Education in Rutland in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries Pp.38-48
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Education in Rutland in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by D. K. Shearing For obscure reasons, little has been written about education in Rutland. As the tiny county became a part of Leicestershire only in 1974, its schools were naturally excluded from the excellent account of educational developments in the latter across four centuries, published recently. 1 A monograph devoted to school buildings spanning five hundred years from 1370 briefly mentions the grammar schools ofOakham and Uppingham and National Society schools at Little Casterton and Tinwell. 2 Nicholas Carlisle sketched the early history of the two famous free schools though he was writing more than two centuries after their foundation in 1584. Both were erected by the Reverend Robert Johnson, Rector of North Luffenham, but it was not until 1625, at the advanced age of eighty-five that he drafted Statutes and Ordinances. In that year he named twenty-four governors (presumably to manage the affairs of both schools) including Jeremy Whitaker and John Clarke, then masters at Oakham and Uppingham respectively. These apart, such are the gaps in Carlisle's sources of information that his list of masters for Oakham begins in 1724 and that for Uppingham in 1645. 3 The Victoria County History (Rutland) is comprehensive and provides the names of many early masters. 4 This study has been unable to trace a few like Robert Fullarton, stated to be first hypodidascalus or usher at Uppingham. Conversely several in the Appendix list, harvested mainly from the records of visitation, for example Mr Partridge and Mr Harper, ushers there in 1614 and 1620 are omitted. There were masters in both towns before Johnson's schools materialized, for in April 1570 Robert Cawdrey was described as 'scholemaister' at Oakham while Jacobus Blacket was 'ludimagister' at Uppingham. 5 Cawdrey or Caudrye had been teaching for seven years by then; he ultimately achieved fame by publishing the first English dictionary in 1604. 6 The first master of Johnson's fine school at Uppingham was supposedly David Blacke 7 though I cannot confirm this. Interestingly, a tutor named Davythe Blak was in the service of the Isham family at this time but it is not clear whether based in London or Northamptonshire. He was apparently owed forty shillings for the 'Crysmas qwarter', perhaps in 1571. 8 Some few years later a David Black is met with schoolmastering at Kilkhampton on the northern borders of Devon and Cornwall where Sir Francis Hastings of Leicestershire had installed Eusebius Paget as Rector. Together: Black and Paget turned the remote peninsula of Hartland upside down. Black defamed the prayer book, preached and catechized though not in orders and used the Geneva liturgy in the presence of Sir Richard Grenville and other Cornish notables. He was later charged by the High Commission with publicly declaring that 'there ought to be no bishops such as now are' and that 'the creation of bishops and ministers is neither godly nor according to the word of God.' He had a habit of riding about the country 'taking notes at sermons and abusing the conservative clergy'. 9 By 1558 the people had in the short space of twenty-five years endured a series of religious upheavals. Elizabeth's solution on her acession was the establishment of the Church of England, product of the Acts of Uniformity and Supremacy, 1559, though puritans like Black Trans. Vol. LV EDUCATION IN RUTLAND 39 together with Roman Catholics either accepted the compromise with ill grace, or rejected it outright. It is no coincidence that the surviving Visitation Books date from 1560. They form part of the Peterborough Diocesan Archives now housed at the County Record Office, Delapre Abbey, Northampton. Until 1541 Rutland was in the Diocese of Lincoln so ecclesiastical source material for educational developments before then and for the Peculiars ofEmpingham, Ketton and Liddington since is possibly still at Lincolnshire. Early Church of England documents, as a recent historian has pointed out, show that, 'In many places where no permanent endowed school existed there might be a private grammar school of a few boys taught by parson or curate, sometimes in remote, rural parishes where no school.would have been expected.' 