Enfield-chantry school

Enfield-chantry school was a chantry school in Enfield from c. 1398–1558, and the predecessor of Enfield Grammar School.

History

In the reign of Richard II (1377–1399) a king’s licence awarded to Baldwin de Radyngton in 1398 to found a chantry school in Enfield at the parish church, endowed with lands; subsequently the chantry was licensed by Edward IV and endowed by the Poynants, (or Poynetts) estate Essex bought by Agnes, widow of Robert Blossom, who died in 1418 [Henry V 1413 – 22). Poor boys were educated, although perhaps at times on an ad hoc basis. This is uncertain. As Dr. Birkett Marshall points out there is evidence a schoolmaster existed in Enfield prior to 1524, based on an account of the funeral of a Sir Thomas Lovell. The endowment of Blossom’s-chantry on the dissolution of monasteries and chantries, was vested in the crown; but later conveyed to the ‘feoffees’ or trustees of the grammar-school at Enfield, thus endowing it with proceeds from 'Blossums' bequest and the manor of Poynants (or Poynetts). An older school-house certainly still existed east of the churchyard in 1572, and it is most likely that this had been used for the chantry-school and its activities and so forth had been absorbed into the newly constituted Enfield Grammar School established legally in 1558.