SCHOOLS 



not only the mill but also premises in Aldcliffe 

 and Thornham, the tithes of Newton and Bulk 

 and Skerton, and the herbage of ' Rigges.' Upon 

 the death of Ralph Elcock and Christopher 

 Leye, or their refusal to accept office, the 

 executors were to choose other suitable priests, 

 but he gave no direction as to the appointment 

 of future schoolmasters. He appointed as his 

 executors these two chaplains, and Nicholas 

 Gardyner and John Boyvel, and bequeathed 

 10 marks to Sir Thomas Broghton, knt., 

 'to fortify my executors in fulfilling my will,' 

 and he also begged 'the most mighty prince 

 Richard duke of Gloucester' to be supervisor 

 of his will, and in his absence Sir Thomas 

 Broghton. 



The will therefore provides (a) out of the 

 leasehold mill and land attached for (i) a chantry 

 chaplain, receiving ^^5 a year, to pray for his 

 soul at the altar of St. Thomas of Canterbury, 

 where the testator was to be buried ; and for 

 (2) a grammar school, of which the first master 

 was to be William Baxsterden, who was to have 

 ;^4 a year ; [b) out of his other property for 

 an almshouse, with a second chantry priest 

 to celebrate at the same altar or in the alms- 

 house. 



The almshouse we may dismiss at once. It 

 was established on 12 June, 1485, by Ralph 

 Elcocke and two others (presumably executors) 

 for four poor with yd. a week each and a 

 laundress at 2d. a week, under the management 

 of the chantry priest Nicholas Green, who was 

 to be elected hy the mayor and his 12 brethren. 

 In the Chantry Certificate of 1546 it appears that 

 the chantry priest and four poor were duly main- 

 tained. The almshouse, rebuilt in 1792, still 

 stands on the old site, and four poor women 

 receive 5x. 6d. a week each from the trustees of 

 the Lancaster Municipal Charities. 



The licence for the first chantry was duly 

 obtained on 16 March, 1484, but apparently it 

 was not at the altar of St. Thomas [Becket], 

 since the almshouse priest who was to celebrate 

 at the same altar is called the ' lady priest.' 

 Ralph Elcocke, the executor, had, in pursuance 

 of the will, apparently elected to be the chantry 

 priest. The schoolmaster, not being an eccle- 

 siastical person, required no licence in mortmain. 



By a deed of i March, 1500, in the possession 

 of Mr. Roper, late town clerk of Lancaster, an 

 ordinance was made as to the school 



betwixt Sir Rafe Elcocke, priest, hole feoffee and 

 administerer of divers goods of John Gardyner late 

 diseased, upon the one partie, and Rychard Nelson, 

 the mair of Lancaster and Sir Nichollas Greene, the 

 chantrie Prist of the Almeshouse, upon the other 

 partie. 



The deed witnesses that 



the forsaid Sir Rafe hath grauntyd unto the forseyd 

 Rychard Nelson and Sir Nichollas and their successors 



to have the nominacion eleccion and the correccion 

 of the Lady Prist and scole maister of Lancaster 

 belongyth to the Almyshouse of the sayd John Gar- 

 dyner, see that the seyd Richard and Sir Nichollas 

 and their successors performe and fully kepe the 

 ordinacion of the New Mylne hereafter ensuying the 

 will and the mynd of the seyd John Gardener, that is 

 for to sey, after the discese of myn executors that the 

 mayr of Lancaster and the Chantrie Prist occupying 

 for the seson shall have the nominacion, eleccion and 

 correccion of the Lady Prist and the scole maister 

 foresayd, soe that thei be abull in sciens and conver- 

 sacion, the seyd prist seying masse in the chapelle of 

 Our Lady with all other divine service as a Prist 

 ought to do, the scole maister being a profund 

 gramarion keping a Fre Scole, teching and informing 

 the children unto their most profette nothing taking 

 therefor. 



It is clear that this deed, 48 years before 

 the supposed invention of the term ' free school ' 

 by Edward VI to mean a school free from 

 ecclesiastical jurisdiction (which no school was, 

 as every grammar schoolmaster had to be licensed 

 by the ordinary) or a school giving a liberal 

 education, uses the term ' free school ' as one of 

 known meaning : which it expounds in the 

 statement that the schoolmaster is to take no- 

 thing for teaching. The deed could do no 

 otherwise, if the trust was to be properly carried 

 out. For the will of John Gardyner had said 

 that the school was to be maintained ' freely 

 {libere) at the Founder's charges,' i.e. not at the 

 charges of the children and their parents, while 

 the corpus of the charity, the water-mill, had 

 been expressly leased to Gardyner on condition 

 that the schoolmaster was 



to 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 chantry priest and schoolmaster were to 

 be their own governing body : — 



' The profetts of the seyd Mylne to be recevyd by the 

 forseyd Prist and scole maister and by their successors 

 . . . The Prist and Scolemaister to have the charge 

 of the reparacion of the myll and myll garthe and of 

 all that to the same belongith at the over sight of the 

 Meyre and the Chantrie Prist aforeseyd.' They were 

 to collect the profits weekly or fortnightly at the mill 

 and ' to reserve the money of the seyd profetts and 

 put it into a box . . . and at the quarter ende to 

 bringe the box to the Meyre and the chantrie prist 

 off them to receive their duty. And if it happyn that 

 the seyd Lady Priest and Scole Maister do not their 

 dutye or be found culpable in any such causys which 

 is specifyed in the endenturs tripartyte of the or- 

 dinacion of the foundation of the Chantrie of 

 John Gardener then shall it be lawffull for the 

 Meyr and the Chantre Priest and their successors 

 to monesh onys, twyse, thrise, and then to putt 

 owte and to elect another abull Priest and Scole 

 Maister.' 



563 



