SCHOOLS 



LIVERPOOL SCHOOLS 



The Grammar School 



The history of Liverpool Grammar School, 

 the early extinction of which reflects little credit 

 on the citizens of that port, has been egregiously 

 distorted by the local historians. Liverpool w^as 

 originally only a hamlet in the parish of Walton, 

 and the original church of Liverpool was a small 

 chapel dedicated as usual to the same saint as the 

 mother church, the Virgin Mary. The earliest 

 mention yet produced,^ of the chapel of St. 

 Mary del Key, so called from standing on the 

 quay on which Liverpool developed as a seaport, 

 is a deed of 1257 in which Randolph Moore (de 

 Mor) grants half a burgage ' next to the chapel.' 

 The first definite record of the chapel by name 

 is on 19 May, 1355, when licence in mortmain 

 was granted to the manor and commonalty of 

 Liverpool to grant lands to the value of ^^lo a 

 year ' to certain chaplains to celebrate divine 

 service daily for the souls of all the faithful de- 

 parted in the chapel of St. Mary and St. Nicholas 

 of Liverpool.' It appears from later references 

 that the chapel of St. Nicholas was an enlarged 

 chapel built at the east end of the original chapel 

 of St. Mary del Key. The two seem, however, 

 to have formed one structure, spoken of together 

 as the chapel of Liverpool. The first mention 

 of any endowed school there is in the will of 

 John Crosse, rector of St. Nicholas, Fleshsham- 

 bles, London, in 15 15- He gave 'a new Town 

 Hall to the maior and his brethren with the bur- 

 gesses of Liverpool, the new Our Ladye Howse 

 to kepe their courts,' and directed that the ' sel- 

 ler ' under was 



to helpe the preste that synges afore our Lady of the 

 chappelle of the Key . . . the said prest shall gifF 

 yerely 5/. to the prest that synges afore St. Katherine 

 and all ye avauntage over shall be to the use of the 

 preste that synges afore our Lady of the Key. 



By the same will he gave lands 



to the fyndinge of a preste to say masse afore the 

 ymage of Seynt Kateryne within the chappell of Lyver- 

 pull for the souls [of himself and his ancestors and 

 benefactors on condition that] the maior and my 

 brother Richard Crosse or his heirs after him shall 

 order and put in a preste, suche as they shall thynke 

 best convenient, the which preste shall keepe gramer 

 scole and take his avauntage from all the children 

 except those whose names be Crosse and poor children 

 that have no socour. 



This is a rather remarkable limitation on a free 

 grammar school. The limitation to namesakes is a 

 curious development of the doctrine of founder's 

 kin which had manifested itself in Merton's school, 

 at Merton College in 1276, and Wykeham's 

 school of Winchester College in 1382, and sur- 



vived to the eighteenth century in the case of 

 Hodgson's school at Aikton in Cumberland. 



We do not know anything about the school 

 until 1526-7, when a bill in the Duchy Court 

 recited the will, that the priest was ' there to 

 teach a Fre Scole,' and that the feoffees held the 

 lands and carried out the trusts till three or four 

 years before, when one Sir Humphrey Crosse, 

 clerk, entered and took the revenues of the school 

 wrongly. A sub poena issued, but with what 

 result does not appear. Sir Humphrey Crosse, 

 the chantry-priest-schoolmaster, appears as such 

 in the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535 as well 

 as in the Chantry Certificates of 1546 and 

 1548.=' 



The Crosses were one of the oldest families 

 in Liverpool. The first recorded mayor in 1 35 1 

 and again from 1354 to 1363, William Fitz- 

 adam, is said to have been the ancestor of the 

 Crosses, and Richard Crosse was mayor in 1409, 

 and John Crosse in 1459 and 1476, and it is 

 probable that he was the founder of St. Kath- 

 arine's chantry, the priest of which was the 

 grammar schoolmaster. 



The Chantry Certificate for 1546 states : — 



'The chauntrie at the alter of Saynt Katherine 

 within the said chapell [of Lyverpolej], Humfrey 

 Crosse, preist, incumbent ther of the foundacion of 

 John Crosse to celebrate ther for the sowles of his 

 said founder and his heires and to do one yerlie obbet 

 and to distribute at the same 3/. ^d. to poore people. 

 And also the Incumbents herof by ther Foundacion 

 are bounden to teache and kepe one gramer skoole, to 

 take ther advantage of skolers savinge those that beryth 

 the name of Crosse and poor children. 



' The same is at the alter of Saynt Katherine within 

 the chapell of Lyverpole in the paroche of Walton 

 beforsaid being distant from the paroche church 

 4 myles, and at this day the said Incumbent doth 

 celebrate distribute and teache accordinge to his said 

 Foundacion.' The goods were a 2 oz. chalice, 2 [sets 

 of] ' olde vestments, one masse boke, one superaltar.' 

 The income from endowment or ' sum totall of the 

 rentall ' was £^ 1 5/. i od. 



From the report in 1548 we learn that there 

 were in the town and parish of Walton 1,000 

 ' houselynge people ' or communicants, which 

 makes the population of Liverpool about 2,000 

 or half that attributed to Blackburn or War- 

 rington ; and of the school it says : — 



and also to kepe a schole of Grammer free for all children 

 bearynge the name of Crosse and poor children, which 

 is not observed accordinglie, and the graunte is for 

 ever. Humfrye Crosse incumbent of the age of 50 

 yeres hath for his salarie the clere yearlie profRts of 

 the same, £6 is. lod. And his lyvinge besides is nil. 

 The lands and tenements belongynge to the same are 

 of the yearly value of [^6 2/. I od., whereof in reprises 

 nil. The ornaments belongynge to the same are 

 valued at 3/. The number of ounces of plate belonging 

 to the same are by estimation 1 2 oz. 



' John Elton, The Chapel of St. Mary del Key {Trans. 

 Hist. Soc. Lanes, and Ches. 1904, liv, 82). 



593 



' Lanes, and Ches. Rec. Soc. xxxii (1896), 156. 



75 



