The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume VII. Cavalier and Puritan.
§ 5. Sedbergh
In the meantime, not a few of the newly founded grammar schools, as they saw the endowments intended for their benefit intercepted by the despoiler, must have heard with envy how Winchester and Eton had escaped a like fate comparatively intact. Of this, Sedbergh affords a noteworthy illustration. Roger Lupton, a native of the town, and afterwards provost of Eton, had already founded there, in 1528, a chantry, “to pray for his sowle and kepe a free schole.” As, however, he saw his foundation menaced with destruction, and, at the same time, noted the advantages which had resulted from the affiliation of the above colleges to New and King’s respectively, he resolved on the institution of a grammar school (on the site of his chantry) which should stand in similar relation to St. John’s college, Cambridge. Among those who had enriched themselves from the spoils of the dissolved monasteries was Sir Anthony Denny, an old “Pauline,” and also a member of St. John’s; and, possibly, it was some misgiving with respect to the sources of much of his acquired wealth that led him, in his later years, to contemplate an act of reparation and establish Sedbergh school on a firm foundation. St. John’s still preserves the letter (1549), composed by Roger Ascham, in which the college authorities thank the knight for his services, and, after observing that Sedbergh has always sent up excellent scholars, represent themselves as still by no means free from anxiety with regard to its fate.