during our said pleasure, but alsoe to be aydinge and assistinge vnto them, yf any wronge be done vnto them or to them offred, and to allowe them such further curtesies as have bene given to other of the like qualitie, And alsoe what further grace and favour you shall show vnto them for our sakes wee shall take kindly at your handes. Provided alwaies and our will and pleasure is, all authoritie, power, priviledge, and profitt whatsoever belonginge and properlie apperteyninge to the Maister of the Revelles in respect of his office shall remayne and abide entire and in full force, effect, and vertue, and in as ample sort as if this our Commission had never byn made. In witnes whereof &c, witnes our selfe at Westminster the seaventeenth day of Iuly.
per breve de priuato sigillo &c.
The company is not traceable in London, but Daniel
brought it to Norwich in 1616-17. By April 1618 he had
assigned his privilege to Martin Slater, John Edmonds and
Nathaniel Clay, who obtained, presumably from the Privy
Council, supplementary letters of assistance in which they
are described as 'her Maiesties servants', and are authorized
to play as 'her Maiesties servants of her Royall Chamber of
Bristoll'.[1] From a complaint sent in the following June by
the Mayor of Exeter to Sir Thomas Lake, it emerges that,
although the patent was for children, the company consisted
of five youths and several grown men.[2] Slater and Edmonds
still held their status as Queen's men (q.v.) in 1619.
vi. WESTMINSTER SCHOOL
Head Masters:—John Adams (1540); Alexander Nowell (1543-53);
Nicholas Udall (1555-6); John Passey (1557-8, with Richard Spencer
as usher); John Randall (1563); Thomas Browne (1564-9); Francis
Howlyn (1570-1); Edward Graunte (1572-92); William Camden
(1593-8, Undermaster 1575-93); Richard Ireland (1599-1610); John
Wilson (1610-22).
Choir Masters (?):—William Cornish (1480); John Taylor (1561-7); John Billingsley (1572); William Elderton (1574).
[Bibliographical Note.—The best sources of information are: R. Widmore,
History of Westminster Abbey (1751); J. Welch [—C. B. Phillimore],
Alumni Westmonasterienses, ed. 2 (1852); Appendix to First Report of the
Cathedral Commissioners (1854); F. H. Forshall, Westminster School, Past
and Present (1884); J. Sargeaunt, Annals of Westminster School (1898);
A. F. Leach, The Origin of Westminster School in Journal of Education,
n. s. xxvii (1905), 79. Some valuable records have been printed by
