CHAPTER 3. THE PERIOD OF THE EARLY STUARTS (1603--1660). The seventeenth century was a period of prosperity for the Grammar Schools of England, and Kibworth seems to have shared in this progress. In the first place, most schools were now provided with buildings specially erected for housing the scholars; and it was in this period that Kibworth Grammar School left the Church for a proper school house. This event occurred a few years before the outbreak of the Civil War, and the events leading up to the building of the first school house are as follows. In 1601 Parliament had passed an Act, whereby commissions of enquiry were to be set up to investigate the lands, goods and moneys that had previously been given to charitable trusts. In 1614 the commission of enquiry for Leicestershire was appointed, and in 1615 four of its members came to Kibworth to see what charitable trusts existed there. The commissioners found out that one such charitable trust was the Free Grammar School in Kibworth Beauchamp. They investigated its origins and came to the conclusion that " certain messuages, farms, closes, cottages and lands " had been given for the maintenance of a Free Grammar School in Kibworth Beauchamp and for the maintenance of a schoolmaster there before the memory of any man to the contrary to certain persons, feoffees, in trust for the same. They then inquired into the rents paid by the tenants, and found out that they were not paying their full amounts. They also reported that no proper school house was yet in existence. Finally, the commissioners made their recommendations. They proposed that the rents should continue to be used for the maintenance of a Free Grammar School in Kibworth, but added that a school house had to be built in Kilpeck's close. They also stipulated that the tenants were not only to pay up their arrears of rent, but also to have their rents increased in future. The following table indicates the names of the School tenants in 1615, the amount of land they possessed, the rent they had been paying before 1615 and the new rents.Parish Tenant Extent of Land Old Rent New Rent Parish Tenant Extent of land Old Rent New Rent £ s. d. £ s. d. Kibworth Beau. T. Kilpeck 1 1/2 yardlands 7 0 0 18 0 0 " " T. Vale 1/2 " 2 10 0 3 10 0 " " R. Ward 1 " 5 0 0 9 10 0 " Har. N. Kind 1 " 5 0 0 10 0 0 " " J. Foxon 1/4 " 2 4 6 2 10 0 Smeeton West. R. Bryan 1/4 " 3 3 0 3 10 0 " " R. Loddington 1/4 " 1 15 0 2 5 0 " " Z. Chapman 1 " 5 0 0 9 0 0 Total 5 3/4 " 31 12 6 58 5 0 The increase in rents, which brought in the feoffees an extra £27, was no doubt fixed by the commissioners to assist them in building the school house. The School had not as yet acquired a definite school house, but was still kept in the Church and in private houses. Possibly it had been kept in houses belonging to the School for the last few years, for since 1595 the ecclesiastical authorities had frowned on the practice of keeping schools in churches. Therefore, the commissioners, as we have seen, ordered the feoffees to build a proper school house for the boys of Kibworth Grammar School, and they expressly ordered it to be built in Kilpeck's close. They added that the money from the rents was to be paid directly to the schoolmaster, who was to provide for the upkeep of the School out of it. Finally the Commissioners provided for the continuation of the trust by ordering that, when only three of the surviving feoffees remained, they were to enfeoff seven others. The decree of the commissioners was carried out, and the first school house was built about 1630. It was placed not on the site of the present School, but some fifty yards away, near the bottom of the paddock, on a site where the railway now runs. The schoolmaster at the time of the building of the new school house was the Rev. Richard Kestyn, who had been appointed in 1611 to succeed the Rev. John Orpin. He was schoolmaster at Kibworth for more than twenty years, being succeeded in 1634 by the Rev. James Weston. Mr. Weston had been educated at the Free Grammar School in Leicester and then at the Grammar School which had recently been opened in Market Harborough. After studying at Christ's College, Cambridge, he came in 1626 to Tur Langton as curate. A few years later, in 1634, he was appointed to be schoolmaster of Kibworth Grammar School. Presumably, he found difficulty in combining the two posts of curate and schoolmaster, for at the visitation of 1634 he was presented for defect in canonical habit. Clearly this irregularity did not go against him, for in the next year he became curate at Kibworth. In 1639, however, the Archbishop of Canterbury revoked his licence to teach, possibly because he was teaching doctrine unsuitable to Laud. Kibworth at this time was already leaning towards the Puritan side. So, in 1639, the Rev. James Wright succeeded Weston as schoolmaster, and it is under him that we first hear of boys from the School gaining awards to Oxford and Cambridge. Indeed, throughout the rest of the seventeenth century and in the early eighteenth century, boys from Kibworth were going to the Universities, one sign of the high standard of teaching and of the healthy condition of the School in this period. James Wright was Headmaster when two boys from Kibworth gained places at the University. They were John Berridge and Samuel Wood. John Berridge was the tenth son of the Rector of Kibworth, Rev. John Berridge, and he was admitted to Jesus College, Oxford, in 1642. Samuel Wood was the son of a yeoman farmer of Saddington, and he won a place at St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1646, when he was only fourteen. It was about 1646 that the Rev. Jeremie Nelson became schoolmaster, and during his period of office two very important events occurred. The first was the drawing up of a code of rules for the School and the