SCHOOLS INTRODUCTION jA S might be expected in a county so /^L small and so sparsely populated as / ^ Rutland, there are very few traces / ^ of pre-Reformation schools. Not that the institutions in connexion with which schools came into existence elsewhere were wanting there. Oakham had its castle, with chapel, chantry, and parson's house, from very early times.^ The county towards the end of the 14th century could boast for a short period of two colleges, one at Manton, founded by Sir William Wade in 1356 in connexion with the altar of the Blessed Mary in the parish church, of a warden and three chaplains,^ and another at Tolethorpe, a refoundation of the earlier hos- pital, for which licence was obtained from the pope by Sir William de Burton in 1359, on quite a large scale, with a master and six chap- lains.' Possibly both of these colleges supported schoolmasters so long as they flourished. The latter certainly could only have done so for a very short time ; it soon dwindled away to a mere chantry, and even this was discontinued probably as early as 14 10. The former's staff of chaplains was reduced to one at any rate from 1 49 1, but apparently neither warden nor chaplain interested himself in the education of youth, and when the college was dissolved its property was granted away,* and no school arose out of its ashes, although at the time of the Chantry Certi- ficate (1548) there were as many as ' 100 house- lyng people ' there.' The priory of Brooke, tenanted by canons of the Augustinian order, which had controlled schools elsewhere, as at Gloucester, was never sufficiently well endowed to encourage settled work. Of the six gilds known to have existed in the county it is very likely that at least one of the three at Oakham, the chief town, and one at North LufFenham, may have provided a schoolmaster ; if they did ' See for example Chan. Inq. p.m. 14 Edw. Ill (2ndnos.), 67,and Line. Epis. Reg. Instit. Dalderby, 1 1 1 d. (mention of the chantry in 1307). ' Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Gynwell, fol. 163. ' Ca/. of Papal Pet. 340. ' P.R.O. Aug. Off. Partic. for Grants, 1559. ' P.R.O. Ch.int. Cert. 39, no. I. The master re- ceived a pension of ^^i I 5/. id., and the brother ^c) %!. after all deductions, at this time (i 541). we know nothing about them. The sole school existing in 1548 was one in connexion with the chantry in the Lady Chapel of the parish church of Whitwell. This chantry was founded in accordance with a licence in mortmain of 20 February 1345, which empowered Richard de Whitwell, pre- bendary of Empingham, in the church of the Blessed Mary, Lincoln, otherwise Lincoln Cathe- dral, to grant two messuages and z virgates of land in Great Hambleton, Little Hambleton, and Whitwell, for the benefit of a chaplain, ' to celebrate divine service daily in the church of Whitwell for the good estate of the said Richard while living, and for his soul after his departure from this world, and for the souls of his father and mother and the faithful dead.' ' Little is known about the founder's career. He was doubtless a native of the place. He may quite well have been the Richard de Whitwell, son of Elias, against whom, with a goodly company of fellow-raiders, a commission of oyer and terminer issued on 28 February 131 8, for breaking the houses of Edmund de Passeleye in Empingham, Normanton, Horn, and Hardwyk, in the county of Rutland.' But it was not only his native village that benefited by his piety. On I July 1348 he joined with two others in obtaining a licence in mortmain to grant property to the dean and chapter of St. Mary's, Lincoln, for the support of two chaplains to celebrate divine service there daily for the grantors in life and after death, and for the soul of Master Hugh de Walmesford.* Before his death he obtained licence from Ed- ward III to found certain chantries in the same church, maintain others, and support other charitable works, and to grant property up to the yearly value of ,^40 to the dean and chapter for the purpose. Masses were to be said for the souls of King Edward, of Henry de Burghersh, Bishop of Lincoln, of the donor, and of their kindred and friends. But he does not seem to have lived to carry out his intention, which was afterwards fulfilled in 1 39 1-2 by his last sur- viving executor.' Other incidents in his career ' Pat. 19 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 32. ' Pat. 1 1 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 33 d. ' Pat. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 27. 'Pat. 15 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 40 ; Pat. i6Ric. II, pt. i, m. 12. ^59
