REV. JOSIAS SHUTE, B.D.REV. JOSIAS SHUTE, B.D.
He was a skilled Hebrew scholar a language which he had probably begun to study at Giggleswick, and he left many manuscripts which were posthumously published by his brother Timothy. While he was still at Cambridge, he had enjoyed the interest on £100 given by Henry Tennant and in gratitude therefor and for other benefits received at the School he left to the Governors by a will dated June 30, 1642, certain parcels of land in the parish of Giggleswick, called Eshton Close, Cappleriggs Close and Huntwait Fields. The rent of these fields was to be apportioned in two ways. Five pounds was to be given yearly to the maintaining of a poor Scholar of the parish, who had been educated in the School, at either University until he became Master of Arts. The remainder of the rent was to be distributed amongst the poor of Giggleswick, who were most pious and had most need. The land increased in value greatly. In 1683 the rent amounted to £6 8s.0d., and in 1697 £7 5s.10d.Seventy years later it had almost doubled and in 1806 it was £34 6s.0d.
In the latter year the Governors effected an exchange. Huntwait was given up for Tarn Brow and the rent rose five pounds. In spite of this gradual increase in value, the Governors only allotted the five pounds to the Exhibition Fund, the rest went to the poor of Giggleswick, to be distributed on the day of the Purificationof the Virgin Mary. The five pounds was as a rule paid as an extra Exhibition in addition to the sum received from the Burton rent-charge, which had been bought with the money left by William Clapham and Henry Tennant, and the recipients were often especially mentioned as poor, notably in 1652 and again in 1673.
On December 13, 1872, Tarn Brow was sold for £1,000 and apportioned to pay part of the cost of the buildings which were then being erected. The Governors were directed to pay three-and-a-half per cent. interest on the sum expended. Cappleriggs was let for £20 a year and Eshton for £11.
The whole income now arising from these sources is applied in providing certain boys with total exemptions from payment of tuition fees and the costs of books and stationery: they are called Shute Exhibitions and are offered in the first instance to boys who are in attendance at a Public Elementary School in the ancient parish of Giggleswick.
Christopher Shute had three other sons who were all ministers of the Church and were "all great (though not equal) Lights, set up in fair Candlesticks."
He had done his duty as a Father, he had more than done his duty as Vicar and Governor. It is unfortunate that there is no portrait of him, for it would then be possibleto discern the scholarly and courtly grace of the man under whom the School more than it had ever done before or was to do again until the nineteenth century flourished and prospered and grew notable. He died, still Vicar and Governor, in 1626. "Happy a father who had his quiver full with five such sons."
The Rev. Robert Dockray succeeded in 1619 as Master, and Henry Claphamson, who had been Usher certainly since 1615, possibly earlier though no records exist, continued in the office. The pay of both had increased since 1592. The Ancient Statutes of that date give the stipend of the Master as twenty marks (£13 6s.8d.), and of the Usher as £6 13s.4d., with power to the Governors to increase it. It cannot be ascertained when a change was made but in the half-year Accounts for 1617 there occurs the entry:
Item: to the Maister and Usher, xvli.
Robert Dockray and Henry Claphamson never received less than £20 and £10 yearly apiece after 1619. In 1629 they received an additional gratuity, the Master, of twenty nobles,i.e.£6 13s.4d.and the Usher, of £3 6s.8d.
The School went on its uneventful way. Dockray, the Master, became Vicar and made his protestation as an ex-officio Governor in 1632. In August, 1635, Christopher Lascelles, ofRipon, gentleman, received £20 in consideration of some request he made concerning troubles which he had been put to but which he does not specify. For the rest Governors succeeded Governors, Scholars were sent to the University with aid from the Exhibition money, Master and Usher receipted their wages each half year. The year 1640, is the last in which Robert Dockray appears as a Governor and his last receipt for his wages is dated March of the same year. Henry Claphamson succeeded to his work temporarily for eighteen weeks, receiving 10s.3d.a week, but himself died before August 1642. Anthony Lister, the Vicar, taught for just over six months at the same rate, and on August 25, 1642, the Rev. Rowland Lucas had earned £9 12s.0d.as "head scoulmaster."
The Usher's place was taken by William son of Thomas Wilsonne, "Agricolæ" in Giggleswick. He had been at the School for ten years under Mr. Dockray and at the age of eighteen had gone up to S. John's, Cambridge, as a Sizar in 1639. Thence he went back to his old School in 1642 and remained there for twenty-four years.
