Photo credit and copyright: D. Wren
THE GUILD OF THE CHAPEL OF THE HOLY GHOST and the ORIGINS OF QUEEN MARY’S SCHOOL and the VYNE SCHOOL
The Chapel of the Holy Ghost was supported by a voluntary medieval Guild or Fraternity of local people who were involved in religious and educational and benevolent work. The licence or charter granted by Henry VIII, who ruled between 1509 and 1547, on the joint petition of Bishop Fox and Lord Sandys is dated November, 1525, and recites that the townsfolk, ‘out of their devotion to the third person in the Divinity,’ had long before begun and continued the maintenance of a Guild or fraternity in honour of the Holy Ghost which the king desired to establish on a permanent basis. The brethren were accordingly vested with powers to receive and hold gifts of land and other property, being constituted a corporate body with a common seal, and were empowered to elect an alderman and two wardens annually for their better government. This Guild of the Holy Ghost escaped the operation of the Act of 1545 for the suppression of such institutions, on account of the king’s death; but it fell victim to the renewed legislation of Edward VI, [1547 – 1553] when its properties were sold.
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