Thomas Whitty, Schoolmaster in Harpenden in 1616?

Where did he teach?

The Church of England Clergy Database 1540-1835 has this intriguing entry:

“Thomas Witty; appointed by the Bishop of Lincoln as ‘Schoolmaster’ on 8 November 1616 ‘to teach at Harpenden also anywhere in the dioceses of Lincoln or London’.”

The requirement for schoolmasters to be approved by the Church of England was introduced into Canon Law in 1603. Canon 77 of the Canons adopted in that year states; “None to teach School without Licence”.

No other record of Witty in Harpenden has yet been found. Maybe he was kept busy elsewhere in the large dioceses of Lincoln and London?

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