104 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF BLACKPOOL AND DISTRICT 



to be a prerogative of the Church. Anyone attempting to found a school 

 independently of the Church was liable to be prosecuted, in early times, 

 before the Ecclesiastical Courts (e.g., Beverley School Case, 1304), or, later, 

 before the King's Court (e.g., Gloucester Grammar School Case, 1410). As 

 Latin was the language in which the Service Books of the Church and the 

 Bible (Vulgate) were written, and as it was also the language of diplomacy, 

 Latin was the chief subject taught in the schools, which later were called 

 ' Grammar ' schools. 



When the State became differentiated from the Church, when the political 

 aspect became apparently superior to the spiritual aspect of the State, ideas 

 somewhat different from those officially expressed by the Church began to 

 develop, and some attempts were made to deal with education free from the 

 control of the Church ; especially after the Kings Bench had ruled in the 

 Gloucester Case (1410) that ' it is a virtuous and charitable thing to do, helpful 

 to the people, for which he cannot be punished by our law.' Some schools 

 were founded separately from ecclesiastical influence. 



The London grocer, William Sevenoaks, founded Sevenoaks Grammar 

 School in 1432, the master of which was to be ' by no means in Holy Orders.' 

 Similarly, in 1 503, the Town Council of Bridgenorth made an order : ' There 

 shall no priest keep no school.' 



The Protestant Reformation introduced a new basis for elementary education, 

 namely, the necessity of personal study of the Scriptures in order to secure 

 salvation ; and the wider circulation of the Scriptures had been made possible 

 by the development in the arts of Printing. It is 400 years last October 

 (4th October, 1535) since the first complete English Bible was printed. 



Under the Puritan regime, during the Interregnum between the death of 

 Charles I. (1649) and the Restoration to the throne of Charles II. (1660), 

 attempts were made to found a State-supported system of education. In 

 1649 (September 30th, 1649) it was agreed to provide £20,000 (£2,000 of 

 which was for the Universities) chiefly from the first fruits and tenths fund 

 created by Henry VIII. for the salaries of ' preaching ministers and school- 

 masters.' It is, however, difficult to say how far this Act was carried out. 



It is a strange coincidence that the sum of £20,000 is exactly the same amount 

 as the first Government grant just over a century ago (1833) of £20,000 for 

 Elementary Education. 



Early Education Endowments near Blackpool. 



Six years after the 1 649 Act just mentioned, a Grammar School was founded 

 at Kirkham, and about the same time, a school was founded at Bispham. 



Kirkham Grammar School. — Henry Colborne, of London, by a codicil to 

 his will (7th August, 1 655) directed his executors ' to purchase a lease of the 

 rectory of Kirkham, and with the profits thereof to purchase and settle land 

 upon the Company of Drapers ' for certain charitable uses : from these, 

 £69 10s. was ultimately settled for the maintenance of the Grammar School 

 Master at Kirkham (a University man), and for the maintenance of a second- 

 master and of an usher for the School. These Charities were regulated by a 

 Decree of the Court of Chancery, 12th June, 1673, and the Drapers' Company 

 drew up statutes for the government of the school. 



