R6/63/35/3

Letter

3 May 1602

From: 1602 To: 1602

A letter from John Armitage, Woburn schoolmaster, to Hugh Vaughan, one of the feoffees of Woburn School containing an account of the state of the said school – as follows: “Understanding by divers of the great care and regard you have late of this schoole of Wooburne as being a feoffee and cheife Patron thereof I was emboldened to make my humble and earnest request unto your worship by these presents in the behest of the same which I hoped to have done by word of mouth this last weeke at London where I was certified your worship would then be and whither I came onely upon that occasion and stayd two dayes expecting your worshipp’s coming but for divers expects could tary no longer my request is that your worship would consider of the weake and uncertaine estate of the schoole and vouchsafe your favour and furtherance in bettering the same and redressing those injuries which shall appeare unto your worship to be done unto it. The estate of the schoole is as followeth:” “1. The whole maintenance £1016s arising of these stocks: 1. £90 in Mr Catesby’s hande for which he payeth the interest quarterly but for the most parte I am enforced to fetch it at his house 8 miles off and shall sometimes stay 5 weeks or more before I can have it. Mr Catesby desireth to have his bond renewed and I do request that he may be bound tp pay it at the schoole within some certaine time after the quarter day yf your worship shall thinke it so fit. 2. £10 in Mr Gibsons hande the parson of Eversholt who payeth the Interest quarterly but there is no assurance for the prnciphill so that yf he die the money is in doubt to be lost and the man is verie sickly and subiect to man’s infirmities [he died in November 1602] 3. £8 in Thomas Stanton’s hands for which there is no securitie nor scarce sufficiency I can scarce with much adoe get the Interest of him for it”. “2. The schole hath ever since the foundation enioyed two litle yurds the one for a wodyurd and such like uses, the other for a place whither the master and schollers especially in winter have recourse for necessarie businesses both is necessarie that the schoole can misse neither without great inconveniency. The first was given to the schoole by that good old Earle of Bedford [Francis, 2nd Earl] at the foundation continued on since by the old Countesse and as some thinke is conteined in the deede of feoffment but is taken away by one Robert Short specially by the sinister meanes and dealing of Francis Stanton late Bayliffe to the old Countesse and Thomas Stanton aforementioned his brother kinsmen to the said Short. The color they pretend for this their doing is soe that in Mr Smith my predecessors time Short tooke a copie of the cotage house adioyning to the said yurd from my Lady into which copie the writer thereof the same Thomas Stanton (as I have bene credibly informed) foysted the said yurd without the knowledge of my Lady of the Steward of the Court purposely to defeate the schoole there for ever: whereas it nowe not in the old copie of the said cottage whereupon Mr Smith complained to my Lady and upon his complaint my Lady commanded that Short should surrender it which (as Mr Smith doth certifie) he did openly in the face of the Court and so nevertheless Mr Smith enioyed it still and at his departure delivered the possession therof to me. I have a key of the dore, but after Mr Smith’s departure Short stopt up my dore and entrance with loggs of wodd and other things so that I could not come into it peaceably and hath therein since reared up hovells very unseemly against the side of the schoole neither can I upon complaint in the Court be relieved the Stantons bearing great sway in the towne are so greatly my adversaries in it. Wherefore I am enforced to appeale unto your worship for reliefe in this matter saying that by your most good meanes my Lord will vouchsafe the schoole that favor in this respect which His Honour’s predecessors have done. The like request I make to your worship as concerning the other yurd which is now in question and in harzurd to be lost, yet all my predecessors since the foundation have with the good will and likeing of the Lord and Lady deceased of their offices enioyed the same”. “The old Countesse gave £20 to the schoole a little before her death but the money being then in the hande of two of our townsmen, who had 6 months libertie to pay it in was unpaied to the schoole at her death and then Lord Moris of his Steward called for the money out of our said Townsmens hande and idevine [?] it from the schoole wheras my lady did absolutely give it as may be proved by the testimonie of men of good credit who were privie to her Ladyship’s purpose and meaning in that behalf. This is the summe of the cheifest matters wherefore I came upp to London to have acquainted your worship withal and fo now present them to your worshipp’s consideration humbly entreating your worship to vouchsafe this poore schoole your accustomed patronage and convenience and myself your lawfull favors long as my behavior in the place shall not give your worship any iust occasion to the contrarie. Thus craving pardon for my so much boldnes in this rude sort and my humble duty to your worship remembered I take my leave” The letter is addressed “To the worshipful[?] his verie good freind Mr Hughe Vaughan at Bedford howse in the Strand or elswhere in London give this with speed”. It is annotated: “xii to be taught freely of the poorest in the parish of Woborne. Thus xii poore to be in the election and denomination of the greater parte of the feofees with the assistance of the Minister and Churchwardens for the tyme being. The residue of the parish to paie for every scholler [unreadable word] quarterlie and not above. And the foreners to paie as they can agree with the schoolmaster”. There is also a list of names of the feoffees as in R6/63/35/4 with, in addition, John Harding, son of Edmund Harding of Aspley Guise, Thomas Hurst of Aspley Guise [crossed out] and Henry Berrie of Cranfield [crossed out] Note: Hugh Vaughan was the Earl of Bedford’s steward in the west of England and MP, successively, for Bridport, Dartmouth, Plymouth and Tavistock. Robert Short “Town Clarke” was buried in Woburn on 14th March 1626 and Sir Francis Stanton on 30th March 1639.

item

Vaughan, Hugh,
Armitage, John,
Catesby, Thomas,
Gibson, John,
Stanton, Thomas,
Staunton, Thomas,
Russell, Francis (2nd Earl of Bedford),
Hussey, Bridget,
Russell, Bridget (Countess of Bedford),
Short, Robert,
Stanton, Francis,
Staunton, Francis,
Smith,
Morris,
Harding, John,
Harding, Edmund,
Hurst, Thomas,
Berrie, Henry

Woburn School, WOBURN, MPs, Bridport, Plymouth, Tavistock, Dartmouth, schoolmaster