The wording of the plaque above, mounted on a wall of the entrance to Oundle School's cloisters, reads "This tablet was unveiled by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother on the 28th May 1976. It commemorates the Centenary of the decision by The Grocers' Company to divide Laxton Grammar School and establish Oundle School". Mysteriously the plaque shows traces of what appears to be Sellotape, as though it has at some time been covered up.
This is the basis of the toast I proposed to Sir William Laxton at the Annual Dinner of the Old Laxtonian Club held on Saturday 30th January 2010. An addition to the wording of the toast appears towards the end of the text and is highlighted in blue.
Virtually everything I say here derives from the book that was published by the Grocers’ Company in 1956 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the founding of the two schools in Oundle; ‘A History of the Oundle Schools’ written by a former Assistant Master of Oundle School, William G. Walker. It is a work of considerable erudition based on what must have been a long period of research. I believe that the contents are as historically correct as they can be and they enjoy the additional benefit of being endorsed by the Grocers’ Company which has over the centuries been the benevolent influence that made possible the life of our School following the death of our founder, Sir William Laxton. At first sight it is a daunting item with around 750 pages but if you can get hold of a copy (I once bought one on Ebay) it is well worth opening the cover and plunging in. When I refer to ‘our School’ I mean the school that was founded in 1556 and lost its independent identity at the end of 2000 when it became a House of Oundle School.
The book tells us that William Laxton was born in Oundle, the son of John Laxton, a ‘merchant or tradesman’, ‘at the very end of the fifteenth century’, during the reign of Henry V11. William was a pupil at the town’s Grammar School maintained by the Gild of our Lady of Oundle. (So we must note that there was, in those days, a Grammar School in Oundle; our School was not the first).
It is difficult to establish exactly when William was apprenticed to a London grocer - dates are hard to pin down - but we know he became a freeman (that is, he completed his apprenticeship) in the year 1518, some nine years after Henry V111 came to the throne. He was chosen Junior Warden of the Grocers’ Company in 1534 and this period between 1518 and 1534 must have seen the foundation of his fortune which was probably based not on the retail trade of grocery but on overseas trading ventures which, as Walker says, ‘led in those days either to immediate ruin or to the rapid amassing of wealth’. William obviously drew the latter straw.
A year later he was elected and sworn as an Alderman for Aldersgate Ward and he remained an Alderman for the rest of his life. In 1536 he was elected Upper Master of the Grocers’ Company and in the same year he applied for and received a grant of arms – the blazon, or heraldic shield, that Old Laxtonians will know from the inscribed plate over the entrance to our School. In 1538 he was again elected Upper Master. In 1540 he was chosen as one of the two Sheriffs of the City of London and he was again elected Upper Master of the Grocers’ Company in 1541; he was, in all, Master of the Grocers’ Company no less than eight times. He was elected to the Mayoralty, taking office on 28 October 1544. After making a considerable contribution – not necessarily a voluntary act – to the costs of King Henry V111’s French War , William Laxton was knighted on 8 February 1545.
This man had achieved high status, both professional, social and civic, by the age of about 40 years. On formal civic occasions as an an Alderman he would ride in white armour, with a light coat of black velvet with the arms of London Embroidered on it. A massive gold chain would hang on his breast. His cap was of velvet with plumes and he would have carried a steel battleaxe slung at his side; he was attended by a body-guard in white silk. In those days great men were expected to look great.
However such elevation carried with it grim duties that were far beyond the experience of an erstwhile grocer; for example, on 19 May 1536, he accompanied the Mayor to the execution of the Queen, Anne Boleyn. On 29 June 1541 with his fellow Sheriff, he led on foot from the Tower through the City to Tyburn a nobleman who had been ‘condemned to be strangled, for murder’. In March and again in June 1545 he examined in his own court the unfortunate religious dissenter, Anne Askew, and ‘released her as no evidence was forthcoming’; a year later she was again charged. This time the hunt was on for other ‘sacramentarians’, the finger of suspicion being pointed at, amongst others, the Queen, Katharine Parr, and poor Anne was tortured vilely in an ineffectual attempt to make her give up names. To her fell the distinction of being the only woman to be put to the rack in the Tower; subsequently, crippled by the torture, she was carried in a chair to Smithfield where she was burned at the stake. In those times of highly visible, horrific punishments for crime and for religious deviation; Sir William, often required to witness them by virtue of his office, must have developed a strong stomach.
Sir William fell ill in early July 1556. He made his Will on 17 July and added what was to us all, Old Laxtonians and Old Oundelians alike, the all-important codicil that brought about the foundation of our Schools, on 22 July. He died on 27 July.
