A HISTORY OF RUTLAND They are to form * one separate body corporate and politic for ever,' ' incorporated and erected ' by the title already mentioned ; to have per- petual succession, and a common seal 'for their business in accordance with the tenor and true intention ' of the charter ; to be persons able and fit and sufficient in law to receive property from Robert Johnson and others for the benefit of the schools, hospitals, and poor scholars, but not such as is held directly from the Crown in chief or by military service, and to sue and be sued. The co-opted members are for the future to be elected by the surviving governors resident within the diocese of Peterborough within six months of a vacancy, from among residents in the diocese seised of lands or tenements of the yearly value of lOOi. at least, and of the full age of twenty-one years ; and, in default of such appointment, by the Bishop, and, in vacancy of the see, by the Dean, of Peterborough. Next they are granted a dispensation from the Statute of Mortmain in receiving property for the pur- poses of the trust, so long as no part of it is held in chief or by military service and the whole does not exceed the clear annual value of 400 marks. Licence in mortmain to the same amount is also given to prospective donors. All such gifts are expressly required to be employed for the objects specified. The next topic dealt with is the appointment of the teachers, almspeople, and poor scholars, and the framing of statutes. The masters are to be upright, religious, discreet, industrious, suita- ble, and learned, and able to compose Greek and Latin verse [carmina tarn Greca quam Latina con- dcre) ; and the ushers must have the same quali- fications, except that they are excused the Greek versifying. The teachers, almspeople, and scholars are to be appointed by Robert Johnson during his life ; subsequently by the governors residing in the diocese of Peterborough; and, in default of such appointment within two months of vacancy, by the Bishop of Peterborough, or, in vacancy of the see, by the Dean, with the consent of three other governors, of whom two must be the Archdeacon of Northampton or the Master of St. John's or the Master of Trinity. Power of dis- missal and deprivation is granted to Johnson in the first instance, and to the governors resident in the diocese of Peterborough after his death. Johnson is further empowered to make suitable and wholesome statutes and orders in writing concerning the appointment, removal, govern- ment, and pay of teachers, poor scholars, and hospitallers, the management of the schools and property. The same privilege is given to the Bishop of Peterborough and the governors after his death, with the limitation that their addi- tions must not be in any way repugnant or derogatory to the letters patent, to the statutes, laws, and customs of the realm in force for the time being, or to statutes and orders framed by 2 Johnson or by previous governors. Such statutes and orders are to be observed inviolably for ever. The last provision of importance grants to Johnson's schools, with a reservation, the educa- tional monopoly of the neighbourhood. There shall not be and there shall not be permitted to be any other public grammar school for reading and teaching Latin authors within miles of the towns of Okeham and Uppingham or either of them except in the town of North Luffenham, unless for very grave reasons it be thought desirable, good and necessary by us and our successors, by Robert Johnson during his life, or by the governors and their successors after his death. The founder, in accordance with these letters patent, built the schools and hospitals, and having 'procured for them ... a mortmaine of fower hundred markes [j^266 135. ifdP^ whereby well disposed people maie give unto them as god shall move their hartes,' ' bought landes of Quene Elizabeth towardes the maintenance of them.' * This endowment consisted of the impropriate rectories of Leake, Barholm-cum-Stowe, and Whaplode, in the county of Lincoln, and of Bulkington with its hamlets in the county of Warwick, with the tithes belonging to these rectories, and a claim to a number of quarters of barley issuing out of the rectory of Edlington, in the county of Lincoln. These properties were granted by letters patent of Elizabeth of II February 1588-9 and I July 1 59 1, for a sum of ^1,348 13;. d. therein stated to have been received from Robert Johnson, to the use of the governors of the schools and hospitals of Oakham and Uppingham, to hold as of her manor of East Greenwich by fealty only and in free and common socage, and not in chief or by military service.* According to the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535, ;^i8 yearly was paid from the rectory of Leake to William Morke and John Coke, ' fellows of the college or chantry of Sir Nicholas Cantelupe ' {iocii colUgii sive cantarie domini Nicholai de Canto Lupo) in Lincoln Cathedral ; ' the rectory of Barholm- cum-Stowe, of the value of jT 1 4 5J., was reckoned among the spiritualities of the monastery of the Apostles Peter and Paul of Bourne ; ' the rectory of Whaplode, of the value of ;^22 7J. 4^., ' Johnson's epitaph in North Luffenham Church. See infra, p. 264.
- Pat. 3 1 & 3 3 Eliz. pts. 8 and 5 respectively.
' Fahr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 25. The chantry was founded by the third Baron Cantelupe, soldier and diplomat, who died in 13;;. ' Ibid. 103. The abbey of Bourne was founded in 1 1 38 bv Baldwin, a younger son of Gilbert de Clare, and brother of the first Earl of Pembroke. The church of Barholm-cum-Stowe was included in the original endowment (Dugdale, Mon vi, 370; Round, Geoffrey of MandcvUle, 160, and Peerage Studies, 75). 62
