John Freeston

John Freeston (1512 – 1594) was a barrister from Altofts.

Biography
He was admitted into the Gray's Inn in 1544.

Will
Possibly inspired by Walter Midway, Freeston posthumously left £500 to his Normanton Grammar School Trust to fund a school in Normanton, with a scholarship program in place to allow students from Normanton to gain entry to Midway's Emmanuel College, Cambridge (the scholarship was later transferred to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge in 1607). The will allowed for £25 of this funding to go to the school each year, enough to handsomely pay for its construction and its school master's salary. The school did not stay open long enough to use up this funding, however, and inflation eventually took its course. In 1890, an investigation into the will revealed that it had inflated to £125 per year. It was decided that the town would use this fund along with donations as part of a project to found a new secondary school for £2000.

Freeston is also known to have left money to be used to construct an almshouse, known as Frieston's Hospital, in Heath Common.