Mortarboards & Mitres
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MORTARBOARDS & MITRES: THE HEADMASTERS OF THE KING’S SCHOOL PETERBOROUGH SINCE 4TH SEPTEMBER 1541 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old he will not depart from it Proverbs: 22; 6 (c) Copyright 2017 Jane King & Trevor Elliott All rights reserved (c) Copyright 2017 Jane King and Trevor Elliott. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the authors. Any request for copyright clearance for use of the material should be directed to the Headteacher of The King's (The Cathedral) School, Peterborough, which is the sole organisation to which the authors have granted permission for its electronic publication. The copyright holders assert their moral rights to be identified as the owners of this work. 2 Introduction The old School: The Becket Chapel. The “new” School (since 1885): Park Road Whilst other works have described The King’s School's development as an institution since it was re- founded as a Cathedral Grammar School under King Henry VIII, comments on its personnel have mainly been confined to the professional deeds of a few Headmasters. The School, however, is a tapestry to which every member of staff and pupil throughout its history has added a thread. Its ethos has evolved over centuries, steered by those at the helm. While each Headmaster held sway, their personality and character greatly affected many lives, with the ripples then radiating far and wide. As their details may help put events into context, we set out to compile a short biography of each Headmaster since 1541. The biographies are arranged in the order in which each Headmaster led the School. Some early dates of tenure have had to be approximated, based on available documents. For simplicity’s sake, we have used the more familiar titles of "Headmaster" and "Deputy" throughout, rather than their archaic titles, such as Pedagogo/Archididascalus and Subpedagogo/Usher. The King's School was known in the early centuries as The Cathedral or Peterborough Grammar School and is occasionally referred to as such in the text. More information has been traced for some Headmasters than others. Details for many early ones in particular are somewhat sparse, due to the survival of so few pertinent records. When Peterborough Cathedral was sacked by Parliamentarians in the seventeenth century, among the many precious items mislaid, stolen or destroyed were countless manuscripts in its archive, resulting in much of the early history of the Cathedral and of The King's School being irrevocably lost. However, although the archive is incomplete, some manuscripts such as Act Books, Chapter Minutes and Treasurers' Accounts thankfully survived, and are among the many sources we have consulted. Others include The King School's own archive, and the research notes of alumnus Tim Hurst-Brown. The relevant sources are recorded at the end of each individual biography; prime sources are also listed in Appendix 1. It is perhaps important to mention that when Peterborough Cathedral was founded in 1541 it was among the poorest in the nation, and the stipends it could afford to pay were correspondingly meagre. In the absence of personal wealth, most Headmasters and Deputies from 1541 to 1852 needed to combine their duties at The King's School with other posts at the Cathedral and/or elsewhere in order to earn a “living wage”. Their additional posts were sometimes many miles from Peterborough, resulting in their occasional absence from the School. The majority of Headmasters and Deputies diligently ensured that at least one of them was always present at the School to attend to the pupils. (A few, however, were somewhat less conscientious, as is described in later pages). As the Deputy was so often left in charge, we have included their details. Some pupils and their later achievements are also featured. We sincerely thank the Dean and Chapter of Peterborough Cathedral for kindly allowing us access to their archives, and are truly grateful to Tim Hurst-Brown, Judith Bunten and Jenny Davies of The King's School for their eager and invaluable assistance. We also thank David Smith, Michael Barcroft, Gary Longman, Darren Ayling, Basil Dean, Margaret Wheeler, Penny Shearcroft and other former staff, pupils and their relatives for their gracious participation. Without their help, and the generous contributions from other Schools' archivists, this record would have been considerably less detailed. Whilst great care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of this record, the details are subject to the reader’s own verification from original documents. We apologise sincerely for any error it may contain. Jane King & Trevor Elliott, February 2017 3 The Foundation of The King's School Like many Schools founded by King