second was the bitter strife which broke out between the School Governors and their tenants. The Kibworth School rules are based to a great extent on those of Market Bosworth Grammar School. It was in 1630 that the Governors of the latter School had had their constitutions drawn up, and so it was only natural that, when in 1647 the Governors of Kibworth decided to have their rules written down, they should procure a copy of the Market Bosworth regulations, and use them as a model. There is still, in fact, a copy of the Market Bosworth Constitutions in the Kibworth chest, and attached to it is a paper containing this note: "Out of these articles there are selected these that follow, out of which you will select so much as will do for the School of Kibworth ". The Kibworth Governors, indeed, went through the Bosworth Constitutions most carefully, for they crossed out a number of clauses and inserted clauses of their own. In fact, in the Kibworth copy are notes which appear to be minutes compiled by one of the feoffees who attended the meeting held to consider what alterations should be made to the Bosworth Constitutions. One note is as follows:-- "I must prepare speedily So much of the schedule as will fit this School and engross them on parchment that they may be signed and sealed ". The Kibworth Constitutions, drawn up in 1647, tell us a good deal about a small Grammar School in the mid-seventeenth century. The number of children attending the School would be about thirty and they would all be boys, for no girls were admitted into the School until 1907. The staff consisted merely of the schoolmaster himself, but an usher was to be appointed as soon as numbers warranted it. An interesting comment on the number of staff appears in the Kibworth copy of the Bosworth Constitu- tions. " The intent is to have a master and an usher; but not at the first. Until there shall be a competent number of scholars able to be of the upper school there shall be only a master who shall receive all the salary and teach all and then when need shall be there be an usher able to teach Latin." The main subject of the curriculum was, in fact, Latin. The Kibworth Governors did not prescribe the text-books to be studied, as did the Bosworth Governors, but stated simply that the schoolmaster and usher " shall teach none but authentical authors and because the School standeth much upon poor men's children, whose parents are not able to buy many books, that they read unto them few books and them throughout, if conveniently they may ". This last clause is a reminder that Kibworth was a free School, where the boys paid no tuition fees. In fact the opening rule stated: " The School- master, and as need shall require the usher, shall with all care and diligence teach the children and youth (and that to be done freely) of the said parish of Kibworth in learning". The parish of Kibworth consisted of Kibworth Beauchamp, Kibworth Harcourt and Smeeton Westerby. The feoffees insisted on a certain standard of attainment before children were admitted into the School; they had to know their letters and "be somewhat well entered into the spelling of words". No mention is made of the age at which boys could enter the School, or for how long they could remain. Once admitted, however, they had to make reasonable progress or to suffer the consequences. " The Schoolmaster shall certify the parents of such children as they shall find unapt for learning or indoceble, to the end that said parents may prevent their loss of time and expenses ". The curriculum contained, in addition to Latin, Religious Instruction. One of the main aims in setting up a school in the Middle Ages and for a long while after was to promote the spiritual welfare of the children by definite instruction in the Christian faith. Hence, at Kibworth, one hour every other Saturday was to be spent in teaching the children their religion. The younger children had to learn the ordinary catechism by heart, while the elder were struggling with the Lord's Prayer, The Creed, the Ten Commandments and the Sacraments according to the orthodox tenets of the Church of England. The amount of time spent on religious teaching seems small, but in addition the children had to attend church on Sunday, when some of them were required to take down notes of the sermons. In the mid-seventeenth century, the feoffees undertook their duties most conscientiously. They did everything within their power to see that the boys received a good education. With this end in view, they took considerable care over the selection of the Schoolmaster. He had to be well educated, an M.A. or a B.A.; he had to be free from all infectious and contagious diseases, honest, virtuous and learned. He had to devote the whole of his time to looking after the School and to be a good example to the boys. (A long list details the various vices from which he had to abstain, such as night-walking and gaming). The feoffees made arrangements for inspecting the children—they themselves, together with the Rectors of Kibworth and Church Langton, were " on the Thursday before Whit to examine the children, hear them dispute and observe their proficiency". Strangely enough, the Kibworth feoffees made no mention of the salary they were prepared to pay the schoolmaster. The usual figure was £20 p.a. The Kibworth rules, however, did mention that hs was to be paid twice a year, once at Lady Day and again at Michaelmas. In order to reach a proficient standard of work, the children had to spend long hours in school. Hours in the seventeenth century and later were practically the same in all schools. Morning school began at six o'clock in Summer and seven o'clock in Winter, and continued till eleven o'clock. Afternoon school began at one o'clock and carried on till five. No excuse for being late was taken from the