, like Stamford, had 

 developed a kind of university. This would 

 account for the resort to Newark. Mr. Brown 

 points out that Maigne is probably the same 

 name as Magnus, which suggests that this 14th- 

 century monk may have been a Newark man, and 

 of the family which afterwards produced the 

 15th and 16th-century Archdeacon Magnus, the 

 later endower and hitherto reputed founder of 

 the school. But it seems that there are no other 

 traces of the name at Newark before the arch- 

 deacon's time. 



The next mention of the school is in a deed of 

 6 December 1 41 8, by which a house in Carter 

 Lane ^* granted by Roger of the ' chaumbre ' is 



" Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, igo. 



" Rotuli Scotiae, ii, 26. 



'* By an unfortunate oversight, with all the wealth 

 of illustrations in Brown's Hist, of Newark, there is no 

 plan of the town either ancient or modern. 



26 



