A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



1656, and was afterwards scholar of University College, Oxford, During his time the corporation 

 began to evince that jealousy of a proper expenditure on the school which they displayed continu- 

 ously until the existing scheme was made thirty years ago. At first Butler was without an usher, 

 and was paid 20 October, 1666, ^^3 out of the chamber 'for his extraordinarie paines . . . but the 

 councell doe not intend that this extraordinarie exhibition shalbe drawn into a precedent for the 

 future.' This was when the corporation were receiving in rent and fines more than three times 

 what they paid the head master. On 6 April, 1667, an extra 25f. a quarter was paid to the head 

 master, and the like to Mr. Starkey the usher. Next year disputes had begun, as a standing committee 

 of six was appointed, 18 September, 1668, 'for all diSerences between the Town inhabitants and 

 the Schoolmaster of the Free Schoole relating to the teaching of children,' and two days later the 

 council declared that ' all children of this town ought to be taught in the Free School in grammar 

 learning and that gratis save onlie to pay I2d. a pece for their entraunce and 2d. a quarter for their 

 teaching.' Now this was a perfectly proper exposition of the meaning of a Free Grammar School, if 

 the corporation paid to the masters the whole income of the endowment or at least adequate salaries. 

 But £22 a year had long ceased to be an adequate salary for the head master of an important public school 

 ' after the fashion of the best schools,' as the corporation had earlier expressed it themselves. While even 

 in 1630 the head master of Winchester with a nominal salary of j^ 10 a year was receiving over j^300 

 a year, the town of Bedford could hardly expect to get a fellow of New College, or a man of the calibre 

 which was clearly intended by Edward VI and Sir William Harper, to take a post of less than a 

 tenth of that amount. If they would not pay a proper proportion of the income, which even in 

 1635 had amounted to £<)^ a year, they were bound to allow substantial fees. Butler called in the 

 aid of New College. Warden Woodward and the fellows on 9 November wrote to the town that 

 a fee of 2d. a quarter 



evidently tends to the overthrowe of the schoole, for the maintenance whereof you have at this time so 

 great.an income. For what man of parts will come among you when the Teacher's stipend shall (as 

 at this time) be lessened at your pleasure, and when for every inhabitant's sonne he must thresh (as some word 

 it) at 2d. a quarter ? Not to say in your method, but against His Majesties letters patents, the ToAne 

 must be served first, and Mr. Schoolemaster's allowance for that reason the lesse, because you are 

 pleased to spare no more ; that, as the Schoole shall want an able Teacher, soe the colledge must lose a 

 good preferment, which, assure yourselves, it will not suffer ; and therefore bee pleased to allow the 

 Schoolemaster what lately hath been allowed as also to recall your Twopenny edict. 



If not, the college threatened ' such course as our counsel may advise.* Thomas Underwood, 

 the mayor, in reply on 21 February, 1668-9, while asserting the right of the corporation to pay 

 what they pleased and asserting the customary sum to be ;^20, said they had, on 1 1 December, given 

 the master an addition of £6 a year. New College pointed out in return that there could be no 

 binding custom of paying ;^20, as the town could not pretend they had paid ,^20 when the whole 

 rent was only £\2 2. year, and that the least they could do was to pay the master £^Q and usher 

 j^20 ; otherwise ' if this your vote continue, you will, ere long, to your own disadvantage, ruine the 

 schoole.' On 11 July, 1670, the corporation increased Butler's salary by £^ and the usher's by ;^4 

 a year, the totals being j^30 and ;^20 altogether. Butler sent two boys, both apparently boarders, 

 and one rejoicing in the distinguished name of Samuel Bentham, to St. John's College, Cambridge, 

 in 1670 and 1675 respectively. 



In appointing John Gascoync as usher on 5 January, 1671-2, the college again pressed for an 

 increase of salary. Apparently nothing was done, though at this very time the corporation were 

 paying ^4 apiece to members of the council merely to go to London to hear a suit against the 

 tenant of the lands, one Thomson, who claimed a renewal of the lease. Butler therefore gave 

 notice of resignation, and on 2 August, 1672, the town wrote to the college to appoint a successor. 

 Butler in writing to inform the warden of his intended resignation suggested that the college should 

 make terms for his successor while the place was vacant. 



The college appointed as master John Longworth, B.C.L., a fellow of the college. He was 

 son of the vicar of Selborne, Hampshire, and had been admitted scholar of Winchester 1654, and of 

 New College 1659. On 19 August, 1673, he was allowed an augmentation of £b a year, but 

 whether to £20 or ^^30 does not appear. Starkey was the usher in December, 1672, but on 

 31 March, 1673, Mr. Bourne, usher, was given an augmentation of ;^i a quarter. 



In Longworth, Bedford was rightly repaid for its meanness in the matter of pay. The 

 salary was not enough to keep Longworth. He went off to America in 1677, resigning his 

 living of Oakley, but not resigning the schoolmastership. Though thus absent from his charge 

 neither the town nor the college seem to have thought that they had power to remove him and 

 appoint another. But the town records are silent on the matter till 4 October, 1681, when they 

 record ' a deputacion [i.e. appointment as deputy master] of Mr. William Willis, late one of the 

 fellows of New College in Oxford signified by a letter subscribed by Henry Beeston Warden under 



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