Page:The histories of Launceston and Dunheved, in the county of Cornwall.djvu/385

FREE SCHOOL— FIRST SCHOOL-HOUSE. 349 we can only conjecture what were its contents. From Mr. Aylworthe's letter we infer that Her Majesty had been urged to help the institution ; that she had not made a very cheerful concession, had perhaps even exhibited some " temper " on the subject, but that she had in fact promised to give, out of her Duchy revenues, a yearly sum in support of the school. The subsequent usages here tend to prove that she stipulated for the free teaching of some poor children, and that the payment should be made only when and while there was a master provided by the Corporation to teach them. She may also have required that the teacher should be in holy orders. The Queen and her successors have paid £17 13s. 4d. yearly. (less the auditors' and other fees) in aid of the school. These pay- ments have occasionally been suspended while there was no master. Until the intervention of the Charity Trustees the master was always appointed by the Corporation, and six scholars were sometimes, though by no means con- stantly, freely educated at the school. The following extract is from the mayor's account for 1621-2: "£17 13s. 4d. Receaved for an yeerely stipend allowed by the King's Mat ie and his most Royall Aunces- tors, of their especiall grace, unto the maior and comalty of the said Bourrough and their successors, yeerely for ever to be paid towards the mayntaynaunce of a ffree sclioolc within the said Bourrough for ever. The same £17 13s. 46. paid unto Mr. William Williams, scoole master." The first school-house to which we can find any reference stood in the Blindhole, a part of the town mentioned in our chapter on the church. The house was in fact near the church, on the site occupied at present by the butchers' market and market yard, and perhaps contiguous to the other public building, then known as the old shambles. In the accounts of the mayors for the years 1572 and 1573 are numerous charges for repairs to the school-house