THE Rev. Rowland Lucas was a native of Westmorland and had been educated at Kirkby under Mr. Leake. In 1626 he was admitted to Christ's College, Cambridge, as a Sizar and took his B.A. in three years and his M.A. in 1633. Before he came to Giggleswick he had been Headmaster of Heversham. In 1643 his salary was increased to forty marks and in 1645 to £40, and during his six years many scholars went to Cambridge and won distinction in the world, such as Thomas Dockray and John Carr. At his death in 1648, William Wilsonne, the Usher, supplied his place for a few weeks and later William Walker was elected. He was a native of Giggleswick and had been a boy at the School under Mr. Lucas. In 1643 at the age of eighteen he was admitted as a Sizar at Christ's and commenced B.A. 1646-7 and later M.A.
The numbers of the School at this period are quite uncertain. The accommodation was slight and the teaching staff limited to the Master and Usher, but the boys were probably packed very close. During the nine years of his mastership, boys were steadily sentto Cambridge. Christ's alone admitted twenty-five and in one single year (1652) three others entered S. John's. These boys were sons of really poor men. John Cockett in 1651 was the first recorded receiver of the Shute Exhibition of £5, and in the next year it was given to Josias Dockray, son of the late Master, "whom we conceive to be a poore scoller of our parish." Both these boys became ordained and in time were appointed to one or more livings. For a century and a half Giggleswick fed Christ's with a steady stream of boys who almost without exception entered the service of the Church.
Seventeenth century Giggleswick took no heed of the progress of the School and records do not abound. It was a disturbed period in English history and political and religious troubles occupied men's minds to the exclusion of lesser matters. Giggleswick was nevertheless well-known, for in 1697 Abraham de la Prynne records in his diary an anecdote of a Mr. Hollins who thirty years before had lived at Giggleswick "as I remember in Yorkshire where the great school is." Apparently Anthony Lister, who was then Vicar had roused the resentment of a particular Quaker, who found himself anxious to go to the Parish Church to rebuke Lister publicly, when he began to preach. On his way thither he met a friend and told himof his intention. The man tried to dissuade him but finding argument of no avail, he asked him what induced him to choose this particular Sunday. Whereupon the Quaker replied that "the Spirit" had sent him. The rejoinder came quickly "why did the Spirit not also tell thee that one Roger and not the Vicar is preaching to-day?" There was at this period one particularly distinguished son of Giggleswick, Richard Frankland born at "Rothmelæ" (Rathmell) in 1631 who came to the School when he was nine and at the age of seventeen went as a Burton Exhibitioner to Christ's College, Cambridge. The Shute Minute-Book of 1651 has the following entry:
xxjstJanuary, 1651.Received the day and yeare abovesaid from Robt. Claphamson the some of eight pounds which he received of James Smith, of Burton, for one year's rent, the which is disbursed by us as follows (to witt) to Jane ffrankland for her son, viz. xls.
xxjstJanuary, 1651.
Received the day and yeare abovesaid from Robt. Claphamson the some of eight pounds which he received of James Smith, of Burton, for one year's rent, the which is disbursed by us as follows (to witt) to Jane ffrankland for her son, viz. xls.
His father John Frankland is said on his tombstone in Giggleswick Church to be one of the Franklands of "Thartilbe" (Thirkleby, near Thirsk) and he was admitted to Christ's in 1626.
Richard became B.A. in 1651 and M.A. four years later. In 1653 he was "set apart" and received Presbyterian ordination. He was immediately appointed Vicar of Auckland S.Andrew by Sir Arthur Haselrig but was ejected nine years later. He was not an extreme man but he refused to be re-ordained by Bishop Cosen. After the second Conventicle Act of 1670 he made a personal appeal to Charles II, "to reform your life, your family, your kingdom and the Church." The King was much moved and replied "I thank you, Sir," and twice looking back before he went into the Council Chamber said "I thank you, Sir; I thank you." Returning to Rathmell his native place, Frankland opened an Academy, where he gave an University training in Divinity, Law or Medicine. Aristotle was taught and one tutor was a Ramist. The lectures were delivered in Latin. His pupils were not confined to any one denomination, but included Puritans, Presbyterians and Independents.
