A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



of the body,' on 17 July following" for 

 ;{^I97 6s. l\d., he taking an estate for life with 

 reversion to Whalley) that he first took steps 

 towards the endowment of the school. On 

 u December 1529 he had acquired what was 

 by far his richest preferment, the mastership of 

 St. Leonard's, the cathedral hospital at York. 

 On 4 January 1529-30 three persons, doubt- 

 less his representatives, agreed ^° to buy from 

 Ursula Benett, formerly wife of Charles Pilking- 

 ton, and Robert Pilkington, son and heir of 

 Charles Pilkington, a messuage and an acre of 

 pasture land, formerly two messuages, then called 

 the Porch House, on the east side of Appleton 

 (Appulton) Gate, and next to the chantry house, 

 for £1 los. This is the site of the present 

 schoolhouse. The conjecture that because it 

 was called the Porch House, and schools were 

 sometimes held in church porches, this was the 

 old grammar schoolhouse, is quite untenable. 

 The old school was, as we saw, in Northgate, on 

 the other side of the church. On 15 March 

 1529-30 Ursula Benett and her then husband 

 and Robert Pilkington conveyed this and ap- 

 parently another house next door to Master 

 Thomas Magnus, warden {gardiano) of the 

 church of Sibthorpe, and Robert Browne, founder 

 of Browne's Charity, and eight others, to the use 

 of Magnus. On 20 June and 5 December 1530 

 and 24 February 1 530-1, Magnus conveyed the 

 lands intended for the endowment to William 

 Hoolgill, clerk, Edmund Molyneux, gentleman, 

 and twenty-one others, to hold to the use of 

 M.-i_'^nus and to perform his last will thereof 

 declared. The first deed comprised 160 acres of 

 land at Sandwith, Cumberland, half the manor 

 of Harwell and 1,050 acres of land and twenty- 

 one houses and three cottages at Harwell and 

 Everton, Nottinghamshire ; with 340 acres, two 

 houses and six cottages in Folkingham, Walcot, 

 and Aslackby in Lincolnshire, which last lands 

 the corporation in 1733 disclaimed ever having 

 had. The second deed comprised three houses, 

 two cottages, and 300 acres of land at Mattersey, 

 Barnby, and Ranby, Nottinghamshire. The 

 third deed conveyed the two messuages, two 

 gardens, and one acre of pasture in Newark. The 

 deed by which Thomas Magnus declared the 

 uses of the endowment was made between 

 the founder, ' Archdeacon of Estriding in 

 the cathedral churche of Yorke on that one 

 p.-irtie and William Hoolgyle, clerk, and 

 Edmonde Molyneux, gentylman, on that other 

 partye.' William Hoolgyll, or Holgill, was, 

 seemingly, like Magnus himself, a Newark boy 

 who had thriven in the service of the State and 

 been rewarded with ecclesiastical preferments. 

 He first appears as chaplain and executor of Ro^er 

 Layburn, Bishop of Carlisle, in his will 17 July 



" L. and P. Hen. nil, xx (i), g. 1335 (46). 

 " Brown, Hist. 0/ Newark, ii, 185. 



1504.'' He was now master of the Savoy 

 Hospital, London, founded by Henry VII 

 and his executors, joint rector with Magnus 

 of Otlev," in Yorkshire, and rector of Guise- 

 ley.^* He was the principal executor of the 

 will of another Newark benefactor, Robert 

 Browne, made a few months later, 4 September 

 1532. Edmond Molyneux seems also to have 

 been a Newark boy, a barrister, who was in 154 1 

 a serjeant-at-law and became Sir Edmond, and 

 in 1550 a judge of the Common Pleas. A 

 William Molyneux of Hawton, gent., who was 

 one of the feoffees of Robert Browne's lands, was 

 his nephew.'' From the latter's will it appears 

 that the Molyneux were a branch of the Lan- 

 cashire family of the name now represented by 

 the Earl of Sefton. 



The deed of settlement was perhaps executed 

 in 1532, instead of the foundation being post- 

 poned to his last will, in order, as suggested 

 by the anonymous author of Jn Account of the 

 Donations to the Parish of Newark in 1 748,'"' to 

 anticipate the Act against Superstitious Uses, 

 passed I March 1532. It is one of the most 

 elaborate of school foundation deeds we have, 

 its provisions being complicated by the desire to 

 avoid the Statute of Mortmain and to provide for 

 apprehended changes of circumstance. 



The original deed does not seem to be extant, 

 but a contemporary office copy, in a leather 

 binding, with copies of the conveyances of the 

 property, evidently made at the time to serve as 

 a perpetual memorandum, is among the town 

 muniments. 



This indenture is dated 21 February, 23 

 Henry VIII, i.e. I 531-2. 



In this document, after reciting that the 

 whole net value of the lands was ^^42 8j. 4</., 

 Magnus ' covenanteth, agreeth and graunteth ' 

 and the feoffees ' agre and graunt to and 

 with ' Magnus ' in manner and forme under- 

 written ' : 



That ys to saye, ^^18 parcell of the Yssucs, 

 Revenues, and Profitts of the saide Landys, Tenements 

 and Heredytaments shall yerely be payde and 

 ymployde to and for the Exhibition and fyndyng of 

 two seculer honest Prests, wherof the one Prest shall 

 have sufficient Connyng and Lernyng to teche Gramcr, 

 and the other Prest, Connyng and Lernyng to teche 

 playne Song, pryk Song, descant and to pl.iy at the 

 Organs ; and the said two Prests frely shall teche and 

 instruct all persons and chyldren that wyll at Newarke 

 aforsaid come to Scoole with theym, and shall be 

 dysposed to lerne Gramcr, pryke Song, playne Song 

 or descant. That ys to say, the one of the same 

 Prests to teche gramer and the other playne Song, pryk 



^' Test. Ebor. (Surt. Soc), iv, 263. 

 " W. Page, Yorks. Ckant. Surv. (Surt. Soc), ii. ?q:. 

 ''Ibid. 411. ' ^^' 



=' Test. E[or. (Surt. Soc), vi, 14 1-2. 

 *" Reprinted by T. F. A. Burnaby, town clerk, for 

 the trustees, Newark, I 85 5. 



204 



