SCHOOLS 



lerned and knawen in diversitie of tongies and 

 spechies Wherfore the seid late reverend Father for 

 the good mynde wiche he hadd and bayre to the 

 countrey of Lancashire, consideryng the bryngyng 

 up in lernyng vertue and good maners childeryn in 

 the same cuntrey shulde be the key and grounde to 

 have good people there wiche hathe lakked and 

 v^antyd in the same, as well for greate povertie of the 

 commen people ther as also by cause of longe tyme 

 passid the teyching and bryngyng up of yonge 

 childerne to scole to the lernyng of Gramyer hathe 

 not be taught there for lakke of sufficient Scolemayster 

 and ussher ther, so that the childerne in the same 

 countrey having pregnaunt wittis have been most parte 

 brought up rudely and idely and not in vertue, 

 cunnyng, erudicion, litterature, and in good maners 

 And for the seid good and charitable deds by the 

 said late bishoppe purposed and intendyd as is before 

 seid in the same Schire hereafter to be hadd seen 

 used and doone, that is to say, for gramyer there to 

 be taught for ever, the said late Bushopp of his good 

 and liberall dispociccon att his grete costs and chargies 

 hathe within the towne of Manchester buylded an 

 howse, joynyng to the collegge of Maunchester in the 

 west partye .... for a Free Scole ther to be kept 

 for evermore and to be called Manchester Scole. 

 [Besides that he had] at his more further expences and 

 charge purchased a serteyne leese of many yers wiche 

 ar yett to come of the come milles of Manchester 

 with all the appurtennce And also caused other lands 

 and tenements in Mannchester beforeseid called 

 Anncotes and a burgage in Millegate to be disposed 

 and converted to and for the use of the contynuaunce 

 of techyng and lernyng to be had taught and con- 

 tynued in the same Scole for ever. 



The trustees to whom the property was now 

 conveyed were headed by Sir Lewis Pollard, one 

 of the justices of the Common Bench (Common 

 Pleas) and Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, justice of 

 the King's Bench ; then came Sir William 

 Curteney of Ilton, Devon, and Sir Thomas 

 Denys of Hilcarn, Devon, knts., who had no 

 doubt been friends of Oldham when bishop of 

 Exeter. The rest were local people, Sir 

 Alexander Radcliff of Ordsall, Sir John Beron 

 (Byron) of Clayton, knts., Edmund Trafford 

 of Trafford, Richard Assheton of Middleton, 

 Thurstan Tyllesley of Worsley, Robert Longly 

 of Agercroft, Richard Holland of Denton, and 

 John Reddiche of Reddiche, " esquiers." Acts 

 and ordinances appended laid it down as the first 

 duty of the feoffees to keep in repair the ' Scole- 

 howse,' and this is to be done ' at the discretion 

 of the Warden of the College and the church- 

 wardens of the college churche.' It is interesting 

 to find, what was perhaps rather rare at that 

 date, that a library formed part of the school 

 building. For the next item is — 



Within the same Scole ner lybrare of the same by 

 nyght or by day any other artes, thyngs, plays or 

 other occupacions be hadd or used in theym but all 

 ways kept honeste and cleynly as it besemeths a Scole 

 or a lybrare ; and that in the cleyneste maner without 

 any logyng there of any Scolemaister or usher. 



Many of the ordinances are taken from Dean 

 Colet's statutes for St. Paul's School, London, 

 or rather, if the Manchester historian had good 

 authority for his statement (of which he produces 

 no evidence), from their common model in Ban- 

 bury School. Thus the school was to be cleaned 

 out by ' too pooer scollers ' who were ' to have 

 of every scoller at his fyrst admyttyng one peny 

 sterling.' The tariff was higher in London, 

 being i^d. ' And therefore to write in a severall 

 booke all the names of scollers that so cum in to 

 the scole.' Every third year this book was to 

 be delivered to the warden of the college, ' to 

 thentent that therin may and shall allwaies 

 appere wiche have been brought upp in the same 

 Scole.' This admirable provision for a continu- 

 ous school register, which by the way does not 

 appear in the St. Paul's statutes, has unfortunately 

 been neglected, and Manchester School knows 

 nothing of its old boys before the seventeenth 

 century. 



An important change between the earlier and 

 later foundation deeds appears as to the qualifica- 

 tion of the master.^" He is to be named, as 

 already said, by the president of Corpus Christi 

 at Oxford, of which college Oldham was 

 ' Primarius benefactor,' instead of by Manchester 

 College, and to be 



a syngilman, prest or not preste, so that he be no 

 religiouse man, beyng a man honeste of his lyvyng 

 and hoole of body, as not being vexed or infecte with 

 any continuall infirmitie or dissease, and having 

 sufficient litterature and lernyng to be a Scole maister, 

 and able to teche childeryn gramyer after the Scole 

 use maner and forme of the Scole of Banbury in Ox- 

 fordchire nowe there taught, wiche is called Stan- 

 bryge gramyer, or after suche Scole use maner as in 

 tyme to cum shalbe ordeyned universally throughe 

 cute all the province of Canterbury. 



Stanbridge was a scholar of Winchester and 

 New College, and first usher and then master of 

 Magdalen College School. This hankering 

 after uniformity in grammar — which, if not as 

 bloody in its effects as the desire for uniformity 

 of religion, was perhaps equally deadly to the 

 advancement of learning — was soon to be gratified 

 by the adoption of the Erasmus-Lilly Grammar 

 by the authority of the crown, not only through- 

 out the province of Canterbury, but throughout 

 England. In its later form of the Eton Latin 

 Grammar it held sway in schools until the 

 Kennedy Primer of 1870. 



That there may be no doubt what was meant 

 by a free school it was specially provided 



That every Scole maister and Ussher for ever from 

 tyme to tyme shall teyche freely and indifferently 

 [i.e. impartially] every child and scoler comyng to the 



'" He is, by the way, never called High Master 

 except once in a casual reference which would seem 

 to have crept in by accident from the St. Paul's 

 statutes, but always ' Scolemaister ' simply. 



583 