Kibworth children; but some indulgence was given to those " of out towns who were hindered by water or other unseasonableness of weather". Children, then, spent far longer in school each day than do their successors. Moreover, their holidays were not so long as those of today. By a curious oversight no mention is made of holidays in the Kibworth rules, but from evidence of other schools we know that the children broke up at Easter and Christmas for about a fortnight for each holiday. The long hours spent in school, the lack of books, and the teaching of all the boys together in one room contributed to the problem of discipline. The chief method the master employed in keeping the children under control was corporal punishment. At Kibworth, the Governors saw to it that the schoolmaster did not overstep the mark, for he could not " strike any scholars about the head or face with his hands or fist or with a rod, book or any such like thing." If, however, the schoolmaster did hit a boy, he was to pay to the Common Box one shilling. Moreover, if he got really angry and kicked a boy, he was to be fined five shillings. The master sought the help of senior boys in running the School. These prefects, however, had no real part in keeping discipline: their role was limited to informing the schoolmaster of such boys as broke the school laws, such as misbehaving in church or swearing. From the school rules it appears that the seventeenth-century schoolboy possessed two main vices, swearing and throwing stones. At Kibworth monitors were to be appointed " to observe the scholars in the upper school and present them that swear or use any unseemly talk ". Moreover, two monitors were appointed whose sole task was to stop boys from breaking the school windows. The last clause of the 1647 Constitutions enables the feoffees to continue the running of the School. A feoffment of the School lands was to be made to fifteen new feoffees when there remained only four survivors of the previous feoffment. The feoffees, who were to be the most able and discreet men of the parish, had to reside in it. Future schoolmasters were to sign the rules to acknowledge their assent to them. These rules provided the legal basis for the running of the School until the beginning of the nineteenth century, when they were superseded by a new set of rules. Actually only four schoolmasters signed the Kibworth Constitutions, and the inference is that, after a period of rapid development, in the latter part of the seventeenth century and in the beginning of the eighteenth century, the School began to decline in the mid-eighteenth century till, in the latter part of that century, the feoffees became so negligent that they did not trouble to enforce the rules. Thus, for all practical purposes, the rules were in operation only till about 1750. The original copy now occupies a place of honour in the School Library, and pupils of today, who are no longer bound by its rules, often find interest and amusement in it. Most Grammar Schools have, at one time or another, become involved in disputes over their lands, and such was the misfortune of Kibworth in the mid-seventeenth century. Soon after the rules had been drawn up, the school feoffees became involved in a quarrel with their tenants—a quarrel which lasted for several years. As we have seen, in order to build the new school house, the feoffees had raised the rents of the tenants, especially that of Thomas Kilpeck, whose rent was doubled. At first, the tenants raised no objection to the increase in rents, but, about 1645, some of them refused to pay, on the ground that the lands they held were not school lands, but their own property. The leader of the tenants in this matter was John Abbott. Abbott was Kilpeck's son-in-law; it was in his close that the new school house had been built, and it was through his yard that the boys had to pass on their way to school. No doubt he felt it a decided nuisance to have boys coming through his yard; so much the better for his comfort if the School ceased to exist. There may also have been a deeper motive to account for the struggle between the tenants and the feoffees—it may reflect the struggle between the Church and the Puritans which at this time was splitting the country at large. The feoffees were decidedly Church of England, while there was a large body of dissent in Kibworth. Whatever the main motive at work among the tenants, they made a most determined effort to close the School. The feoffees drew up a bill of complaint, in which they stated:-- The tenants do threaten to pull down the Schoolhouse and have excluded the Schoolmaster out of the same, whereby he is constrained to take a house remote from the School. And John Abbott, being a very contentious and malicious person, he, his wife and children have used very often to annoy the School by laying of dunghills near the School, by throwing cow dung upon some of the feoffees and upon the doors and windows of the School- house and upon the Schoolmaster and scholars there and so threatened and reviled them that they are in fear to come to the School and so that the Schoolmaster dare not glaze the School windows for that they continually break them down again, but is forced to lattice the windows which many times are cut in pieces by Abbott. In his reply, Abbott denied that he had broken the windows of the school house or that he had ever attacked the school master or his scholars; he did, however, admit that " one of his daughters did once throw a cow clod at one Mr. Richard Halford, one of the feoffees, being thereunto provoked by the incivilities and threatening speeches of Mr. Halford". Naturally, the feoffees could not tolerate this situation for long, and in the end they decided to have recourse to the law. Unfortunately for the School, Abbott and his friends had