Schoolmasters and teaching in seventeenth century Chipping Ongar

As schoolmasters were required to be registered by their bishop until
the eighteenth century, it is possible to identify most of them from
diocesan records, now conveniently summarised on the Church of
England clergy database. In combination with other sources, it is
possible to identify the subsequent careers of most of them.
With one exception, all were ordained priests who concurrently or
subsequently were in charge of a parish in or not far from Ongar. The
exception was Christopher Glascock, a graduate of Cambridge
University; he was teaching in Ongar by 1637 and had four children
baptised here between 1639 and 1643. Between 1644 and 1650 he
was master of the more prestigious Ipswich grammar school, and in
1650 was appointed master of Felsted School, a post which he held –
presumably to the satisfaction of the governors - for nearly 40 years.
One Ongar schoolmaster, Benjamin Stebbing, is of particular interest
due to a cache of surviving letters which deserve more detailed study.
Stebbing was the first to benefit from the provisions of Ongar's
Joseph King Trust. He was said to possess a university degree,
though his name does not appear in the lists of Oxford or Cambridge
graduates, nor is there any record of his ordination as a priest.
However he combined his teaching with the curacy of the tiny church
of Berners Roding, and brought up a large family in Ongar where
nine of his children were baptised between 1670 and 1683. On
becoming rector of Stondon Massey in 1690 he resigned his teaching
post. Little else would be known about him but for the series of
letters (now in the National Archive) written by him, a pupil named
William Atwood, and the boy's parents in 1685 and 1686.
Willliam's father can probably be identified as the merchant of
Hackney whose will was proved on 21 March 1690. Though in
general boarding schools had barely developed at this date, it was not
unusual for schoolmasters to take private pupils into their
households, or to lodge them out elsewhere in the town. The letters
reveal familiar parental concerns about an absent son. His mother
worried about his clothes, suggesting ways of refurbishing his winter
outfit for summer use, and sending a tape measure and money to his
master. William was a typical boy, not averse to a bit of emotional
blackmail. He wrote to his father requesting a penknife, some bird
lime (a sticky substance used for catching birds), hooks, flies,
packthread and a tin box, so that he could catch a pike for his mother.
"I hope you will be so kind as not to deny me that, but if you have
any love for me, let me have it next Thursday or Saturday..." In
another letter his parents expressed concern that William had used a
gift of five shillings to purchase a half share in a gun.
Though William was clearly enjoying an active sporting life in
Ongar, his progress with school work was less satisfactory. Writing
to his "ever honoured father" he noted "I am sorry to hear so many
complaints, but I will do my best endeavour to mend them..."
Benjamin Stebbing, in a letter to the boy's father, noted sardonically
that "books and birdlime agree not well together. However the latter
may prove a good diversion if it will make him stick to his book..."
Included with Stebbing's letter was a punishment essay that he had
set William on the consequences of idleness. The schoolmaster asked
his father to emphasize to his son the benefits of book learning to
counteract "this folly he seems to find in that Latin will do him no
good for an Apprentice."
William was a spirited and rebellious pupil. He complained at length
about the harshness of his schoolmaster who detained him over his
books while his fellow pupils were at play which "doth make me so
dull so that I hate to goe to my book so that I cannot learn..." He
suggested that his father was wasting his money in sending him to
school. "I believe it is time for me to goe to learn to cast accounts for
almost all the boys in our form do, as I believe it is high time for me.
Pray send me a summing book from London for I believe my Master
has none."
Not surprisingly, William's mother took his side against the Ongar
schoolmaster. "I am infinitely troubled for poor Willie. I confesse it
is but what I had feared from the harsh and churlish carriage of his
master, and I am very sure that that is not the best way to deal with
such tempers." At this point the correspondence ends and there is
nothing to indicate whether the stern master or the rebellious pupil
ultimately had their way.
Several interesting points arise from these letters, apart from the
perennial disagreements about the benefits of academic learning in a
disinterested pupil, and whether punishment might improve results or
simply further discourage a child from learning. The letters show that
the Ongar schoolmaster was taking in pupils to board from some
distance away and that Latin was on the curriculum – and that book
keeping was not. In spite of the boy's complaints about his schooling,
he was free in his spare time – and probably more at liberty than his
modern equivalent - to enjoy rural pursuits, such as fishing for pike,
catching birds with birdlime and (presumably) shooting the larger
ones with his part-owned gun. It is also clear that the sardonic
humour of some school teachers – as well as their "harsh and
churlish carriage" - is nothing new!