RICHARD FRANKLAND, M.A.RICHARD FRANKLAND, M.A.
Fortune smiled very grimly upon him and he was compelled to change his place of instruction on many occasions. His pupils always followed him. One Archbishop excommunicated him, another—Archbishop Sharpe—also a Christ's man, discussed the matter with the help of tobacco and a bottle of wine. Sharpe's main objection was that a second school was not required so close to Giggleswick, and an Academy for public instruction in University Learning could not lawfully receive a Bishop's license. In the main he was undisturbed during his last years and when he died in 1698 overthree hundred pupils had passed through his hands and his Academy was later transferred to Manchester and in 1889 to Oxford, where it became known as the Manchester New College. During the period of Frankland's struggles with the dignitaries of the Church, one Samuel Watson, of Stainforth, who had been a Governor of Giggleswick School was in 1661 "willing being a Quaker that another should be elected in his place." Eight years later he interrupted a service in the Parish Church, and the people "brok his head upon ye seates."
In 1656 William Walker resigned the mastership and for three months his place was taken by William Bradley, who had been a pensioner at S. John's, Cambridge, at the same time as the Usher, William Wilsonne. William Brigge was then elected. He was an University man and almost certainly at Cambridge, but his college is doubtful.
In 1659 the Shute Scholarship was to be given "to Tho. Green's son of Stainforth, when a certificate comes of his admittance" into the University. This was a precaution that was not unnecessary. It is only rarely that the money is entered as being paid to the scholar himself: far more often is it paid to the father or mother and sometimes to the boy's college Tutor. On March 12, 1660, it is agreed "that the £5 is to be paid to Tho. Gibson, hisTutor, upon his admittance into the Collidge." In 1673, Hugh, son of Oliver Stackhouse, "being ye poorest scoller" was awarded the money.
The North Cave Estate, which had been given to the School as part of its endowment in 1553, had very greatly increased in value during the hundred years to 1671, when the rents amounted to over £80. The stipends of the Masters were raised by means of a gratuity and William Brigge received £30. No reason appears why after fifteen years' service and an increased gratuity he should still be receiving £10 a year less than one of his predecessors, Rowland Lucas, in 1644.
Thomas Wildeman, the Usher, received £15. Wilson had died in 1666 and one William Cowgill, of whom we know nothing, succeeded him for four years. In 1671 Wildeman took his place. One Thomas Wildeman had been at Giggleswick as a boy and had entered Magdalene, Cambridge, in 1670, and then migrated to Christ's. The dates make it possible that they are the same person, in which case he would be continuing to keep his terms at Cambridge and be acting as Usher at the same time.
The Accounts of the School at this period shew the Governors in a different light. Their expenditure not having increased proportionately to their income, the surplus money waslent out at interest to the people in the village. Hugh Stackhouse, who had gone up to Christ's with school money on account of his great poverty, was at this time acting as Treasurer or Clerk and was one of the earliest to take advantage of the Governors' enterprize. He borrowed £10 at five per cent. and the debt continues to be mentioned for many years. He would appear to be a privileged debtor.
The following is a typical entry in the Account Book:
On March 12, 1686.
Interest and Bonds for ye Schoole
The Mr. Wildman here referred to may have been the Usher, who belonged to a Giggleswick family but had given up the post of Usher, which at this date was held by John Sparke formerly of Christ's and possibly the same as the John Sparke who was Vicar of Long Preston in 1703. William Brigge had also left in 1684 and for six months his work was taken by a formerUsher, John Parkinson, who had matriculated as a Sizar at Christ's in 1676 and after taking his degree came for two years as Usher in place of Wildeman. On Brigge's death he acted as Headmaster, but whether he was definitely appointed such or was intended to be in charge for a short time only is doubtful, as he died in six months.
June 12, 1685. "Mr John Armittsteade entred to ye Schole."
John Armitstead was born at Long Preston in 1660, and after being at Giggleswick as a boy, he went up to Cambridge at the age of nineteen with a Burton Exhibition. He was entered as a Sizar at Christ's, and commenced B.A. in 1682-3 and M.A. 1688. The name of Armitstead has been very closely connected with the School even to the present day.
Henry Roome was Usher for one quarter in 1688 and then gave place to Richard Atkinson or Akinson, whose salary varied from year to year, but never exceeded a certain limit, viz.: just half the Master's, which consisted of "ye ancient Master's Stipend" of twenty marks and a gratuity which brought it between £40 and £50. There are also small entries in places, such as:
October 1, 1687.
