HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. 361 



The endowment furnishes a weekly allowance of 2s. lie?, in 

 money to each of the twenty widows, besides twenty shillings, to 

 buy each of them a blue gown and petticoat of cloth or stuff, at 

 Michaelmas. The nomination of the widows is vested in the Mar- 

 quis of Stafford, Lord Carteret, and the' Rev. John Granville, of 

 Colwich, in this county, who now represent the several families 

 that inherit the estates of the original founder, and are chargeable 

 with the payment of the charity. 



A Free Grammar School, for teaching Latin and Greek to the 

 sons of the burgesses, and of the poor inhabitants of the Borough, 

 has been long established. The present School, erected in 1722, 

 stands in a damp and inconvenient situation adjoining the church- 

 yard, and it is intended to remove it to another part of the town. 

 The Corporation are the trustees of the revenues of the school, 

 but the right of presentation, to two turns out of three, belongs 

 to the family of William Cotton, Esq. of Bellaport, in Shrop- 

 shire, and of Etwall, in Derbyshire. The Corporation present 

 upon every third vacancy, and have lately exercised that right 

 on occasion of the resignation of the Rev. John Blunt, the late 

 master. 



Another Free School, for teaching children of the poor inhabit- 

 ants of Newcastle to read, write, and cast accounts, was founded 

 in 1704, by Edward Orme, Clerk. This school, and a house for 

 the master, which is attached to it, adjoin the west side of the 

 church-yard. Sixty boys are educated here, and 5. a-year is ap- 

 propriated for putting two of them out as apprentices. 



The late Thomas Hatrell, Esquire, by his will endowed several 

 other schools for the education of poor children, in this town. 

 Besides the charities above-mentioned, many donations, which have 

 been from time to time given to the Borough, and catalogues of 

 which are fixed in the church, are yearly disposed of in bread and 

 clothing to the poor inhabitants. The interest of ^600. given to 

 the Borough in 1726, by Sir Walter Wagstaffe Bagot, Bart, then a 

 Representative of the Borough in Parliament, is appropriated in 

 aid of the church and constable rates ; and the interest of a like 

 sum of ^600. given in 1730, by another Member for the Borough, 

 Ward, Esq. afterwards created Lord Viscount Dudley and 



r ard, is applied in aid of the poor's rates. 



The staple trade of the town is the manufacturing of hats, for 

 which it has long been famous. There is a public brewery, on an 

 id considerable manufactories in the silk and 



