A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



■described as next to a messuage of Stephen Moys, 

 maglster scolarum, of Newark. He had probably 

 been master for some years, as Stephen Moys, 

 clerk, appears with other trustees of a messuage in 

 Newark in a fine in 1405-6.*' In the accounts*' 

 of the bailiff of Northgate, 1434-5," Agnes 

 Genne (?) paid ^d. for a piece of land to enlarge 

 her garden in Northgate, ' late in the tenure of 

 Stephen Moys.' In a rental *^ of the tenants of 

 the Bishop of Lincoln in Newark, said to be of 

 the reign of Edward IV, Richard Doggettes pays 

 bd. for a tenement (in Northgate) late of Master 

 Stephen, rector of the school, and Richard Mel- 

 born pays \2\d. for a tenement late of Master 

 Stephen of the school. The town account of 

 1434-5 mentions 'a tenement in Scolane in 

 Northgate late of Alice daughter of Margaret.'" 

 The school was therefore originally, not in the 

 place in which it now is, in Appleton Gate on the 

 south-east side of the church, but on the north 

 side of the church. Stephen Moys, master circa 

 1405 to 1435, was probably succeeded immedi- 

 ately by Nicholas Bellerby, who in 1485 is 

 recorded as having resigned. 



The Southwell Minster Chapter Act Book 

 furnishes the next reference to the school, and 

 shows us the prebendary of Normanton as chan- 

 cellor of the minster, and not the prior of 

 St. Katharine's, exercising the right of patronage 

 over it. On 5 May 1485 ="> 'Sir Robert Har- 

 court was sworn, &c. and admitted to the 

 grammar school of Newark, vacant by the free 

 resignation of Nicholas Bellerby, last teacher of 

 the same school, on the presentation of our be- 

 loved brother Master John Danvers, prebendary 

 of Normanton, as heretofore has been accustomed 

 to be done.' Who Bellerby the last master 

 was does not appear. Harcourt had in 1484 

 been admitted one of two chantry priests of the 

 gild of St. Mary at the altar of the Virgin and 

 All Saints. This was one of the numerous 

 chantries in the parish church and was ex- 

 pressly founded in 1367 because ' the vicar,' who 

 was a Gilbertine canon, 'and the parish priest 

 were not sufficient to serve the cure.' He was 

 also probably the Robert Harecowirte or Har- 

 courte to whom by will of 21 March 1465-6 

 William Boston, chaplain, gave 3/. ^d. Har- 

 court was also a witness to the will. He had 

 witnessed also the will of Juliana Hardyng, 12 No- 

 vember 1465 ; of John Williamson, 4 March 



'* Brown, op. cit. i, 177. 



" Ibid. 155, from P.R.O. Mins. Accts. 954-8. 



" Ibid, i, 160, 163, from P.R.O. Rentals and Surv. 

 no. 538. 



" Ibid. 155. 



■' hcich., Mem. of Soutkcell Minster, 52 : 'Dominus 

 Robertus Harcourt erat admissus ad scolas gramati- 

 cales de Newark ad presentacionem . . . prebendarii 

 de Normanton, prout perantea fieri consuevit, juratus, 

 &c. per resignacionem liberam Nicholai Bellerby, 

 ultimi preceptoris earumdem scolarum vacantes,' &c. 



1465-6 ; and John Smyth, chaplain at St. 

 Nicholas altar, 6 June 1467 ; a frequency of 

 witnessing which suggests that like many other 

 schoolmasters of the date he was an ecclesiastical 

 lawyer and drew the wills. He ceased to be 

 chantry priest in 1488, though whether he then 

 died does not appear. 



It is possible that the grammar school was 

 connected with or supported by St. Mary's gild. 

 For when William Pygg, who became cantarist 

 of the second chantry of the gild in 1470, made 

 his will"* 14 February 1498-9, proved 28 May 

 1500, he gave to the chapel of All Saints his 

 ' Marrow of Grammar ' [medulla gramatice), and 

 to the schoolmaster [magistro scolarum) a chair 

 {cathedram, the technical word for a master's 

 chair) for a writer [pro scripture). 



No further mention of the school is forth- 

 coming for some forty years, when Thomas 

 Magnus gave the munificent though much mis- 

 appropriated endowment, now called Magnus' 

 Charity, to the school. 



Thomas Magnus was, like so many other 

 school and college founders from Walter of 

 Merton downwards, one of the successful king's 

 clerks or civil servants of the day, who were paid 

 and rewarded for their services to the State by 

 ecclesiastical preferments in the Church. The 

 usual tale is told of him as of other founders — 

 as of Archbishops Chicheley and Rotherham, Sir 

 Thomas Gresham and the like — that he was a 

 pauper foundling. In this case, whether byway 

 of a joke or seriously it is hard to tell, a stupid 

 derivation is given of the name ' Magnus ' in 

 Camden,^^ and copied thence by Anthony 

 Wood.^' Some clothiers found him, 'an exposed 

 child left by his mother (nobody knows who) in 

 the parish church of Newark,' and being 

 adopted and brought up by them — * among us ' — 

 he became known as ' Tom Amangus,' whence 

 ' Magnus.' Whether the name ' Magnus ' is 

 latinized from the French Maigne or Maine, 

 or the Danish saint Magnus, or whether it is a 

 translation of Large, as Melancthon was of 

 Schwarzerd, we can but unprofitably guess. 

 Thomas Magnus was not, as Wood seems to 

 have supposed, a foreigner. He was an English- 

 man born and a native of Newark, having, as 

 he informs us in his will,^* 5 March 1549-50, 

 ' receaved the holie sacrament of baptism within 

 the parishe churche of Newarke-uponne-Trent,' 

 in which he accordingly desired to be buried ' in 

 the Trinitie yle.' He was born in the year 

 1460. At least the Chantry Certificate of 

 i546^Mnforms us that he was then eighty-six 

 years old, and already in 1537 he is mentioned 



" Brown, op. cit. i, 356. 



" Remains, 146. » Fast. Oxon. 29. 



" Brown, H/V/. ofKeicark, ii, 210 ; from Reg. Arch. 

 Holgate, fol. 95 d. 



« (Chant. Cert. 631) Yorks. Chant. Surv. (ed. W, 

 Page, Surt. Soc. 1895), ii, 428. 



202 