Paid to Mr. Armitstead for repairs about ye schoole loft and garden that he had laid out, as particulars may appeare, which noate of particulars he deliveredto ye summe of £4 17s.06d.In which noate theire was a Presse that stands in ye schoole chamber, it is theire to remaine to belonge to ye schoole.
Richard Ellershaw, the Vicar, took a very great interest in the School, and in 1718 he wrote to Christ's College, Cambridge, seeking information about the Carr Scholarships. It was probably due to him that in 1693 two shillings was laid down for transcribing part of Carr's Will, which money "the schollars that receive Burton Exhibitions must then (i.e. 1694) allow to the school stock."
One point of interest remains connected with this period: it is a curious slip of paper without date, which contains an invitation to the reader, whoever he may have been, to visit the writer J.N. in the country. It is written on the back of some of Armitstead's accounts, with an alternative version by its side, which was no doubt a revised copy of the theme after correction by the Master:
The money left to the School by Josias Shute was in part intended to be paid to the poor of the parish, together with two further sums of five shillings left by William Clapham and nine shillings by Mr. Thornton for the same purpose. It is difficult to note the payment of these sums, for they were as a rule added together and entered as "For the Poor Fund," but in 1695 there was paid to:
Shute's surplus was certainly given to the poor in some years but there is no consistent record and by the scheme made under the Endowed Schools Acts it ceased. In 1692 "Arthur, son of Joshua Whitaker, of Settle, appearing to us to be ye poorest schollar that stood candidate for ye said gift" was allowed the Shute Exhibition of £5. He also received £7 of the Burton Rents, and in May, 1698, as much as £9 10s.0d.With these sums he was enabled to go to Christ's College, Cambridge, where he gained a Scholarship and by the year1698 in March, which under the new style would be March 1699, he had returned to the School as Usher, in succession to Richard Akinson. He taught for fifteen years and received as usual, just half the Headmaster's stipend, the amount varying between £23 and £27. On March 12, 1712, the following entry occurs: "Recd of ye Governors of ye free Gramar School of Gigleswick ye sum of two pounds eighteen shillings and sixpence for ye use of my brother Wm. Foster, now Curate of Horsefield," but it turns out to be a payment of that part of the Exhibition to which he was entitled, up till the time he had left Cambridge, presumably in the previous June.
John Armitstead's receipts end in 1704, and he died in 1712. It is impossible to determine the worth of a Master, when so few documents remain to judge him, but the Governors of 1768 thought fit to refer to "the artful and imperious temper of Mr. Armitstead." Their particular grievance was that in 1704 the Governors had a balance of £230 with which they purchased a farm called Keasden. This they let and its profits went to the Master and Usher, and in 1712 the "easy, complying disposition of the Governors" was persuaded to allow the Master to collect the rents of all the lands belonging to the School and simply enter a receipt "of the wages now due to us."Consequently no accounts were kept from 1704 till 1765, and because there was no reserve fund presumably no repairs were done. The Master collected the rents and with his Usher divided the spoil. He even seized the £15 which remained over from the purchase money of the Keasden farm. Nor was this all. Up to the year 1705 the Master paid for the expenses of the Governors' Meetings but in that year the Governors were persuaded to deduct sixpence in the pound from the Exhibitions given to the boys going up to the Universities. This deduction continued till the nineteenth century. Judging then from the opinions of the Governors fifty years later, John Armitstead was not wholly an altruist. It is still more unfortunate that his evil lived after him.
The number of Scholars, who went up to Cambridge in his time though less than it had been, was still considerable. During his twenty-eight years, as many as twenty-seven went to Christ's alone, including the first Paley who is known to have been educated at the School. The greater proportion always went to Christ's until the last decade of the eighteenth century, but other Colleges received them also, notably at certain periods S. John's.
John Armitstead ceased to acknowledge the receipt of his wages in 1704 and died in 1712. Just as he had belonged to a local family and had been educated at the School and Christ's College, Cambridge, so was his successor.
