Joan Greyndour

Joan Greyndour later Joan Barre ( Rigge/Ridge/Rugge (c. 1400 – 17 June 1485) was an English noblewoman. She founded a chantry and school at Newland in Gloucestershire. Life She was born at Charlcombe in about 1400 and her parents were Katherine (born Bitton) and Thomas Rigge (or Ridge or Rugge) of Chicklade in Wiltshire. Her parents were wealthy, controlling lands near Bristol and Bath. By 1419, she was married to Robert Greyndour. They had one child, Elizabeth, in 1421. She founded a chantry and a grammar school at Newland in Gloucestershire after her husband died. Henry VI had founded Eton College in 1440 linking a chantry to a school and Greyndour was an early example of a similar establishment. Katherine Berkeley, Lady Margaret Beaufort and Greyndour were all early examples of women founding schools.