Antiquarian Items

The School learnt and sang with the Choir Walmisley's Evening Service in D minor in C. S. Lang's arrangement.

The Choir Supper took place at 7-0 p.m. on Wednesday, 15th March, in the old School House Dining Room. It was a great disappointment to those who enjoyed an evening which started with an excellent supper, continued with some part songs sung by the "lay members" of the Choir, and concluded with some hearty mass singing, that the Headmaster was at the last moment prevented from attending, as were some members of the Choir for various reasons.

The Rev. Angelo Raine, the author of the History of St. Peter's School, has recently put at our disposal new material bearing on the School's past. Some of these items may be of interest to readers of The Peterite.

In his History Mr. Raine comments (p. 105) on a letter of Laurence Sterne dissuading the Rev. John Blake, who was Headmaster of the i School from 1757 to 1784, from marrying a certain Margaret Ash, of York. The lady, Sterne warned him, was a scheming fortune-hunter. Blake, we are told, took the advice and did not marry Margaret Ash. Instead he married a Miss Place. An entry in a Precedent Book of the Dean and Chapter has now given us the sequel to this marriage. . From this it would seem that the Rev. John Blake was an indifferent husband, and that Margaret Ash was to be congratulated on her escape :- "Ann, wife of the Rev. John Blake, clerk, of the parish of St.

Michael Belfrey, against her husband. On 20 February, 1769, she, then Ann Place, and John Blake were married in the Church of Holy Trinity, Goodramgate, by the Rev. Edward Place. They have a girl and two boys and lived in the parish of St. Saviour's.

In 1774, on a misunderstanding, he insisted on her leaving his home, which she was obliged to do. John Blake says that, instead of sending her away, on 7 February, 1774, when he was absent, she sent for a coach and without his knowledge or consent left the house, taking her 3 children, 3 servants, and leaving the doors unlocked and windows open, went to the George Inn [Coney Street] and since has lodged in one place and another. Mrs. Blake's witness says that for months together, day after day, Mr. Blake's behaviour was violently abusive and threatening, knocking one of her children down, vapouring, and shaking a stick over his wife's head the day before she left. He introduced a bullying fellow into the house, bade him to seek out the blunderbuss, and talked on swords and fire-arms so much that it affrighted his wife so that she durst not stay. He has sent her a guinea a week, which is too little."

As we know, in 1828, the School was removed from St. Andrew's, where it had been accommodated for nearly a century, and a new building was planned on the site of the old Deanery. Until the new premises (now the Song School) were ready, a temporary schoolroom was found in a house in Minster Yard adjoining the Old Residence. The quartering of boisterous schoolboys in the peaceful precincts of the Minster was viewed with misgivings by the York Gazette, which has this to say about it in its issue of 19th July, 1828 :- "The Grammar School in St. Andrewgate Churchyard is to be removed into the 'Minster Yard. The Rev. Mr. Grayson, the

Master, having handsomely resigned, the Rev. Mr. Creyke has been appointed Master in his stead and has already entered into the Old Residence in the Minster Yard. Mr. Nokes' room, adjoining the Old Residence, is to be the School Room. We do not exactly approve of converting the close of a Cathedral into the site of a school. Stillness and quiet ought to reign in the vicinity of such buildings. The beautiful painted glass in the windows may be exposed to risk, and the venerable matrons who reside in the confines of the Minster Yard will be in danger of being pushed or upset in their daily passage to and from church in the course of the sport of the schoolboys."

The following letter, preserved in the original York Journal for 11th February, 1758-59, shows that the St. Peter's acting tradition, which can be traced back to the reign of Elizabeth and the Mastership of John Pullen, was still vigorous in the 18th century :- "Sir

If you please to insert the following lines in your Tuesday's Mercury I shall think myself your obliged servant : — `To the Rev. John Blake and Mr. Barber upon their

Scholars acting Cato and Julius Cmsar. As to the Artist Trees obsequious grow, Some forming lovely Shade, some stately Show, So Youth is modelled by the Teacher's Art To act a Catiline's or Cato's part; Thanks then to you, kind Sirs, by whom we're taught How Brutus acted and how Cato thought.' "

TRANSFER OF THE SCHOOL TO THE CORPORATION OF YORK BY OLIVER CROMWELL

Easily the most notable discovery is the ordinance of the Lord Protector of 1654 vesting the administration of the School in the Mayor and Corporation in view of the abolition of the Dean and Chapter. At the time Mr. Raine published his History, the Act was presumed lost, like so many others of the Commonwealth period.

It has now come to light among the York City MSS. (E.30 Register of Orders. Decrees. fo . 159), and since it has not been printed before, we give it in full :- "An ordinance touching the Minster of York and the Schoole called Peters Schoole. Whereas heretofore there were diverse lands, tenements and hereditaments setled and placed in the late Deane and Chapter of Yorke for the meyntenance and preservation of a greate Church within the Cittie of Yorke, commonly called the

Minster of Yorke, which said lands, tenements and hereditaments were commonly called fabric rents, and were nor otherwise in the said Deane and Chapter then in trust for the disposition and employment aforsaid, and the same might be letten and disposed of then to under tenants and otherwise for that purpose. And where as alsoe there was anciently in or neere the said Cittie of

York a schoole, commonly called St. Peters Schoole, the regulation whereof in appointing the Schoole Master and Usher also was formerly comitted unto and placed in the said Deane and Chapter; but now the said Deane and Chapter being abolished and there being for the present noe persons trusted with the care and preservation of the said Church nor the said revenue belonging thereto comonly called the fabrick rents, nor with the care and preservation of the said Schoole, nor the revenues thereof, so that both the one and the other will fall to ruyne and distruction unles some tymely provision be made herein;—It is ordeyned by his

Highness the Lord Protector, with the advice and consent of his

Counsell, that all the revenues of what nature or qualitie soever the same were or are or in what manner soever settled or disposed formerly appointed for the sustentation of the said Church and which formerly were in the said Deane and Chapter as aforsaid not yet sold for valuable consideration, and the possessions of the said Schoole and the regulation thereof to be vested and setled in and shall be and are hereby ordeined and declared to be in the possession and seisin of the Maior of the Citty of York and his successors forever. And the said Maior and Comonalty and Aldermen of the said Cittie or any seaven of them, whereof the Maior for the tyme being to be allways one, are hereby authorized and shall have full power and authority to make leases and otherwise lett or dispose of the said lands, tenements and hereditaments, comonly called fabrick rents, and of the possessions belonging to the said Schoole as aforsaid, to all intents and purposes as the said Deane and Chapter might have done before their abolition as aforesaid, and that such leases and disposition of the said respective lands and possessions shall be as good and effectuall in law as if the same had beene formerly made by the said Deane and Chapter but upon the same trusts respectively touching the said fabric rents and the possessions of the said Schoole to whiche the saide Deane and Chapter were lyeable and the said Major,