SCHOOLS 



upon stock and therefore prudent to make some other application ; and in this I so well succeeded 

 that (notwithstanding sentiments) the bishop of Lincoln and his son, chancellor of Peterboro, have 

 appointed me Proctor in the Bedford jurisdiction and Proctor Generall of the whole diocese of 

 Peterboro, places that require about 5 days attendance once m 3 weeks, and 3 times as beneficial as the 

 best advantages I could propose from the school . . . My house adjoins the school and when I teach, 

 I teach young gentlemen there. 



In other words, Priaulx obtained more return from the business of a proctor in the ecclesias- 

 tical courts, which only occupied a seventh of his time, than he did from the school. 



In 1727 John Betts, who was then the usher, complained to the college that he was not 

 paid, and asked whether Priaulx ' can oblige me to teach the upper classes, for he insists on my 

 teaching the upper and under boys alternately.' To this the Warden Beeston replied : — 



I am so far from disapproving his method of your both teaching all the boys alternately that 

 I think it is a good one, and which is practised in some measure in the school at this college as 

 well as Winchester, ffor thereby you will both have a knowledge of all the boys, and if your method 

 of teaching be not different, I do not see what disadvantage can arise. 



Mr. Betts in the result went away quietly. Four years later, 15 October, 1731, there 

 was a dispute with the next usher, John Gamble, clerk, LL.B. He found, it was alleged, in 

 1727 only nine boys, and had raised the school to twenty. A petition signed by twenty-six 

 persons was sent to the warden of New College, Coxed, asking for his reinstatement, as he 

 had been sent away only for refusing *an extraordinary holiday.' Priaulx replied that he had 

 appointed him 



on the recommendation of the chancellor of Peterboro. I could never determine whether Impudence 

 or Ignorance was his superior quality. However the then Corporation liked the man, he was a bold 

 bustling Fellow and had the full venom of a most inveterate Faction, and as they were then in Power 

 (of which I thank God we have now entirely divested them) I was unwilling to make either Myself or 

 them uneasie, tho' his Grace the Duke of Bedford and most of the Gentlemen of Honour and distinc- 

 tion in the county have for near a 1 2 month past requested his removall and upbraided my forbearance. 

 But on the Mayor's Feast-day the school boys have prescribed a Play Day but . . . Gamble, having 

 publickly called the present mayer ' pittyful fellow,' tho' a gentleman of the first fortune and character, 

 he told me he hoped I would not take it ill, if for the reason above mentioned, he did not invite my 

 usher, but withall beg'd the boys might have their Play Day as usual, which I told him they should 

 and immediately dismissed them. 



Gamble then made them come back, told them he was master and not Priaulx, and that * the 

 usual compliment ' should not be paid. Whereupon Priaulx locked up the school, paid Gamble his 

 salary and dismissed him. Priaulx sent up a counter testimonial signed by divers baronets and 

 gentlemen, the mayor, recorder, bailiffs, three aldermen, nine common councillors, and seven 

 inhabitants to say he was right. So the warden informed Gamble that ' he never heard of any 

 school where the power of dismissing the scholars was not esteemed the master's sole prerogative.' 

 And so the matter ended. 



It is rather amusing after all that has passed to find Priaulx conveying to the warden an invita- 

 tion to him and any fellows of the college who pleased to become burgesses of Bedford without 

 payment, and an invitation to stay with the Duke of Bedford at Woburn. At the same time he 

 says he has appointed Mr. Bourne, of Trinity College, Oxford, who has a living of ^^ 100 a year in 

 the neighbourhood, as usher. Bourne died three years later, and on i September, 1734, the cor- 

 poration resolved to pay the usher's salary to Priaulx, and repeated this on 9 October, 1735. In 

 October of that year the corporation recorded a severe condemnation of their predecessors' action 

 in regard to the endowment. 



Whereas it is generally reputed and believed that the last lease was let extended or granted 

 ... on very dishonest fraudulent and scandalous consideration, and whereas at the expiration of 

 the said lease ... on Michaelmas Day 1760, very great and considerable advantages will accrue 

 to the inhabitants and members of this Town and Council . . . No future lease . . . shall be 

 let or granted and no proposals or any consideration whatever shall be admitted or received till the 

 old lease shall be expired. 



On some complaint about having only a nominal usher Priaulx informs the warden 

 that the 



Corporation settled the Usher's salary upon me till the place should be filled . . . but however 

 kindly this may be intended my school is already so increased I cannot do the business, at least 

 not as it ought to be done, tho' I attend full 8 hours in a day, and as I have daily prospects of 

 additions both in boarders as well as schoolboys, I must apply seriously for an usher that will act, 



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