Sir William’s life had spanned five reigns: those of Henry V11, Henry V111, Edward V1, Jane (Grey – the ‘Queen of Nine Days’) and Mary 1. In the last two or three years of his life he had seen his old Grammar School axed by Mary who had its religious funding withdrawn so leaving his home town without a vital component. This must have bothered him hugely but in those highly dangerous times, under a Queen who could number more than 300 public executions by burning at the time of her own death in 1558, it must have occurred to him to tread lightly when planning to put the matter right. He had been discussing his plan with the Master of the Grocers’ Company, Sir John Lyon, since 1553. He had concluded that Oundle needed more than the simple restoration of the old Gild School; it needed a Free Grammar School and almshouses with an independent endowment that would sustain them and he wanted the Grocers’ Company to take responsibility for organising it. Any master appointed to the School would have to be a good scholar and not as Sir William put it, a ‘lack-Latin’. Laxton offered the Grocers’ Company property, ‘lands and tenements’, to underpin the costs of the project. The Company demurred but Laxton went on raising the matter. It was only when he fell sick that various worthies of the Company came to see him to say that they would carry out his wishes. It was later recalled that Sir William then ‘answered that he was very evil at ease and desired them therefore not to trouble him with any such matter at that time’. To our eternal good fortune Sir William soon recovered his good humour and his earlier determination; he was advised that a codicil to his Will specific to the School’s foundation would be needed and it was duly drawn up and signed. One hopes that Sir William died a contented man.
The codicil makes it clear that Sir William’s intentions were more than philanthropic; they were, in Walker’s words, ‘to perpetuate his memory and achievements in the place where he was born’. There were no fewer than six statements that give emphasis to his desire for what we would nowadays term his ‘legacy’. The statements ran along these lines:
‘ … which free School I will shall be called the free Grammar School of me the said William Laxton, Knight, Alderman of London …’
‘… the free Schoolhouse of me the said Sir William Laxton …’
‘… the free Grammar Schoolhouse of me the said Sir William Laxton …’
‘ … the Free School of me the said Sir William Laxton …’
‘ … And I further will that the said Free School shall be perpetually named and called the Free Grammar School of Sir William Laxton, Knight …’
‘ … the Schoolmaster and Usher of the same to be named and called the Schoolmaster and Usher of the Free Grammar School of Sir William Laxton, Knight …’
The school was subsequently called Oundle Free Grammar School and later became known as Oundle Grammar School. No mention of the man’s name at all.
The reason why his wishes were not granted in this respect is lost, as they say, in the mists of time. Perhaps his fellow Grocers thought he was not showing sufficient Christian humility? One thinks of the parable of the widow’s mite.
In 1876 the then Headmaster of Oundle Grammar School, Mr H. St. John Reade, set about creating another school. a 'public school' in the town, to be called Oundle School; there was an Oakham School and an Uppingham School in fairly close proximity so the name would fit nicely into what later might be called the ‘public school triangle’. The support of the Grocers’ Company was sought, obtained and Oundle School began its life in symbiosis with the grammar school. (If the matter of who founded which school were to be considered one would surely say that Sir William's endowment brought about the foundation of the grammar school that eventually bore his name and Mr H. St. John Reade was, through his inspiration, the founder of Oundle School. Foundation must surely be a matter of intent: Sir William's intent was to found a grammar school for the boys of the town and Mr St. John Reade's intent was to found a public school).
But how confusing it could be to have two schools with such similar names: Oundle Grammar School and Oundle School. Something must be done!
It is as though someone had dug into the archives and came up with what should have been the obvious solution. ‘We’ll change the name of the grammar school to what it should have been at the beginning: Sir William Laxton’s Grammar School’. One might almost have heard the shade of Sir William commenting, ‘About time too’.
Sir William’s wish had been delayed some 320 years but the new title must have proved something of a mouthful because by the very early 1900s our School had become Laxton Grammar School and then, as the years rolled by, *Laxton School. Finally, when our School became a House of Oundle School in 2000 it became Laxton House.
*Laxton Grammar School was, until around 1970, the only school in the town that provided a 'grammar school education' for boys living in and around Oundle. The local education authority made it possible for boys to attend the school by paying their fees for them and so supported what was in fact a private school. It was always the belief locally that local boys received their education free of charge as a result of Sir William Laxton's endowment but this was not, by now, the case (although there may have been scholarship exceptions for non-local boys). This is not to say that the Grocers' Company did not play a huge role in the life of the school and pupils received many benefits derived from the association with Oundle School. Girls had to travel to Stamford or Wellingborough for their 'grammar school education'. Prior to 1970 the town had a Secondary Modern School where boys and girls who were unable to obtain admission to grammar schools were educated: in or around 1970 this school was replaced by a Comprehensive School, Prince William School, which provided an education that was ... comprehensive, thus aspiring to the educational standards of both Grammar and Secondary Modern schools. Local Authority Grants to pupils of Laxton Grammar School ceased, the school became open only to fee paying pupils and the word Grammar was dropped from its name.
So let us raise our glasses in gratitude to and in memory of Sir William Laxton and as we do let us mentally express our regrets for the way his wishes were ignored for so long.
To Sir William Laxton!
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