John Carr, A.B., late of Stackhouse, was a descendant of the original James and Richard Carr and was thus the third member of the family to hold the Mastership. He had been elected to the combined Exhibitions from the School in 1707, and after taking his degree he was ordained Deacon at York in 1713 and Priest in 1720. On June 18, 1712, as a layman and at the age of twenty-three he entered upon his duties as Master. Seven days later a relative, of what degree is uncertain, William Carr, of Langcliffe, was elected a Governor, and eight years later another William Carr, of Stackhouse, and hence probably a closer connexion, possibly his father, was also made a Governor. In 1726 George Carr was made Usher. The family circle was complete.
After 1704 the position of Usher had been successively filled by Anthony Weatherhead, aformer pupil of Armitstead's and a B.A. of Christ's, by Thos. Rathmell from whom there are no receipts but who died in 1712, and by Richard Thornton, who held it for fourteen years. There is no record that he was ever a member of the School as a boy, but it is a legitimate conjecture, when it is remembered that the Thorntons were an old family in the neighbourhood, and one of them figures in the Minute-Book, 1692, as having left nine shillings to the Giggleswick poor.
On the day on which John Carr was elected Master he had to sign an agreement in the following terms:
June 18, 1712.
Conditions on which a master shall be chosen.
He shall observe all the statutes of the schoole.And particularly the writing master shall hereafter be chosen by ye Governours at the usuall day of meeting in March and ye time to be appointed by the Master, as has been formerly practic'd.That the masters shall, upon receipt of any moneys from Northcave, Rise, etc., acquaint at least one of ye Governours, when such moneys are paid to them, give the said Governour or Governours an acquittance under their hands, and ye moneys receiv'd to be entred into the schoole booke and the private acquittance given to be delivered back to the masters on the day of meeting in march aforesaid.That ye masters shall take the rents of the Keasden lands, when due, and give an acquittance for the same to the Governours on the usuall day of March.Whereas ye statutes enjoyn that the Governours, when they meet about ye business of ye school, shall be content with moderate charges, it is agreed that those moderate charges on ye usuall day of meeting in March shall not exceed at any one meeting the sum of one pound per Annum.To ye above written articles, I, John Carr, A.B., give my consent and promise to observe them.John Carr.
To ye above written articles, I, John Carr, A.B., give my consent and promise to observe them.
John Carr.
It cannot be explained why these regulations were made, but probably the real point of friction had lain in the collection of rents, or perhaps in the choice of the Writing Master. It is clear from the second clause that the original custom has not changed much. The Ancient Statutes of 1592 had given the Master power to appoint a three weeks vacation, when he wished, in order that the "scollers" might "be exercysed in wrytinge under a scriviner" and it is the same in 1712. It proves that, although the School was a free school and was the place of education for the whole township of Giggleswick and the surrounding neighbourhood, it was not a place for elementary education and never had been.
The fifth paragraph bears reference to the agreement made with John Armitstead in 1705, by which the Masters ceased to provide the entertainment at the Governors' Meetings. Henceforward the amount to be expended is limited to one pound per annum.
In 1720 Richard Thornton was allowed to act as Clerk to Charles Harris, Esq., for six months. It does not transpire who Charles Harris was, but the case is somewhat paralleled seventy years later, when in 1793 Robert Kidd is "to take the trouble of keeping accounts, etc., for the Governors and be allowed an additional sum of two guineas per annum."
In 1726 Richard Thornton resigned and George Carr took his place. Nothing worthy of note is recorded until John Carr's death in 1744, save that in 1728 the said John Carr received £1 11s.8d., "to be laid out in building a little house for ye use of ye schoole," but what it was, is not known. The number of boys going up to the Universities in Carr's time fell off unaccountably, though they included John Cookson whose entry "probe edoctus" in the Christ's College Admission Book testifies to the teaching in the School.
Carr died in 1743 and was succeeded by William Paley. Born at Langcliffe, educated at the School and admitted into Christ's as a Sizar with a Burton Exhibition in 1729-30, William Paley gained a Scholarship there two years later. He became ordained and was made Vicar of Helpston, Peterborough, where his eldest son was born. He remained Vicar for sixty-four years till his death and combined the living with the Headmastership of Giggleswick andfor twenty years with a Curacy at the Parish Church.
