A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



He directed that the income of his messuage at 

 Boarshaw in Middleton should be applied 



' to the use and profitt of a preiste conyng in gramar 

 and songe, so long as the lease enduryss, to mende and 

 uphowde the fre scole of Myddleton, and to synge 

 in my chappell (i.e. the school chantry chapel) for 

 one yere ' for his and his relations' souls and ' for the 

 sawlls of my founders and benefactors and all cristen 

 sawlls ' ; and he adds : ' I will specially that the 

 said preiste shall uphoude the fre schole at Myddelton 

 accordyng to the foundacion.' 



He bequeathed to ' Edmund Ireland, usher of 

 the said fre schole,' a Medulla gramatices, and to 

 Alexander Nowell, usually considered founder 

 of the school, at which he had in fact been him- 

 self a pupil, the works of St. Jerome. 



Ireland seems to have succeeded Mawdesley 

 as master. Robert rather than Alexander 

 Nowell was the re-founder of the school. Ac- 

 cording to a letter written to Lord Burghley 

 by Dean Alexander Nowell about 1594 



my brother Robert late atterney of Her Majesty's 

 Court of Wards about vi hours before he died said 

 unto me ' Forget not Myddleton schole and the col- 

 lege of Braiennose wher we were brought up in our 

 youth and yf you wolde procure any thynge to con- 

 tinue with my money, you shall do it beste and moste 

 surely in the Queenes Maiestie name, whose poore 

 officer I have been ' and upon these words I was 

 occasioned to think of the foundacion of Mydleton 

 schole and of certen scholers to be chosen out of that 

 schole into the college of Brazennose there to be 

 maynteyned with certen exhibicion. 



He thereupon began to pay ,^20 a year to 

 Brasenose College for the maintenance ' there 

 of six poor scholars from Middleton School. 

 Three years later he obtained a formal refounda- 

 tion of the school. By letters patent 1 1 August, 

 1572, reciting that Alexander Nowell, clerk, 

 dean of St. Paul's, had humbly prayed that 



whereas within the town or parish of Middleton a 

 certain grammar school, anciently held and used, then 

 from the smallness of the stipend of the Headmaster 

 of the same had been deserted and almost reduced to 

 nothing, Queen Elizabeth, for the re-establishing the 

 same school and also for the better information and 

 education in letten of boys and youths ' dwelling in 

 Middleton, Prestwich and OldKam and other places 

 thereunto adjoining, . . . granted and ordained that 

 there shall be for ever in the aforesaid town and 

 parish a free and perpetual grammar school ... to 

 be called the Free School of Queen Elizabeth in 

 Middleton, to consist of one master and one under- 

 master. 



The appointment of the masters was vested 

 in the dean, and on his death in the principal 



' Not young men as in End. Char, for Middleton 

 ( 1 901), p. 9. Boys were from 7 to 14, youths from 

 14 to 21. 



576 



and six senior fellows of Brasenose. The queen 

 also purposed to add to the foundation of the 

 college six scholarships, to which were to be 

 appiointed 



six proper youths who shall have perfectly learned the 

 rudiments of grammar, either in the said school — 

 which she chiefly desired — if so many from time to 

 time therein should be found who should have been 

 in the same school for 3 years at least, or otherwise in 

 the schools of Whalley or Burnley in the said county 

 of Lancaster, if so many should be found fit, . . . or 

 otherwise in any other grammar school in the said 

 county, ... to be called Queen Elizabeth's Scholars. 



Nowell was to appoint the scholars during his 

 life, and afterwards the college. Licence was 

 also given to him to found seven more scholar- 

 ships, and to make statutes. The queen then 

 granted for endowment of the school rent-charges 

 payable to the crown out of the capitular estates 

 of St. Paul's, being payments for chantries which 

 had been dissolved and confiscated under the 

 Chantries Act, amounting to ;^23 os. bd. a year, 

 and two payments of £2 1 31. 4^. each out of 

 Boyton Hall. The chantry payments were real 

 gifts from the crown, 'Her Majesty most graci- 

 ously and bountiously giving freely £^io yearly 

 for ever, which I would have purchased of Her 

 Majesty.' Licence in mortmain was also gi\cn 

 for the acquisition of further property up to 

 ;^ioo a year. Out of the £2% -js. 2d. granted, 

 the college were to pay the crown a rent of 

 ;^8 75. 2d., the residue, ;^20, going in a stipend 

 of 20 marks, ^^13 bs. 8d., to the master, and 

 10 marks, £6 13X. ^.d., to the usher. There 

 was, however, a flaw in the grant of Boyton 

 Manor, as it was alleged the crown never had 

 seisin of it, and the manor was granted to 

 the lessee on 30 September, 1572, in return 

 for a fixed payment of £4. 13;. i^,d. a year. 

 By deed of 28 October, 1574, the dean 

 covenanted to pay the college j^20 a year and this 

 £4. 13;. 4.d.y which the lessee was to pay during 

 his lease, of which fifty-eight years were then to 

 run. 



With ;^9i2, the greater part, if not the 

 whole, of which came from Robert Nowell's 

 estate, the dean in 1575 bought from Lord 

 Cheney the manor of Upbury and the rectory 

 of Gillingham, Kent, and having granted a lease 

 of ninety-nine years at ^^60 13J. 4^. a year to 

 Lord Cheney, conveyed the reversion 10 April, 

 1579, to the crown, and the crown by letters 

 patent 25 June, 1579, transferred the property 

 to the college as governors of the school. The 

 college was to employ the income in paying to 

 13 poor scholars, elected out of ' Her Free School 

 in Middleton or other schools in her county of 

 Lancaster according to her foundation of the said 

 school,' j^3 6s. 8d. each for their maintenance 

 (ad ipsorum victum) ; to the master ^i 3;. ^d., 

 and to the under master £'^ 6s. 8d. in augmenta- 



