Glossary Alphabet Transcript Image

Detail from checklist of items

Document 9: Check list of items sent with Thomas Jennynges to boarding school, 1585.

(Catalogue reference: E 163/14/10)

In this section:

About this document

This document is a list of items sent with Thomas Jennynges to boarding school, dated 7 July 1585.

This document, dated 7 July 1585, comes from the miscellaneous documents to be found within the records of the King's [or Queen's] Remembrancer, a sub-section of the Exchequer records. It is a list of items sent to boarding school with a boy called Thomas Jennyngs, the writer's son. It is not known who Thomas Jennyngs or his father were, or how this document strayed into the Exchequer records. It does not seem relate to any of the other miscellaneous Exchequer documents.

Many existing schools disappeared completely after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, as most were connected with a religious house such as a monastery, chantry, collegiate church or religious guild. However, Henry VIII and his children also founded new schools or refounded the former religious schools, allowing them to be run by the townspeople, funded either by endowments of the property previously belonging to the dissolved religious house, or by new endowments, perhaps from rich local people. A network of grammar schools appeared across the country, with the study of Latin at the heart of the curriculum. Henry VIII had authorised Lily's 'Short Introduction of Grammar' as the sole Latin textbook to be used in schools. Nowell's 'Catechism' was also widely used.

The school mentioned in this document might be Bedford School. A school existed in Bedford in the 12th century, and was refounded and endowed in 1552 after the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

The document is written in secretary hand.