His family had lived at Langcliffe for some considerable time and from 1670 to 1720 the name is never absent from the School Minute-Book. "Altogether a schoolmaster both by long habit and inclination, irritable and a disciplinarian. Cheerful and jocose, a great wit, rather coarse in his language," Such is his grandson's description of him. "And when at the age of eighty-three or eighty-four he was obliged to have assistance (which was long before he wanted it in his own opinion) he used to be wheeled in a chair to his School: and even in the delirium of his last sickness insisted on giving his daughters a Greek author, over which they would mumble and mutter to persuade him that he was still hearing his boys Greek."
"He was found sitting in the hayfield among his workpeople, or sitting in his elbow-chair nibbling his stick, or with the tail of his damask gown rolled into his pocket busying himself in his garden even at the age of eighty."
In 1742 he married Elizabeth Clapham, of Stackhouse, who was also a member of an old Giggleswick family. She is said to have ridden on horseback behind her husband from Stackhouse to Peterborough. She was the most affectionate and careful of parents, a little, shrewd-looking,keen-eyed woman of remarkable strength of mind and spirits, one of those positive characters that decide promptly and execute at once, of a sanguine and irritable temper that led her to be always on the alert in thinking and acting. She also had a fortune of £400, which in this neighbourhood was almost sufficient to confer the title of an heiress (Some Craven Worthies).
ARCHDEACON PALEY.ARCHDEACON PALEY.
Their son was William Paley, Archdeacon of Carlisle and author of "Evidences of Christianity." Born in 1744 he went to Christ's College at the age of fifteen, with a Burton Exhibition and received a Carr Scholarship, when he entered. As a boy he had been a fair scholar with eccentric habits. His great delight was in cock-fighting and he must have looked forward to each Potation Day, March 12, with considerable joy. There are many anecdotes about him. He is supposed, whilst in company with his father riding on his way to Cambridge to have fallen off his horse seven times, whereupon his father would merely call out "take care of thy money, lad." His mind was always original, indeed he was never regarded as a "safe" man and in consequence he did not attain that high position in the Church that his intellectual achievements entitled him to expect. When about to take his B.A. degree he proposed to write a thesis on "Aeternitas pœnarum contradicit divinis attributis," but the Master of Christ's was so distressed that Paley was induced to appease him by the insertion of a "non." In 1765 he gained the Member's Prize as Senior Bachelor with a Latin essay which had long English notes. One of the examiners condemned it, because "he supposed the author had been assisted by his father, some country clergyman, who having forgotten his Latin had written the notes in English." Powell, the Master of S. John's, a learned doctor and the oracle of Cambridge on every question concerning subscription to the faith, spoke warmly in its favour "it contained more matter than was to be found in all the others ... it would be unfair to reject such a dissertation on mere suspicion, since the notes were applicable to the subject and shewed the author to be a young man of the most promising abilities and extensive reading." This opinion turned the balance in Paley's favour (Baker's History of S. John's). It also justified the father's opinion of his son. For when the younger Paley went to Cambridge, his father exclaimed that he would be "a great man, a very great man: for he has by far the cleverest head I ever met with in my life." He became Senior Wrangler.
The highest position he attained in the Church was the Archdeaconry of Carlisle, thoughhe could have become Master of S. John's College, Cambridge, if an University life had attracted him, but it never did. He had left it, while quite young, to become Rector of Musgrave, Cumberland, at £80 a year. In 1805 he died, Giggleswick's most distinguished son.
William Paley was soon to discover the nature of the Governing Body. Charles Nowell, one of the kin of the second founder, was confined in Lancaster Gaol for some offence which is not recorded and there results a neat little comedy:
April 25, 1745.Willm. Banks, of Feizer, elected in the room of Charles Nowell, of Capleside (now being and having been long confined in Lancaster Gaol) having in the presence of us taken the accustomed oath.Antho. Lister.May 20, 1745.Be it remembered that the said William Banks on the said twenty-fifth day of April, having some doubt within himself whether he was legally elected, the above-named Charles Nowell not having resigned, he did not take the oath required by the Statutes of the ffree School of Giggleswick but on this day, being satisfied that his election was legal, he took the said oath before us (the Vicar and other Governors withdrawing themselves).W. Dawson.Wm. Carr.May 23, 1745.Be it remembered that I was absent when Mr. Wm. Banks was sworn but I hereby agree that hewas legally elected a Governor at a prior meeting. I also hereby declare the sd Wm. Banks to be a legall Governor.Robt. Tatham.
April 25, 1745.