10 This is true of Rutland, the records of visitation bringing to lighfeleven previously unknown schools, or places where masters eked out a living, 11 and furnishing details of several others already vouched for. This second group 12 includes North Luffenham which may date back to pre Reformation days; a school kept in the church at Pilton in 1584; Braunston, endowed with £30 in 1587 plus schools also in the churches at Langham and Stretton, both in 1640. Schools sending boys on to university at Wing and Tinwell crop up in the Visitation Books but another at Ketton, as expected, does not. Henry Foster in 1692 bequeathed land to support schoolmasters in five hamlets including Thistleton 13 which alone has no master before this date. The business of Elizabethan and Stuart schools was to season youth in learning and scripture in preparation for administrative duty. Education, touching predominantly the middle classes, flourished, a vital component of civil policy. Typically the Oakham schoolmaster had to be a 'Master of Arts', 'honest and discreet', diligent' and 'painful in the educating of children in good learning and religion' while the usher had to be 'godly', 'learned' and 'carry himself reverently'. 14 A system of episcopal licensing was designed to exclude extremists ofleft or right from the schools though in 1564 when Bishop Edmund Scambler reported to the Privy Council on the state of his Peterborough Diocese he ga\'.e no hint as to who were more troublesome. Gentlemen of evil persuasion were patronizing schoolmasters 'of corrupt judgements' who did 'exceeding great hurt' yet chief constables instead of stamping out nonconformity were mostly 'fawtors (favourers) of naughty religion. 15 At each triennial visitation Scambler and his successors required answers to ten articles of enquiry, number four of which follows: Whether your schoolmaster of the free grammar school be of sound religion and do teach his scholars such authors as are allowed by the Queen Majesty's injunctions and what number of choristers there be and by whom are they instructed and what stipend is allowed unto him for their learning. 16 Though this particular query was directed to the Dean and Chapter of Peterborough Cathedral, the churchwardens or special inquisitors ofevery parish were quick to report various offenders. Charges of bastardy, adultery, drunkenness, witchcraft and mowing hay or killing meat on the Sabbath were commonplace; occasionally the scho.olmaster was suspected of being unlicenced. Thus Francis Clements was reported to Scambler in 1577, having taught in Oakham unofficially for nearly two years. 17 Thomas Locke was in a similar position at Ridlington in 1585 but probably moved on as a man of this name was keeping a school at Exton three years later. 18 Robert Andrew, unlicenced ludimagister at Seaton in 1585 had complied with the law by 1588. 19 In 1591 Bishop Richard Howland learned that at Whissendine, 'the scholemr hathe no licence'. 20 Now in 1589 a Mr Slye? was teaching there 21 and by May 1605 Thomas Bury? 22 Such are the vagaries of handwriting in the early Visitation Books, possibly one man is involved. William Withers, discovered teaching without a licence at Morcott in January 1629/30 had to pay only seven shillings for one' because he successfully pleaded poverty. 23 The normal fee in the Peterborough Diocese was eleven shillings and fourpence. Elsewhere too, high cost meant 40 that masters delayed certification and 'a further disincentive to obtaining a licence was the time and trouble the business might take.' 24 Penalties before 1660 were in practice light, detection leading either to prohibition temporarily until a licence was procured - the culprit was often given 'till Michaelmas next' - or penance or, very rarely, excommunication. A masters subscription was an essential preliminary to the issue of a licence. Edward Dalby M.A., on 29th June 1631 wrote typically: I, Edward Dalby de North Luffenham, Master of Arts doe willingly et ex animo subscribe to the 3 articles agreed uppon in ye convocation holden at Westminster Anno Dom. 1604 and to all things therein contained. 25 Snippets besides qualifications are often revealed. Dalby was licensed 'to teach boys and adults;' so too at Whissendine was William Shallcrosse M.A., from 9th July 1639. 27 John Dixon was to teach boys 'in the vernacular language' at Barrowden from 13th April 1630 28 Francis Clapham/Clapton M.A. was licensed the same day to teach boys and adults 'the wants of grammar' at Oakham free school. 29 It has been observed of Robert Johnson that judging by 'the names of the incumbents whom he chose to be governors of his schools at his death, from the schoolmasters whom he appointed . that his sympathies were strongly puritanical. 30 The example ofJeremy Whitaker bears this out. Installed as usher at Oakham in May 1623, 31 he was called 'ludimagister' exactly three years later when he paid a procuration fee of twelve pence. 32 Eventually he was to be numbered amongst the Westminster Assembly of Divines. 33 Religious fervour ran high during and immediately after the interregnum. Ezechiel Johnson M.A., Robert's grandson was Headmaster of Uppingham from circa 1628 to 1641. 34 He was Rector of Paulerspury (Northants) from 1631 and of Cranford St. John (Northants) from 1640 being sequestered from both livings in July 1644 in the drive against pluralism. 35 With the restoration of the monarchy, episcopal licensing was rigorously enforced. The purpose of the Clarendon Code was to rid church and school of non-conformists.