This will was thus endorsed at the time it was proved: "Probatum fuit supa scriptu testm coram dno Cant Archiepo apud London Secundo die mens Septembris Anno dni Millimo quingentesimo quiquagesimo secundo/ Juramento Chroferi Robynson procur Executrice in hmoi testameto noiat Ac Approbatu et insinuatu. Et comissa fuit Admistraco oim bonor tc dci defuncti prefat exi/ De bene et fidetir Admistrand eadem Ac de pleno Inuentario tc exhibend/ Ad sancta dei Euangelia in debita forma Jurat." John Balche learnt the profession of arms in the service of Sir Nicholas Wadham of Muryfield, County Somerset. 35 In May, 1550, he was named as the first of the original seventeen trustees of the famous Ilmin 35 EXTRACT FROM THE WILL OF SIR NICHOLAS WADHAM, KNIGHT. "25 November 1539. I, Nicholas Wadham of Muryfelde in Co. Somerset, Knight. * Also I will that Roger Fauntleroy, William Beoyn, John Balche, & Anthony Bolleyn my servants have every of them £3. 6. 8 above their wages yf they contynue in my service during my lyfe. Also I will that every other gentilman being in my service the tyme of my deceas have every of them above their wages 40 s." Proved 31 January, 1542. Prerogative Court of Canterbury, 15 Spert. Sir Nicholas Wadham was a great grandson of Sir John Wadham, Justice of the Common Pleas in the reign of Richard the Second. In the temps of Henry the Eight, Sir Nicholas was an important personage. For in 1509 he was Captain of the Isle of Wight, and Vice-Admiral to Lord Surrey. In 1524 he obtained a license to make a park at Merifield of two hundred acres of pasture and forty acres of woodlands. In 1530 he was appointed a commissioner to enquire into Cardinal Woolsey's estates. He died in 1542, having married four times. His second wife was Margaret Seymour, aunt of Jane Seymour, one of the Queens of Henry the Eight. A grandson of Sir Nicholas Wadham and Margaret Seymour, Nicholas Wadham, born in 1532, and his wife, founded Wadham College, Oxford. ster Free Grammar School. Consequently, he was a member of the Protestant Church of England. "The school above alluded to," Collinson in his history of Somerset, says,36 "was founded in the year 1550 by Humphry Walrond and Henry Greenfield of Lea in this parish, and by them endowed with certain tenement and three centelages in Ilminster, called the Chantryhouses (being lands formerly appropriated to the support of sundry charities in the parish church here) and also tenements called Mody's, in the tithing of Winterhay, and another called Rippe's tenement in the tithing of Horton, both within this parish. These lands and tenements being taken to the crown, King Edward VIth, in consideration of divers sums of money, did, by his letters patent bearing date April 2, 1550, grant and assign to Giles Kelway of Strowde in the county of Dorset, esq.; and William Leonard of Taunton, merchant. On the 16th of May, 1550, the said Giles Kelway and William Leonard conveyed their right in all these lands to Humphry Walrond and Henry Greenfield, of Lea aforesaid, for the sum of 126£. They, 'tendering the virtuous education of youth in literature and godly learning, whereby the same youth so brought up might the better know their duty as well to God as to the King's Majesty, and for divers other honest and godly considerations,' assigned over all the said premises in the same month of May, and in the same year, to John Balch, John Sydenham, and others (in all the number of seventeen) for the purpose of choosing a proper schoolmaster to instruct and bring up, as well in all godly learning and knowledge, as in other manner 36 The History and Antiquities of the County of Somerset, by the Reverend John Collinson, F. A. S. 1791, Bath. of learning, all such children and youth as should be brought to him, appointing the said schoolmaster a house, called the Crosshouse, for his habitation during his master-ship; and also for the choosing a bailiff of the premises, whose business was to be the collecting, the issues and profits of the lands, and the disposing of them to the payment of the schoolmaster's stipend, and other necessary expenses; the residue to be applied to the discharge of king's silvers, and to the mending and repairing the highways, bridges, water-courses, and conduits of water, wherewith the inhabitants of the said parish of Ilminster were then charged, or might be chargeable, as far as the money should extend.” The fact that John Balche was named the first among the initial trustees of the Ilminster Free Grammar School shows that he was a man of importance and influence in the locality. His wife's given name was Isabel, but her maiden name is unknown. They were married probably in the early twenties of the sixteenth century, and had in all nine children: 3. George Balche 3. Anne Balche 3. Alice Balche 3. John Balche born about 1523-30. 3. Agnes Balche, born before 1536. 3. Joan Balche, born after 1536. |