Willm. Banks, of Feizer, elected in the room of Charles Nowell, of Capleside (now being and having been long confined in Lancaster Gaol) having in the presence of us taken the accustomed oath.
Antho. Lister.
May 20, 1745.
Be it remembered that the said William Banks on the said twenty-fifth day of April, having some doubt within himself whether he was legally elected, the above-named Charles Nowell not having resigned, he did not take the oath required by the Statutes of the ffree School of Giggleswick but on this day, being satisfied that his election was legal, he took the said oath before us (the Vicar and other Governors withdrawing themselves).
W. Dawson.Wm. Carr.
May 23, 1745.
Be it remembered that I was absent when Mr. Wm. Banks was sworn but I hereby agree that hewas legally elected a Governor at a prior meeting. I also hereby declare the sd Wm. Banks to be a legall Governor.
Robt. Tatham.
Twenty years passed and another question arose to engender bitter feelings in the hearts of the Governors and Masters. In 1755 George Carr ceased to be Usher and John Moore took his place. As far as can be known, Moore had not been educated at the School, certainly he had not gone up to Christ's with a Burton Exhibition. For some years Master and Usher worked together for stipends respectively of £90 and £45, according to the regular method by which the Master received double the pay of the Usher. They had been accustomed to make an acknowledgment of "all ye wages now due to us as masters." But the Statutes of 1592 had declared the Master's wage to be £13 6s.8d.and accordingly the Governors in 1768 proposed to emphasize the additional sum, as being given of grace. They brought forward a draft receipt acknowledging the payment of £13 6s.8d."being a year's salary as Headmaster; and likewise from the said Governors £83 6s.8d.as a gratuity and encouragement for my diligence." This they required Paley to sign, and a similar one was drafted for Moore. Both Masters refused. The Governors then decided that they "cannot consistently with their trustpay the Master and Usher any more money than is fixed for their stipend by the Statutes." Three months later a meeting was called to take into consideration a letter from the Archbishop of York in answer to an appeal from both parties, and the following minute records their decision:
"It is resolved by us, whose names are subscribed, punctually to comply with and put into execution to the utmost of our power the very judicious and friendly opinions and advice given by the Archbishop in his letter."
"It is resolved by us, whose names are subscribed, punctually to comply with and put into execution to the utmost of our power the very judicious and friendly opinions and advice given by the Archbishop in his letter."
The minute is signed by six Governors and the two Masters and on the next page the receipts are given as they always had been before, though the few pounds extra that each was to have received are not paid. The very "judicious" letter of Archbishop Drummond not only fixed the salary of the Master and the Usher but gives some additional information. The rents had increased to above £140 a year and of this the Master and Usher were to be given £135 and as the rents increased so should the salaries, always leaving a sufficient surplus for the Repairs Fund.
The School, he added, had a small number of scholars, which "may be accounted for by various causes" and was not due to the teaching to which he paid a graceful compliment. He further suggested that the Usher should take itupon himself to teach Writing, Arithmetic, and Merchants' Accounts, the first elements of Mathematics, and the parts that lead to Mensuration and Navigation.
With regard to the Governors, he counselled them to meet annually on May 2, quite apart from their ordinary meetings and make up their accounts and submit a review of the same and of the past year's work to the Archbishop. Secondly they should draw up fresh Statutes. He was anticipating the Governors' action of thirty years later. The Scholars, he noted, had no pew in the Church. Some should be procured and the Scholars should "goe there regularly under the eye of the Master or Usher or some Upper Boy, who should note the absentees." Altogether the word "judicious," applied to the letter by the Governors, was justified.
Largely by the work of Arthur Young, the old system of cultivation by open fields had been changing, and by the beginning of the reign of George III it was chiefly the North of England that still continued after the older fashion. People were content to make a living, they did not concentrate their thoughts on wealth. But in 1764 the tide of reform had reached the Governors' East Riding Estates in North Cave and Rise, and a private Act was passed through Parliament, ordering that the separate possessions should be marked offand enclosed. This Act involved a very considerable expense and the Governors, being unable to meet it out of their income, on August 26, 1766, mortgaged their East Riding Estates to Henry Tennant, of Gargrave. The acreage was three hundred and ninety-five acres one rood and the mortgage was concluded for £1,120 for one thousand years. The whole of the money was at once expended; and nearly £500 was appropriated by what Arthur Young called "the knavery of Commissioners and Attorneys."