planned their attack well, for they had acquired possession of all the counterparts of the leases and of other legal evidence, such as charters, which the feoffees needed to prove that the lands in question did actually belong to the School. Accord- ingly, the feoffees could not proceed in the ordinary law courts, but had to bring their suit before the court of Chancery, which in 1650 appointed a Commission to hear the case. The first move on the part of the commissioners was to get local evidence which might throw light on the dispute. Accord- ingly, a number of witnesses were summoned to appear before them on Thursday, 16th October, 1651, at nine o'clock " at the house of widow Chamberlain at the sign of the Crown in Great Glen ". The depositions of these witnesses are still extant in the school chest, and they throw light, not only on the contest between feoffees and tenants, but also, as we have seen, on the early history of the School. Having heard the evidence, the commissioners issued their findings in the form of a decree, dated 27th January, 1652. They declared that the lands in question had been given for the upkeep of a Free Grammar School for the parish of Kibworth and for a schoolmaster thereof, that the school tenants,'including Abbott, should within two months pay all arrears of rent, that the tenants should in future pay to one of the feoffees their rents in full and that the three feoffees who had taken the main share in fighting Abbott and who had spent £97 of their own money in doing so, should reimburse themselves during the next twenty-one years with money derived from school lands. They also decreed that the feoffees should in future meet twice a year, once in March and again in September, " for the better ordering of affairs concerning the School". Finally, the commissioners adjudged Abbott to be a very unfit tenant to hold any school lands, but no direct order was given for Abbott's dismissal. This decree, however, did not stop the litigation, for Abbott contested the commissioners' decree, and the dispute was once more brought into the courts. On May 20th, 1652, the commissioners heard the case again, and issued a second decree. This time the commissioners suggested that tenants ' unconformable' should be removed, that they should deliver up to the feoffees copies of their leases, and that Abbott should give some security, if he wished to remain a tenant. Another point that the commissioners made was that the schoolmaster should have a house near to the School for dwelling in. Soon after the second decree Abbott must have quitted his farm next to the School and the feoffees evidently seized the opportunity to use his dwelling as the Schoolmaster's house, for in a lease of March 1653 we find that the feoffees have allowed the Schoolmaster, the Rev. Jeremie Nelson, to rent the messuage, once in the occupation of John Abbott. Thus, the tenants suffered defeat, and the second determined effort to close Kibworth Grammar School had failed. Although the tenants had been defeated in their main aim, it was only natural that Puritan influences should be felt in the School during the Commonwealth period. That may account for the termination of Nelson's appointment about 1656, and the appointment of the Rev. George Robertson as Schoolmaster. Little is known about him, but during his stay of two or three years at Kibworth the Constitutions of 1647 were revised in 1657. • They are more or less a summary of the previous rules, but there are one or two alterations, which do suggest that the School was beginning to expand. In the first place, there was now definitely an usher; in fact, a clause was inserted that the Minister of Kibworth was to act as supply for him were he absent. Again, a fresh clause was introduced in 1657 as follows: "Whereas some scholars from other places are admitted into the said School and more may be afterwards admitted, the Schoolmaster shall take care that the parish free scholars be not wronged by any that come from other places". The School clearly now enjoyed a reputation sufficient to attract scholars from outside Kibworth. In fact, when the Rev. Mr. Sheffield was ejected from the rectory of Ibstock in 1662 because he refused to take the Oath of Uniformity, he came to reside in Kibworth so that his children could have the privilege of attending the Grammar School. It was only to be expected that reference to the Church of England should be deleted from the revised rules of 1657. Cromwell did not extend liberty of worship either to High Anglicans or to Catholics; so children at Kibworth were hence- forth to be instructed in the true orthodox principles of the Christian religion, as interpreted by the Puritans. The last clause of the revised rules provided for the continued running of the School. When only seven of the fifteen feoffees re- mained alive, they were to issue a new charter, within six months, appointing a new body of trustees, fifteen in. number. The feoffees who signed the revised rules were William Raie, Richard Halford, William Watts, Richard Diffe, George Fox and Edward Iliffe. There were, in addition, three feoffees who simply made their mark, because they could not write. Robert Eastwood made an R, Andrew Jordan a J, and Isaac Davenport an I. On the back of the revised rules is the following note: " I do hereby resign all right and title that I have to the Free School of Kibworth Beauchamp after Michaelmas next .... Witness my hand and seal. Dated September 13th 1658. George Robertson". Thus, the Rev. George Robertson did not stay long at Kibworth. We do not know the reason for his sudden departure; possibly he did not like living in close proximity to the then minister of Kibworth, the Rev. John Yaxley, who made life intensely miserable for its inhabitants in the two or three years before the Restoration.