Page:VCH Rutland 1.djvu/343

 SCHOOLS scare engineered by Titus Oates, the elder brother was executed in 1679, and the younger died in prison in the following year. ^* Another Johnian, John Wright, who entered 19 February 1667—8, after graduating in arts (B. A. 167 1, M.A. 1675), studied medicine. He took his M.D. degree in 1684, and on 22 March 1702-3 was elected a Fellow of the College of Physicians.^^ John Lucas, son of John, yeoman, who entered St. John's 21 October 1657 with a school exhibi- tion gained the preceding year, is probably the fellow of St. John's who took his M.A. in 1662. Clement Breton, school exhibitioner in 1659, was elected a fellow of Trinity. He must have been the son of the energetic governor of the same name who compiled the inventory of the property of the foundation in 1 660. Besides John Burton, already referred to, only one of his pupils who went on to Gonville and Caius at- tained to any distinction. This was John Ruddle, admitted 19 October 1654, school exhibitioner in 1655, B.A. 1658-9, M.A. 1662, who, while vicar of Mary Magdalen, Launceston, for many years acted as master of the free school of the town. He was a prebendary of Exeter Cathe- dral from 1680 to 1698. He is accredited with having laid a ghost at Botathan, Cornwall, in 1665, and was probably author of Duncan Camp- peWs Adventures, published by Defoe. ^^ A con- temporary of his at Uppingham must have been Edward Ward, a Whig lawyer, counsel for Wil- liam Lord Russell when tried for complicity in the Rye House Plot in 1683, who had the temerity to resist the flouts of ' bloody ' Jeffreys, rewarded later on by being appointed Attorney General (1693) and Chief Baron of the Exchequer (1695). There is a curious entry in the Gon- ville and Caius Register in 1646, during Meres' head-mastership : Thomas Jenkynson being admitted on 27 November, after having been five years under Mr. Marshall of ' Colly weston,' and two years at Uppingham under Mr. Alson." Possibly Alson had filled up a gap between John- son and Meres ; or he may have been usher. The earliest usher under Meres seems to have been a Mr. Swanne, jun., perhaps Richard Swan, who was appointed head master of Oakham in 1644. The Uppingham Schoo/ Roll givesVlr.H&Wes as usher in 1646; Purbeck Halles of Emmanuel College, B.A. 1667, M.A. 1689, school exhibi- tioner in 1663, was probably his son.^'^ Other '* Admissions to St. J obi's, i, 65, 71, with notes. " Ibid, ii, 13 and note. '^ J. Venn, op. cit. i, 390. " Loc. cit. 367. William Marshall was rector of Colly Weston, circa 1535-56. "^ A testimonial to Edward Halles, bearing the signatures of 77 inhabitants of Uppingham (Rutland erascil), among them that of ' Fran : Meres, school- m-ster,' is quoted in ^The Rutland Magazine,' i, loi (1904). He is said to be 'of an unquestioned life and conversation ; diligent and painfull in his place, 283 ushers under Meres were Thomas Childeston, M.A., appointed in 1646 ; John Armstrong, ^^ B.A. in 1649, 'he person, no doubt, who be- came rector of Aunsby, Lincolnshire ; and Wil- liam Levin, in 1653, possibly the William Levin who took his B.A. degree from Lincoln College, Oxford, on 17 July 1652." Francis Meres's mastership extended over twenty-six years, from 1 64 1 to 1666. Thomas Stockman followed. Originally of Magdalen College, Oxford, where he matriculated as ' ser- vitor ' 15 June 1657, 3nd graduated in arts (B.A. 1661, M.A. 1664), he was not content with the education which one university could afford ; entering Queens' College in the sister university, he took his B.A. in 1666 and his M.A. in 1670, and became a fellow. He com- bined clerical work with teaching, being rector of Wardley with Belton from 1666, and of Uppingham from 1682.^° He sent nine pupils to St. John's — only five of them actually described as his pupils — the earliest, the son of a vintner ipenopolui), who had been under him three years, entering on 9 June 1669, and the last on 9 June 1682. Among them was Edward ' Meers,' son of his predecessor, school exhibitioner in 1676. George Stanhope, one of the Uppingham wor- thies, must have attended the school in Stock- man's time, having been born in 1660. He spent some time at Eton before proceeding in the ordinary course to King's, Cambridge. He took his M.A. degree in 1685 and his D.D. in 1697. He was court chaplain under William and Mary and Queen Anne, eventually losing the position through an indiscretion. Dean of Canterbury from 1704 till his death in 1728, Boyle lecturer, and vicar of Deptford. He was an eminent preacher and an indefatigable author, publishing transla- tions of Epictetus, Charron's Book of Wisdom, Marcus Aurelius, The Imitation of Christ, as well as a paraphrase and commentary on the Epistles and Gospels. At least two pupils of Stockman's where he hath continued about three years ; one well- afFected to the Parliament, and such an one as, wee doubt not, may make a fruitful instrument for the Publicke if employed as formerly ' (minister in the church crj/^a^. If the date of Childeston's appoint- ment is correct, the mention of about three years' service fixes Halles' advent circa 1644. " Admissions to St. Join's, pt. i, 74 and pt. ii, 16. A John Armstrong, son of William, clerk, of South ' Louthnam ' (Luffenham), entered St. John's from Uppingham on 7 July 1652 {Admissions, &c. pt. i, 107), in which year he was awarded a school exhi- bition. He afterwards became a fellow of his college. The father's name seems to have been John, and not William ; he was curate of South Luffenham from 1623 to 1633 and rector from 1633 to 1675. The usher was probably a relative. " Foster, Alumni Oxon. References to him are found in the Peterborough diocesan records between 1663 and 1667. ™ Ibid.