“Now £300 at that time was worth about £5,000 now, so that these schools were designed for the lower ranks of society, and open to the sons of the poorer gentry.
“An interesting illustration of this [and of the class-feeling in education at this time] is supplied,” says Mr Whiston, “by the narrative of what took place—
“when the Cathedral Church of Canterbury was altered from monks to secular men of the clergy, viz.: prebendaries or canons, petty-canons, choristers and scholars. At this erection were present, Thomas Cranmer, archbishop, with divers other commissioners. And nominating and electing such convenient and fit persons as should serve for the furniture of the said Cathedral church according to the new foundation, it came to pass that, when they should elect the children of the Grammar school, there were of the commissioners more than one or two who would have none admitted but sons or younger brethren of gentlemen. As for other, husbandmen’s children, they were more meet, they said, for the plough, and to be artificers, than to occupy the place of the learned sort; so that they wished none else to be put to school, but only gentlemen’s children. POOR MEN’S SONS HAVE HEADS AS WELL AS RICH ONES’. Whereunto the most reverend father, the Archbishop, being of a contrary mind, said, ‘That he thought it not indifferent so to order the matter; for,’ said he, ‘poor men’s children are many times endued with more singular gifts of nature, which are also the gifts of God, as, with eloquence, memory, apt pronunciation, sobriety, and such like; and also commonly more apt to apply their study, than is the gentleman’s son, delicately educated.’ Hereunto it was on the other part replied, ‘that it was meet for the ploughman’s son to go to plough, and the artificer’s son to apply the trade of his parent’s vocation; and the gentleman’s children are meet to have the knowledge of government and rule in the commonwealth. For we have,’ said they, ‘as much need of ploughmen as any other state; and all sorts of men may not go to school.’ ‘I grant,’ replied the Archbishop, ‘much of your meaning herein as needful in a commonwealth; but yet utterly to exclude the ploughman’s son and the poor man’s son from the benefits of learning, as though they were unworthy to have
the gifts of the Holy Ghost bestowed upon them as well as upon others, is as much to say, as that Almighty God should not be at liberty to bestow his great gifts of grace upon any person, nor nowhere else but as we and other men shall appoint them to be employed, according to our fancy, and not according to his most goodly will and pleasure, who giveth his gifts both of learning, and other perfections in all sciences, unto all kinds and states of people indifferently. Even so doth he many times withdraw from them and their posterity again those beneficial gifts, if they be not thankful. If we should shut up into a strait corner the bountiful grace of the Holy Ghost, and thereupon attempt to build our fancies, we should make as perfect a work thereof as those that took upon them to build the Tower of Babel; for God would so provide that the offspring of our first-born children should peradventure become most unapt to learn, and very dolts, as I myself have seen no small number of them very dull and without all manner of capacity. And to say the truth, I take it, that none of us all here, being gentlemen born (as I think), but had our beginning that way from a low and base parentage; and through the benefit of learning, and other civil knowledge, for the most part all gentlemen ascend to their estate.’ Then it was again answered, that the most part of the nobility came up by feats of arms and martial acts. ‘As though,’ said the Archbishop, ‘that the noble captain was always unfurnished of good learning and knowledge to persuade and dissuade his army rhetorically; who rather that way is brought unto authority than else his manly looks. To conclude; the poor man’s son by pains-taking will for the most part be learned when the gentleman’s son will not take the pains to get it. And we are taught by the Scriptures that Almighty God raiseth up from the dunghill, and setteth him in high authority. And whensoever it pleaseth him, of his divine providence, he deposeth princes unto a right humble and poor estate. Wherefore, if the gentleman’s son be apt to learning, let him be admitted; if not apt, let the poor man’s child that is apt enter his room.’ With words to the like effect.”
R. Whiston, Cathedral Trusts, p. 12-14.
The scandalous way in which the choristers and poor boys were done out of their proportion of the endowments by the Cathedral clergy, is to be seen in Mr Whiston’s little book.
