Amersham has been in several recent posts. Here's my Amersham question: Dr Charles Croke, D.D., rector of St Mary’s, Amersham ran a school for sons of aristocrats and wealthy gentry in Amersham, Bucks during the Civil War. See his DNB entry at http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Dictionary_of_National_Biography_volume_13.djvu/125 Edward Hunter alias Perry died age nine in 1646. His admin bond lists him as ‘of Agmondsham’ . He was son of Lady Jane Fitzwilliams, wife of Ld William Fitzwilliams of Milton, Northants, by her first marriage. I think Edward was at this school when he died. Do any records of this school survive?

> Amersham has been in several recent posts. Here's my Amersham > question: > > Dr Charles Croke, D.D., rector of St Mary’s, Amersham ran a school > for sons of aristocrats and wealthy gentry in Amersham, Bucks during > the Civil War. See his DNB entry at This is not exactly what it says. Most clergymen with any sort of scholarly ability took in a few pupils, in their vicarage or rectory, sometimes boparding, sometimes day attenders. Inevitably the only people who could afford the fees were the local gentry, or the occasional farmer who had a bright boy whom he could spare from the plough. This was a recognised way of augmenting what could be a very small stipend - and I note that the local Squire's lad, William Drake, was one of the pupils. Mostly, only two or three, up to around six, would be taught at any one time, round the vicarage table. It was not a school in the normal sense of a purpose built building with more than one teacher. There was an actual Grammar school in Amersham, founded by Dr ChALONER, another clergyman, half a century or so later, which still exists in amended form. This did have a very good reputation and drew in pupils from surrounding villages. > If you are researtching the Crokes (pronounced Crook and in later generations with an unenviable reputation), you will come across the fascinating attenpt to frame a local curate with robbery, because he asked for his salary to be paid. The King's Bench judge foiled this, refusing to be bribed. >