No other John Gay appears in the Parish Register."[5] Gay attended the Free Grammar School at Barnstaple, and among his schoolfellows there with whom he cemented an enduring friendship, were William Fortescue, to whom reference has been made above, and Aaron Hill.[6] William Raynor was the headmaster when Gay first went to the Grammar School, but soon he removed to Tiverton, and was succeeded by the Rev.Robert Luck.

Luck subsequently claimed that Gay's dramatic instincts were developed by taking part in the amateur theatricals promoted by him, and when in April, 1736, he published a volume of verse, he wrote, in his dedication to the Duke of Queensberry.[7] Gay's patron and friend:-- "O Queensberry! could happy Gay This offering to thee bring, ''Tis he, my Lord' (he'd smiling say), 'Who taught your Gay to sing.'" These lines suggest that an intimacy between Gay and Luck existed long after their relations as pupil and master had ceased, but it is doubtful if this was the case.

It is certainly improbable that the lad saw much of the pedagogue when he returned to Barnstaple for a while as the guest of the Rev.John Hanmer, since Luck was a bitter opponent of the Dissenters and in open antagonism to John Hanmer.
How long Gay remained at the Grammar School is not known.

There are, indeed, no records upon which to base a narrative of his early years.

It is, however, generally accepted that, on leaving school, he was apprenticed to a silk-mercer in London.