Henry VIII, the one that opened its doors on 4th September 1541 as Peterborough Cathedral's Grammar School was a conversion from a long-existent Abbey School. After Peterborough's Benedictine Abbey surrendered to the King on 29/11/1539, Chapter 36 of the Statutes of Peterborough Cathedral recorded that £20 had needed to be allocated for urgent repairs to Abbey property because “the Grammar School, and almost all the buildings in which we will have the Minor Canons, Clerks and others… are in a very ruinous, dilapidated, irregular, and mis-shapen condition”, proving the School existed before 1541. The date that Peterborough Abbey's School began has never been established. (A Peterborough Abbey bailiff recorded in a Court Roll of c1511-12 that he had collected rent from a lease-held property: "4s from Thomas Keywood, now Robert Clerke, for a house in Dedemanslane called le schole house, late of Alice Garton, afterwards of Jane Eyre" [1]. It has been supposed, but is unproved, that it was that School which became The King's School when the Cathedral was founded in September 1541. Two centuries earlier, the Boroughbury Court Rolls recorded in the Hay Reeve’s Presentments for 23/10/1391 that “the Master of the scholars of Burgh” (i.e. Peterborough) had been fined 6d for trespass in the lord’s corn [2]. The Court Rolls also record that in April 1335 William Gere paid 3s 6d for his son Roger to be educated, proving that a School then existed in Peterborough. The King’s School’s true origins probably therefore date back much further than has been widely supposed). When Peterborough Cathedral was founded on 4th September 1541, Chapter 1 of the relevant Statutes listed “the whole number of those who are to be maintained in the Cathedral Church of Peterborough”. They comprised: a Dean, six Prebendaries/Canons, eight Minor Canons, a Deacon and Sub Deacon, eight Lay Clerks, a Choirmaster and eight Choristers, six Bedesmen, two Under Sextons, two Porters, one Butler, one Cook, one Under Cook, and a Grammar School with two Masters to “train up in piety and provide with sound learning not only the twenty boys of our school, but also all others in attendance there for the purpose of learning grammar” [3]. The twenty King’s Scholars were to be clothed and provided with board and lodging at the Cathedral’s expense. (The other pupils' parents paid fees). The Headmaster’s stipend was set at £16 13s 4d, the Deputy's at £8 0s 0d; both were also entitled to free board and lodging in the Minster Precincts. The Dean and Chapter were assigned the duties of selecting the twenty King’s Scholars and of appointing the Headmaster and Deputy [1]. It was prescribed that the Principal Teacher (i.e. Headmaster) must be of good character and pious life, proficient in Greek and Latin and also capable of teaching. The Second Master/Usher (i.e. Deputy) needed only to be proficient in Latin, but was required to have equally high moral standards and the aptitude for teaching. The Book of the Erection of the King’s New Colledge at Peterborowe (known as "The King's Book" [4]) recorded that the King's Scholars in 1541 were: John Chamber William Chamber Thomas Greenhill George Bardeney Stephen Algar Peter Johnson Richard Sands William Stevenson Thomas Sturbridge Edward Browne John Gooding Thomas Shallboult Peter Gryndell John Godfrey William Pierson John Diggeling Robert Dawson John Skinner John Mallorie Only the 19th century transcription of The King's Book now survives. As it lists just 19 names, either the name of the 20th Scholar was unwittingly omitted, or the full quota was not filled in 1541. 4 Peterborough Cathedral document MSS 29: Extracts from Ancient accounts of the Dean and Chapter of Peterborough, commencing 33rd Henry 8th, 1542 (now deposited at Cambridge University Library). Although it relates to events in 1541, the above document itself dates from the 19th century, when the Cathedral Librarian (James Cattell) transcribed details from original documents, stating that his work was “copied from some old loose leaves in the Chapter House, Peterborough, badly written, misspelt”. Many original manuscripts were missing or incomplete by the time he made those transcriptions, with some loose leaves having been lost. The name of the twentieth King’s Scholar in 1541 may have originally been written on one such lost leaf, or was perhaps overlooked by James Cattell when he made the above transcription; alternatively, only nineteen Scholars may have actually been elected in 1541. Notes [1] A.F. Leach: The Victoria History of the County of Northampton, Vol. 2, pages 202-217 (The track referred to as “Dedemanslane”, i.e. dead man’s lane, would have run between the present site of St John the Baptist Church in Cathedral Square and the ancient parish cemetery in Peterborough Abbey’s burial ground.