A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



century. He was a secular, of course, though 

 no doubt a cleric. The next master men- 

 tioned was a married man ; for on 17 April, 

 1284, Emma, wife of Master Thomas of Lan- 

 caster, brought an assize of mort d'ancestor 

 against John of Bleghan and Sigred his wife, 

 and a few weeks later ' Thomas le Scholemaster 

 of Lonecastre ' and Emma his wife successfully 

 defended a counter-action brought by the same 

 Sigred.2 



Nearly two hundred years later we meet with 

 the first known endowment of the school, given 

 by John Gardyner, burgess, and probably miller, 

 of Lancaster ; for the original endowment of 

 this school, like the chief endowment of Man- 

 chester School, was a water-mill. 



A building lease' was granted 4 August, 

 1469, to John Gardyner of a water-mill at 

 Newton, situate upon an island called the Eyre, 

 with i^ acres of land called Briar-butts on the 

 east of the Loyne or Lune, by the then abbess 

 of the Brigittines of Syon (whose abbey is now 

 Syon House, near Isleworth, a mansion of the 

 duke of Northumberland), to whom Lancaster 

 church was then appropriated. The lease was 

 for the term of 200 years, at the yearly rent of 

 6s. 8d. A proviso appended declares : — 



Because the said John Gardyner intends, God per- 

 mitting, to establish a certain fit chaplain to celebrate 

 worship in the church of the Blessed Mary, of Lan- 

 caster, every year, and to instruct and inform boys in 

 Grammar, the said mill is let by the said Abbess and 

 Convent for the time and price stated above, and 

 withal the said chaplain shall specially recommend in 

 his prayers the living and dead of the said monastery, 

 and shall also instruct the boys coming there in 

 grammar freely, unless perchance something shall be 

 voluntarily offered by their friends to the said chaplain 

 in recompense. 



The good abbess and her nuns, by an 

 arrangement not unusual, were content to take 

 part of the rent in reversion, and be paid 

 in specie current, not in this world, but the 

 next. 



In 1469, then, it was clear that Gardyner (or 

 those with or for whom he was acting) had 

 already determined to found a grammar school 

 in the usual form of a chantry priest who was 

 to perform the double function of singing for the 

 founder's soul and keeping a grammar school. 

 Fortunately, however, for its subsequent fortunes, 

 the original intent was not carried out. On 

 21 June, 1472, John Gardyner made his 

 will, and thereby constituted a chantry and a 

 school to be supported out of the profits of the 



' Lanes. Assize R. (Lanes, and Ches. Hist. Soc), ii, 

 183-5. 



' Baines, Hisl. of Lanes, (ed. 1 870), ii, 567. This 

 lease is said to be preserved among the muniments at 

 Halton HaU. 



Newton Mill; not, however, as one institution, 

 but as two. The will is in Latin : — * 



. . . First I bequeath my soul to Almighty Gud 

 the blessed Mary and all his saints and my body to be 

 buried in the parish church of the Blessed Mary of 

 Lancaster near the altar of St. Thomas of Canterbury 

 on the south side. Item, I will and appoint that a 

 certain Chaplain shall be there to celebrate for ever. 



He then bequeathed certain vestments and plate 

 to the same altar, and proceeded : — 



Item, I will that the chaplain sh.ill perceive and have 

 yearly from the mill of Newton a hundred shillings 

 . . . Item, I will that a certain grammar school 

 within the town of Lancaster be maintained freely at 

 my own expense and that the grammar master keep- 

 ing the same school have by the year six marks to be 

 perceived of the same mill . . . and that William 

 Baxsterden keep the same school for term of his life, 

 as long that is to say as the same William is able to 

 instruct and teach boys. Item, I will and assign my 

 water mill aforesaid ... to remain in the hands of 

 my executors with one close containing one acre and 

 adjoining the same mill, for which mill and close my 

 same executors shall pay yearly to the same priest and 

 grammar master keeping the school aforesaid 100/. 

 and six marks as is before written. Item, I will that 

 the residue of the annual rent of the same mill be 

 kept for the maintenance and repair of the mill 

 aforesaid. 



The testator further bequeathed 'all his lands 

 and tenements ' for the maintenance of an alms- 

 house, which he had ' ordered to be made anew,' 

 and the maintenance of the poor there and 



of one Chaplain in the parish church aforesaid of 

 Lancaster to celebrate at the same altar where the 

 other priest will celebrate, provided nevertheless that 

 the same priest if necessary will celebrate in turn 

 within the said almshouse if there be any poor there 

 who cannot go to the said church. 



He also willed that — 



Ralph Elcock, chaplain, have the choice of my two 

 chantries aforewritten, and that Christopher Leye, 

 chaplain, do occupy the other chantry if he wishes. 



A number of devises of leasehold estates show 

 that by * all his lands and tenements ' above 

 mentioned he meant only his freehold lands, and 

 that he held by lease from the abbess of Syon 



*DuchyofLanc.Misc. Bks. 2 5,fol. 19. TheCharter 

 Book of Lancaster contains an English version of the 

 same will. The will was proved at York more than 

 ten years afterwards on 12 Sept. 1483, and Nicholas 

 Gardyner appointed administrator before Ralph 

 Faucet, LL.B., official of Master John Shirwood, 

 D.D., the archdeacon of Richmond. The will, how- 

 ever, is not at York, nor among the wills proved in 

 the archdeaconry of Richmond. The enrolment in 

 the Duchy Books is in Latin, and bears every mark of 

 authenticity, but nothing is said as to the date and 

 place of probate (Wallace, End. Char. Lanes.). 

 562 