The income of the Governors rose immediately, in 1766 their rent receipts amounted roughly to £208 and eleven years later to £347 while in 1780 £400 would be a closer estimate.
The Shute Exhibition rents had also increased steadily. In 1739 they were £9 4s.6d., twenty-five years later £13 9s.and in 1786 over £15. The Masters' salaries were therefore increased. In 1768 the Archbishop had fixed the minimum of Master and Usher at £90 and £45. A few years later £96 was given and in 1776 the sums of £151 and £75, each with a few shillings. In 1784 a new scheme was evolved, William Paley received £180, John Moore's successor—Smith—£70, and a third Master who was apparently engaged to teach Writing and Accounts, and first appears in 1786, received £20 a year.
Expenditure in every direction increased, and an agent, William Iveson, had to be retained to look after the North Cave Estates, at a salary of £1 10s.Repairs to the School became more extensive, Vincent Hallpike was required to make a "box for the Charter," and the Governors made more frequent journeys to their estates, no doubt as a result of the increased facility and diminished expense of travelling, which was a notable feature of the latter part of the eighteenth century. Further they had engaged a third Master, but whether this was due to a slight decrease of attention paid to the School by the Master—and it is well to remember that he was still Curate of Giggleswick and Vicar of Helpston, Peterborough—or due to a real increase in the numbers and requirements of the School is not stated. Several indications point to an increase in the efficiency of the School. In 1783, an advertisement was drafted and published for the appointment of an Usher, whereas before this time they had been content as a rule to take the most promising of those who had recently left the School. Advertising now gave them a wider field of choice. A Lexicon and a Dictionary were bought in the following year for £1 8s.6d., as well they might be, for the last occasion on which books are recorded to have been bought was in 1626, when the Governors had expended £3 7s.
The Exhibition fund, which came from the rents of the land given by Josias Shute together with the Burton rents and a rent-charge of 3s.6d.on Thos. Paley's house in Langcliffe, had been gradually accumulating. Few Exhibitions were given and the surplus was put into the capital account. In 1780 the general fund borrowed £160 from the Exhibition money in order to enclose some new allotments in Walling Fen, in accordance with an Act of Parliament. The result was startling. The first year gave them a new rent-roll of £40, the second year saw this sum doubled.
For a hundred and seventy-five years James Carr's "low, small and irregular" building had sufficed for the needs of the School. "Deep in the shady sadness of a vale" it had witnessed the gradual change of the Reformation, it had inspired one of the leaders of Puritan Nonconformity, it had seen the child growth of a great theologian and, more than all, it had roused the imagination and fostered the mental growth of hundreds of the yeomen and cottagers of the North of England. But now its work was accomplished. Flushed with new-found wealth, full of a vague aspiration after progress, conscious perhaps of real deficiencies in the old building, these late eighteenth century Governors spoiled the "many glories of immortal stamp." Carelessly they destroyed the ancientbuilding, without a line to record its glory or its age. It was left to a nameless "Investigator C," in the pages of theGentleman's Magazineto tell the world what it was losing. Future dreams oversoared past deeds.
SECOND SCHOOL, 1790.SECOND SCHOOL, 1790.
No minutes survive, but the accounts of the year 1787 describe the expenditure on a new building. Three years later the last item was paid for and a new school-house was standing on the site of the old. It was very solidly built and larger than its predecessor. Over the door was fixed the stone on which the Hexameter inscription "Alma dei mater, defende malis Jacobum Kar" etc., was written, and which had already adorned the face of the old building so long. The old division of an upper and lower school was retained, but otherwise details are few. The new School was built at a cost of £276 16s.8¼d.and served its purpose for over sixty years, when it was then itself replaced in 1851.
With new school buildings, greatly increased revenues and a third Master—Mr. Saul—appointed in 1784 with the privity of the Archbishop of York but not licensed—the Governors were eager to get additional statutory power to increase the teaching staff and pay the surplus money away both in leaving Exhibitions and in gratuities to the Scholars at the School by way of encouragement. There is a letter extantaddressed in November, 1794, by the Clerk to the Governors to Mr. Clough, who was requested to lay the whole matter before Mr. Withers and get his legal opinion.
The letter reads as follows, after first quoting the Charter and also the Statutes of 1592, which limited the stipend of the Master to £13 6s.8d.and of the Usher to £6 13s.4d.