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data—and in order to give a just idea of the value of Whittington’s 
benefactions, he adduces data to show the value of money at the 
latter part of the fourteenth century; and as Whittington and 
Strickland were contemporaries, the calculation applies equally to 
the benefactions of the latter. 
From the data adduced, Mr. Besant estimates that money was then 
_ twenty-one times greater in value than at the present day ; but as he 
says by the end of the century it was somewhat advanced, we may 
safely multiply Wm. Strickland’s endowment in 1395 of £6 a year 
by eighteen times, which gives a modern equivalent of £108 a year; 
and if the mantle of the good bishop could but fall upon some rich 
shoulders now, whereby £108 a year should accrue to Penrith 
Grammar School, great would be the joy under the shadow of 
St. Andrew’s church. Bishop Strickland’s benefactions, it will be 
"seen, were in their nature threefold—military, sanitary, and educa- 
tional. When at the Reformation the chantries were dissolved, 
the preamble of the Bill provided that their revenues were to be 
employed for educational and charitable objects; but instead of 
that, they went into the pockets of greedy courtiers, or into the 
equally needy exchequer of the king. The Bill promised to do 
just what Bishop Strickland had done at Penrith one hundred and 
fifty years before, only Strickland did it, while the Tudor king 
promised but did it not; when therefore Queen Elizabeth, under 
pressure, refunded the £6 a year to the Grammar School, she 
- graciously disgorged what she had no right to keep. 
With the career of William Strickland as an ecclesiastic, the 
records of the diocese of Carlisle make us generally acquainted ; 
i but of his parentage and birthplace there is conjecture only. 
Camden says he was descended from a famous family in these 
parts, doubtless meaning the Stricklands of Sizergh Castle, near 
Kendal ; and all other writers on the subject have followed Cam- 
den’s lead, and with more or less positiveness have stated him to 
_ belong to that family. 
This family had in early times settled at Strickland, in the parish 
of Moreland, and had adopted the name of that manor as the 
family name, as was usual in those times, 
