The Middleton Accounts of 1526: #32
- Debbie Jordan
- Jun 11
- 2 min read
The next three entries in the Middleton household accounts for Sir Henry Willoughby in 1526 were dated 11th June. All of these entries concerned costs incurred when Sir Henry’s servant, John Lewissay, took Catesby to Southwell Grammar School in Nottinghamshire. As mentioned in a previous post, Catesby is thought to have been a ward of Sir Henry.
The first entry was described as Lewissay’s costs to go to Southwell to carry Master Catesby to the school and the amount was 20 pence, which was the equivalent of about £36.77 today. The second entry was described as payment for shoeing the horses and the amount was 4 pence, which was the equivalent of about £7.35 today. Finally, the third entry was described as payment to the schoolmaster for school hire. The amount was 4 shillings 4 pence, which was the equivalent of about £95.61 today.
The Grammar School at Southwell is thought to have been founded in about 959AD as a result of a gift from King Eadwig of England to Oscytel, Archbishop of York. This gift was described as being for the founding at Southwell of a Chapter, a Church and a school to teach the singing boys Latin. It is one of the oldest schools in England and the world. The original Grammar School was located within Southwell Minster itself, at the west end of the south aisle of the nave. It was only in 1777 that a specific schoolhouse was first established to house the Grammar School and it has moved multiple times since then.
School hours were long and evidence for this comes from the oldest surviving description of the school day. In 1579, the Minster Chapter instructed the schoolmaster to regulate the timetable of the day. This instruction stated that: from the 25th March, at 6am the master and scholars would attend the school and stay there until 11am, then again from 1pm until 6pm and from the 29th September it would change to 7am-11am and 1pm-5pm; scholars would not be given leave to play on any weekday except Thursday afternoons; and on Saturday afternoons, until evening prayer, the scholars were to attend the school to exercise their writing and other things.
The earliest known evidence of the nature of the curriculum at the School comes from a document dated 1585, which outlined what the teacher would teach. It was stated that he would provide instruction in: Latin and Greek grammar; Latin and Greek authors both poets and orators; and the Christian religion. The children were still often choristers in the Minster.
Despite being tied to Southwell Minster, the School managed to survive the Reformation and the Civil War. In the 1970s, it merged with the larger Edward Cludd Secondary Modern School to become the Southwell Minster School, a co-educational comprehensive school for 11 to 18-year-olds. It has retained a small selective section, which includes the choristers of Southwell Minster and other musically gifted children.
Further Reading: W. H. Stevenson, Report on the Manuscripts of Lord Middleton, Historical Manuscripts Commission, 1911. p.383.
D. J. Hutchison, The Ancestry of the Minster School, 2020.
Author - Debbie Jordan, Middleton Hall Volunteer.
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