[6.] Endowed Grammar Schools. These were mainly founded for citizens’ and townsmen’s children. Winchester (founded 1373) was probably the only one that did anything before 1450 for the education of our gentry. Eton was not founded till 1440. The following [list of endowed schools] founded before 1545, compiled for me by
Mr Brock from Carlisle’s Concise Description, shows the dates of all known to him.
| BEFORE 1450 A.D. | |
bef. 1162 Derby. Free School. 1195 St Alban’s. Free Grammar School. 1198 St Edmund’s, Bury. Fr. Sch. 1328 Thetford. Gr. Sch. ? 1327 Northallerton. Gr. Sch. 1332 Exeter. Gr. Sch. 1343 Exeter. High School. bef. 1347 Melton Mowbray. Schools. 1373 Winchester College. 1384 Hereford. Gr. Sch. | 1385 Wotton-under-Edge. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1395 or 1340 Penrith. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1399-1413 (Hen. IV.) Oswestry. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1418 Sevenoaks. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1422 Higham Ferrers. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1422-61 (Hen. VI.) Ewelme. Gr. Sch. 1440 Eton College. 1447 London. Mercers’ School, but founded earlier. |
| SCHOOLS FOUNDED 1450–1545A.D. | |
1461-83 (Edw. IV.) Chichester. The Prebendal School. bef. 1477 Ipswich.[72] Gr. Sch. 1484 Wainfleet. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1485-1509 (Hen. VII.) or before. Kibroorth, near Market Harborough.Fr. Gr. Sch. bef. 1486 Reading. Gr. Sch. 1486 Kingston upon Hull. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1487 Stockport. Gr. Sch. 1487 Chipping Campden. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1491 Sudbury. Fr. Gr. Sch. bef. 1495 Lancaster. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1497 Wimborne Minster. Fr. Gr. Sch. time of Hen. VII., 1485-1509 King’s Lynn. Gr. Sch. 1502-52 Macclesfield. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1503 Bridgenorth. Fr. Sch. 1506 Brough or Burgh under Stainmore. Fr. Sch. 1507 Enfield. Gr. Sch. 1507 Farnworth, in Widnes, near Prescot. Fr. Gr. Sch. ab. 1508 Cirencester. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1509 Guildford. Royal Gr. Sch. t. Hen. VIII. 1509-47 Peterborough. Gr. Sch. t. Hen. VIII. 1509-47 Basingstoke. Gr Sch. t. Hen. VIII. 1509-47 Plymouth. Gr. Sch. t. Hen. VIII. 1509-47 Warwick. College or Gr. Sch. t. Hen. VIII. 1509-47 Earl’s Colne, near Halsted. Fr. Gr. Sch. t. Hen. VIII. 1509-47 Carlisle. Gr. Sch. 1512 Southover and Lewes. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1513 Nottingham. Fr. Sch. 1515 Wolverhampton. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1517 Aylesham. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1512-18 London.[73] St Paul’s Sch. 1520 Bruton or Brewton. Fr. Gr. Sch. ab. 1520 Rolleston, nr. Burton-upon-Trent. Fr. Gr. Sch. | bef. 1521 Tenterden. Fr. Sch. 1521 Milton Abbas, near Blandford. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1522 Taunton. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1522 Biddenden, near Cranbrook. Free Latin Gr. Sch. bef. 1524-5 Manchester. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1524 Berkhampstead. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1526 Pocklington. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1526 Childrey, near Wantage. Fr. Sch. bef. 1528 Cuckfield. Fr. Gr. Sch. 001528 Gloucester. Saint Mary de Crypt. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1528 Grantham. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1530 Stamford, or Stanford. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1530 Newark-upon-Trent. Fr. Gr. Sch. bef. Reform. Norwich. Old Gr. Sch. t. Ref. Loughborough. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1532 Horsham. Fr. Sch. 1533 Bristol. City Fr. Gr. Sch. ab. 1533 Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Royal Gr. Sch. ab. 1535 Stoke, near Clare. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1541 Brecknock. Gr. Sch. 1541 Ely. Fr. Sch. 1541 Durham. Gr. Sch. 1541-2 Worcester. The King’s [t.i. Cathedral Grammar] or CollegeSchool. 1542 Canterbury. The King’s School. 1542 Rochester. The King’s Sch.[74] 1542 Findon, properly Thingdon, near Wellingborough. Fr. Sch. 1542 Northampton. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1543 Abergavenny. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1544 Chester. [Cathedral] Gr., or King’s School. 1544 Sutton Coldfield. Gr. Sch. bef. 1545 Gloucester. Cathedral [t.i. King’s], or College School. 1545 St Mary of Ottery. Gr. Sch. bef. 1547 Wisbech. Gr. Sch. bef. 1549 Wellington. Gr. Sch. |
About 1174 A.D., Fitzstephen speaks of the London schools and scholars thus:—I use Pegge’s translation, 1772, to which Mr Chappell referred me,—