A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



removed, ' where I have taught every day, no one has molested me,' and that he had also taken out 

 a licence. But 



an alderman's wife told me before her husband's face that they were resolved to have the school right 

 or wrong, and should the Chancery give it against 'em, they thought they had friends enough in 

 Parliament to carry anything against a Tory college . . . Her husband (Alderman Day) . . . was 

 extremely enraged at this . . . but she being the better man of the two, stood stiffly to it, and said 

 if she had told a lie 'twas he that putt it into her head, and had told her so himself one night when 

 he came from Mr. Brace, ' 



the lawyer who was promoting the claim. Priaulx signs his letter 'Laborious and unpaid 

 schoolmaster of Bedford.' At a meeting at the Swan Hotel on 6 April, Mr. Hillsdown, M.P. 

 for the town, wanted the corporation to present Holloway, a schoolmaster in the neighbour- 

 hood, and to arrest Priaulx and keep him unbailed until Holloway was in possession. But this 

 course was too violent even for them, and they agreed to have an election by freemen as if for an 

 M.P. On 7 April notice was given by George Hawkins, mayor, and on 9 April at 8 a.m. Mr. 

 Benjamin Holloway, Bachelor of Law, was ' chosen to be master of the Free Schoole.' Priaulx 

 next day informs the college 



tho' Mr. Holloway opens his shop after Easter in the Town Hall, I have 3 new scholars 

 entered, 2 of which are violent Whiggs. N.B. Mr. Warden when last at Bedford innd at 

 the Swan, the man of the house violently against the college, but the Bull a very honest house 

 and for us. 



On 5 August the town obtained a verdict at the assizes in an action of ejectment on default 

 of appearance of the college, * which Judge Blincow laught at and said openly could be easily sett 

 aside, and the college make it appear they had not timely notice.' A bill was then filed in 

 Chancery, and on 16 November, 1 720, 'the Lord Chancellor, tho' he did not give a finall determina- 

 tion, actually decreed the payment of all arrears,' but the college had not asked for them. On the 

 appointment of a new warden, Dobson, on Dr. Cobb's promotion to the wardenshipof Winchester, 

 Mr. Priaulx had to beg the college 23 November, 1723, to pay him the arrears. The faithful 

 usher Rogers left in January, 1720-1. Mr. Hodgson followed 



Staid with me till Michaelmas was twelve month, when I admitted Mr. Beedles the Gentleman 

 Mr. Aspinall wrote to you for ; otherwise the Rabbi had giv'n you a second trouble ; and he not 

 having taken his Degree I dispensed with his absence at Term time, which I thought mightily in my 

 power, and which I suppose has given Rise to this Insinuation. Mr. Beedles left me 3 weeks before 

 Michaelmas, and was carried by Mr. Brown Willy in his Coach from my House to Dr. Tanners, 

 Archdeacon of Norwich, to be his Curate, which Mr. Willy at my Request had sollicited for 

 him. To him succeeded Mr. Coston a Term-monger likewise, who is my present Usher, who came 

 to me the very afternoon Mr. Beedles left me. And this I can make appear by Receipts from my 

 first comeing to Bedford till last Michaelmas day. This proves what I intimated to Mr. 

 Langbain that I have already paid my Usher, and, if I had not, I must have been long ago 

 without one. 



The poor man had to seal his letter with ' Lord Anglesea's arms and coronet and beg you 

 would observe whether it has been opened, because I suspect the Postmaster to be a corporation 

 villain.' 



After many delays, at length on 2 May, 1724, the Chancellor ordered payment of ^^40 in part 

 of arrears. On 22 July, 1725, the case was heard by the Chancellor, who declared the right of 

 nomination of master and usher in the college, ordered payment of all arrears of salary, but gave both 

 college and town their costs out of the charity, and declared the then rent of ;^I50 a year should be 

 divided into thirds, one-third for the masters, one-third for marriage portions, and one for the poor, 

 and that only children in the town should be taught free, children of burgesses or freemen livino- 

 outside to pay. The arrears were not actually paid till April, 1726. 



It is not surprising to learn that during this prolonged struggle the school had been reduced to 

 very small dimensions. At the time of the judgement as to the master's pay, there were only sixteen 

 or seventeen boys, and the teaching of these had devolved on the usher. ' Having been 8 ^ears ' 

 says Mr. Priaulx,^' 



schoolmaster of Bedford without any pay or profitt from the corporation I was obliged to apply myself 

 to another bussiness to support myself and family. True it is, the college paid me ^^40 per annum ; 

 but out of that I was obliged to pay the usher, who had £2 5 per annum constantly paid, and the 

 remainder will hardly be thought a sufficiency to keep a gentleman healthy and clean. Nor mdeed 

 could I have stood it had I not married a woman of Fortune. But 'twas hard to be always living 



" Letter to Warden Coxed, 23 Oct. 1 73 1. 



170 



